Bleh, in my opinion, I'd say most of you are lying out your ass and will be afraid of it when it stared you down in the face one day. But, as I said, that's my opinion.
As for me, death is an interesting topic.
I've been in the Navy for one year now, as a Hospital Corpsman for six months. I'm stationed at Naval Hospital Jacksonville, working on the inpatient ward, which receives all of the inpatients, unless they need to go to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU). I haven't actually seen death happen before my eyes, but I've seen people who are on their way to dying, be it of a condition or of natural causes. It's eerie to actually watch somebody physically dying, knowing you can't do anything to help them, but sit there and talk with them until they're moved to the ICU.
My next tour of duty will be with the Marines, hopefully 1st Marine Division, as a Fleet Marine Force Corpsman, easily known as a medic. Pretty much all of the Corpsman I've met, work with, or have worked with, who have been in for more than five years, have been with the Marines. One person in particular, and instructor at Hospital Corps School, HM2 (For his sake, I'll reference him as HM2), has told me a lot about what death is like.
HM2 is a Combat Air Crew Corpsman. Pretty much, he does CASEVAC while with the Marines. He's been to Iraq five times in five years, shortest time 6 weeks due to injury, and longest 7 months, the standard Marine deployment. He was a gung-ho, "I don't fear death!" type until he started doing CASEVAC.
HM2 has seen people die right as they get taken off of the helicopter at the treatment facility, as well as on the way, and even as they're coming up into the helicopter. From those experiences, his view has completely changed. HM2 told me that it's a fear-inducing experience to see people die in your arms, knowing that that can happen to you.
As HM2 told me, "Death is always something to fear. It makes us do our jobs, which means something bad is happening. But you can't let that fear grasp you and take a hold of your life. You must accept that fear and not let it cloud your judgment, for someone's life is hanging in the balance, you cannot thing "Oh my god, he's dying!" and cower. You must prevail and overcome your fear."
Personally, I fear death. I fear it because of my job. It's not the ways I can die, but it's that knowing if I die, then who is going to make sure others that count on me to make sure they don't die?
