Poll: Ever Served In The Military?

[ORLOFT]

My problem is that I live in the USA. I love this country, despite it's numerous flaws; however, I do not have a great deal of respect for our foreign policy. I refuse to take up arms to fight a battle against a country that poses no real threat. I refuse to fight for "stuff". I will not take lives to maintain luxuries. That being said, if the homes of my family and friends are under attack, you'll see me take up arms. Just about anything else is politics, and I won't die for our politicians.

 

[brighteye]

Bla bla bla...

Roligt att se en landsman här! ;-)

I was in the Mechanised Infantry at IB16, when it still existed. Where did you serve?

First i was in I17 - Uddevalla, Then K2 - Skövde and after that I17 in Borås.
They kept shutting down regiments after i arrived.....

 

[wewontdie11]

Nope I have no intention of getting shot at. I could do much more good for the world in a science lab than I could on the battlefield. Although I am a very good shot with my .22 rifle I doubt I'd do too well with a real gun under combat conditions. Plus I don't wanna die or have to kill another human being if I can help it.

 

[McClaud]

-Why do you want to be that fit?
- What skills are you going to learn which you can learn nowhere else? How to use a rifle to effectively murder someone? Not particularly high on my to do list.
- Comradeship? WHat if you end up as the 'Privat Pyle' of your unit? The one who is not quite as good and gets bullied into suicide by all the others?
- Why do you want to be so diciplined?

- It's good to be fit. Most of who go in are not as fit as they think they are.
- I learned more about programming and management than my previous boss did. Want to know why my previous boss with a masters in business management got replaced by me? I did a better job, thanks to my military training.
- It's nice to know you aren't going through this alone, and the Private Pile days of FMJ are long gone, my friend.
- Discipline is good because it encourages skills that are largely powerful in the management field. Keeping your cool, directing your actions, attention to detail and the ability to motivate other people to action.

The military carves you into a mentally damaged, physical cripple with no employable skills apart from how to kill people in a variety of interesting and creative ways. Either that or it carves you into a dead person.

Well, I'm no more mentally damaged than a lot of civilians are. I'm fine, no lost limbs or crippling injuries (and I was in combat). I'm alive and I'm making six figures a year. Most of it is due to my military experience in a field that has no connection to the military. I work in a company that makes sure that every time you use a credit card or debit card in any country, the transaction occurs. I speak three different languages - English, Spanish and Japanese. All of my good fortune and skill comes from being in the military.

The only thing you'll acheive by joining the military is the furtherance of economic dominance by the US and the EU. I hope you enjoy killing poor people

Most of the people in my field didn't kill anyone. Hell, most of the people in my unit never picked up a rifle in combat. Most people in the US military will not kill people. There are several groups and branches that do not go into combat - they do other things, like hand out assistance to the poor, rebuild after natural disasters and protect people from criminals.

You apparently have a beef with the military and the government, which is your problem. And a very poor attitude towards those who serve. So good luck in your life's endeavors.

 

[McClaud]

Honour isn't worth anything to a dead man.

It's worth a whole lot to the comrades he leaves behind. If you were to die in war, would you rather be shot on the front lines, so your borthers view you as a hero or kill yourself as a coward?

Why do you keep quoting me?
Okay, fantastic, some people think I died a hero's death.
I'm still dead. So it won't matter what they think, because I won't know about it anyway.

Why would I kill myself? That is massively stupid.

My question is why do they keep trying to provoke a reaction from you?

I understand your objection perfectly. Are other people just that brain damaged?

 

[Aegwadar]

Okay.. Couldn't finish reading some of these posts... Gah, But, everyone is entitled to their own opinions...

I served four years in the US Army; I never went to the Sandbox, Got to go to some neat places like Korea! It sucked sometimes and other times it just felt like a job. I would do it all again if I were given the chance. Just do your research. Remember, it's a matter of how hard you are willing to try and succeed; and there is nothing wrong with doing as told, and then bitching about it later... lol... HOOAH!

 

[Acid Armageddon]

Whatever you do man..here's a lame pun....


Stay frosty!

(Please don't kill me)

 

[nerdsamwich]

Well, my reasons TO join are as follows:
-Get Fit. I'm already in really good shape, but it could be better.
-Learn skills you can learn nowhere else.
-Experience the comradeship which my family has been telling me about for years.
-Get some discipline. Everyone can use some more discipline, no matter how much you hate it at the time, you'll thank whoever gave it to you later.

The military pretty much carves you into a great person: Strong, Courageous, Good Morals, etc.
You can go in an average 18 year old, come out a better 19 year old with $40,000 in his pocket; for just one year of basic training.

Also, I think a lot of you need to harden up a bit ... not doing all of that because it's too hot ... or too hard? Well I'm from Australia, welcome to my world. If you grew up where I did you'd be killed with that attitude.
~Frosty.

I did my four years, and went to the Middle East, and I'm here to tell you that the Army does not instill you with superior morals. The Army is great at creating chain-smoking alcoholics who have no idea how to function in a community of individuals, rather than automata. I've seen sergeants get out and find themselves unable to handle living in an environment where they can't issue legally-mandated orders to the people around them. Once they find out that folks in the real world won't do everything they say based on an oddly shaped collar pin, they're back in the service before the end of two years. The brainwashing is so pervasive that the average infantryman who leaves the Army on mandatory retirement lives less than seven years before expiring, either of stress or suicide. And as far as "comradeship" goes, my experience was much like junior high, except that you had to live down the hall from your fellow students, and many of them spend all their spare time drunk.

 

[banthesun]

somewhat of a pacifist

 

[McClaud]

Well, my reasons TO join are as follows:
-Get Fit. I'm already in really good shape, but it could be better.
-Learn skills you can learn nowhere else.
-Experience the comradeship which my family has been telling me about for years.
-Get some discipline. Everyone can use some more discipline, no matter how much you hate it at the time, you'll thank whoever gave it to you later.

The military pretty much carves you into a great person: Strong, Courageous, Good Morals, etc.
You can go in an average 18 year old, come out a better 19 year old with $40,000 in his pocket; for just one year of basic training.

Also, I think a lot of you need to harden up a bit ... not doing all of that because it's too hot ... or too hard? Well I'm from Australia, welcome to my world. If you grew up where I did you'd be killed with that attitude.
~Frosty.

I did my four years, and went to the Middle East, and I'm here to tell you that the Army does not instill you with superior morals. The Army is great at creating chain-smoking alcoholics who have no idea how to function in a community of individuals, rather than automata. I've seen sergeants get out and find themselves unable to handle living in an environment where they can't issue legally-mandated orders to the people around them. Once they find out that folks in the real world won't do everything they say based on an oddly shaped collar pin, they're back in the service before the end of two years. The brainwashing is so pervasive that the average infantryman who leaves the Army on mandatory retirement lives less than seven years before expiring, either of stress or suicide. And as far as "comradeship" goes, my experience was much like junior high, except that you had to live down the hall from your fellow students, and many of them spend all their spare time drunk.

Man, did you just get all the bad luck when joining?

My experience was just the opposite. I was working with a bunch of grunts from Texas in an artillery unit, and they were probably the cleanest, most organized and least drunk soldiers I've ever met. They did their job quickly and expertly, and at the end of the day, we had maybe two beers before calling it a night.

Now, I've also seen the problems you've seen, but they were not the norm, they were the exception. Those who always get stuck in those exceptions seem to always turn into disappointed, depressed people. I don't know what to say other than, "Man that sucks."

Presently, I'm good friends with a few NCO's from the Army, and they all have nicer jobs than I do. Two of them just came back from Afghanistan, and they are already kicking ass in their normal banking jobs.

@ Max - even if they don't see it your way, they should have given up by now. Annoying people are annoying, I guess.

 

[xdiesp]

Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel - Samuel Johnson

 

[fuzzygenius]

I've never really considered joining. I did well in high school and got good scholarships for college, so I didn't need the financial help. And I want to do math research/teaching (most likely as a prof), which is not really the military's area. Hell, by the time I'm done with my PhD, I'm not entirely certain they'd really care to have me, as I'll be a flabby academic. I also can't say that I support much of the present US foreign policy (well, Bush's, at any rate), especially where the military and its deployment is concerned. So that's a political/ethical motivation to not join. While we need a strong military, I don't want to be a part of one whose actions are so incredibly politically motivated, although not truly through any fault of its own.

Now, the NSA - those guys will want me, and its definitely interesting work. I might look into them...

 

[similar.squirrel]

May consider joining the Reserve Forces to bolster my earnings for college and pick up some tips for Z-Day.

But the idea of unquestioning obeisance, marching and shouting makes my skin crawl.
Also, I don't have a vestige of nationalistic feeling. Not towards Ireland and most definitely not towards Hungary.
Peacekeeping sounds okay, but you never know where the orders are coming from.
Better off joining the Red Cross or something.

 

[Jenkins]

talked to an Airforce Colonel from the air force academy a couple days back, realized it was to much work to keep my GPA at the required level with HIGH SAT 1 scores, then to have a need to get a waiver for my asthma, so I wont serve :\

 

[Erzengel]

I was enlisted in the USAF as a Communications Computer System Programmer. Very non-com, all postings were in the US. Then they found out I had a blood phobia (Which I didn't really know about until BAS diagnosed it. Of course, it explained a few things...) and they discharged me.

 

[Motti]

My brother's in the air force, as well as my uncle. My Granddad and great granddad fought in WWII. Me? Still tossing it up. If I do join, I'd like to be an officer because they tend to think a bit more. Also I've got leadership experience from scouts and such.

 

[stormyfs]

Still serving. 7 years down, 15 to go.
Been to both sandboxes a couple times, and will probably be going back at some point in the near future.
While I can understand some of the responses, others remain unfathomable, however your opinion is your opinion, and I'll leave it at that.

For those thinking of joining that are getting upset by some of the comments, my personal experience is that 9/10 times, if someone knows you're a serviceman/woman, they'll always ask how many people you've killed, never how many you've saved.
Yes, it is 'hard' having to deal with the apparent 'accusations' when you've been out on the frontlines for any amount of time (my longest deployment has been just short of 12 months, due to lack of cycling units) and have returned to your home, the place and people you have been fighting for (despite comments of "hurr, all the terrorists are fake, it was a war for oil") only to have such thinly veiled hatred thrust towards you from every direction, but you will get used to it.
The reason why so many armed forces personnel are 'breaking up' and/or leaving their chosen profession is not because of the job they do, but because of the distinct lack of thanks they get from people they do it for.

Imagine working in a store, getting paid just over minimum wage, where every day you walk around potentially stepping on a spilt tub of drawing pins, or having a can of deodorant explode next to you every minute of every day. At night a shelf might fall on you while you sleep, when you can get some. Throughout all of this, you have the customers screaming at you. Some you are trying to help, some you are trying to protect, and some you are checking to see if they are carrying a screwdriver to loosen that shelf for the upcoming night.

Would you honestly stay in that job for more than 5 minutes?
Would you tell your friends that it was an awesome job?
No?
Then how about, if it wasn't for some people doing that job, the store would collapse, taking all the customers with it, because somewhere there is an identical store, with a person who worked for those 5 minutes more?


Sorry it turned into a veritable wall o' text, but I'm trying to put things into a little perspective, while giving a little bit of info on what we actually do.
And we need to do it, because as much as people want to, we cannot survive in a pacifist society.
There has been, and will always be, competition for the limited resources, and even if you magically got rid of all the knives and guns, people would still use rocks.

 

[CastaliaMoirae]

I know someone, an Air Force officer, who's decided to make the force his career despite the fact that he was sworn in less than a year ago. I've tried my damn hardest to be supportive, but in the end, I just don't understand it. Why would someone knowingly throw away their entire life to follow a chain of command that makes no sense, work in a trade that will likely not resemble anything he wanted to do, and live on bases in East Jesus Nowhere, Canada? There are so many things you can experience in life, and being so tightly bound that you practically have to ask permission to leave your house, let alone your country, will likely stop you discovering most of it. Why would anyone give up their freedom before they've even turned 20?

To answer the question: No. I have no desire to let someone else tell me when to piss just so I can learn how to directly or indirectly kill people.