Why join the military?

Status
Not open for further replies.
Thanks guys for listening to what I have to say and not coming down hard on me. It's not a thing that I couldn't handle being in the military because if you knew me in real life then you would know that's completly untrue. I would make a great soldier if I chose to be one because my parents have showed me great discipline over my lifetime so far. My uncle has taught me a few military hand to hand combat techniques. Also whenever i'm at his house and on his land I feel like a soldier with his CO because of the way I have to talk to him. He's a real military type of person who served in desert storm with my dad and he knows that I don't want to join the military and yet doesn't say anything about it. All he says is that it's my discission and that if and/or when I decide to join then I would be made into one of the greatest soldiers ever. He does real wonders into boosting my ego and I love that.
 
Well, first off, going to college would help you spell "college" and "decision" correctly.

"Those who don't fight for freedom, certainly shouldn't expect it."


When I got out, a friend who was going to get out, re-enlisted because of the war. He had a gorgeous, pro-football cheerleader wife, 3 kids, and everything going for him.

He was killed by a roadside bomb.

Because of him I get to live free. I don't thank God, I don't thank spirits, I don't thank fairy tales. I thank him everyday for that. And the men and women every day who serve.

"People sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf." - George Orwell
 
My question is that how come anyone who has served in the military feels like anyone else who has just turned 18 has to also.
Click to expand...

I don't think everyone has to, and I don't think any of my GI buddies think that way either. Hell, we definitely have a few people that never should have enlisted in the first place.
 
hanks guys for listening to what I have to say and not coming down hard on me. It's not a thing that I couldn't handle being in the military because if you knew me in real life then you would know that's completly untrue. I would make a great soldier if I chose to be one because my parents have showed me great discipline over my lifetime so far. My uncle has taught me a few military hand to hand combat techniques. Also whenever i'm at his house and on his land I feel like a soldier with his CO because of the way I have to talk to him. He's a real military type of person who served in desert storm with my dad and he knows that I don't want to join the military and yet doesn't say anything about it. All he says is that it's my discission and that if and/or when I decide to join then I would be made into one of the greatest soldiers ever. He does real wonders into boosting my ego and I love th
Click to expand...

Well, first off, going to college would help you spell "college" and "decision" correctly.
Click to expand...

First of all, the ability to spell "college" and "decision", if I remember correctly,
is about 5th grade-level ability. I don't think anyone who can't spell above
a 5th grade level ability should be allowed into college. Just my opinion.

Secondly, I don't understand why someone so opposed to military service
for himself would come on a forum like this and seek approval of his
attitude.

While there is a war on, there is no "Draft". Why go out of your way to
stir up controversy where it doesn't have to exist?

Just my wonderings.....

Walter
 
Everything seems to be an absolute to you Maser. I will never do this, I will defend that bitterly, I always so this...ect. You are a young guy, and your attitudes reflect this. There are few absolutes in this life, things just don't work out that way. You can absolutely be sure of this though. While you enjoy the nearness of your child, there are thousands of men who haven't seen their little ones in months. They feel the pain dearly, but also know that they cannot just sit back and enjoy the bounties of this country without doing their fair share. Part of being a man is knowing that some sacrifices are worth making. When one man decides not to serve, that means some other poor SOB will be away from those he loves that much longer. I love this country. The gov't has gone to pot but we still enjoy more freedoms than any other nation. We are the bravest men and women of the highest moral fiber. Be mindful that when I say country, the Feds don't figure. There is a trend of late that really makes me sick though. I am tired of the "me now at all costs" nihilism of the younger Americans. The individual is priceless, but some just plain have an over inflated opinion of they place in the grand scheme of things.
 
Maser said:
I would make a great soldier if I chose to be one because my parents have showed me great discipline over my lifetime so far.
Click to expand...

After reading your profile, I have to wonder exactly what kind of "great discipline" resulted in you being an unmarried parent living at home at the tender age of 16.

I would think that one would be more concerned about how you're going to deal with being a father than what some people on an internet messageboard thought about your choice to not join the military.

In the end, not many of us here are concerned whether you join the military or not. You've got a tough path ahead of you, there's no need to invent worries about how a bunch of strangers perceive a decision they weren't aware you had made.

Good luck out there.

ETA: But, your spelling errors aside, I have to admit you write more coherently than most teenagers, so you've got that going for you. :)
 
I don't know you, Maser, nor anything about you. You say you're "charismatic," and glad your uncle helps your "ego." I'll take you at your word.

As I read your post, I only wondered why you set up the "straw man." In other words, you post, and then preface by stating which responses you want to hear, and which you don't.

First, I come from a background of having been drafted once, several years after ETS, reenlisting. No one who has served would ever "pressure" you to join. Neither do your peers have any right to judge or pressure you regarding your decision. It's not for everyone. But, and I hope no one takes this the wrong way, it is never a "given" that anyone can be a good soldier, sailor, marine, coastie! The average civilian thinks that anyone can do it! Not true.

Some people are cut out for it, some aren't. It has no bearing on a man's worth in and of itself. Some men and women are better servants of the republic as civilians. But for those who served, they, in part, helped bestow on you your "right" to choose your life's path.

Hats off to your uncle for showing you some of the ropes...but you'll never know if you could have been a good soldier unless you were one. And you'll never understand the bond that soldiers have experienced, as so nicely stated Shakespeare:

From this day to the ending of the world,
But we in it shall be remembered-
We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;
For he to-day that sheds his blood with me
Shall be my brother; be he ne'er so vile,
This day shall gentle his condition;

As those who have served will always be "different" due to the experience, those who did not choose the military will also be "different." There's nothing good or bad about that...it just is.
 
My question is that how come anyone who has served in the military feels like anyone else who has just turned 18 has to also.
Click to expand...

I enlisted in 1965 during the draft and served 26 years. Most of the people I know who served both before and after the military became an all-volunteer force like it better as a volunteer force. It someone doesn't want to serve it's their own private business. No hard feelings here.

No regrets either. Belonging to the largest fraternity in the U.S. is a great feeling.
 
Since you generalized, so will I.


I find, that on the whole, military folks have more "virtures" like discipline, fortitude, bearing and the like, while civillians tend to be....different.

The military guys are strong. They can handle things when they are not roses and puppies, and still get the job done (I don't even mean physical jobs either) and this really shines in civillian life when things get rough........

My business partner is the perfect example. He has no self control, no discipline to put his p[ersonal feelings aside and get the job done. A Marine, for example will just get done what needs to be done......


Given the choice, I'd hire a vet over a civillian any day... Given the choice, a vet gets my business over the non-vet.


And thanks to vets, I AM given that choice........
 
I have had a number of people come up to me and say, "I wish I had gone into the service when I had the chance." Their reasons are varied, but it seems a number of them feel they somehow came up short when it came to repaying the country for the freedoms and opportunities they have enjoyed throughout their life.
 
After my last tour in OEF, I was hurt and I was put in a recruiters office on ADME.

I hated it. I had to explain to kids why they should join. I loved spending my adult life in the Army.

I have been to seventeen countrys. Two wars and had a blast. I also got to go to schools.

I have wife of ten years, a little girl I adore. But if I could get past the broken back and shoulder and leg I got. I would dive in for another ten.

They took great care of me. Lots of operations, hosp stays at Travis, etc. And now I have pension forever.

The reason I joined was it would be a rush. And I have done stuff, you will never do.

I never want the draft to come around. we would get every dirtbag, doper and peace loving nipple ring freak out there. Your country is at war, are you a coward? Only you can answer that. I dont care. But I can tell you, that if I was still an NCO, I would not want you in my team.
 
Where to begin...?

SGT Stevo, Well said.

I joined the Army in the Reagan years. In my first enlistment, I served with the 1st Ranger Bn.

I was proud to be a part of that esteemed and valourous unit.

I was young and idealistic. I wanted to go kill communists. I still think that is a worthwhile activity.

The truth is, that whenever a war breaks out, it is the type "A" personalities who go rushing to the front ( I can do it! And by Golly I will!!!). The sad fact is that this ends up taking some of the best and brightest out of our collective gene pool.

We are left with men like Maser, I quote:

I'm sorry to all you military guys defending this great country, but me joining is just too great of a gamble in my life. Even if there was a 100% garentee that I wouldn't get killed in combat I still wouldn't join now.
Click to expand...

Maser, your country is at war NOW. When will you be willing to shoulder YOUR SHARE of that burden? Lets say China invaed North America tomorrow. Would you be willing then? When your friends and neighbors are abandoning their civilian lives and shouldering their burden, would you be willing also?

President Clinton embodied the classic definition of a coward. In his letter to the commander of the ROTC district, he stated (amoung other things) that he wanted to protect himself from physical harm. This is the definition of a coward.

:banghead: Maser reminds me of the kind of man who will refuse to see the Chinese Army as they are crossing the Bearing Strait, saying, "Oh, come on now...you don't REALLY think they will actually invade...now do you? I mean guh... aren't you being a little extreme? I mean jeez, don't you think the Chinese want to live in peace and raise their children...?"

And as the enemy is rolling across the plains, men like Maser will say... "Why is somebody doing something about this?!?!? I mean! We're in danger!"

At what point, Maser, are you willing to shoulder YOUR SHRE of the burden of defending your country? We are at war NOW. We have good men, brave men, determined men, bleeding in the field. And here you sit chanting "...hell no, we won't go!"

I do not want a conscripted army. Conscripts do not fight because of their belief in the mission. They fight because they are thretened with various punishments, if they do not.

I want an Army full of young enthusiats, who will fight when the enemy is far from their shores, who believe strongly in the rightness of their mission and who have nothing for which to apoligise.

Sua Sponte!
 
Why should you serve? Perhaps you should not. But, know this -- if you choose not to serve, there's always the possibility that for many years later on in your life, you will always be plagued by the nagging question of whether you could have actually handled military service, and beyond that, perhaps even actual combat.

Those who've served, even those who may have hated every second of their service, usually feel distinct pride in having served.

Those who've served -- whether they barely survived one enlistment or did a full twenty, were quartermaster or signal corps, motor pool, cooks/stew-burners, grunts/infantrymen, supply pukes, admin weenies, twidgets, hole snipes, pecker-checkers, cannon-cockers, cops, airdales, wingnuts, Seabees, tooth-fairies, nukes, skivvy-wavers, intel idjits, or just handed out basketballs and towels at the base gym -- are a cut above, and always will be.

I've seen thirty countries, learned to shoot the 1911 courtesy of the USMC, known some of the world's most beautiful women on some of the world's most beautiful beaches, drank daiquiris and sang "Proud to be an American" at the Daiquiri Palace on Magaluf Beach in Palma, ran from the PCs on Magasaysay at curfew in Olongapo City, smoked cigars at the Raffles in Singapore, had martinis at Harry's Bar in Venice, quaffed VBs in Ned Kelly's Last Stand in Kowloon, Hong Kong, run with the bulls in Pamplona, gazed up at the snows of Mt. Kilimanjaro, bartered with vendors in Mombasa, Dubai, Bahrain, Hong Kong, gazed at the ladies at Bondi Beach in Sydney and Scarborough Beach in Perth (among other things), watched "Shock and Awe" in person, seen actual combat, sweated through the Fallujah summertime ... all thanks to Uncle Sam and over a quarter century in the USN.

Your choice.
 
Don't worry a single bit about how anyone thinks about you because you don't want to serve. The military IS a sacrifice. IT will DEMAND EVERYTHING from you to include you being a father to your son. It is a personal choice (yours and yours alone to make). You serve this country whether you realize it or not with your tax dollars and if you don't feel satisfied with that become a fireman, smoke jumper, LEO. I am just as proud of you stating your position as anyone else. I know total losers in the military who should never have put on the uniform. It's not all glory in the service.
 
If you feel the need to go on some internet forum, bring something up completely out of the blue, and try to justify yourself, your decisions and your life to complete strangers who don't know you and don't know anything about you... then I'd say you've got some issues with inferiority, guilt, and maturity you need to work out before you even consider serving your nation.

Personally? I've got an 18 year old son who will be joining the National Guard this summer, and starting ROTC at college this fall. It should go without saying that I'm proud of the decisions he's making. It's not something he has to do for financial reasons, thankfully - he just wants to. Every male member of my family (uncles, cousins, you name it) back to my great-grandfather has served at least one term in the military, and I think my son sees it as continuing a proud tradition and performing an important service.

As part of the process, I've gotten to see several recruiters and watched what they do, and I've never seen one of them try to pressure anyone. Military people tend to be very direct and to-the-point, and civilians often find themselves intimidated by that, and subconsciously intimidated by the bearing and confidence that a military person possesses. Some people construe that as pressure, but it's almost entirely self-imposed, as far as I can tell.
 
Maser, you've gotten a lot of criticism for being a young no-nothing, which is to be expected. Just take it in stride. Experience is how we learn, and you've got much less of it than most of the military people you're confronting, so we will point this out. However, you do have the experience of being a teenaged parent, and had the character to face up to it. The military can take its toll on families, so your concerns make a lot of sense. Do what you need to do to make a career for yourself and your family, and don't feel guilty about not joining up. And don't get down our throats if we think you would benefit from military service; it just makes you look bad.

God Bless,

a humble veteran
 
See, the problem is that I have a very carismatic attitude and I do care a lot about my image. If I feel that my image is being threatened either in real life or in cyber space I will defend it at all costs. Being my age and not technically a man yet and being called a coward will definatly hit below the belt. I feel that giving a good reason as to why I am or am not doing something and setting the record straight is a courteous thing to do.
Click to expand...

Ummm, since you started the post, why do you feel obligated to defend a position when no one here has questioned your "image?"
 
That's one of the beautiful things about America....

Serve others, serve yourself; the choice is yours.

You're 16, living with Mom & Dad, unmarried father; if you wanted to serve others you're still eligible to be a Boy Scout. Except for the "Morally Strong" part of the creed.

You claim to be fearless. Ask any of the vets hereabouts if they are fearless and 100% of them will respond in the negative. At the very least they have been/are afraid that they would let their comrades down in a critical situation. EVERYBODY is afraid of SOMETHING. How you deal with it makes all the difference.

Despite what you reportedly think your Uncle's opinion of you is, you have all of the makings of a fantastic keyboard commando. Others have endured long separations from THEIR loved ones to ensure that you can make the choice to stay home.

I'm not "coming down" on you. I'm providing honest input to the premise that you framed.
 
My personal reason....

Because I didn't want to live my life and when I was older and starting to show a little gray (like I am now) look back and think "Gee, because I was self-centered, I forewent the opportunity to serve my country, passing the buck to others and enjoying a free ride on the liberty and prosperity that they were securing for me".

Being an submarine officer for close to nine years was something very special. I've never come even remotely close to matching the sense of "doing something that really mattered" since then. Everything I've done since has been "just a job".

Now, I pursue "meaning" in my life through being a husband and father. And though these are very high callings, I miss the days when my work really mattered and the guys I worked with depended on me with their very lives, as I depended on them. Having "co-workers" is not the same as having "shipmates".

But I seized the day, when the day was there to be seized.

In case your not aware, the door for military service closes (as it does for police work) sooner than you might think.

So much for waxing sentimental
 
I think we did a great disservice to our youth...

...By abolishing the draft the way we did. I firmly believe that every male child in the country should at least be compelled to go through Basic Combat Training. It shows them they can get along without Mommy and Daddy to hold their hand every second and bail them out of every 'scarry' situation that comes along...Then ask 'em if they want to join... We're raising a nation of wusses. We don't allow our kids to scrape their knees & bump their heads (unless we can sue someone for our own stupidity because nothing is ever our own fault) like we did. I didn't particularly like my service, but I see how valuable the lessons I learned there were in my life, and am thankful for the time I spent in the service, which made me a better man.
 
Clipper,

There is a big difference between a draft, which forces SOME people to serve, and mandatory service for ALL young people. I will support mandatory service long before I support the draft. If you are going to require service of people, then require it of everybody for a year or two. Neither of which are good solutions for those who choose to serve. I take comfort from the knowledge that my buddies chose to join the military (and often gave up a lot to do so) and are with me because they want to be, not because they have to.
 
gregg...

...You're not paying attention. I said abolishing the draft THE WAY WE DID...And I DO NOT support mandatory service, I support mandatory BASIC for all males...
 
Well, the nice thing about the US is that you have the choice and you don't need to heed anyone's approval or criticism - but if you're willing to listen to those viewpoints, you may see a few things you hadn't otherwise known about.

To show you a foreigner's perspective, my military experience was as a result of being drafted into the South African Defence Force - given the choice, I wouldn't have joined. However, I went in with a positive, "let's-make-the-best-of-it" attitude - and I came out at the end as a 2nd lieutenant (oh, the horror :D ) which has served me well in various situations including job-interviews ever since (he must have leadership qualities, blah, blah, blah).

The military experience led me to security + PSD work in interesting countries where I learned more skills from people of different countries and made some life-long friends. It's hard to explain to someone who's never been shot-at that it's easy to be convulsed with laughter after crawling out the window of a blown-up SUV and coming under heavy fire while dragging a civilian by the scruff of his neck to cover. It's funny as hell even now - what a pity you'll never experience the feeling of comradeship made in combat :neener:

I wish you a great future, but don't forget to thank the military men and women for making the sacrifices they do to ensure the freedoms you enjoy :)
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top