Joining the service

[FluffyFluffers]

Who here is thinking about joining the military?

 

[Boogeyman]

My friends gonna be a medic. Does that count?

 

[Pojo]

I'm not. I'd rather kill myself than join (no disrespect to anyone in any service)

 

[Brett]

Haha as a matter of fact my brother was approached by a Navy recruiter just yesterday or so. As we've both wanted to join for a fair amount of years, its fair to say thats what we're shooting for in another year or two.

 

[Boogeyman]

Some would say they're the same thing.

 

[Lowie]

I'm not.

 

[Nam Repaid]

Well looking back I might wish I had. I seriously wanted to join the Navy and be a "Nuke" on the subs but my shy bladder held me back. My sister joined right out of collage (78), wen't to OCS, rose through the ranks and retired a full captian a few years back at age 50. With her pension and medical benefits she's livi'n it up on the beach and will never have to work another day again as long as she lives. I'll have to die in order to retire.

 

[MysteriousVisitor]

I'm seriously considering enlisting when the semester is up. I have a suspicion that if I don't enlist, I'll regret it for the rest of my life. Since I'm almost done with my degree, I can take the few classes on Uncle Sam's dime while on active service, go to OCS, and become an officer after a few years of enlisted service. I'm considering the Army or the Marine Corps.

 

[dinorider]

I'm not. I'd rather kill myself than join (no disrespect to anyone in any service)

My feelings exactly. Military service is theoretically mandatory in Sweden, but as they get no funding most people don't have to do it. It's actually become a competition between those who want to do it to get in the army. Personally, I couldn't be happier with that.

 

[FluffyFluffers]

Some would say they're the same thing.

Huh?

 

[EmeraldsAndLime]

Well, down here the three branches of the military advertise quite frequently and heavily stress that they aren't totally warfare. They are looking for a lot of people with special skills to join, like communications engineers and experienced navigators, etc... people who can work the special equipment and develop new strategies and techniques. The benefits are quite good though. But apparently they can be difficult to get into; a friend of mine has been trying for three years to join the army, getting knocked back every time.

Service isn't compulsory here and I'm thankful that's the case. I have a slight problem with unnecessary authority.

 

[Fire2box]

I would if I knew exactly what I would be doing and where. But since that's not ever a option I dobut I'll join. I am not saying I never will join since that always leads me to actually doing it.. like one time I thought I'd never be attending this school since it's on the other side of town.. but oddly enough I went there. (it wasn't a bad school, it's just that I was like, I'll never be in there, 7 years later there I was.)

(can that be considered to be part of murphy's law?)

 

[Raccoon]

Opportunity to do cool stuff, shoot lots, drive neat things, learn to dive, learn to jump & fly

 

[MysteriousVisitor]

Not to mention play with explosives and blow things up.

 

[ricky]

I did my 4 years right after I graduated from high school back in '77. It wasn't mandatory to even register then, but I wanted out of my parents house and I couldn't find a job in this town that paid enough for me to do that.

Now my son is getting old enough to join. Just a year and a half now, and he's already getting mail from the recruiters here. Yesterday he got a letter from the Navy, and today he got one from the Army. I'm not sure how they got his name, he hasn't registered. Oh, I take that back, he has. When he got his drivers permit they had him register.

 

[h3g3l]

No, but I'm connected to and with a lot of folks who have served. My mother actually worked for the Ministry of Defence years ago (I didn't know THAT bit of information until filling out an SF-86 ... or whatever the "thinking about doing Federal work" form is called).

I think it's a very mixed experience, joining the armed services.

A friend of mine from the past joined and got to see Germany and play around the DMZ.

Another friend (20 years at this point) joined the Army during Gulf War II: The Return and ended up as a 51-tango with a job of driving around a "full-bird" colonel.

Another friend of mine (the Zen practitioner/student/monk) was going to join up with MI, but bailed on signing the contract when they couldn't guarantee his MOS.

I myself considered working in MI and/or for the State Department as a SigInt type, but I got over that. In retrospect, *if* I would have received an MI MOS or a SigInt posting, it could have been a nice thing to do. However, the whole problem arises with the realization that you become a non-person while in the armed services. If you get orders to go or do something, that's the end of it. This works out okay ... until it doesn't.

I just never really wanted to gamble on others doing things "the right way" and my ability to "just follow orders." So, no, I never ended up doing any military service.

 

[Falkio]

Yes, but only after college and not as a career. Army O.C.S is a major possibility. I want to learn machining or be a Special Forces candidate. I need to gain more muscle mass and lose about 15 pounds - that should be good. :smile:

 

[WildThing121675]

One of my good friends from work recently enlisted into the Navy. He's now in training, and we talk on the phone now and then. I would have gone Navy in '95 but with my disabilities that would have been shot down.

I always wanted to serve on an aircraft carrier.

WildThing121675

 

[Valentine]

It's been a bit over 20 years since I got out.

 

[Calico]

You have to be perfect to join, no mental condition, health problems, medical problems.


I heard you can't join if you're on medication or incontinent, have ashma, have a learning disability, have autism or a form of it, etc.

So my conclusion is, you have to be perfect to join.