thinking about joining the army

my life hasnt been going to well lately and i have a strong desire to travel. the thought of joining the army has been crossing my mind lately. i just dont know, murder isnt one of my beliefs. i have a huge problem reconciling fighting a war and fighting the war for peace. man, i just dont know. i have serious mental health problems and being shut up in my house all day without family or friends doesnt help. as a peace loving people, wat do u guys feel about enlisting? at least if i join the army ile have some structure and security, because my other option is just picking up and hitting the road...

 

Peace Corps?

 

Well, why not pick up and hit the road then? If structure is your reason for joining the army, I would advise you to sit down and rethink. I am not trying to tell you what to do, but in my opinion, the negatives of joining the army outweigh the positives by far. Sure, you are learning discipline, but you are also learning to kill. I am very against war, so I am probably not the best person to consult if you want objective advice, as I am biased. I just think if you want to get away and travel and experience life, there are other ways--better ways--of doing so. I think hitting the road and seeing where it takes you may be good for you. You're young and have your whole life ahead of you. I hope you are careful about the choices you make, and I wish you the best of luck.

 

Yeah I like what lunarflowermaiden said. I thought about the army once too but once I saw how much physical training you had to push yourself to do, I forgot about it. Sure, physical training is great but they're training to walk around the world in eighty days.

Find yourself something to be interested in. Train yourself in something while traveling the country. That's what I did.

 

don't do it!! Go hiking or something... just don't join the army; you're throwing your life away to become a tool. You'll be brainwashed and see horrible things and you'll never be the same. besides, do you really want to be a tool for the government?

 

I know that you are very cunfused right now. My suggestion, seriously, stop wondering what other people think and listen to your heart. If traveling is what it calls for then, do me a favor listen to it. travel, join the peace corps, join a program that goes abroad to study or something. I don't want to tell you what i think you should do, but i think you should re-read your own question. I think you already know that going to war isn't what you want to do. If you need help in life remember, my brothers and sisters and i are here to listen, but we won't be of any help onless you know what your heart knows. Your head will lead you to sucess, but your heart will lead you to happiness. Take care in all that you do.
XOXO BluBird

 

The most ridiculious thing Ive ever heard ..

Joining any Armed Forces can improve your life in many ways..

You can only be brainwashed if you dont have a MIND to begin with...

I Was in the Army... I still get stoned.. I got a career.. i got money.. I was in Kwait during the first Desert Storm .. Later Desert Shield..

You young ppl want all the freedom but dont do any work to get it...

The coolest thing I did in the Army was a opperation with the DEA. To eradicate Marijuana feilds in the state of Kentucky.... Little note We keep some weed to ourself..
Aint nothing like sitting onboard a Blackhawk helicopter as it lifts off... Thats a real high....

After your done with the ARMY you can go to College... You dont need to go to Iraq... And be part of the war machine.. unless you want to... I would advise you to become involved in a medical feild..

 

aint nothing like violating the 10th amendment and bragging about it..
go army yay police state.. rah rah rah..

no brainwashing there at all...

 

We enjoy our POLICE STATE without it you wouldnt even be here writing.... FAGGOT........

And yes BRAGGING IS COOL....

You probable tried to join the Army and failed the test... Or the Mental Evaluation..


I fail to see where the 10th Amendment comes in... But hey IM just bainwashed..

 

um, you said it best . . .

 

i think you have to go to college first, get some kind of degree [bachelors?]

i would not know as i am an uneducated simpleton

but i think it is so

 

All I can tell you is my son is a trauma medic. If you have no problem removing arms and legs (this is everyday routine) If you have no problem with seeing skin burned completely off and watching people die or wish they were dead then go for it. My son says it looks like a scene from terminator and smells terrible. I have been on the phone talking to my son as he was cleaning brain matter off his shoes. He has seen a 19 year old girl blown in half screaming to die while the doctor trying to save her was screaming for george bush to die. He has had to remove his fellow soldiers from life support while family stood over their loved ones crying then HE had to harvest the organs as the soldier coming off the machine dies. My son has had 2 friends commit suicide and his CO overdose all in a 2 week time span.

My son still has not received all his pay and when he noticed he was not getting his full pay he complained and the army told him he had waited too long to complain so he is out $6000.

I know career army people that are being majorly fucked over by the army right now and they have given 15 to 20 years of their lives.

DO NOT listen to ANYONE who says you will not have to go to IRAQ yes you will if not Iraq Afghanistan. Anyone telling you differently is a LIAR.

At least wait until after the election and see if things calm down.

 

If these people who are out to eradicate marijuana in the first place, instead decide to keep some weed for themselves, just goes to show the lack of character and commitment from those coming out of the Army.

If these idiots are the best, the Army can produce, this country is in trouble.

 

I am joining the Navy soon, but I am doing it for myself finanially, physically, and for other reasons, however I am doing photography or something non-combative. It's my decision and no one influenced it, so yeah. I would NEVER join the army though or the Marines.

Basically, it is whatever makes you happy most...

 

Interesting stats from the Washington Post:

Branch of service: Marines are paying the highest toll in Iraq. Their death rate is more than double that of the Army, 10 times higher than that of the Navy and 20 times higher than for the Air Force. In fact, those in the Navy and Air Force have substantially lower death rates than civilian men ages 20 to 34.

Among the Marines, there is in effect no difference in the mortality risks for members on active duty and those in the reserve. In the Army, on the other hand, reservists have 33 percent of the death rate of those in active service because they are not assigned to combat positions. Members of the Army National Guard are intermediate in assignments and in mortality.

Rank: In both the Army and the Marines, enlisted personnel have 40 percent higher mortality than officers. The excess mortality of enlisted soldiers is diminished by the high mortality of the lowest-ranking officers, lieutenants, who are typically the leaders of combat patrols. Lieutenants have the highest mortality of any rank in the Army, 19 percent higher than all Army troops combined. Marine Corps lieutenants have 11 percent higher mortality than all Marines. But the single highest-mortality group in any service consists of lance corporals in the Marines, whose death risk is 3.3 times that of all troops in Iraq.

Age, sex , race and ethnicity: In contrast to the civilian population, mortality rates decline precipitously with age. Troops ages 17 to 19 have a death risk 4.6 times that of those 50 and older. Differences in rank by age undoubtedly contribute to this pattern, and so do differences in branch of service. Sixty-five percent of Marine deployments to Iraq were of those age 24 or younger, compared with only 39 percent of Army deployments. Women are not assigned to combat specialties in Iraq, although they do see enemy fire; their death rate is 18 percent that of men.

Identifying racial and ethnic differences in mortality is not straightforward because the Defense Department uses a different classification system for deaths than for deployments. Nevertheless, all attempts we have made to reconcile the two systems reach the same conclusion: Hispanics have a death risk about 20 percent higher than non-Hispanics, and blacks have a death risk about 30 to 40 percent lower than that of non-blacks. That low death rate appears to result from an overrepresentation of blacks in low-risk categories: For example, 19 percent of blacks in Iraq are women, compared with 9 percent of non-blacks, while 7 percent of blacks in Iraq are Marines, compared with 13 percent of non-blacks.

Other casualties: The number of wounded in Iraq through March 31, 2006, was 7.5 times the number of dead; the rate at which wounds are incurred was one per 33 troops per year. We do not have the same information about the characteristics of those wounded as we have about those killed. But given the overwhelming importance of hostile encounters in both wounds and deaths, it is likely that variations in the risk of being wounded are quite similar to those presented here.

 

Navy people are cool. I have never met a navy person that I didn't like. My dad was Air Force my husband was both AF and Army, my son in law marine and son Army.


Marines are the hardest people to get along with. They are always loud rude and drunk but maybe that is because they are always the 1st to go in. I don't know.

 

esruous eno, you break my heart. I believe that you have only meant good, but you have said such hate filled things. I want you to be careful who you boast about killing to, and i have been to Kuwait myself, my family on my mom's side is from there, and i love it dearly. If you believe that you just had the strength to join the army, that's cool, but iseriously think that it tkes more courage to walk away from a fight. It's like they say, "the stupid man thinks he was brave for joining the fight, while the brave man was the one who walked away.
XOXO Blu Bird

 

blubirds a smart bird! XOXO

bluecat

 

thanks, appreciate it dearly

 

Tok i went through the same times and thoughts as you're going through now but i joined up with the army. there's a war on now and from everything i've seen and read Iraq is an ugly place to be and the men there are serving multiple tours of duty in combat which was against army regs at one time. how much death and destruction can one person see before it starts to mess with your head? don't believe the people that are telling you that you'll be fighting there so we won't be fighting here. that's such a load of BS. if we were being attacked i'd be one of the first to go but it's just not like that. if all you want to do is travel there are ways to do that without being in the military. good luck whichever way you travel.