(Any Branch) Let's discuss the benefits to joining the military VS the downside. I grew up on military bases around the world so I can speak on the benefits fairly well. 1. Nice clean (safe) neighborhoods (no matter where in the world you are stationed). This is good for those who have a family. 2. If you're single then you get to travel quite a bit. 3. Free gym (basketball), weight room, pool, baseball and basketball leagues . . . etc. 4. Nice schools (your children learn in sixth grade what public schools don't teach until high school) 5. Multi-ethnic environment (no racism on the base . . . at least from what I seen) 6. Free meals (if you're single) at the chowhall. 7. Free housing (not free but paid for) 8. Everything on the base is tax free (clothing, groceries, etc) There are quite a bit more... but I wanna leave room for others to add on. Feel free to make out lists of the down side of the military and why you personally would or wouldn't, did or didn't join. I'm not in the military because it just isn't the direction that I want to go with my life. However, if I were poor and from the ghetto or the trailer park or even a small town where I had to work in a factory, I would join.
Downside: you're a soldier. You are trained, brainwashed really, to be a killing machine, you lose your essential freedom as a citizen when you become "property of the government", you have to cow-tow to people of "authority" whether you like it or not. The military sends you into battle to fight, kill (sometimes without a reason-current war included) you have imbeciles like Goerbels Bush in charge of your movement. Fuck that. If you have .5 a brain you can figure out how to get all the things you listed as the benefits (not saying it's easy, but it is certainly doable). the downside wins. There is no real benefit to joining the military that you can't get from not joining. Unless, of course, you care to be a killing machine.
You forgot free health care for dependents. At least it was when I was a kid and we lived on base. Special Services gave out free passes or reduced entrance passes for places like Disneyland too for families. Growing up on a base was a positive experience for my family. We didn't dare step out of line. It truly was a community where everyone looked after everyone. I think there are many positives to it for those struggling to make it in this country. Sure you do give up control over certain areas of your life and free will, but that happens to a lesser extent in the private sector as well. Of course I grew up in Peace Time. To join up in time of war you should carefully weigh your motives and reasons for joining before doing so. You will face ultimate sacrifices and loss of control. Family concerns should be hashed out with your spouse before you enlist if you are married.
Excellent post!!! I would also like to elaborate on one point. Many young men and women were not raised in families that taught them qualities that make a person strong, or that help them survive and be sucessful out on their own. I have seen guys right out of highschool that have such a low self esteem that they cannot even look you in the eye when they speak to you. Basic training will beat a person down. They tear you down mentally so they can rebuild self respect, confidence, and a sense of self worth. Someone who has been through basic training can attest that the "attention" that a person receives many times has to do with your inadequacies. If you come in and cannot stand up straight and look a person in the eye when you speak to them, by God they are going to pick up on that and scream it in your face until you keep your chin up, look you in the eye, and stand proud. There is nowhere else that will teach you this stuff if you were not raised that way. I also know of many men and women that have recieved higher education and leave the military without owing a penny. I think anybody that is contemplating the idea of joining the military needs to realize that there may come a time when you will have to make a decision to take another human beings life. Many people are lucky enough to serve and not have to make this decision, but it is a crapshoot. Recruiters will not mention killing, but you should not be mistaken, it is in the realm of reality.
I was drafted just after I turned 20. The Viet Nam war was going strong. I wasn't in college or married, so deferments were out. 1-A was my classification. It is called boot camp or basic training. Your code at the time is Basic Combat Training. Next came A.I.T.= Advanced Individual Training. Well bongish; they aren't called the armed forces because you've got arms. Brainwashing? Taking a snot nosed kid from his parents home and training him or her to be part of the big picture and how to function and come home to talk about is what training is all about. If you go to sleep dreaming about sewing your drill Sargent's mouth closed, he's doing his job right. I never felt I was brainwashed, highly trained yes. And here to talk about it.Yes. ....................Dennis.................
I was homeless from the time I was 15 until I enlisted just after my 19th bithday. I breezed through basic, held several specialties, stayed in mostly non-combat positions, even though the majority of my career was spent in the Republic of Korea. Contrary to popular belief, Koreans DO want us there. Jimmy Carter attempted a force reduction in the ROK and was a hated man, still is today. I finished school, attended three language schools and the University of MD. It's not about killing, yes, that happens and unless you only have ".5 brain" you know that when you enlist. It's the individual person. Some people just are not cut out for military life. I was one of them. Unfortunately it took 13 years to figure that out. No regrets.
No Bongish, that doesn' speak volumes: My drill sargents name was Jim Duffy,he had served 3 tours of combat in Viet Nam. At one minute of the day he'd be yelling that we all had our heads up our asses, in the next minute he'd be telling you," I know you tired but you can do it.come on, come on." His door was always if you needed to talk. He was also the guy who put us to bed at night and was there a 5 am , in a fresh pressed uniform, rolling our sorry asses out bed. He didn't sit on his ass. He ran us through PT. Ran us on 5 mile double time runs, whatever we did he did. At the end of training I had a lot respect for Sgt. Duffy, he'd been there and done it. He knew if he didn't make us tough, we wouldn't make it home. So thanks to SSgt. James Duffy and other good men like him, we became "heart breakers and life takers". As Zoombie said in above post, "some people are not cut out for military life". I guess I wasn't either, I did my two years of service and took my discharge. Even thou I didn't agree with our involement in the Viet Nam conflict, I served to the best of my ability and with pride of my uniform. I guess its easy to sit back in NYC and have your opinions about everything and do nothing about anything.. Guess its still true, "dont talk the talk, if you cant walk the walk". ........ The Alaskan,,,, one old grunt.....
Joining the military might be good for developmentally challenged people who cannot think for themselves, who need others to think for them and tell them what to do. The biggest lie is that when someone joins the military, they're "doing it for their country". Anyone who believes this ought to get their facts straight and wake up! The people who run this country do not give a damn about you or the safety and sovereignty of this country. These people are internationalists who have a GLOBAL agenda. If I had to choose between joining the military, serving a bunch of corrupt elitists, and being homeless... I would rather be homeless. At least this way only MY life would be miserable. I wouldn't be making life miserable for other people in foreign lands, who I have never met and have done nothing to harm me. I don't care if a person joins the military only in a non-combat role... they're still serving a corrupt system that cares nothing about them or anyone else other than those at the top who run that very system. I am really sick of the blind patriots... the flag waving morons who think they're patriotic because they slap a $1 made-in-China ribbon on the back of their truck. It's this mindlessness that is going to end up killing us all... and it will if people don't start to pull their heads out from their asses, and soon.
Rat, you and I have had this discussion before and for the most part I agree with you. Well except for the part where you called us retarded. To bring me to my point, and to paraphrase Lennon, you're going to find it hard to win hearts and minds if you're going to maintain being an insulting asshole. Judge less, OK? We weren't at Abu Ghraib.
Well Bongish, if you think someone who believes a gay satanic cult controls the world and that feminism is a communist plot is in a position to call anyone "developmentally challenged", you sure have some strange intellectual peers. Who turned in the Abu Gharib torturers? Their THINKING, QUESTION ASKING BUDDIES.
the exceptions to the rule, no doubt. That torture went on for months and months with NO ONE SAYING THINKING ASKING anything. Thankfully, some (very few, I might add) of the soldiers had enough conscience and forsight to put a band aid on the much larger issue of the US military injustice that is going on all over the world, perpetrated in the name of "democracy" and peace.
Aww... Pepik (aka Pointbreak) is trying to smear me again by making shit up that I never said. I think he's projecting his fantasies on to me with all his talk about "gay cults" and whatnot. Seems like Pointbreak gets mad when I speak the truth, and especially when others agree with me. He just cannot stand that. It's too much for this conditioned COINTELPRO operative to handle.
It's fair enough to be a liberal **** and act like Saddam wasn't operating in the same vein as Hitler, but people who degrade soldiers need a fucking seeing to. Most of you couldn't walk 10 yards in their boots.
