I do not believe in equality

Mist_sl said:

I was actually looking at the Air Force, they bumped it to 39. It's been on the table for a while, to pay for the last 2 years of my psych PhD, or the easy route, I'm sure they'd take me as a telecoms technician.

Click to expand...

Have you spoken to recruiters yet?

No, that would require driving down there. Too much hassle.

Regarding the military option: I want to point out to those of you who haven't served, that if you're capable of A) shutting the fuck up, and B) doing 20 pullups, you're practically guaranteed the option to retire, at least in the USMC. I would be surprised if the other branches don't have a similar culture. At a certain point of physical prowess, they don't even give a shit about how good you are at your job. They'll mold you into some potentially-charismatic pull-up beast and find a place for you for 20 years (at which point you really don't have to work anymore). You do NOT need to be intelligent or well-spoken, but if you're capable and interested then you'll find plenty of decent role models that can teach you. It is also worthwhile to note how good the health/dental is for brand new recruits who may never have had access to such a thing in the first place. Access to more-than-adequate nutrition. The list goes on.

1 year out of boot camp you'll be making $1600/mo take-home with literally NO BILLS. Add internet and some walk-around money and it is entirely fucking possible to save 1k/mo for the entire duration of your enlistment. In "Magical Bootstrapping World" where people with drive take advantage of opportunties, you could have an 18 year old from a bad part of town enlist, get health/dental for 4 years, save 1k/mo for 4 years ($48k principle banked) and then leave for college at 22 with college completely paid for and then collect, for example, $1550/mo in VA for housing expenses. $1550/mo is more than enough to go to school without working if you so desire. If you need to keep your health insurance, there are methods there as well. You also then have access to VA home/car loans. My Mazda 3 APR was 1.7%.

Or maybe after four years, you realize that the military lifestyle is a decent fit. You have a clear-cut track to retirement. You have older men and women who will mentor you along the way. You have a decent health/dental net to provide for your entire family. Your child can use your GI bill.

The reason I said I wanted this program expanded is that I recognize some citizens are legitimately disqualified from enlistment. Most people who play the "oh I wish I joined but..." card were either cowards or landwhales at 18 -- but some do have issues, and I wouldn't mind exploring the ways in which the govt could build out a program to find something to do with someone with terrible hearing (for example) but a willingness to serve.

Example: come live in a military environment for four years building public works shit. Offer similar package that service-members get including a GI bill. The question is: how many citizens genuinely want this opportunity but are disqualified from serving in the military forlegitimate reasons. My fear is that most people would rather be cowardly crybabies and blame anyone but themselves for failing to take this fucking rocket launch into the middle class.

Military is a great option for motivated people to better themselves. That's a big step for some people. Some people aren't built for the military because some people can't shut the fuck up as eidal says.

A lot of Kids growing up in situations like in that story will never have the mental aptitude and self confidence to make that leap.

Shitty parents.

I think A) our society could really do a much better job signaling what military service actually entails, and B) explore some middle-ground possibilities between civilian life and military service. I think one issue is that, for some reason, civilians are convinced that service-members are drastically underpaid which couldn't be farther from the truth. When you tabulate the entire benefit package, regardless of rank, it's really quite good. That ignorance persists even among active-duty members, typically the younger guys. They'd bitch about how "I could be back home making $15/hr working construction!" without recognizing and counting the health insurance, pension, guaranteed full-time pay for the extent of the contract, and 30 days paid vacation a year.

Practically everyone on this thread has pointed out that the problem begins at home -- the military can be a new home and I participated in that process myself as a mid-20's NCO counseling young men that very obviously had a much different background. Teaching them how to play the game (STFU and work hard), teaching them how to approach new problems, etc etc.

As an aside, it cracked me up when my loser civilian friends would wax poetic about how they're "really thinking of enlisting but just can't give up my freedom, man!" As they're working two shithole part-time jobs, living uninsured, and steadily accruing debt.

Something that would never fly in this country is mandatory service for 2 to 4 years at 18 like Israel. Can even modify it so you can also do civilian service if not military.

That would go a long way of educating and uplifting a lot of kids out of ignorance, poverty, and malaise.

Military needs clerks too.

Cad_sl said:

Can you just picture Mist in the military? It's like the plot to some pitiful comedy.

Click to expand...

GIS for pitiful comedy:

Cad_sl said:

Can you just picture Mist in the military? It's like the plot to some pitiful comedy.

Click to expand...

I saw a documentary on it. Was going to say Private Benjamin too.

mkopec_sl said:

I just remember hearing my buddies military story. His parents were shit and they basically threw his ass out right when he turned 18. He then went into the navy. So he ended up doing laundry on some officers ship for 2 yrs, traveling around the pacific which was cool, at least he got to see most of those island nations in the Pacific, like Philippines, Japan, even Australia. Then the poor fucker got stationed to some remote base in Alaska for the next 2 yrs. He could of been a jack off and punished for his big mouth though.

Click to expand...

Friend went into the Navy after high school. All he talked about when he got out was how hard/tough it was. To no end. I didn't know, never been in the military. Then his dad told me he went straight to a squadron that upkept Gulfstream private type jets for flying big wigs in the Navy all over the world. He flew to Moscow and stayed for 2 weeks just after the wall fell as part of his duty and such.

Sounded real tough. His dad had been on a submarine and he said he got of extremely easy and don't listen to him bitch.

A friend of mine has his face scarred up, multiple injuries, and actual PTSD from getting hit with an ied in Afghanistan, apparently a couple of people died that day, idk. Shit really puts your service in perspective when the worst you can say is how hard some duty was or unfair some senior NCO was.

Ya win some and ya lose some a_skeleton_03. You have the same opportunity to get that disability, you know where your bootstraps are.