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Why Didn't You Join The Military?

penguin
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42 comments

Date Votes
  • KX500
    As many here have mentioned, parents have a lot to do with if a young adult joins the military or not. Mine very strongly encouraged me to go to college. Dad had served in the Army but Mom had known too many young men who went off to war and never came home - and of course didn't want that for her baby boy. Plus my parents were both teachers who had worked their way to the top of the pay scale thru further education (Masters + 30 hours, or whatever). Oh and the Good Lord gave me a huge blessing with my parents as they are really awesome - so of course I didn't want to disappoint them.

    I would say that I am probably one of those people who wouldn't have gone to college if I hadn't started right after high school.

    I can appreciate the thoughts of those who say every young person should be in the military. For many, there is no better choice.

    But in reality, our military is not designed to handle the quantity of 18 year olds that is out there - so it simply isn't for everybody.
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  • sharpshooter039
    As I have said many times in here I had an extremely wild youth. I was 16 when I left home and married for the first time. At 19 after my first divorce,,a buddy and I decided to join the Marines on what was called the buddy program where we would go through boot together.. The fist meeting with the recruiter went well and he gathered all of our information.. The second meeting not so well,,he had my background by then and just looked at me and laughed,, said he might could get me in the Navy but no way the Marines would take me.. So I did not go,, You would have thought me riding up on a Harley wearing a cut might have gave him a clue.
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  • Aztngundoc22
    OK :

    Was going to join (Army) when i was a Jr. in high school , pops ate the recruiters ass & made him tear up the paper work , Pops said Not till I graduated ( Thanks - Good Move !)! after I graduated (1977) I went to join ( Marines - Semper Fi ) : recruiter screwed up my paperwork so bad ( To many unexplained health issues ?)? I got a free riede back home : Went to college ( 1st time of 3 ) Never finished ? Most all my family served : I thought it was what you done @ the time ??? Sometimes wish I had done it ?

    Thanks !!!
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  • iceracerx
    I would never belong to a large group that would have 'people' like me as members.
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  • rong
    I sincerely regret I didn't join,
    not man enough I guess
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  • kimberkid
    I wasn't good with authority and mom & dad had several friends who's kids either didn't come back, or didn't come back right & whole. At one point dad said he would get me to Canada if necessary.

    As it turned out the draft ended about 4 months before my 18th birthday.

    My best friend was a month younger so he missed it too but he enlisted in the Navy ... Got sent to Gitmo Bay in Cuba. Unfortunately for him, he wasn't good with authority either and was court marshaled for striking an officer and dishonorably discharged. Years later he did get it expunged or something and discharged changed to something other than dishonorable but he never got any service benefits ... He doesn't talk about it.
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  • shilowar
    quote:Originally posted by iceracerx
    I would never belong to a large group that would have 'people' like me as members.


    best answer yet! [:D]
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  • mjrfd99
    Because I was offered a better job.
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  • select-fire
    Nixon... Called off the war.
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  • perry shooter
    my father came to the US in 1929was drafted for WW 2and he had 5 brothers who were still in Germany and were also drafted in the german military my dad fought in the pacific & had a fellow he was sharing afox hole with have his head decapitaded AT NIGHT also 4 of his brothers were POW at the end of WWII ONE GOT HOME FROM RUSSIA IN 1953 AND MY DAD TOOK HIS OWN LIFE SHORTLY AFTER THAT SO i WAS NOT INTERESTED IN JOINING BUT DID SERVE IN VIETNAM 1964-1966
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  • 44pinshooter
    The mess in Vietnam was over.
    Mom never wanted me to join.
    My dad was a ground pounder in Korea, wanted me to join.
    I wanted to drive a tank.
    Uncle Sam said that my eyes sucked and my feet were too flat.
    So they gave me a 4F card.

    Still want to drive a tank.
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  • Rocky4winds
    I graduated HS in '85. The military was one of many options. My ASVAB was high and recruiters were bugging me, but I has a scholarship to college so I went. The other deciding factor was that there was an AF ROTC program in school- which at the time I had no clue what ROTC was or meant- but the few kids who participated in that were good kids who I looked up to. The 4-5 kids in my class who joined the Army or NG out of HS were the dopers and slackers who walked the line of the law but never got caught, and I didn't want to seem like them so I didn't consider that as an option. I respect them for serving though, and almost all of them benefited from serving so it was good for them.

    When I graduated with my Masters Degree, I checked with the military to see if there were any incentive programs for Audiologists, and they all pretty much laughed when they saw the stats- 2-3 positions open every year with over 1000 applicants. There was no need to give monetary incentives, so I didn't join.
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