I need help: My brother wants to join the USMC

Vet Unemployment

More than twice the national average.

And who knows how many of those vets are taking dead end jobs.

The law enforcement does not think highly of marines. They think highly of educated people.

Most of the time, marines do not equal educated people.

I see this from friends (I am very close to many police families in my city) and past veterans.

If you love your brother and are looking for his best interests, punch him in the face and get so close to him and tell him the truth. Tell him to get off of his egotistical high horse that the marines will make a man out of him. The only people who follow BS ideology or the ones who are/were in it or recruit/have some sort of benefits from it.

I do not want a marine as my cop. I want an educated student.

Putting a sticker on your head that says Badass does not make you one.

Originally posted by ugie1028
Hello guys,

I have been a valued member for a while, and i am going through a fight with my little brother. He wants to join the marines. He wants to join the marines because he wants to be a cop and thinks that it would give him a better shot at becoming a cop. Of course, the older brother protectionism is in full swing, but i cant seem to talk him out of it. he thinks its his only option in starting a career.

I am asking ATS for some advice on how to change his mind.

a major reason why i disagree with his decision is the conspiracy on the illegal wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and i don't want him to be part of this genocide. Not to mention i dont want to see him hurt...

can someone give me advice?

MODS please move/remove if this thread is not in the right forum.

thanks!

Ask him to join the United States Coast Guard.

Tell him to join the Air Force instead and be a real cop in the AF. Then tell him to cross train to OSI, and in four years he will have degree and can then go Cop, FBI, CIA, NSA etc....

If he still goes Marine then tell him to go into sinper...lots of outside work as a sniper...

[edit on 8-5-2010 by Xtrozero]

He should go to school, not the military, to become a cop.

There's a saying for Marines...."first in, last out" and during these latest "wars" it's become more than just a saying...it's pretty much fact...

Where did he get this nonsense about needing to go military to become a cop?

Ask him to join the United States Coast Guard

Likely still a waiting list for this one...

[edit on 10-5-2010 by Gazrok]

reply to post by Gazrok


he got this idea from a recruiter, and possible a former marine who is a cop or something.

He is in college studying criminal justice, and sociology. I told him a 4 year degree with those would be able to fast track him to cop-hood.

he thinks it doesn't and thinks that cops prefer former military exp over anything else.

even when i mention the horrible history this country has but its servicemen and women though, what it has done to the third world through empire and imperialism thinks its a guilt trip to talk him out of it.

I will try and find a way to talk to his girl friend, because im pretty sure she would be able to talk more sense into him then i can, but... i doubt this knuckle head will change his mind.

Show him "Radio Bikini" (can likely Google this)...where they had US servicemen go in right after the bombs, and you'll see some that have legs that look like gnarled tree trunks....

THEN see if he wants to volunteer to be a Guinea Pig for such things....

wow...didn't know so many people were anti-military. I am not offended that I guarantee but how about letting your younger brother make his decisions and make his life?

I am not trying to start a fight...hell I am not even defending him. I served 8 years in a specialty that is relatively uncommon. As such I have never been to war. I am a reasonably hardcore pacifist actually. Here is my point. One thing I know is that the military isn't for everyone. Now you have heard alot of people supporting you. Maybe they are anti military. If so that is fine. You've also seen one or two defend it. So here is my honest non-flaming suggestion.

On and honest-to-goodness calm and rational man you talk to him. Tell him your fears, your honest fears and your feelings. Then on the SAME rational mind you listen to his feelings. Then you tell him that he is a man and he decides.

Then...the hardest part of all...you learn to accept it and move on. If you don't you're hurting yourself AND him...

Because in the end your not accepting it changes nothing...absolutely nothing

tough...good luck

-Kyo

[edit on 11-5-2010 by KyoZero]

ok heres a good idea..

Swing by your local station, and ask who you talk to about joining the police force.

Tell them about your little brother, that ha has been brainwashed by a military recruiter, that he needs to join the USMC to become a cop.

You might be able to get one of them to come to your house, andc hat with him.
and possible tell him that if he wanted he could go into cop training straight away.

All kinds of people become cops, there is no previous expericane needed. you can go straight form high school to police if you want.

there are tons of new cops about, i see many newbies younger than me, driving around.

[edit on 12-5-2010 by MR BOB]

reply to post by GazrokMy grandfather was career RAF & an observer of A-bomb tests in the pacific. As far as I know, it was in collaboration with American forces (he was attached to operational US forces during WW2), but I dont know whose bomb it was.
He was issued with dark goggles, probably welding equipment, but no other protective clothing. Of course its a bit hot on tropical islands, so these men stood there dressed in a pair of shorts & their boots, but hey, they wouldn't get blinded!
He died young of lung cancer: never smoked; not impossible that it was secondary, a lot of people did smoke back then; his son, my uncle, died very young of metastasised prostate cancer & my mum, his daughter has been treated for malignant melanoma. Her youngest sister has had a double mastectomy due to breast cancer & the middle daughter has, what we hope is still, a "benign lump" which may lead to bowel cancer.
I'm not entirely unworried!
My grandmother was treated by military doctors for post-partum depression with... wait for it... duh duh der! '___'. Hey, she was a batty old sod, but I think that growing up in Great Depression Liverpool & surviving The Blitz probably gave her enough personal hardiness to cope with just about anything.
Its sure that some military people are honourable. Its equally sure that those who will do whatever their masters tell them will prosper, regardless of the consequences. I wouldn't trust anyone over the rank of captain as far as I could spit on them from.