16 year old, who has questions about the Military, and needs help figuring out his future....

reply to post by LandonFromKY


Just my two sense here but I was enlisted my senior year 7 months before the 9/11 attacks. I enlisted to go Airborne Ranger with a chance at Ranger School how could I say no..... When I enlisted I knew that chances of becoming a Ranger where slim just by the drop out rates in Ranger School however I assumed that the paper I signed would mean I was a guaranteed spot in RS that is not the case. All branches of the military especially right now are pushing for numbers. Some branched will guarantee your MoS to an extent others give you three choices and you will probably get one of them now keep in mind this is 10years ago. Another thing someone mentioned was you will probably get hired by any company after because of your service I would ask you too look at the unemployment rates for returning and retired vets, combat does not transfer to civilian jobs. As far as getting priority that only applies to Govn't jobs i.e. postman.

As everyone else has said avoid infantry but if the logic is to avoid combat with that it will not work, drivers, tankers, forward spotters(intel), combat engineers, and many more are directly in combat. Your best bet to develop a marketable skill after service is, medical, linguistics, or a tech division.

Keep in mind when talking to a recruiter that they are paid to get you to sign and they have a quota to fill.
Deadliest jobs in Iraq were a truck driver and IED disposal units last I looked.

Landon, what ever you choose I wish you all the best...Peace, Love & Soul.

reply to post by HUMBLEONE


Thank you!

Why do you want to work for "Them".
They will get you killed and they won't care.

Stay away from TPTB and have a life.

Well as a member, it's not like it's a hurry...they are always hireing.

I spent alot of years out before joining....it's a great back up plan if plan a and b bomb like a divorce , debt , ect.

Would I have choosen it as plan A? Um didn't , and after still wouldnt have either.

That said, you learn discipline, hard work, integrity, action, and get an all round general schooling. And they pay for the school in most places if you apply yourself.

So maybe a minimum time to pay off the training and ed...

I personally can't wait to get out again.

Cheers, and good luck in life!!

reply to post by LandonFromKY


I know where you're coming from. My father, his father, 5 of my uncles, all were in the military (WW2, Nam, Korea). I gave them 4 years myself. One thing to keep in mind is that the military are meat shields for corporatists, bankers, and lobbyists. If you check, you'll find every conflict we get into usually looms over some type of exploitable resource (oil, natural gas, gold, etc). I also have other family members in the service now (including Afghanistan, at sea, etc). I found out long ago that our soldiers are being shot at because of the greed of the military industrial complex. It isn't about terrorism, it's about monopolizing the global resource under the auspices of a few selfish financial monsters. They call this cartel the UN and NATO.
I'm not a believer in the college system either. It's a highly overpriced debt mechanism for indoctrinating puppet citizens in order to perpetuate a failing system. On a side note, the suicide rates of our soldiers in the middle east is at epic levels.

reply to post by LandonFromKY


Well, as a veteran of the Army who ETSed in 2007, I can say you are a prime candidate for joining the United states armed forces. You are young, VERY impressionable and ready to fight for non truths.
I understand your zeal for wanting to join the military if it was a family tradition, but not from playing a damn video game or watching TV.

Shooting people is easy 100 yards, seeing what you did to a persons face up close and finding out they are probably 9 years old is not.
Running up hill in full battle rattle in a game is easy, doing it real life when you haven't slept in 72 hours and haven't had anything to drink in the same time or eat in the same time is NOT.

Going on cool missions in movies and is awesome, doing it in real life sucks, and you will have absolutely nothing to say about it.

Getting legitimately sick for some reason will if you are in an infantry or line unit get your ass kicked, because no one cares. So be prepared to fight with a 101 temp and acute pneumonia dude. It is a bitch!

Being in a game is awesome when you don't have to stand around sweating your sack off and getting light headed from the heat, or freezing your sack off when you are stuck outside with nothing but the bivouack cover of your sleeping bag because your cold weather gear never arrived to the Field exercise for some damn reason. No you do not always carry your ruck on your back sometimes it meets you where you are going to be.

The list goes on. But if you want to fight terrorists and kick some Muslim ass like you have been told to do, I guess your a prime candidate.
Perhaps you should consider an education, before getting involved in the military and if you do go mil, go something light like Air force or coast guard. I will not encourage you to join.

reply to post by WillNiendick

Interesting point about the guilt I did not even touch on that. I have several Nam Vets in my family and family friends. Several have commuted suicide over the last 15 years, my fathers friend Bob being the one I remember the most. Bob was a SF Green Beret and one of the stories that stuck with me is; 5 SF's were laid up some along some trail (I don't wanna speculate) anyway the Viet Cong would lead groups of civilians down the trail in front of them as an advanced warning system kinda. Well the SF's guys were spotted right of the trail by a civilian that started screaming and he told me they had to kill everyone civilians and all. I can see after just typing it in this short paragraph how and why it effected him so much even if it was them of him.

FYI, I think something like 1 out of 4 vets commit suicide. Before you sign up, you should talk to Vietnam and Desert Storm Vets or even Iraqi Vets and see how they were treated after the Wars...

Originally posted by Beavers
yeah man, go sign up for TPTB and bomb civilians

Or go sign up and listen for civilans who want to bomb you...or Beavers.

Originally posted by snowen20
reply to post by LandonFromKY

 

Well, as a veteran of the Army who ETSed in 2007, I can say you are a prime candidate for joining the United states armed forces. You are young, VERY impressionable and ready to fight for non truths.
I understand your zeal for wanting to join the military if it was a family tradition, but not from playing a damn video game or watching TV.

Shooting people is easy 100 yards, seeing what you did to a persons face up close and finding out they are probably 9 years old is not.
Running up hill in full battle rattle in a game is easy, doing it real life when you haven't slept in 72 hours and haven't had anything to drink in the same time or eat in the same time is NOT.

Going on cool missions in movies and is awesome, doing it in real life sucks, and you will have absolutely nothing to say about it.

Getting legitimately sick for some reason will if you are in an infantry or line unit get your ass kicked, because no one cares. So be prepared to fight with a 101 temp and acute pneumonia dude. It is a bitch!

Being in a game is awesome when you don't have to stand around sweating your sack off and getting light headed from the heat, or freezing your sack off when you are stuck outside with nothing but the bivouack cover of your sleeping bag because your cold weather gear never arrived to the Field exercise for some damn reason. No you do not always carry your ruck on your back sometimes it meets you where you are going to be.

The list goes on. But if you want to fight terrorists and kick some Muslim ass like you have been told to do, I guess your a prime candidate.
Perhaps you should consider an education, before getting involved in the military and if you do go mil, go something light like Air force or coast guard. I will not encourage you to join.

edit on 29-6-2011 by snowen20 because: (no reason given)

edit on 29-6-2011 by snowen20 because: (no reason given)

i was waiting for someone to tell em like it is, war isnt a game! when you shoot at someone you cant turn it off ten minutes in becuse your tired of playing.

why would you want to join when their is ample examples out there of how many soilders hate what they are doing.


youtu.be...

reply to post by MachiventaMelchizedek


Great video and there are hundreds of accounts just like this.

reply to post by LandonFromKY


Do you really want to kill innocent people in order to make the wealthy Corporations more wealthy? That is what the military is for.

Please, listen to these veterans, they are no longer deluded, and think about what they say carefully.




This is the truth. The military are forced to become killing machines for the wealthy corporations.

Things always look alot cooler with some dramatic music, toughing it out in the elements, but reality is much different. There's no re-spawn, unlimited ammo or skip level for one !

Have you thought about the Submarine Service ? There's nothing like it ! Elite, clandestine, exciting, great pay and best of all, no one is shooting at you !! And you'll have dozens of stories you'll never be able to tell

Everyone on here I would encourage if you have not already to watch the Iraqi War Vet. Conference IWVC try to find to unedited ones and just listen to what each of these men say.. Anyone affiliated with that war on the govn't level should be tried for war crimes.

I didnt mean for it to sound like i want to fight because of a video game. My Grandfather has started to tell me stroies about fighting in korea that he cant even finish because it effected him so bad. I know first and foremost that it is not a game, no where close. I was saying i have been wanting to join because after the destruction from 9/11 it made me sick, even as a kid i couldnt stand watching it because it made me sick. I get chills everytime i think about it or hear about it. We watched united 93 in my world civ class last year, it took us 3 days to watch it and after watching it every day i was in a very bad mood the rest of the day because of what they did to our country and the innocent people on those flights and in the towers. Another reason i want to join is because almost every man in my family have served, and i dont want to be the odd man out here, i want to do it to, to carry on the tradition.

But this is exactly what i wanted, honest responses from people first hand, and people who will tell me how it is. Thanks, and keep them coming please.

reply to post by DerekJR321


LOL shhh!

reply to post by LandonFromKY


Oooff. If 9/11 is your driving force you better really really do some research on that subject and not that a cinimatic interpretation of what happened. There is lost of questionable stuff out there about the events of 9/11. Black Ops. I think if you found out a little more about those events you may change you mind. OBL was a CIA operative for years before 9/11 happened that's just one fact that is documented or the fact. Also check out Charlies War not the cinematic version either and the role Gen. Oliver North played in all of it.

If you don't think you are very smart (only you can judge that) then join the infantry.

However, if you think you are smart, join the Navy. Start studying a foreign language, work hard at math, study some programming languages, and study history. Eventually when you are 18 and graduated high school, you will do the Navy/College thing, then get into intelligence work. You need to begin preparing now. Stop playing video games. Hit the books.

You go the Navy/College route, and the future is wide open, but you will have to work your ass off.

You go into infantry, you'll still work your ass off, but you'll come back with either PTSD, permanent physical injuries, unemployable, and read books about what you could have become instead.

Choice is yours. Choose wisely.

reply to post by LandonFromKY



I have CAPITALIZED words to emphasize the importance of these words, not to be YELLING at YOU.

I served from 1993-1997 3rd Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment.

I was a replacement for what happened in Somalia. I was a college graduate that enlisted. I was a VERY GOOD RANGER. I never saw combat...I was an eyewitness to it's effects on very good men.

I am going to give this to you in COLD HARD FACTS.

Others may have a different vocabulary for what I am going to say. Most importantly, I will probably not become popular with what I have to say. The TRUTH hurts!

I do not regret my experiences for they have contributed to who "I AM". I have some great memories from that time.

First, realize that the military will use you. You are a tool, literally! A tool that kills other HUMAN BEINGS or supports those that kill other HUMAN BEINGS.

Bombs and bullets are designed and used to RIP A BODY APART, many times into little pieces that are no longer recognizable. IT IS NOT A VIDEO GAME, IT IS REAL TIME LIFE...get it?

If this is what you as a HUMAN BEING can "check at the door" and live with, then make sure that your enlistment contract has every incentive that your ASVAB score can get you.

Then DEMAND more benefits even a cash bonus at the MEPS Station!

GET EVERYTHING YOU CAN IN YOUR CONTRACT!



Regards and Nameste,

-Chung