My kids were somewhat interested. They had better options at the time as far as I was concerned. After 4 yrs they would have been right back where they started if not a career.  Ah no. To each their own.

Great reason to not sacrifice them. Good point.

Maybe you deserve it. Im not laying down. Ill continue to use the army to gain training and then disperse that to like minded individuals. Build communities. Make them better.

Were you ever in at all? It's not that deep

Also do you really believe the bullshit you're spewing?!

Quite honestly I could fucking care less what someone's sexual orientation is as long as they're doing their part to accomplish the mission.

At Minot working on nuclear armed B-52s I worked with a devout practicing Muslim, two Lesbians, and at least five openly gay guys.....all people who some here would want nowhere near a B-52 loaded with 20 AGM-86Bs and guess what...they all did their damn jobs and served or continue to serve proudly

Yep. The ones that scour the internet to find things from the military to copy or pretend to train. Sounds like learning an MOS using a much dumber and less efficient path.

USMC is the only choice now, IMHO.

LOL, like you would have any say in the matter.

Congress, activist political groups influencing congress, and DOD contractors don't seem to have much trouble doing it. The military dances in whatever direction their purse strings are pulled.

Then you should have no problem influencing the direction the military is taking so that the OP will want to encourage his kids to join since it's easy to do from the outside.

My wife and I are both Navy veterans. She heavily discouraged both of our kids, 1 boy and 1 girl, from joining. She especially discouraged our daughter.

I think it would be a good opportunity for our son, but not if he has to get the clot shots, and not under the present administration. He's been part time college/work for the two years since he graduated high school. He's decided what career he wants to pursue, so he's starting full time in the Fall. I had not thought about ROTC, but I'll ask him if he's interested in the college's ROTC program to let him dip his toes into it. His career aspirations and degree have applications to both the .mil and private sector.

Keeping in contact with reps and senators does more to influence .mil policy than someone that does a 4 and out enlistment. Entire bases are moved and consolidated based on political influence. Equipment and aircraft lives or dies in a congressional budget meeting.

I have a son in Army ROTC who is at Ft Knox right now. I can assure you he is learning true Warrior skills. Yes he got the square filler briefs the first day. The death by PowerPoint about not raping and being a bigot ended at 2300 the night he got there.

Since then he is learning and living field craft, weapons quals, tested on land nav, TCCC and had his branching flight physical.

He isn’t playing grab ass or painting rocks rainbow colors.

I am future plans for one of your largest combat fighter wings. My days aren’t filled with stupidity. I am responsible for planning and overseeing the execution/exercises that test those plans. Maintenance troops are being tasked with learning how to live like our sister services in austere environments. It is pulling teeth with some of the Chair Force but they are getting there.

Don’t believe what GD tells you about the services and the stupid shit you see on social media doesn’t reflect what really goes on.

Same

My kid is right there with yours.

Attached File

The whole thing nails it, but the part in bold at the bottom is something I see a lot of here, and it usually tells me everything I need to know about the person posting it.

In reality, the stuff a lot of these types of people complain about being a deal-breaker for joining amounts to a roster in the team room everyone comes and signs like once a year.  

Sucks that to have a meaningful opinion you have to like, actually do shit.

I definitely don't look down on people who don't choose military service.  Most of my friends and family have never been in.  Just be honest about why instead of spouting some dumb edgy meme shit people who actually are in know is completely inaccurate.

"I didn't join because of wokeness" is the 2022 version of "I would have punched my Drill Instructor out"

The military was the best times of my life and also was some times the worst.
I will never push my kid to join.
Not because I don't trust our institution.
But because I don't want my son to be in that much danger.
Only because he is my only son

This made my day

Having got out recently (2020), I can tell you that the military is the armed wing of the democrat socialist party, and also serves as a weird communist social experiment.

IMHO, seemingly 99% of senior leadership E-7/O-3 and above (and many lower enlisted) aren’t focused on anything to do with winning wars or upholding oaths to the constitution. Quite the opposite in fact.

You are wholeheartedly wrong.

Oh yeah? I suppose the transition out of Afghanistan was as smooth as a baby’s ass also.

I’ll wait for the past 60 years list of US military accomplishments…

Don’t take my comments as anything against great individuals within the military who are exceptional. This discussion is about the big picture.

The AFG debacle lies completely on the administration’s shoulders. The FJB administration completely tossed the plan that was in place and the told the military what to do.

There was a plan that included a timeline and events milestones that didn’t include pulling out of our most robustly defended and capable airbase first.

Not everyone can join the military. We need workers to pay the taxes and deal with the inflationary burden that our massive deficit financed military spending helps add to

Bravo

I receive all of my required 350-1 training from GD. You all seriously talk more about it here than the Army does at unit level.

Looks like he is doing well.

I’m glad things are working out for him.

He is at Knox right now, got his Class1A flight physical and only has to hit 30/40 on the range this weekend to earn the ROTC Recondo badge. He got the PT/Ruck etc already.

If things go right with his branching preference he will fly rotors (AH64 is his goal). Then off to Rucker when the student slot opens. He took his PPL written before he left.

I love how many people in this thread who haven’t served a day in their lives know without a doubt how woke, useless, vile, whatever term they want to use, the military is.

I got out in 2015, but I promise you there are absolutely 100% still meat eating, knuckle dragging, real American value cave man dudes serving…almost exclusively in various combat arms.

You gotta work a little harder to get to those units but I promise you they still exist.

Though I will admit even the leadership in a lot of those commands are still just as corrupt, vile, and politicized hacks as any of the others (ie: SOCOMs ‘equality’ officer )

But to judge an entire organization on hearsay and what you read via opinionated slanted second hand info….that’s retarded.

With this attitude more and more prevalent nowadays it’s no surprise the democrats ideologues have infiltrated a lot of the ranks.

People join (or not) for their own reasons. My reasons for signing the line had nothing to do with anything altruistic or romantic notions of service to the nation. It’s a shame that people are shitting all over OP for him trying to voice and understand his own opinions. I’ve personally discouraged my kids from signing up for several reasons, mostly because they have options to seek out more rewarding career opportunities without being an indentured  servant.

If they do decide to join, I’ll support their decision inspite of my own feelings because I’ve raised kids to think for themselves and they’re wicked smart.

This at a minimum

I got to man a crew-served weapon in the cradle of civilization when I was just a kid. Most people will never know how they would perform in combat. I knew the answer to that at 19. After two deployments as an Infantryman I switched jobs to an MOS that gave me excellent civilian career prospects and got a free college education. I met my wife in the military and started a family and have a pretty sweet job while still serving. My father who never served and grandfather who served two years in peace-time tried to talk me out of it. I'm glad I didn't listen to them.

I've served under four administrations. Sure things have changed, some for the better and some for the worse. But there are still myriad opportunities for a motivated kid who wants to carry a gun for a living while also building a solid foundation for future success in life. Our society needs warriors, and if my kids demonstrate an inclination towards that, I'll not dissuade them.

@Beamy

What part of central Pa?

Were you in the French military?

That’s awesome! Tell him to keep up the good work.

I did 22 years, 11B. My kids saw what I went thru, how often an how long I was gone. The injuries an pain, while proud of my service, I never encouraged military service. Of my 3, 2 have provided me beautiful grandchildren,  an I'm not constantly worried over there welfare in uniform.  My son has a decent job an is happy. I'm thankful, they arnt in some 3rd world shithole, watching their friends die.

It's soooo much worse now than it was in Korea,  Vietnam,  cold War, gulf War 1, gulf War 2, etc.

Thanks for your service, bro.

Yep. My job doesn't suck. 11B here.

I call BS about there being no cocks being painted though. That's a tradition.

Up until my mid-20's, the fact that I let my Mom talk me out of joining the Army at 17-18 was a huge regret of mine.

If nothing else, four years in ANY branch and veterans' hiring preference would've been nice when I finished the police academy and started putting in apps to get hired. Figured that getting shot in the elbow thanks to a moron's ND by the time I was 20 probably fucked me out of ever getting a waiver (in addition to other health issues), so admittedly I never looked back at it - probably couldn't do a proper push-up if my life depended on it these days

If I knew then, what I know now - I'd have said "fuck it" and done it with specific intentions in mind, rather than squander an opportunity because it seemed hard to get in shape for during high school, and I didn't have enough confidence in myself that I could do it to override parental dissent.


Some of the stuff I hear about my friends who are still in mil/LE having to deal with boggles my mind after being self-employed for as long as I worked for "the man" in my 20's. I'm kinda glad shit worked out the way it did, now that I'm nearing my mid-30's... I can handle people screaming at me, but government bureaucracy is infuriating when it makes no sense and it seems like that has only gotten worse as I age.

He is wrong.  It's actually 100%.  

Remember - the US lost a 20 year war in Afghanistan, after years of every E-7 / O-3 and above saying "Yes sir boss, the plan's going fine!!!", when any E-6 and below could have told you the Afgan army would collapse about 30 seconds after we left.  

Military "leadership" forced brave troops into an un-defendable meat grinder at the airport, where there was no perimeter security, no way to protect themselves while trying to control who got in, and 13 of them were killed.  And the only guy who was forced out was the LTC who demanded accountability.

Those are the same "leaders" who would lead the OP's kids if they joined - unless they made the switch over to a defense contractor by then.

4 years active duty, CIB, 5 more years in the Guard while going to school.  The military was a good experience for me, and I got to help re-install the Emir of Kuwait back onto his throne, which they told us was the defining issue of our time, for some reason.  

But I'd not recommend it to anyone else at the current time.  What are you going to be fighting for?  The Constitution? - that's being ignored and discarded on a daily basis right at home.  Since WWII, we've fought for:

Dictatorship in Korea.

Coup installed dictatorship in Vietnam.  

Some hair brained "peacekeeping" scheme in Lebanon that resulted in 243 deaths, via no rules of engagement, no perimeter security, and no mission.

Grenada I guess was OK, and we got a good Clint Eastwood movie out of it.

Panama - only really successful mission since WWII, though the point of that was to get rid of a corrupt dictator that we, checks notes, installed and helped keep power until he turned on us.

The Emir of Kuwait being returned to his throne via Desert Storm.

Sad pictures from Somalia - another worthless mission, with no real purpose except the there were sad pictures on CNN and we "had to do something".  Ended in failure and disgrace.

Bosnia / Kosovo - more sad pictures.

Afghanistan was a legitimate mission - till about Dec 2001 when our leadership thought it was a good idea to let various for hire Afghan militias try to capture fleeing Al Qaeda rats, instead of sending in every available US trooper we had.  The Afgans of course just took bribes to let the rats run across the border, then we gave up and started a 20 year nation building program, ending in failure of course.

Non-existent WMD's in Iraq, a result of one of the Bush turds wanting to hype up a threat to win the 2002 mid-terms, and using a series of lies about WMD's to do so.  Then another 7 years of nation building, ended in a war won by Iran.

This is what your kids would be fighting for?  Sorry, with the exception of Afghanistan from Sep 11 to mid Dec of that year, every other overseas conflict was a waste, a loss, or a mistake.  All the while, the real enemies of the Constitution weren't Iraq's snatched off the streets and trucked to the front lines of Kuwait, they were history teachers telling their students how evil the founders of this country were, and how it all needed to be torn down with them re-creating it to their viewpoint.

I don't blame the OP for his thoughts, and apparently, with dreadful recruiting numbers from all the branches, we're not the only ones.  

@cms81586

Myerstown in Lebanon County

When I read this thread, I can't help but think some general in the ccp is thinking it's all going According to plan perfectly.  We are a declining power.  Our leaders our just trying to steal as much as possible before the whole shit house goes up in flames.  Prove me wrong.

Probably more likely to have to shoot US civilians than commies or jihadists this day and age.

How many thousands were deployed in DC?

Okay. Was curious if you were close to my old stomping grounds. I was further west about 20 mins from Breezewood.