Gentlemen, a question:

W

whitewolf

asleep under the juniper bush
Registered Senior Member
Amid all pacifistic notions of the modern day and all doubts regarding modern wars, I came across an article that spoke of war as a positive, exciting experience: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/7283718.stm . The author says that most men look forward to army service at least at some point in their lives, that Harry got lucky, that William will regret not having an opportunity like that for the rest of his life. U.S. counted up its casualties for the war in Iraq, the number is 4,000 for 5 years of war -- much smaller rate of casualties than during, say, Vietnam war, or any other war of last century. They don't say how these guys die now but, I remember, during the first few months most casualties were accidents like a faulty plane flying into a rock. If you're afraid of death, we can now say that U.S. army is safer than ever, highly professional and well-equipped.

However, out of all guys I've known, only one signed up for service, and as a non-combatant, and before he signed up he had high hopes that he wouldn't have to go to Iraq at all.

I always thought service was noble, and even considered joining myself, but that idea got lost between other plans and justifications for the current wars. Have you ever thought of joining? What did you decide and why?
 
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I joined the Air Force because I could fly and they needed pilots at the time when other companies didn't have any job opportunities.
 
I considered joining the Air Force several times in the early '80s. I lived in an area with a very depressed economy, and my personal depression/lack of self discipline just had me dropping out of junior college in much the same manner that I had scraped by through high school. Looking back, it would probably have been a good move. Better than just getting by on low wage, no future jobs. But every time I actually considered it, I would wait a while, and the urge would pass.

A friend who was a couple of years older than me joined the army straight out of high school. It was strictly for the college money. When he came back from Germany for a visit, he had many interesting stories. Most of them involved copious amounts of alcohol, rowdy behavior, and girls. This sounded pretty good to me at the time, but he also said. "I may make it sound exciting, but there is a lot of boring bullshit that I'm leaving out." It's hard to believe that he is now a buttoned down father of four with a masters in history who teaches at a junior college. One of his daughters is in her early twenties, and a single mother. I keep in touch with her, but if we get to talking about her father's early years, I have to censor myself. There are some things that I know about what happened back then that she does not, and will not ever know about.
 
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I enjoyed my service in the Marines. I wouldn't trade the experience for anything. I wouldn't have the job and experience with information systems that I do now if it weren't for it.
While it isn't the lifestyle I wanted to live for 20 years, I did find it challenging and fulfilling. I learned quite a bit about a lot of things, stayed in pretty good shape, and I am better off for it.
While I never went to Iraq or Afghanistan, I did spend a year in Okinawa. I was there when 9/11 happened. I had to spend two months on gate guard duty carrying loaded weapons (which we never do around base normally).
 
whitewolf i have concidered joining twice.

the first i was thinking about joining the reserves because they pay you tax free money and you only serve where YOU chose they cant order you to serve anywhere. I didnt go through with it because i got a full time job and just didnt have the time

The second time i concidered it was when i went back to uni, because im REALLY strapped for cash and they not only pay all the HECS fees but they also pay you a salery to live on while compleating your degree. Unfortuantly this would mean 4 years service (the number of years studied plus 1) and as im studying paramedics i would be serving as a medic which means front line service. So insted i decided to be poor and suffer rather than dying.

Will i regret never serving? HELL NO, i paticipate in the comunity rather than shooting people
 
I think it's silly to sign up for service and hope not to face the front lines. When I hear guys talking about service they usually talk about money and discipline, but you have to understand that all of that training is done towards a purpose.

I suppose for a medic it's even a greater moral challenge. At the front lines, there you are, having to shoot the enemy in self-defense at least but then remaining under the Hippocratic oath....
 
I do want to join the army, but no US army, Russian army. To defend my country against countries by the Black and Baltic seas.
 
whitewolf said:
I think it's silly to sign up for service and hope not to face the front lines. When I hear guys talking about service they usually talk about money and discipline, but you have to understand that all of that training is done towards a purpose.
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Exactly, which can be condensed into one statement:
The more you sweat in training, the less you bleed in combat.

I suppose for a medic it's even a greater moral challenge. At the front lines, there you are, having to shoot the enemy in self-defense at least but then remaining under the Hippocratic oath....
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Soldiers/Marines have an infinite amount of respect for their medics/corpsmen.
If you are a medic/corpsman, and you are tending to a wounded soldier/Marine in combat, your buddies will defend you as fiercely as a group of Dobermans defending their master.
 
whitewolf said:
What was it like? Did you end up regretting it, or did you enjoy it?
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I developed a medical problem and was discharged after a few years with them. I couldn't fly any longer due to my "condition". I never regret anything I do for I choose to do it no one makes me do anything that I don't want to do.
 
cosmictraveler said:
I developed a medical problem and was discharged after a few years with them. I couldn't fly any longer due to my "condition". I never regret anything I do for I choose to do it no one makes me do anything that I don't want to do.
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What aircraft did you fly?

And yeah, vertigo is a bitch. I have a few hours (including solo) in a Cessna 152. I was told by my instructor that vertigo usually comes on during instrument flying when pilots stop trusting their instruments, and lose their bearing.
 
White wolf i dont think you understand my position as a civilan paramedic there is a VERY high chance that i will be put in more than one life threatning position for my pt

Paramedics have been down on the ground treating while police and bikies fight over there heads (although bikies are usually nice to ambo's because if there NOT we wont help THEM when they get hurt)

My point is although i had no problem going to a place like timor where we were there for the RIGHT reasons i had NO intention of being sent to iraq for US oil interests
 
Asguard said:
White wolf i dont think you understand my position as a civilan paramedic there is a VERY high chance that i will be put in more than one life threatning position for my pt

Paramedics have been down on the ground treating while police and bikies fight over there heads (although bikies are usually nice to ambo's because if there NOT we wont help THEM when they get hurt)

My point is although i had no problem going to a place like timor where we were there for the RIGHT reasons i had NO intention of being sent to iraq for US oil interests
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I gotcha.

If I thought the war in Iraq was necessary and just, I'd definitely go. But, to be honest, I still don't know why we're there. You say it's for oil, but our economic situation has only gotten worse, Iran and Russia threatened to start trading oil for Euros instead of Dollars (old threat, but it was repeated last year again). Even though pretty much everyone thinks we've been sorely lied to, the media keeps repeating that we were attempting to export our moral values. If it wasn't for our economic well-being, was it then... fo real??? Yea, so I didn't go and I probably won't.

I see soldiers are deprived of the opportunity to make moral decisions on assumption that whoever is in higher rank knows more; and we as citizens only guess and make conclusions that may or may not be correct, so we don't really know. So, whoever joins the army does so on the belief that, whatever the cause, the country needs their service?
 
a futher point if i had been trained at the time i would have volentieered to go to timor under the medical wing. Lots of emergency doctors, nurses, paramedics ect went and the same with the sunarmie. I have no problem putting my life on the line but i WONT go into a situation where im in a position to have to kill someone. Hence i would join a civilan medical wing but i wont join a millatry medical wing.
 
I went to the Army recruitment office to see what my options were in 2001, and they informed me that I was too old to join. At the time, I wanted to fly helos for the Army, and knew that with my particular skill set I could have been a real asset, so I was disappointed when they shot me down.

Seven years later, I'm glad they turned me down because I wasn't doing it for all the right reasons, but I do wonder sometimes what might have been.
 
Question on the side to those who have been there: Are people in the army really rude and do they yell a lot at each other, or is that an urban myth?
 
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