Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire If you were 18 Years old again

That's the reason my motorcycle riding friend left the AF, he said his 'first shirt' CO dwelled on the most menial things imaginable. The CO had worked at K-mart before joining the AF and according to my friend - his CO was the worlds biggest butt-kisser in the world.

Another guy told of putting a working light bulb in his dorm bathroom and was written up for it, that incident followed him through his AF career. LAF.

Please note I was not specific in naming any branch, department or bureau.
Service is service, locally and abroad. Many ways to do just that.

But compulsory is still anti-freedom regardless of how or what branch.

I see it like seatbelts and helmets - should you wear them (serve in some way) - yep! Should the .gov be able to force you to wear them (compulsory service) - hell no.

Regardless of thoughts on the current state of the military IMO most young folks would be better off by doing a tour in one of the branches. It would not only introduce them to folks from other parts of the country from different backgrounds and races but in many cases it gives a structure to their life that they never had before. When you consider that around 25% of the kids in the country are from one parent families for many of them the military fulfills that family they never had.

Many of the skills learned in the military are useful later in the civilian world. there is the fact that they can learn a skill that may be tranferable to a job in the civilian market. There are free college courses available with the credits transferable to accredited universities, and in many cases even some financial assistance available to colleges and universities.
Think of this way - won't most 18 year olds be better off with 4 years of military to sort out what they want to do with their life rather than going to college and running up a small fortune in student load debts and often having a degree in some useless field of study.

I actually enlisted at 17 and would do the same again, for me it was a life changing experience.

drover

I'd dump her again!

Always felt having not served in some capacity was a bit of a missed opportunity. Considering the timing (graduated in 94), joining could have meant time in the sandbox for me. How different my life would have been.

Thinking about today’s military, the old adage still rings true: Everything the gov’t touches turns to s**t.

With the military, it just took them longer.

Serving under an antiAmerican incompetent president who doesn’t care about the people in the military is a no go for me.

I went to enlist in the Marines when I was 19 and scored real high on the test, then they found out about when I got arrested for DUI when I was 17 even though it wasn't on my record as DUI. My uncle who was a Fed agent at that time pulled some strings for me, but they found out so they put me on a waver. A little over a year later they call and say they'll take me, but I was fixing to get married to my first wife and She didn't want to have to live somewhere else, so I passed on it. Probably for the better because I wouldn't have my kids now. Fate.

Our military has not "defended our country" since 1945. It has, as many have alluded to, used that cliche to milk the taxpayers of billions of dollars, while wrecking lives and fortunes around the world. And yes, I am a veteran.

A reasonable term of service could be akin to paying into Social Security in order to be eligible to receive it.
And service can be pretty broad spectrum, not just in the armed forces.
It would do this generation some good.

But, of course, nothing so honorable could ever be implemented while the borders are wide open, checks are given out to illegals, anyone with a pulse gets a driver's license and anyone can register to vote without citizenship proofs.

Just don't let a pet dog go without getting a license/tag renewed...

I'm not for mandatory MILITARY service without qualification. Some people do not need to be injected into a system they can only impact negatively.
Everyone can do something for their service commitment. Even if it simply involves carrying a trashbag and walking on a highway shoulder.

I served for 7 years on active duty and 1 year in the USAR, how many years did you serve?

A la Heinlein. Two years of service to become a citizen?

I just wrote a long post on the dilemma ...and erased it all. Too much to really sort out.

Corruption everywhere, here and around the world. Always somebody after what you got. It has probably always been that way and will be till we blow up the world. I guess I will do my fighting when they come after me.

I didn't serve in the military.

If service makes you a complete dumb fugg like yourself...then maybe we should do less of it.

Shove your Biden shared experience up your ass.

It depends on the reason for your urge. If you're wanting to learn an occupation or technical skills you can later use in civilian life, join the navy or airforce. If your feeling an obligation to fight, cool off and forget about it. If you're needed badly enough, they will reinstate the draft.

I would join again in a heartbeat. The opportunities that is has provided my family during and after my time in the corps made it all worth it. The POTUS changes as do the policies and politics. I was in the military or adjacent for the last four administrations. Closer than most could comprehend. The pendulum swings wide and often. One shows up for duty and performs no matter whom is in the White House.

How many of you that bought your home with a VA loan think you could have done it without, at that time?

Semper Fidelis means something to my family and I will encourage my sons to join the USMC when they are of age.

Politics be damned.

Not a chance.
Didn't in 1987 really should have. No idea if things would be better.

Won't say anything bad about the warriors.

But Obama made sure their leadership is poor quite a few levels
down. Gays, trannies....Its a sad joke.

They likely wouldn't take any of us anyway. My stud of a nephew, who graduated from The Citadel in '20, built like an NFL wide receiver, salt of the Earth, with never even a parking ticket, did not meet their criteria.... I personally am glad they did not take him, he's better than that.

Every post ASSUMES that you'd be 18 but knowing what you know now. If you were 18 and dumb again, you do exactly what you did the 1st time. If I was 18 again but knew what I know now, my whole world would be different. My wife wouldn't be different but I might have been more used when she got me.

Make me 18 again with the benefit of a perspective groomed by many decades?

I'd not join, but would sneak up behind LBJ and do a dirty deed, dirt cheap.

18 today? No effin' way. I believe in defending the USA, not attacking many small countries.