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

I'd never enlist. I had sage advice from high school onward that I was not meant for the military.

Class of '76 was one of two years where you did not have to register for the draft. It wouldn't have made any difference. At 18, I was still nominally suffering from a heart condition brought on by excessive growth. I had an irregular heartbeat that would have kept me out.

After that cleared up in my early 20's, I suppose I could have joined up. I certainly had the physical strength and stamina. However, I've had numerous folks tell me that I just wasn't cut out for it. My buddy who went through The Bulge summed it up best: I'm a failed conformist. I try really hard to follow the rules and toe the line, but something always gets in the way. John was thrown into one of those "Genius Battalions" they formed in the latter part of the war. They broke them up in mid-1944 and sent everyone off to the D-Day invasion. John went through the Bocage with buddies who were PHDs in Physics, and he managed to last until 20 January of '45. John admitted to being a failed conformist and really never grew out of it. He was writing a regular syndicated column called "The Failed Conformist" when I met him. It was all the hilarious things that happened to him as a soldier, a public health official, an insurance executive and a stock broker. I inherited his column when he died. I put in a year and then gave it up. At 35, I just hadn't had the time to fail that much.

To give you an idea of how failed conformity gets you in trouble in the military. John had two buddies. They were PHd candidates, and they used what slack time they had in the Bocage computing air burst tables for the M9 rifle grenade. They got damn good at dropping them on German positions and used to sneak up on German bivouacs and drop grenades on them from above. The Krauts would think it was mortars coming at them and call in counter-battery fire. Word leaked out and John and his buddies caught hell for drawing artillery fire with their stunts.

Later on, John got good at boobytrapping. He had all sorts of cool means for blowing up Krauts. However, it earned him a bad reputation and nobody wanted him around, because one of the basic tools was M2 Grenades that had been jiggered to go off instantaneously. John carried a bag full of them. That made him a leper.

Joined at 17. Wanted in the military since I was about 5 yrs old. By age 17 I knew I wanted to go to college so I joined national guard instead of full time.
Served 7 years.
Almost sent home from basic training when I had to redo medical because they lost my records. Doc said my double jointed shoulders were f’d up. I lied and said they’d never caused me trouble.

I am proud to have served but would not today and told my kids not to, though that was unlikely anyway.

Both shoulders hurt all day everyday now at 59 yrs old.

I enlisted under Reagan, also at 17.

Still would today, with some trepidation.

CINC come and go.

The pronoun crap tends to sort itself out at the platoon/squad level, as in "They/Them Overboard"!

Those ships made of wood back them probably would've been pretty interesting

Walls of wood Scotty!

People talking how the Army/Marines is full of queers, transgenders and women definitely tells me they have never served./quote]

Well said 79S

I hear a lot of bullshidt reasons not to serve, when the truth is there are more keyboard warriors here than those willing to write the check.

Well said buddy. Stand behind our men/women who get up everyday, PT and prepare to handle our nations dirty business. The caliber of our younger generation might not be your idea of perfect but there are alot of them out in [bleep] parts of the world right now, doing dirty work that most couldn't/wouldn't hack and they do it for peanuts.

I think you can separate the two.

There are those people in the military. I saw it in 2002-2006 and my son saw it in 2018-2022

BUT they are doing that hard job in bad places where other's won't. And they deserve to be commended for it but that doesn't mean they're not there and if you're one who is so insecure in who you are and believe you'll "catch it" - then it's not a good place to be. But if you're about getting a job done and all are doing so - it shouldn't matter.

One of the things I loved about my community in the Navy - talent was talent. If you had the skills, you did the work, had the respect - didn't matter rank, sexual preference or anything else. Pretty much how I go through life now.

Not sure I caught the gist of what you meant in the top paragraph, definitely agree with the 2nd though.

not related to the quotes above but....

Old man told me a story about his time in New Guinea. Japs were chasing him and he knew a boat - I have no idea what kind, but he made it sound like it was made out of plywood - was in the water below him. He jumped off the cliff and the plan was to swim to the boat but he instead he landed on the side of the boat, phugged up his knee and tore a chunk out of the boat.

I recently attended a nephew’s wedding, he’s finishing up his second tour, served on carriers. Four of his Navy buddies were there, every one of them wants to get out.

The Navy recruiting is falling short, they are worried about being kept in past their enlistment under Stop Loss.

The top paragraph -


I was saying - because I did serve and my kid just got done serving that the services most definitely DO have those people in them and the numbers are increasing but that, in and of itself, isn't a horrible thing if you approach it like the bottom paragraph. 100% of the homosexual people I knew while serving didn't substitute their sexuality for their personality. They were Marines, Soldiers, Airmen and Sailors first and they just happened to be gay - well down the list. Doing the job was the most important thing. Again, just my experience but to say that they're not there is really incorrect.

I get you now. Makes sense and I agree to that 100%.


I'd bet from the beginning till the end of time people will be scrambling to get out cause the Army, Navy, AF, CG just sucks.. Then you see them same folks a year later and they wished they never left or they are the proudest members of those who ever served! Most famous line in the service is "I'm getting out to go to college".. I'd bet 1-10 actually get to college. Those that do tend to do well, but piss poor planning stops a bunch of them.

It's what you make of it....
I, like others came from a family with huge amounts of Military background and Family legacy...


And combat arms is far different from Combat Service Support.
Back then and today.....
No matter what with all the changes and schitt...

Some of you dimwits link too much schit together from urban legend, hearsay, and Liberal Socialist Democrat agenda schit.
You would think we have the worst fighters in the world from the way some of you think....
Long dissertations about this that or the other from people who never have served about what they supposedly " know"
Like your opinon honestly means schit.
Just STFU.....

People that have served can say anything they want AFAIC.
Good or Bad...
You earned that right......


I thought about going Tanker or going Infantry when I was talking with the recruiter late June 1983.
Went in as a 11B COHORT contract
Which meant all us little swinging Richard's in OSUT one station unit training at Benning would all go to our 1st duty station together.
We started with 144 and finished with 99 16 weeks later.
DI,s flat out told us we need 100 only.
Rest of you will be sent home if ya dont meet standards.
TDP,d... Training Discharge Program....
1/3rd attrition rate in Reagans Army being built up from what I experienced.
Probably different in Combat Support and Combat Service Support jobs and their training.
Honestly Didn't GAF just thought they was fuuuucking REMFS wherever I went for a duty station in my time.
1st 4 yrs I spent in Mech Infantry out of my 24.
2yrs at Carson
2yrs in Germany

How fuuuucking Ironic...
Hated Mech Infantry.....
Ride around in a Armoured 12 ton beer can in winter in either place and get back with me on how ya liked it.
Espeically you who never were in the military but yet are the know all, end all subject matter experts about it..


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Le mee peck pogi da

Ajahma peck pogi kayogi da

Panjoo duso

Izayen sharbuck kappa


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I'd say that the .mil isn't for everyone but it's likely for a lot more people than most would suspect.

I miss serving every day and I've been out 16 years. I did end up going to school etc but that wasn't why I got out or the plan.

Everyone's experience is different and I suspect it has a ton more to do with the unit than the branch in a lot of places.

Rene - the "I would have joined but I'd knock out a DI for yelling at me" people crack me up. They've never thrown a fist in anger in their life but are gonna "knock a dude out".

"Best job I ever had!" lol

3rd ID, 3rd BDE, 1/30th INF

If I was 18 again....
Maybe I would be able to program a TV remote
maybe I'd know all about the confusion between Microsoft, Apple, and Linux
maybe I'd be able to pull in tv or online channels that actually work
maybe I could use my phone for everything, not just for talking to people. Can it really call some muscular Amazon girl named Alicia to learn how to fry and egg?

That one is another classic!

Can't tell me what to do types..


LOL!!!

Same types who are scared of their boss and losing their job types in the civilian world.
Act all different and schit when the boss is around versus the smack they talk when he ain't.
And everyone see,s it...

Seen that many times in my brief 8 yrs of civilian world employment after the Army.

I been fired for telling the truth.
I been fired for reporting higher life forms committing safety violations
I been fired for excessive force
I been not hired for not being a lackey to B types in .gov job.

I had 2 civilian jobs that I looked forward to going too each day
Small Arms Range operator
Off shore oil worker

All the rest.
Just bullschitt to make money.

And civilian employers lean to heavy on the work horse types and their dependability and let others slide all the time.
That schit gets old ....


If ya ask me the civilian job world is a goat fuuuuk for the most part.
Full of brown nosers and good ole boy and Nepotism hires who dont pull their weight or make it look so when certain eyeballs are around.

Fuucking sickening....

Two older brothers were in Vietnam--one marine and one army. When I was 18, they would scoff, laugh, treat me like an idiot if I even mentioned enlisting. Didn't take me long to get the message. Older brothers--especially when they've already been there--carry a lot of weight. I went to college instead. No regrets.