Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire would you encourage a young person to join the military?what branch?why?

my nieghbors son is thinking of joining the military after he graduates in June.
his parents aren't too happy about the idea because they don't want to lose thier son in Iraq or Afganistan.
he is thinking USMC.
I had him talk to a friend of mine that was a fire fighter for an air wing in the USMC and his advice was,don't just go and sign up to be a Marine,have a particular job in mind and make sure you get it before you sign otherwise you just become a grunt and they put you where they want to.
I suggested the USCG,thinking that he wouldn't end up getting killed by a road side bomb or digging a hole in the desert,and the USCG was good for my buddies son and he is now working with in law enforcement because of his work with the USCG,he also was stationed in So. Cali where they grow Bikini's.

any constructive thoughts on this subject?

With the Obama as the Commander in Cheif you kidding aren't you?

Nothing wrong with Marines, I have to say, I think they will do a better job with a young man now compared to the Army. I'm not impressed with too many of the young soldiers I have met lately. They are getting soft. Les

I would. I can't think of a single occupation that could have had as much of a positive influence on my life as my time in the Navy did.

I would have no reservations about job either. I joined and my recruiter couldn't tell me what my job entailed - classified. MEPS couldn't tell me - classified, my RDCs (DIs for the Navy) couldn't tell me - classified and they had no clue otherwise as they never dealt with CTIs. I went thru training - including the classified parts.

I was all different than the actual job I did.

The military is all what you make of it - step thru the door and work hard - be squared away and it opens others.

I'v seen my Grandson change from a nice but kind of drifting young man after finiishing high school, into a dedicated top performer in his Air Force assignment.

The Navy has more jobs that teach you skills you can use once you're done with your time than any of the other branches. That's the advice I gave my son and it's worked out fairly well for him so far.

Navy....see the world.

Source

Note: this was written before 9/11.

Uncle Sam Wants You

If You're Smart, You Don't Want Him

by Fred Reed


If you are the parent of a young man who is thinking about joining the armed forces, permit me to offer advice:

Tell him not to. Be emphatic about it.

I've spent much of my life around the military--grew up on a military base, drove AMTRACS for the Marines in Viet Nam, and spent decades covering the military as a reporter. I didn't do the Pentagon. Usually I didn't know who the Joint Chiefs of Staff were. I spent my working hours with the troops, in the tanks and fighters, aboard the carriers, in the jungles and swamps and war zones. It made me hard to bullsh*t.

An observation: The armed services are today in the worst shape I've seen, and I remember the days of the post-Viet Nam slump. You don't want your kid in this military.

You don't understand how bad it is.

This country characteristically goes into wars unprepared, and kills off large numbers of young men while trying to make up lost time. We then tell ourselves stories about the heroism of the needlessly dead, and about the evil Nips and dastardly Viet Cong. We did this in WWII, Korea, and Viet Nam. We're getting ready to do it again. The military has decayed since the Gulf War, decayed badly. The public just doesn't know it. If a substantial war comes, soldiers will, again, die for no reason. Your son could be one of them.

He needs to know this. He also needs to understand that neither the political nor the military leadership much cares whether he lives or dies. Their careers come first. You doubtless think this sounds extreme, embittered, paranoid. And yes, any general officer will tell you that, why, he lives for the troops, cares for nothing else. He's a soldier's general.

Yeah.

In Vietnam, it was for some time military policy that enlisted men in the infantry spent 13 months in the field. Their officers spent six. If you don't believe this, check it out. The officers were getting their tickets punched: Combat command looked good on a promotion record. The Career. On the other hand, if you stayed out there too long, you might get shot. The fleshpots of Saigon were succulent. The consequence of course was that field troops always had green, inexperienced officers.

There were too many ticket-punchers. Officers who won't take the same risks their troops take are. . .I think the word is "cowards."

Guess what generation of officers is now reaching the top at the Pentagon. You don't want this crew commanding your kid.

Further, note that the United States regularly, with the occasional exception, puts politics ahead of the lives of its troops. Remember the 241 Marines killed in Beirut when their barracks was blown up by the terrorist truck? I was there on a story a couple of weeks before it happened. Know who killed those guys?

The United States.

It went like this. Coming down the road from the airport in Beirut, to get to the Marines you turned right on a small road that had a guard post with two Marine guards. Their rifles were at sling arms, no round in the chamber. Loaded rifles might cause an incident, and, hey, you can always get more Marines. Simply driving past the guards would have been--as it turned out, was--effortless.

A few feet later you turned right through one of those flimsy stick things that go up and down to stop traffic at toll booths. I probably could have broken through it without a truck. A few feet later you were in the middle of the Marine position.

Which is what the driver of the suicide truck did. Easy.

The Marines were undefended, naked, in a city known to be full of terrorists. Why? Because the State Department didn't want to look too military. We sacrificed our own men to keep up appearances for a pack of cookie-pushers in Washington.

They'll do it again.

The foregoing is the norm. (We did the same thing in Mogadishu, for example.) Today politicization of the military is worse by far than it has ever been. The emphasis is overwhelmingly on social engineering: sensitivity training, toleration of homosexuals, feminization, promotion of minorities. Affirmative action runs rampant. Standards have been lowered drastically for women, many of them unmarried minorities using the military as an improved form of welfare. Discipline has suffered. Commanders can't discipline the protected groups, which makes it hard to discipline anyone.

If you think I'm kidding, talk to someone you know who is in.

Unsurprisingly, morale is way down. Equipment ages. The services are hemorrhaging young officers in the O-3 range (Army captain). Key enlisted men bail out. Second-raters move up the ranks. No, not all of them are, but too many. In war, there will be a price for this. Your boy, or someone else's. Getting the body bag isn't fun.

For eight years we have had an administration that is actually hostile to the military. This is new. Before, presidents have alternated between neglect and build-up, but haven't had the visceral loathing for the armed services that Clinton has professed. To me, the damage looks deliberate. Nothing like the current wholesale gutting of the services by angry feminists has happened before. We have never had a government that would have allowed it.

The generals know all of this. They're self-serving, but they aren't fools. They are knowingly, willingly, allowing the institutions they oversee to deteriorate, while relentlessly lying to stay in their jobs. (The Marines remain stubbornly resistant, but they too are being slowly Clintoned down.) The brass know their troops regard them with contempt. They know why soldiers bail out. They don't care. Commanders like this--I don't think they can be called men--will preside over a slaughter if war comes.

You don't want your kid there. Especially if he is smart and gung-ho. If he just wants to get saleable training, and get out, the services are probably a good idea. Electronics is always a good choice. The military is a good place for a woman who wants to have her baby and isn't sure which division is the father. But for a young man who wants to be part of something he can be proud of, a hard-charger who sets high standards for himself, it's a bad idea. He'll hate it. It will hate him. Should we ever need the military, it just might kill him. Don't let him do it.

Note: For the skeptical, The Kinder, Gentler Military, by Stephanie Gutmann, superbly details the disaster. Nobody should enlist without reading it. Amazon has it.

Hey, nobody said it was easy.

One son went with the Navy and the other the Marines. Both got out 2 years ago. Both served overseas in Iraq and other places. Both came home safe. The oldest was in the Marines and misses it. He joined US Army National Guard here and is going back to Iraq in April. Am rather proud of both my sons. As far as losing one, I can lose one here to a drunk driver or some other senseless act as easily as I could lose one over there fighting. I never worried about them over there as I knew God is watching over them.

As an aside, the only downside is knowing there are the idiots who spew such drivel as Barak has posted above.

Barak - as someone who served post 9-11 that article is complete BS. Not surprising that a person who has never served and impuned the character of a Marine pilot who had an accident requiring his punch out would cling to it.

I wonder why you felt compelled to post it - it is way outdated (by 7 years at the least) and you have no military experience (none that you have ever said anyway).

You posting on this makes about as much sense as Maser talking about planning a wedding or DFC talking about shooting Booner bears.

Just for the record,I never served.
I wanted to be a Naval Aviator since I watched John Young walk on the moon as a little kid,but when the Navy told me people that wear glasses can't fly fighter jets I decided against it.
I really regret not serving.

my only frame of reference is from vet's I know.

I would encourage my child to enter the military. Both my son and daughter joined not too long out of high school. Les's wife is military. They are all fine upstanding citizens and have a respect for the military and our country.

My daughter has been in the medical area of the AF since she enlisted. She is planning to retire in 5 years. I won't go into what Les was doing as most of you have heard it from him.

I was very surprised my kids, both of them, decided on military careers as they were military brats and a good many of those kids wanted nothing to do with the military after they became adults.

Needless to say GH and I are both very proud of the choices they have made in their lives. The military life is hard for some people but it is as with anything what you make of it!

Air Force...my step son went thru and I have co workers who did other branches..AF has the best facilities..and you usualluy dont go in search of AL...AL Qiueda.

I wanted to go SWCC - imagine my surprise to find out I was color deficient - no go.


SWCC - best kept secret in the Navy

Those guys aren't soft and they sure take it serious...

ETA: Their boats

If I had to do it over again it would be either the Air Force, Coast Guard or Navy. I did the Navy thing, but either the Coast Guard or Air Force would be a good choice also as in anyone of those three you are not automatic cannon fodder and you are apt to learn some kind of trade you can use on the outside after you do your time.

For the reasons stated above I would recommend any one of those three as for the most part you have a bed to come home to every night, not some hole in the ground and people are not out there trying to shoot you.

Basically I'm a coward.

I just retired with 30 years, 28 in the USN. I would NEVER recommend the Navy to anyone today. My brother in law is an enlisted man in the USAF. If you like wearing uniforms but want nothing to do with the military, then either of the above branches will suit him just fine. Can't speak about the US Army, but without reservation, the Marines is the only way to go if he actually wants to be part of an armed force and a warrior ethic. jorge

I'm trying to nudge my lad into the USCG. He'll be 16 this year.

OK.



That is normal.



Great.



He has no idea what he is talking about,



Read my signature if you want my feelings on that.



Tell this young man to talk to somebody else.

I'm pretty sure John Young walked on the moon as an adult but don't quote me on it.