For me, I wanna join the military but rn I gotta deal with some health stuff first which will be sorted out eventually.
But after fixing my health issues, to put it simple, I’m just a pussy. Like the idea of serving and wearing the uniform with pride and coming out with brothers is all just amazing, but I also know that comes with the possibility of losing friends, PTSD, losing my life, mental health changing, etc.
I feel like there is more loss than gain. I know some military people who say don’t do it and others who say it was the best thing ever.
How can I serve my country, wear a uniform, and be proud to do so? Because I do genuinely wanna make a change. Im going to college rn for a totally different career path but I’ve always had this itch to be apart of history since I was young.
Much respect to those who served their time in the military. I can admit that many of us men wanna join but don’t have the balls to do it, we just like the idea of it and don’t think much about the cons. I think about the cons and that’s what makes me so worried lol.
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I’m an Israeli, when I served my 3 years I learned a lot and improved a lot.
Was it a fun experience? Hell no.
Am I happy I did it? Yes.
I am back on uniform now as a reservist due to the war and I am not regretting it for one second.
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US military is nothing like you describe, highly unlikely you’ll ever see combat unless you’re SOF, which based on your post history on hypertension, you won’t qualify for.
I wanted free college, to fly badass aircraft(something money can’t buy) and still have a high paying career so I went national guard. Started with the army and currently in the Air Force part time with a civilian career.
I’m in the U.S. Army part time. Everything related to addressing your medical issues before attempting to get the military, SAVE THE PAPERWORK. The recruiters will absolutely probe the shit out of your medical history. I had a friend try and join who had lost some toes in a lawn mower incident as a kid. Bear in mind dude used to skateboard, snowboard, things like that. MEPS kept demanding so much paperwork and statements from doctors and such that he just gave up trying to get in.
Second, what job you choose in the Army is the biggest determinant to whether you could suffer losing friends or PTSD. Any combat arms MOS (combat engineer, field artillery, infantry, SOF, etc) stands a higher risk than cook, admin, supply, commo, etc. I’m in commo and I’ve been deployed once. It was a rotational, meaning we simply replaced the group that was there before us and at the end we were replaced. This was in the Middle East but not a combat zone. We showed up, setup our gear, and sat around on shift for nine months and then went home. The closest we came to danger was when Iran launched a bunch of missiles into Iraq after we (the U.S.) killed Revolutionary Guard General Soleimani at the beginning of 2020. My group was no where near Iraq.
Joining the military won’t make you less of a pansy. It’ll make you anxious and stressed
The majority of military MOSs are non combat and a good chunk of them are desk jobs. I know guys that went in, did their 20 behind a desk never getting deployed ( or if they got deployed they went to Japan or S. Korea or some shit ) and retired with a pension and full lifetime benefits plus free college in their late 30’s. People have this mindset that the entire military is just serving in constant combat and it just isn’t even close to true. Just sign up to be payroll or admin or some shit and you’ll be fine. Even if you only wanna do 4 years you still come out with some sweet benefits. You’ll fire your weapon once a year at the range and it’ll feel like a regular job most days except you’re forced to work out and clean your room.
There’s a problem in your question. You’ve conflated serving your country with being in the military.
And it’s understandable why. Goddamn hasn’t the army ramped up their advertising lately? But it’s a complete bait and switch. They’ll give you a uniform, sure. But our country is not being served by it. Corporate interests and global oligarchy is. You aren’t helping anyone except those who profit from the military industrial complex.
Do you want to serve your country and help people and have valor and glory? Join the Peace Corps. Volunteer locally. Serve your fellow man where you are and dedicate yourself to making your world better for everyone around you. I’m a veteran. That itch was only scratched by what I did after the uniform came off.
in the country I’m from man are forced to complete their military service when they are older than certain age so I was a soldier for a while
there is nothing to be proud of being a soldier as all I did was clean, repair, guard duty, filling some papers, dealing with bureaucracy, teaching, shepherd of soldiers, fixing social problems of soldiers, being broker between units, report possible terrorist or soldiers not doing their job properly, detecting needs of my base and requesting from my government and having legal fight over injustice, turning blind eye to situations that break rules but cannot do anything about it, no matter of rank just because only you are available and you can they giving you all kinds of jobs that a soldier normally doesn’t do
so despite being munitioner and therefore my main job is taking care of ammunation sometimes I had to cut trees and deliver food
so in army there is no only “soldier” things to do, you are basically and literally a servent. if you can be proud of your country while cleaning 1.5 KM road every day in army and taking extra guard duty in freezing cold just because base is in red alert for terrorist might attack so you are all alone in a jungle with your gear and weapon that has the weight of your half and you have to run around and risk your life all around then army life can be for you. but let me say most soldiers at first have patriotic love for their country but 99% of them start to curse at their country in a few weeks and in their last day that their service is ended all of them start to have terrorist ideas against their own country. army life is okay for a person but the fundamental reason why you may dislike it is in army you gotta forget you are a human because you are no different than a weapon, the tank and whatever military tool and you are treated as such. also all the “showtime” moment in army by showing toxic masculinity and whatnot is cringy which only professional soldiers like these
in army cannot decide if I was a dancer, cleaner or servent so like only 1% of my army days were about being a soldier lol
so only pride you will ever have can be managed to not go insane or die in army and being able to done with that. you don’t need to be a soldier to serve your country anyway. as long as you do good to your country you are doing enough
Well I’ve been in for nearly 16 years now and all I can say is, don’t do it.
I love my country (but not the people) however, I joined because it was my lifeline, not because I had any burning desire for the lifestyle. I became a Chaplain Assistant, which in addition to having no value outside the Army, no one takes seriously.
I could rant on and on but I won’t. It was good that I joined, but unless you can deal with loads of pointless stupidity, having to do whatever someone else tells you (no matter how stupid), and having to be nice and polite to people who treat you like shit because they outrank you…than stay away.
Lmao my guy. You aren’t gonna make a change in the military. Source – I’m in the army
I remember that my salary would be cut in 1/3 and I have a family to provide for and the itch goes away real fast.