It's blunt, it's honest, and it's his job! No matter what you're view on the subject, this man's brief glimpse and experience rival anything here at home.

http://www.time.com/time/world/printout ... 58,00.html

You'll prolly not like this but..


nobody made him enlist. War is always the same, yet people still are eager to join the military.

My buddy just got back the other week. Its amazing what they keep from these guys. He had no idea what youtube was. No idea what deal or no deal was. No idea how the bears or sox were doin. He told me he would do whatever to not have to go back there.

Didn't Cyn lose her husband over there?

Its all sad and i cant wait to see our boys back home.

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"My dreams are all dead & buried. Sometimes I wish the sun would just explode. When God comes and calls me to his kingdom, I'll take all you sonsabitches when I go"

You were right, I don't like it but I have to admit there is truth there. People join the military for different reasons, uphold principles, root out evil in the world, sense of adventure, bring justice etc. I suspect many soldiers from the US and UK in Iraq feel like they are fighting someone elses war.

Don't really want to say much more, just read the letter yourselves

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Nice letter, just about what my cousin and stepbrother both say respectively. My cousin is always saying he doesn't like the lack of adequate body armor though, he said it feels too flimsy. I told him I'll keep a look out for a suit of armor :-p He is crazy though, he joined up and signed on for the home inspection stuff. He volunteered for that job? To me the home inspection stuff has to be one of the most dangerous parts of being out there.

My stepbrother just sort of complains about how fake everything is, he said if they do something amazing. No one really cares, but if the insurgent guys kill one dude on any squad. Then the whole thing is an uproar and suddenly they are "losing". He told me once that he doesn't mind whats going on back here in the states, because people out there don't fake smiles. Took me awile to get that one.

Weird side point, they both always have every new issue of maxim. Yet I can never find the time of day to buy one. I always find that odd.

I have a female friend I know who is a marine who was out there for a bit before she got shot in the shoulder. She is a tough bitch. Cute, but scary. All in all, I've asked her is she regrets it, she said no. the training was awesome, and the expierence is something no one else can get anywhere else. Thats coming from a crazy white rockr bitch that got shot in the shoulder and can't snipe now...

My bosses son is out there on one of the carriers, he was cool when he came back home for a bit. Big guy, funny as hell though. First thing he did when he got back?? True redneck. Shot off at the lake. Thats a freakin redneck. He a cool kid though, got his hand caught in a door on the carrier, he was hospitalized for like 2 weeks. His thumb looks weird now. When he came back we were laughing and I told him he can still hold a beer can, he said if he couldn't then it would be a problem.

Same as the letter though, I feel bad they are out there, just like the guy in the letter. But I think someone else said it too, no one forced them to sign. And my cousin and stepbrother would say the same thing, they wanted to go. War is always war. I hate the letters or converstations we have though where they tell me someone died, you can tell its hard for them.

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Warlock's are not OP, maybe if you stopped running around like frightened little girls you'd be able to beat me...

Mandos, I don't know about your military but our military seeks out poor impoverished kids to join up who have no hope of going to school and offers them education incentives. Most of the kids in Iraq are the ones who had little future ahead of them due to lack of money or just a poor situation. Our military has access to public school records and does alot of recruiting in inner-city schools. It's a shame. The poorest people in our country are fighting this war for us, and for what reason?

I'd sign up for the sense of adventure if this one wasn't so stupid. Maybe next time.

I also don't see how Iraq is a threat to our country. After Saddam*sp was captured, its kinda like random people killing us because we're there.


[quote=Ponuh]Our military has access to public school records and does alot of recruiting in inner-city schools[/quote]

The military recruiters have been calling my house lately, and I just turned 17. I'm not from the inner-city, but I'm not some idiot to just throw at the Universal War on Terror.

If I was going to be a police officer, I would know before I applied that there would be a chance I could get shot for example. Firefighters know what their job is also. These people are heroes, because they risk their lives for others.

It should not matter what they promise to a applicant to the military, it should be obvious what you are signing up for if you join. Same with almost any job out there. When you join the military you know there is a chance we might go to war, if you know anything about war is that it is horrible. These are obvious things, I would think.

They don't hold a gun to your head either when they recruit. It is pretty easy to say no to them and work elsewhere in this country. I know several people who have come from a poor family and not joined the military. My friend Chris for example worked ass off and went to night school, now he does much better for himself. This is possible without joining the military. My cousin waited tables and put herself through college with no outside support. Of the people I worked with on the day of 9/11, several of them joined the military weeks afterwards. They had no gun held to their heads. Each individual case is different of course.

The 2 Marines I have talked to are both out of Iraq now. They both told me the people there smile to your face then try to kill you later. One guy said a person tried to push a kid in front of their Jeep in order to stop the convoy in a city. It sounds terrible over there, but the US forces are doing an excellent job given the circumstances from what I am told. You can tell from talking to them that they have seen a few horrible things, but I expect that from talking to someone who has been in a war. I have relatives that went to war like my uncle Joe was in Vietnam, and both of my grandfathers were in WW2. They all signed up for war themselves.

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They recruited at my high school back in 1997. I think when you are 18 the miilitary will probably try to get you to go to a military academy or enlist, no matter what your situation is financially and/or academically. The military goes after everyone. I know plenty of people that were in horrible situations and they worked their ass off and are doing fine now. They didn't have to join the military. Nobody held a gun to their head.

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75 BRD with a bunch of subjobs

Is that really the case in the USA? I mean it seems like a generalization. I cant say for sure in canada what the main reason for people joining is, but of the people who I know didnt join for reasons like that. Most the people who I know that server do it because they want to or they have done army stuff their whole life. I know some people join so that they can get money for school, but those people arnt always as you discribed there.

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COBRA KAI DOJO NEVER DIES
RIP Shiloh

What Ponuh says isn't the case at all, it just seems that way due to the people that do join up.

Think about it, if you had a 4.0 GPA, had a college lined up, had your future prepared...etc are you going to join the Navy? Yeah right.

The military still approaches just about everyone. I have yet to meet someone who didn't get at least a postcard or a flyer in the mail about enlisting.

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He's kinda right. Army people were always at the worst performing schools trying to recruite people in high school. I went to john jay high school. One of the worst schools in ny. Medal detectors the whole shin dig. And other states, the military brings in hicks ( no joke lol ) Country folk, red necks and such. They usually come from farmer families. Alot of these people go into the military because of the incentives the government offers them. Education, benefits, health insurance a shot at having a better future. Some of them were problem kids just trying to figure out what to do with themselves. And yea like mandos said, some of those soldiers are very poor. I guess some may think it gives them hope

Edit: Btw i clearly didn't say all. I've even seen adventureus people just joining because they wanted to be a part of history

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Job 10: 20
The mikey's have a plan. Djay isn't all powerful.

Oh yeah, and the people that "join for college money" 90% of the time the end up getting kicked out because of their inability to conform or drug use etc...

I remember this post that came up about this oh....2 years ago? Ponuh was one of the people in that post that really ticked me off. (I was really hot headed and I was in the Gulf at the time, so I prolly responded without thinking too much) Anyways, from the way I read his post he is just talking from his own point of view, the way he sees the recruitment process.

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Some of the programs they offer are really awesome though. The navy i believe lets you go to college while in service right?

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Job 10: 20
The mikey's have a plan. Djay isn't all powerful.

Yeah, the Navy will pay like 75% of Tuition and I can use other programs with it to get it 100% free, books and all. Really handy stuff. The problem is time.

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On the bright side of the Military crap

I would have to make at least $65,000/yr to maintain my current lifestyle, with 4 kids outside of the military. Also, I retire at the age of 37, get lifetime health coverage and life insurance, my kids go to college free, I go to college free, my military time wil transfer over to any government job after I retire if I want to work again, I get to yell at a bunch of kids that just came out of high school!

Lots of hidden benefits, but you do lose a lot of your basic freedoms (for example, in the UCMJ there is an article about sodomy. I can't even get head according to the military)

UCMJ: Uniform Code of Military Justice fyi
And what I do behind closed doors is nobody's business but my own

Oh yeah, and by the time I hit 20 years active duty, I will have to make about 120k/yr to maintain the lifestyle. (not bad, but not rich by any means)

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Probably our two countries are very different, the armed forces are a much smaller part of UK.

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First male in my family not to be in the military. Was going to enlist in Air Force, but my family wanted somebody to go through the whole "authentic" college expierence.


They do some good stuff though, my father has degrees in mechanical, electrical and chemical engineering. All while in the Air Force.

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Warlock's are not OP, maybe if you stopped running around like frightened little girls you'd be able to beat me...

These are the type of people I know in the army. People whos parents are in the army and so on. Im also in canada where our armed forces arnt all that hot to start with. I also work with a guy whos part of the Navy and got all his education done through that. hes very smart and a great guy.

If I had to base all the military people from the US on my experiance with MM I would be a very scared person.

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COBRA KAI DOJO NEVER DIES
RIP Shiloh

That's exactly what I'm saying MM. I'm not saying they don't ask people who are well off. I'm saying that the vast majority of those who join don't really have many more options, and are now targeted more often.

Yah, I think that you have to walk a fine line when discussing things like this. And if I remember correctly, it was that one THF who know plays WoW that really threw the gas on the fire in that thread. I forget his name, though.

I think that Mikey's explaination is probably the best. It wasn't that the military recruits to only those who have more financial troubles. Like MM said, they probably try to contact everyone. The NAVY tried to get me into some computer program when I was a senior in highschool. I guess they were basing it off some standardized test that everyone was required to take their Junior year, or something.

I think the main thing is that the benefits given from joining the military (all those that MM mentioned), probably have a stronger pull, or appeal, to those more financially burdened. So it may give the appearance that it's some sort of social-status recruiting. I also agree with MM's comment that those who join for that exact reason are more likely to wash out.

I just sort of equate it to the lottery. They always says it's for entertainment and not investment purposes, but how many people actually follow that guideline. If I'm gonna spend 5 bucks a week, on something, it's gonna be a burrito for Chipotle, or something, not a Powerball ticket.

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Everyone who is 18 and registered for selective service gets targetted lmao. Well you have to register with selective service, you are guaranteed to get a few things from the military and they go around to EVERY high school in Jacksonville. I know military families that are generation after generation of people in the same branch of the miltary.

I really don't know any people who joined the military just because it was their last chance and they were desperate to make money. There may be some people who chose it as a career choice just to get out of bad financial times and those who did so to go to college. Those people still had other options out there, no gun was held to their heads. A choice was made to join the military, if there was no choice in the matter I could see Ponuh as having a point at all. Sounds like the same people who agree that drug dealers had no other choice but to deal drugs, just because they were poor. Thats fucking bullshit.

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Out of the american generations of my family, mine is the first with nobody in the army. Meanwhile my brothers and I are registered on the selective service because you have to register on that if you get financial aid for college.

The marines have been calling, I dunno if they're aware I'm 5'6 135 with depression and a bad back. lol

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Some stories can't be told with words, some legends are meant to die

I don't care how many times someone's called you. They call me, they call everyone.

The people that take up that offer usually have very few options left. Therefore the military make way more effort to recruit from those lower-income demographics.

I wrote my first post before school and was tired as hell so it didn't articulate my point very well. Come to think of it, I NEVER articulate my points very well.

Yeah, the way you were making it sound (at least to me) was that only stupid poor kids are in the military, which isn't true

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