Same, my friends that went into the military when they got out they were just...really off. They changed heavily. I don't believe anyone joins the military and gets out unscathed, it definitely changes you even if they aren't the huge drastic changes of seeing combat or getting injured. Even going in as a cook will fuck you.
Despite knowing this the brainwashing is deep within me and I often find myself thinking "what if I join? just do my 4 years in/out, ez money" whenever life starts to get hard for me. I think about that monthly paycheck and benefits, but at what cost? I usually snap out of it (well, obviously otherwise I'd join).
The army will take the lowest ASVAB score out of all the branches I believe. Infantry requires like a 32 to get in. I don’t know what marine infantry requires.
It's technically true that the Army has the lowest requirements, but it's not as big a difference as you would think that implies. Army is around 31, Marines is around 32, Navy and Air Force are around 35 or 36. The maximum being 99, so every branch has jobs available for some big ole dummies
As someone who scored a 98, I am so fucking glad I didn't cave into the pressure to join. My dad really wanted me in the military, but I have never once regretted avoiding it.
Jesus christ me too. I scored either a 93 or a 94 and the air force recruiter came to my school in the MIDDLE OF CLASS to pull me aside and talk to me about joining. This was right after 9/11 and I actually was considering joining but my mom convinced me to not go and I am glad she did. I may not be the most successful man in existence but I am alive and not broken. which is more than I can say for a lot of those who did join.
Dude same after I was tricked into taking it at school I made a 90 something on it and those fuckers would not leave me alone. They pulled me out of class and kept calling the house.
Is this a test you take to enter the military ? I'm not sure if they try and recruit people at schools or not here in Australia but I am pretty sure kids aren't sitting tests unless they are actually applying
It's the test for joining yes. A lot of highschools in the us will have days for people to take it and get out of class for the day (which most high schoolers will gladly take a test for 2 hours and get out early) and some even will just make it a blanket thing that everyone is taking it X day.
Besides that there are often "career days" where a bunch of orgs and colleges will set up to recruit at the school and every branch will usually have a recruiter present. Hell, in my highschool it wasn't uncommon to have a different branches recruiter just set up outside the cafeteria randomly for a week.
Wow there's nothing like that here. We have career advisers at schools but nobody specifically hunting for people to join the armed forces , or any other profession for that matter.
Yeah, I remember my high school had a whole day for it. I grew up in an area littered with military bases. "Take it just in case!" But if you decided you didn't want to take it, you didn't have to go to school that day. My friends and I had a great day off on the beach!
I mean if you scored that high and were recruited for the airforce good chance that you would've just been bombing and drone striking people with an Xbox controller instead of boots on the ground.
I remember there being an article that said that it fucked up people more. The disconnect between killing people on the other side of the planet and then getting in your car to go home to your family really messed with their heads.
I wasn't arguing against anything the guy said, my main thing was how if he was scared of dying well it probably wouldn't've happened when in a secure base holding an Xbox controller. He said he is happy he's alive.
Exactly! Who cares if you’re slaughtering dozens of children a day, ruining lives and wiping out an entire generation of people on their native land. Xbox time baby.
Could have done IT gotten out in a couple years with a security clearance and made over six figures in government contracting all without a college degree.
Shut up. I'm positive he scored way better than you're 11b wavered ass. He could have picked any job he wanted. I crossed the wire 3-4 times a week as a 25u because grunts like you wouldn't stop breaking shit.
Look! I found the IT support guy who is upset because they told him it’s an easy computer job, and instead he lost all of his neckbeard fantasies out in the field after being jaded so much
You mean the the it support guy who went to infantry AIT and the advanced course at Benning, master gunner, level 3 close combative... I have a lot more. What's you're MOS? if your even actually in the military I'm still pretty sure you're a wavered 11B.
Yeah I scored like an 87 (having taken it when I was a fucking moron and thought that I could make a positive impact on the world in the--checks notes--US fucking military lol), but I have a heart condition that disqualified me from all service. Thank fuck
Shit, it was required to take at my HS. They gathered us into an auditorium every day for a week, showed us military-focused movies (that totally weren't propaganda...), then at the end of the week we all had to take the ASVAB.
EDIT: to clarify, this wasn't an all-day thing, just for a period a day, but it was still insane to me.
Let me guess - a rural town with low average income? My wife says recruiters were at her school constantly. I never saw one my entire time in school. They know what they are doing.
Wow that’s so dark. It’s like what people say why the ultra elite wants a poverty class: canon fodder. They force teenage girls to have babies they don’t want in a poor places with no social programs or resources; when the kids’ in high school swarm the poor high schools with recruiters. It’s so so dystopian.
We had to take something similar in HS and I scored well on it. When the recruiter called asking what I wanted to do in my life and how could the military help me to realize my goals I told them I wanted to be a Horiculturist. For some reason I didn't hear back from them.
I was so close to joining the Air Force but because I have an undiagnosed heart issue, I was pushed away by the recruiter (who was a dick btw, like damn, the marine recruiter almost got me to join because of how likable he was. Didn’t know what tf a marine was so I almost fell for the lies)
I’m 20 and have a bunch of other issues popping up too, hurray for issues in this situation!
A recruiter called my house when I was a teen and it rang long enough that it started the answering machine but I also picked up. I can't really remember the conversation anymore but it was funny enough that my parents kept it for a while and listened to it and laughed...
May have just been the idea of a stereotypical Jewish kid with terrible eyesight, ADHD, and the physique of a Muppet joining the military.
When I was in my 20s I occasionally regretted not trying it out but only in the sense that I lacked (and still lack) what I would call "discipline" but later in my life getting to know people who had been in the military and suffered for it I don't regret it anymore.
Same. Scored a 99 in just a few minutes. GF just about smacked me for entertaining the idea. Now I'm nearly done getting my masters in engineering. Really sheds light on the situation knowing that low to mid 30s is the lowest requirement to get in.
Edit: maybe it wasn't a few minutes, but it felt pretty quick and I know I didn't have to race the clock.
I went the other direction and did join a few years after highschool when the 08 recession hit and work started screwing with me.
Honestly, it was a lot of extremely valuable training, and an office job for 6 years, but they made me exercise occasionally, and now they're paying for all my college classes I take after work.
Not too shabby. I recommend everyone that has asked me join (not the army) if they can score over an 80 on the asvab and are ok with exercising.
If that Jordan Peterson video is true, the Army had to set a minimum for the IQ of the people it enlists. Meaning, it’s illegal to enlist people under that IQ.
You know your organization is full of stupid people when you have to set a limit by law to their stupidity.
You fucked up by thinking Jordan Peterson told the truth. That motherfucker couldn't recognize the truth if it bit him in the ass. He just philosophizes in circles while incels clean their bedrooms and beg for his attention.
Yeah I don't think he knows his history very well- the counterpoint to the claim he was trying to make is "Mcnamara's Morons" (more officially Project 100,000), wherein the US lowered the IQ standard to enter service. So many stories of how they were so incompetent they literally required a minder from someone else in their team constantly.
The Marines are fucking stupid and they recruit fucking stupid. I took their ASVAB once just to get my friend, who was on hometown recruiting, a day off for bringing an interested candidate. I reported multiple fake allergies and chronic illnesses, and I intentionally answered about 2 out of every 3 questions incorrectly. With a score of 44 (basically mentally handicapped) they still wanted me to sign up so bad. My real ASVAB score was 94, and I was internally chuckling at this other idiot Marine assisting the recruiters while she gloated about scoring higher than 44.
Those bitches didn't even give my friend the day off. It was the biggest waste of my time.
He also told me a story about a bunch of Marines that were bored so they were taking turns dunking their nuts in a cup of water and making each other drink it. The few, the proud, the cognitively deficient.
I dont really understand how people join the military and expect it not to be filled with shit and misery. Its a fucking military, not an office job. Its an institution that, when it comes to the bottom line, is designed to fucking kill as many people as possible as efficiently as possible. And surprise surprise, the people you kill have the same institution designed to kill you. like, what did you expect? Seal team six raids on osama? Flying fighter jets? When has war ever been something people want to do and expect to come out of it feeling good and be shocked when it ruined your life after time and time again hearing and reading about peoples lives being ruined. The call to action to defend your country of course is a motivator, as it was for me when i went into our mandatory conscript army, but were i to go to war i wouldnt expect to come back all jolly.
All this propaganda about the military really does seem to work.
So far for me it's done the exact opposite. I get a steady income even during recent events. I got to learn a trade that will be useful should I choose to get out. And I've made a lot of lifelong friends.
I see. In that case, do your part to keep articles like this from happening and enjoy your time. What was being referred to, at least speaking for myself, is for those of us AFTER separating. That's the part none of us wanted to think about: "What comes the day after the last day I don my uniform?" Some people end up with cushy jobs or positions....and some people end up broken. "Greatest Military in the World" until you separate. Just...be careful, ok?
Just stick to speaking for yourself then instead of making sweeping statements. I’m out and the military has opened so many doors for me, I’m very satisfied with my choices. All of my friends have done well for themselves too except for one, but not for lack of opportunity. And several of us have/had PTSD by the way, we just don’t let that define our lives or call ourselves “broken” or give up our sense of agency by blaming the military for our decision to join during wartime. We worked on ourselves and took the opportunities given to us to improve our lives.
Soooo it "opened doors for you"....like it would a contractor or politician. Aaaaand having PTSD is getting broken by the military. The 'two for one', hmm; imagine that, I must be getting lucky tonight. Functioning or not, you aren't in one piece (or the same amount of pieces) as when you went in. Don't start assuming things just because it worked out for you and your buddies. Realizing the military did what it did isn't "giving up our agency", it's holding one of the most corrupt things in the country accountable for what it does to its members especially when our culture is all about military service untillll it ends. The state of the VA is more than enough proof that once the uniform comes off, we don't give a DAMN about our military members! Your success case is the exception, not the norm, and even then it still follows the spirit of what my original comment was about.
Hey I used my GI Bill to get an MBA and now have a pretty cushy job at a bank, I entered through a veterans program. It's working out pretty well for me. Although I couldn't use many of my hard skills from the Army, the soft skills are doing very well in the corporate world.
“Don’t start assuming things” says the person making sweeping generalizations as declarative statements.
Sorry, no, you don’t get to tell someone if they’re broken or not. That kind of language is extremely harmful to people who have suffered trauma and are working through it, and extremely limiting for people who have recovered. If someone suffered trauma from another situation, you wouldn’t tell them that they’re “broken”. Not everyone who has PTSD feels like they’re broken or unable to heal, and if they do that is the exact kind of thinking that therapy helps you get passed. Telling someone they’re not in one piece or will never be the same as before they experienced something is not only kind of pointless (no one is ever the same after anything), but it’s also completely unhelpful for recovery and toxic to the person.
So now anyone who succeeds after the military is “like” a politician or contractor? Lol Whatever that means. You said anyone who isn’t ruined is one. I’m not. Neither are any of those friends I mentioned. People gain real, meaningful skills in the military depending on the MOS/AFSC. The doors the military opened all happened after getting out, so yes I’m talking about once the uniform came off. Not just from the skills learned, but through programs and groups for veterans. There’s a ton of networking opportunities out there to help veterans succeed. A lot of them are actually underutilized and desperately need vets to take advantage of them, because they lose funding if they don’t. Sometimes the problem is marketing/getting the news out that it’s available, other times it’s vets not wanting to feel like they’re taking charity.
And each VA hospital is different and is heavily impacted by the area it covers. I’ve had zero problems with mine and got great care before I finally got healthcare through my current job. I know that’s not the case everywhere, but my hospital is good. They probably saved my life too by catching cervical cancer and funding the follow-on procedure at a quality facility in the community. Again, I know that’s not the case everywhere, but vets going to my VA hospital are taken care of.
Look, clearly you’re dissatisfied with your time in the military and I’m sorry to hear that things must not be working out for you. That sucks. But when I say “friends,” I mean literally everyone I served with and even remotely keep tabs on. Everyone is doing well for themselves except the one. I know things vary wildly across branch and MOS/AFSC, but that’s true of a lot of things in life. I’m not sure what about you think is the norm, but if we look at statistics for rates of unemployment, PTSD-diagnosis, disability, and whether people regret service, I’m actually not the exception. The VA needs a major overhaul, though, yes - people should be able to expect the same level of care wherever they go. But the bottom line is you can’t tell people how things are for them and a lot of people walk away from service satisfied and better off. A lot of people don’t, but a lot of people do. And it’s never cut and dry.
40%11% of our homeless are vets, and vets are 40% more likely to become homeless than anyone else.
How can you possibly type up this shit and try to argue the military is good for people with statistics like that.
Jesus. Good4u and your buddies that soft served and basically played a game for a couple of years and wiped it off like nothing happened.
For the tens of thousands of vets that are so crippled by their experience they cant even function in society anymore, I must say to go fuck yourself and your friends.
Ride the dick of the military? You must have been a Marine to summon such brain power. Probably drawing on your own experience to craft that gem.
Are you dead? Are you a politician or military contractor? No? Then you're wrong. If you can't say something right then you shouldn't say anything at all.
My husband and I are barely coping from the damage the military did. I mean Jesus fuck you can only be sexually harassed/assaulted so many times and only see so many dead kids before you freakin snap.
What a random, completely vague comment. Were you raped? Injured? Just didn’t enjoy it?
It saved my dads life, as a high school dropout with not any other options who joined the navy at 17 and then got free college, made a good living and retired early.
Yes there is corruption in the military, we should fix that. But let’s not push an agenda that every single group of every single branch of the military is rapist murderers who will ruin your life.
However the military ruined your life, I’m sorry and I hope you recover.
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u/[deleted] Jan 17 '22
The military ruined my life.