A little bit. I also grew up as a kid through Vietnam, so I didn’t have any great desire when I was younger to “go to exotic places, meet interesting people, and kill them.” But I probably would have benefitted from some military discipline, and I could have used the ROTC benefits. Sadly, having the somewhat loony Reagan as President from the year I turned 18 I was a bit concerned he’d send me to some place like Grenada to die.
Some things are worth dying for; some aren’t. I’m not sure the folks in power (either side of the aisle) always know the difference or always care.
Not really. I brought up the subject of joining when I was about college age (around '90-'91). My father’s reaction was “you’ve got to be out of your fucking mind.” His own service was involuntary, so I guess I should be surprised at his negative opinion of the idea.
I think a bit of military discipline would have helped me… but I thought about being some kind of robotic soldier being given orders by stupid generals… and I noticed that my brains wouldn’t take well to that.
No. I tried to enlist out of high school, and was rejected because my eyesight was too bad. I went on to spend 10 years in DoD Civil Service, so I did my time anyway.
The Air Force gave me an offer when I was in college. They said they would pay my tuition and other perks until I graduated. I probably could have continued on with graduate school at their expense too. Then I would have to serve for 4 (?) years after college. I woulda, coulda, shoulda. But that was right near the end of Vietnam and I was one of those longhaired hippie types, “Ban the Bomb”, you know. If I was 19 again and I got the same offer, I would take it, no doubt.
I auditioned for the Marines in my senior year of high school, but I was rejected because my back is uneven and an x-ray revealed I have tiny openings in the vertebrae around my spinal cord. A pity because I scored extremely highly in the ASVAB and my recruiter really wanted me to go into avionics for some reason.
So, no, I don’t feel bad. I probably would have ended up getting killed in Lebanon if I had gone, anyway.
I often think about how my life would be different or better if I had gone into the Navy or Air Force. I have two degrees (B.S. and J.D.) so I could have become an officer, but I’ve never been the most confident person, so I couldn’t see commanding others and demanding respect and having people’s lives depend on my every decision. At the same time, I’ve always been skeptical (to put it a nice way) of authority figures, and I would have had a rough time with the training and indoctrination of military life, especially the basic training or officer candidacy school early on. I’ve never been terribly physical, so a military lifestyle could have whipped me into shape, and I’d probably be an altogether tougher, stronger, smarter, braver, more confident, more whole person today. And while I strongly disagree with the current war and despise the current administration, I would have gone over there and done what I was ordered to if I WAS in the military. Now I’m grateful that I’m not, and respectful of those who serve so I don’t have to, but I wonder a lot about how things would be different if I did.
Samuel Johnson also said “A cucumber should be well-sliced, dressed with pepper and vinegar, and then thrown out.”
I think the only man who thinks meanly of himself for not having been a soldier is one who has never seen war firsthand.
It seems to me that there are a great deal more men who “think meanly” of themselves for having been in war and being forced to do things or witness things than there are men who feel bad because they never had the chance to act out some romanticized John Wayne or Arnold Schwartzenigger fantasy.
I took the ASVAB and was pretty much lined up. Considered the Air Force, the Army, and finally the Marines. I probably would have ended up in Monterey at the Defense Language Institute and then on to a post in Germany, guaranteed. My German teacher talked me into going to college instead. I sometimes regret not having gone into the military and wonder how different my life might have been for better or worse.
I probably would have had a problem with the current administarations utilization of the military at this point in my hypothetical career, though…probably get my ass court martialed or demoted or something.
Not for a nano-second, not my cup of tea. If it’s your cup of tea, more power to you. As Lincoln said, “for those that like that sort of thing, that’s the sort of thing they’d like.”
While I’m not naive enough to think that war will ever go away, or pacifist enough to state that violence is never the solution, I do believe that war is fundamentally immoral, and that it is therefore, in most instances, a moral act to avoid it. The major wars that have been fought by the US in my lifetime have been, at best, highly questionable ventures. So no, I don’t regret it at all. I might feel differently had I been around for WWII.
That is key to why I will never ever regret not even remotely considering military service. There is not a politician alive that I would feel comfortable making the decision where and when to risk my life. I also came of age during Reagan, but I wouldn’t have trusted Carter, Bush I, Clinton, Bush II, or Gore or Kerry for that matter.
I seriously doubt any of these folks would give a damn about soldiers dying for a stupid cause, if it helped them politically.
Gotta remember tho “Ours is not to question why, ours is but to do or die” or words to that effect. I don’t think people that consider the administration in power when they would sign up would sign up. Nation at war, charismatic leader notwithstanding.
I couldn’t join for health reasons (Scarlet Fever, couple of other things.) I would have joined, but that just didn’t happen. Had friends who hated it, friends who hated it but thought it helped them as a person, a friend who joined to quit drugs and friends who liked it. Nobody ever said they loved it, tho, and I don’t recall anybody mentioning the administration in power in the context of their service.
I have one of the shorter, wierder, military careers that I’ve heard of. I can say that I was a Green Beret, and that I’ve never been to basic training, or seen a day of active duty. All three are true. I joined the Reserves in High School, through the delayed entry program, the first day I was eligible, age 17 years and 3 months. My unit was the 297th Military intelligence detachment (later company). I drilled with the Unit during my deferred period, and the unit uniform was BDUs and the ‘green beenie’. I thought I was cool. But… Instead of going off for the four years of really hardcore training I had ahead of me, I took an ROTC scholarship and headed off for ASU. After hanging out with the ‘real guys’ for a year, some Junior with a stick up his ass telling me his version of the universe was off putting to say the least. I was saved from the whole ordeal by shattering my elbow in a motorcycle accident, between semesters. I was in Traction for Spring Semester, and The Summer was a few catch up classes and Intensive Physical Therapy. My Right Arm never came back to Mil-Spec, so I was allowed to resign for medical reasons, and never had to repay the one semester and One summer session I got free courtesy the U.S. Army.
I do occasionally wonder about the other SLKs, The one who became a ‘real’ green Beret, and the one who wound up a spiffy new Butterball in some Infantry Battallion. I don’t really regret not being either one of them, though.
Nope. They didn’t want me, anyway. I was at ripe recruitment age, just out of high school and would get calls from the local office about once a month. One of these calls happened to be about a week after I’d had knee surgery and was wobbling around the house with a huge cast-like thing and crutches. The guy asked how I was doing, and I said I was recovering from knee surgery. He said something along the lines of “Ah. Well, hope you get well quickly” and hung up. I never heard from them again, so I assume he put an X in the box on my record that said “This guy’s already broken”
