Wanted to clarify if you were speaking from experience or if you were generalizing. I assume you are referring to the Viet Nam war?
Oh, hell no. Had I joined and been forced to kill some poor schlub to promote some president’s ego, I would’ve regretted that. But not joining the military, like not joining a street gang, is something I’ve never had cause to regret.
Daniel
No. I’m a pacifist and while I recognize that conflict happens in our world, I could not personally bring myself to be part of an organization that exists to kill.
No way. I have this thing against being “government property”. I am my own. Most people I encounter are too rude, mean, greedy, and idiotic to consider risking my life for.
My husband finished his Marine contract about two years ago (maybe shorter) and I’ve seen firsthand how mistreated soldiers and their families are. All the wonderful things you would think they do, comes at a price - one way or another. Although, the VA loan was great for purchasing our first home.
I don’t think soldiers get nearly what they deserve. They sit on watch, waiting until they are called to possibly die. They miss seeing their children grow up, sometimes the pay is not enough to cover the bills when they are gone, and despite efforts to combat this a lot of times if they leave to serve their jobs are not there when they return - if they return. It’s pitiful.
No, not ever. If they treated these people the way they should, maybe I would. But my life is important to me and those who love me, the price tag I have on it they would never be able to pay. Until they do, no love loss here.
I second everything Sol said, and will add two things:
(a) if (Og forbid) the day comes when I truly feel that the USA needs my help in some truly justified military venture, presumably at least partly in self defense, I would do the country MUCH better serving in a capacity where my particular skills would be useful. I would make a pretty crappy soldier, but there are things I’m very very good at
(b) the one rather trivial reason I’d like to be a veteran is that there’s a hotel in Germany near the site of Hitler’s mountaintop retreat that is only open to veterans. I think that would be a really interesting place to stay.
I’m generalizing. I think there are a lot of people, especially at a young age, who’s romanticized view of war is a kind of abstract image of Audie Murphie/Sergeant York/John Wayne/Rambo fighting off a hundred faceless enemy soldiers. It’s a great adventure. A chance to prove your manhood. Wounds received in battle are a badge of honor. If death be your fate then it be a glorious death fighting ten thousand men single handed.
I also think a lot of people join expecting a lot of ‘no war being declared’.
Vietnam doesn’t have a monopoly on Vets coming back messed up from the war.
No way. My dad was a conscientous objector during Vietnam (he was drafted in the very first lottery) and I was raised with a very negative view of the military.
I served in the Canadian military for 4 years. No regrets there.
I was going to apply for a UN peacekeeping tour, but I’d just been accepted to university, and they didn’t take deferments. So I told myself I’d do the tour after I graduated and never did. I regret that.
In the end, I imagine it would depend on your peer group. If you grew up in a military family or in a community that had close ties with military service, you might feel left out or like you might have missed something by not serving in the military.
If you grew up, in relative peacetime, in a community like mine that was relatively ambivalent towards military service in a family where it wasn’t that big a deal (my grandfather on moms side apparently kicked a lot of ass in the Pacific during WWII however my dad felt that General Electric paid much better than General Westmoreland) you don’t really feel like you missed out on anything.
Anyhow I give credit to anyone who actually does or did serve.
Thank you, everyone, for your replies. After reading some of the “No” posts, I’d like to ask if it were possible for you to set aside your disagreements with the present administration, or the foreign policy, or the military history, of whatever your country of origin, now or at any time in the past, would it make a difference in your answer? In other words, do you wish that you had ever had the opportunity to fight for a cause you really believed in, alongside others of similar motivation, under a commander/general/king you had absolute confidence in, but still with a reasonable chance of being killed… do you wish you could have done that? And is this a particularly male midset?
I’m male and still no. I like breathing.
The way I always figured it was I would go if I was called up, 'cause that’s what I signed up for. At the same time, I didn’t sit around hoping to go to war, either. I was perfectly happy not going, in fact, although they would not have had to drag me kicking and screaming.
Oh - male here.
I came of age during Vietnam; no way I could’ve joined the army then considering family, friends, etc.
But looking back I’m kind of sorry it worked out that way. When I think about the sacrifices that other men, 101 Airborne, for instance, are making so I can live in a democracy, well I do wish I could help out in some way.
My draft classification was 1-Y, which basically meant women and children would be drafted before they would accept me. I regret the accident that resulted in my classification and wish now that I could have served.
I have no regrets over not serving in the military.
I thought the idea was to strive for an end to war, not to glamorize it.
My take on it is that Dr. Johnson is talking about hindsight and referring to looking back at life and how people may react, emotionally, to the the “Daddy, what did you do in the war?” phenomenon – that you want to think that when the chips were down you would have stepped forth and by the way had a bunch of adventures along the way (even if only of the bar-crawl-through-Monterrey variety). Sort of like, “…and ‘Gentlemen’ in England now abed, shall think themselves accursed and hold their manhood cheap, that they did not fight with us here on Crispin’s Day.”
Likewise, although in my case it took a month of Basic for 'em to decide. Sometimes I wish I had explained at my discharge hearing that their mindgames weren’t anything new to me.
I resently heard Colin Powell say that the purpose of the military is to prevent war. He is not original in this idea by any means. The only exceptions may possibly be Gen. McArthur and Gen. Patton, but that may even be unfair to them.
During the Second World War, it was not uncommon for pacifists to serve as medics, which took a great deal of courage and dedication to service.
When I served in the Marines there were a very few like this and the rest of us thought they were as nuts as you do.
Other than that I don’t guess this thread applies to me.