Sure, I’ve bought cars. And the salesmen never showed me articles about recalls or bad customer reviews. Meanwhile, when I joined the Navy, my recruiter told me exactly why the other recruiter who was working with him wasn’t in the office anymore - he popped positive on the piss test and was getting kicked out.
No job is perfect - this recruiter told a little of the bad along with the good. He especially told us how boot camp was a mind game and how to beat it.
My recruiter may have not told me everything about the Navy - how could he have? But nothing he told me was a lie, and lots of what he told me was useful. He did his job well.
No matter how good the salesman is, he can’t magically turn a Chevy into a Ferrari, and no matter how good the recruiter is, he cannot hide the essential truth of military life and the risks thereof.
Ha! Implied combat notwithstanding, you made a wise choice for service in terms of your survivability. Our Navy (and Air Force) are so vastly superior to anything else on the planet that it’s almost laughable. The Navy anymore rarely suffers combat deaths, and the Air Force is the same since our planes are so damn technologically superior in just about every way to anything else another country can field.
Unfortunately, the need for “boots on the ground” always involves dying, and the Army and Marines have more than fulfilled their share of that during this God-awful war.
And then some.
I certainly won’t argue this point, but there are other concerns. Some time after I left the Navy, a guy from my ship (USS Monterey, CG-61) was walking back to it on an ice-covered pier and accidentally fell into a trench under a leaky steam line filled with superheated water. He was scalded over eighty percent of his body and took two days to die. They buried him at Arlington.
A member of our local VFW post here in Dale City was serving her shore duty here close to her hometown - nice quiet supply post at the Pentagon. She died on 9/11. They have her photo in a frame in the canteen, and she’s buried in the veterans cemetery over in Quantico.
This isn’t to minimize what the Army goes through in any way, just that these hit close for me.
I understand self preservation and all, but desertion? Hopefully these people know that they are most likely screwed in the civilian world. A dishonorable discharge is no small thing.
It could be argued that a felon has a better chance of finding a decent job.
It’s kind of like this woman in Tech school after I had been honorably discharged from the Marines.
She said something like that the government won’t be able to track her down, so my education is free.
Huh? Even I knew back in 1987 that your social security number follows you for life.
I do have sympathy for the men and women in the war zones but surely if you read at all, you should know what you are getting into, right?
Footnote: The armed services do not chase deserters. The name of the deserter is entered in the national wanted list and the armed services just wait until a wants and warrants is done by a cop.
Anecdote: Even pick up by the cops doesn’t always lead to return to the service. If the local service doesn’t come pick up the deserter then the cops let him go.
US Air Force has two special forces branches - Pararescue (PJs) and Combat Control. PJs go in to find downed pilots, acting as combat medics whilst doing so, and get the pilots out. They also go in as combat medics for other SF teams, like in Mogadishu during the Blackhawk Down incident where Air Force PJs were medics for the Delta and Ranger teams. Combat control have responsibility for forward air control (i.e. radio control of strike missions deep in enemy territory) and again accompany other SF units for close-air support.
Both jobs are not primarily to kill bad guys directly, but both are extensively trained in how to do so. I joined the AF and went into the PJ pipeline because I wanted the action and adventure but didn’t want to kill people; if I was sent to war, however, I knew what I was getting into and why I was being trained as I was. The training speaks for itself - you don’t mistake shooting at people-shaped targets on the firing range and wiring explosives with ‘this end towards enemy’ signs on them for playing tag.
As for Lt Watada, he had no right to refuse the order to deploy because the war was legal in every sense of the word, so I think he’s screwed.
It’s also safe to say that if you are enlisting in the military you might have to fight a war you don’t agree with. Forget the fact that you have to be an idiot to join and not recognize killing could very well be a requirement.
There is also a chance you will have to fight a war in which you don’t see eye-to-eye with the policy makers.
a) This is a real scary and unpopular war we are in.
b) These generations have way more physical and moral cowards than mine did. (Personal opinion.) I’m 64
Accidents still happen though, some of them due to the unique operational requirements. Some of these jobs even earn “danger pay”, in peacetime. (Like “flight deck” pay.)
People slip on wet decks and fall into the ocean every WestPac/Med Cruise. Some of those folks are never seen again.
Aircraft have mechanical problems (or pilot error), and they fall out of the sky unexpectantly.
It’s just that the 18-24 year olds think that it will never happen to them. ('Cause they are too smart or good looking for that. )
(submitted too soon) So while Japan isn’t giving them asylum, a lot of desertions are allegedly happening here. Does the 25,000 figure include guys who came back and said “sorry?”
I don’t know what the deserter totals for Korea were, but since you were six when the war broke out I’m not giving your generation credit for that one anyway. Besides, desertion rates are bound to go down when you’re winning.
I certainly can’t disagree with your first assertion, though.
Are you honestly saying many (i.e. the majority) of soldiers, sailors, and airmen are too stupid to realize that they are joining the military and may face combat?
The word “many” is NOT the same as “the majority.”
But I was responding to a poster who made two points about military life :
1 ) you might have to fight a war you don’t agree with.
2) killing could very well be a requirement.
And I have in fact encountered a number of military types, or wannabe military types that are unable or unwilling to recognise those two obvious facts. I’ve seen them trying to deny or rationalize this away.
For the first one, I’ve seen a veteran trying to rationalize it like this:* I can never fight against my own personal beliefs. I’ll fight for whatever I’m told to fight for, and that IS my belief. Whatever I fight for, that’s what I believe in.
*
As for the second one I’ve seen military types who say that they don’t want to kill and their personal position in the military will never require them to do so. Such as the engineer on a ship of war who only makes sure the machinery runs smoothly, and doesn’t personally fire the guns himself. Thus, he claims, he is highly unlikely ever to kill anyone. Note that it isnt that thinks that he will never see combat. He is perfectly well aware that he may be directly involved in a battle. It’s just that he won’t recognise that he might be responsible for other people’s deaths.
I don’t claim that the *majority *of military recruits think this way. But some do, quite a few in fact.
We called it delivering death by remote control. Amazing what stupid shit you’ll say when you’re standing watch in a dark CIC for four hours.
When we used the old style consoles, they put the spring loaded cover over the button to make you feel like a badass.
These days it has all been modernized, and you get a popup asking you if you’re sure. Makes firing a missile feel like buying something off of the web.
)