He’s only 14 at the moment, but he’s obsessed with The Hitler Channel (History), some show about military technology, and just generally military stuff in general. I have no idea where he’s learned it all from, but he’s starting to make disparaging comments about factual errors in weapons handling on television shows. He comes by it honestly, I suppose - his biological father was an Army man, as was his father before him and his father before him (the fact that my son doesn’t KNOW his biological father makes the connection a little more mysterious, but it’s undeniable.)
I’ve always been under the impression that he won’t be able to enlist, because of a major scoliosis only mostly corrected by a spinal fusion surgery. He has a bunch of wires, bolts and two very long rods in his back, and they are not intended to be removed, ever. Is it true that they won’t take him, or would it just limit the jobs he could do, or am I just flat out wrong in my assumptions?
I don’t particularly WANT him to enlist, mind you, but I want him to be happy, and I could see something in the military appealing to him. I don’t want to tell him he can’t if that’s not factually accurate, but I also don’t want him building up glorious ideas only to find out later that it’s not an option for him.
Well, there’s the answer. Thank you so much, I had no idea where to begin looking. Looks like even with his fusion (disqualifying), his remaining curvature alone is significant enough to be disqualifying, as well. I suppose these requirements are for any and all military involvement, even if he, say, wanted to work a desk job or peeling potatoes (they probably don’t peel potatoes by hand anymore, do they? ) or some other “support” role?
The thing that scares me about this is that if the war bug sticks with him, it might inspire him to seek private mercenary work - where the pay might be better, but the security not so much. He heard someone (on the Daily Show, I think) recently quote a figure of $30,000 a month, and I could see the dollar signs clicking in his eyeballs.
Lots of boys (and men) like military stuff. I have an uncle who’s a retired stockbroker who’s been a military buff his whole life. He’s got a huge library of military books and is a hard-core wargamer. His brother was in the Air Force, but he never joined up himself.
I have a hard time thinking of any boy about that age that wasn’t interested in that stuff. I was and am. I didn’t join the military though, I became a history major… so maybe it’ll just lead to the liberal arts.
He could always work for a military contractor - Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Northrop Grumman, General Dynamics, Raytheon, etc. Someone’s gotta make all those guns, tanks, bombs and planes!
Tell him the other guys would probably beat him up because the sergeant would hold him up as an example of superior posture. Sure, he may still have some scoliosis, but have you seen how other teenagers slouch? I doubt he could slouch if he wanted to.
Not that I would know, lacking scoliosis and time in the military.
(signed)
drop, draft avoider (hey, there were people in SE Asia who wanted to SHOOT me!) and social science major who is fascinated by the military and military history
Gah. This is like the ultimate test of parenthood: do I have the guts to steer a kid towards a perfectly respectable career in an area he is interested in, has talent in, and that I find personally abhorrent? I’m not a total pacifist, but I am a dove and war protester (at least the recent wars). It would be the height of familial irony if he ends up building bombs for a living.
…but he’d be good at it, no doubt. He’s constantly taking apart his Nerf weapons and “modding” them - not just changing the exterior shell, but changing the way the loaders, firing mechanisms and darts work to increase the range and accuracy (and probably violating every safety protocol Nerf worked so hard to meet with their product design!)
He’s young, yet. He may change his attitude toward the military–my guess is that a young lady may have something to do with it if a shooting war hasn’t–and engineering and mechanical skills are useful in jobs completely separate from the military.
A couple things - First, he’s a 14 year old boy. Most of them are fascinated by explosions and stuff, I’ve even heard some unsubstantiated rumors that occasionally one will outgrow it. Just wake him up at 4:30 AM a couple times - the thought of doing that every day cured any thought I ever had of joining.
Second, a career in aerospace engineering or a related field at any of those fine companies does not necessarily equal creating engines of destruction. Satellites go up for dozens of civilian and/or totally peaceful reasons and they need people to design, build, and test all that stuff. Then there’s NSA/NRO projects which are really cool and a good way to convince him to keep his nose clean - I stopped smoking pot after high school trying to get a shot at Martin Marietta.
Hell, saying 6:00AM Mass every day cured this lost soul of EVER following his Vocation to join the Jesuits. I thought I MIGHT be able to handle the celebacy and the Latin, but a guy needs his sleep to fight temptation!
Edited to add: My brother, the Navy lawyer, was annoyed every morning of “boot camp” because his Marine brethren were woken at 5:30 by their DIs banging on garbage cans. ALL Marines are Marines, even the lawyers and accountants. Navy lawyers didn’t need to be anywhere until 7:30.
They do periodically relax requirements, though. When I was looking at how to finance college (1989), I looked into ROTC, but they wouldn’t take me b/c I had asthma. But I just read a couple of weeks ago (I can’t remember where) that this rule had been relaxed, and asthmatics (though presumably not ones with severe uncontrolled disease) can enlist in some branches.
) or some other “support” role?
