I am a Military Recruiter and would like to clear up some misconceptions., page 6

A few things about the military I would like to point out.

One, I met the most knuckleheads I have ever come across in my life. Many, many of them were headed down a bad path in life. They either chose to go into the military to escape some sort of punishment from trouble they had been in while a civilian, or had nothing going for them, so joined for college money. That is not downplaying their service. It changed them. It gave them structure, and tools to succeed in life. That is the good side of the military in my opinion.

That being said, if you have aspirations and dreams of doing something with your life. You have good character, and know what it takes to attain your goals I would definitely say, go to college. Get a degree. Dont get caught up in patriotism (another reason I joined...after 9/11) and the feeling of a need to serve your country. Believe it or not, being successful in whatever you do is a good service to your country.

The second point I want to make is for those thinking about joining and have the qualities mentioned above. Now, I cant speak for other branches, but the Navy is so full of beaurocratic b.s. it is quite disgusting. It does not matter how good you are at your job. It does not matter about your performance or how you complete the tasks given to you. To succeed in the Navy and move up in rank, all you have to do is be in a certain top percentage of a test you can take once a year. But you had better be on the good side of your chief or whoever is in charge of you or you may not even get the chance to take that test. Along with the many good people who do their job well, and take pride in what they do, there are more sh**bags (a Navy term) that could give a crap. They will use excuses to get out of resposnibility and then suck up to those higher in rank. The sad part is this actually gets people somewhere.

Like I said, not all enlisted members are this way and their certainly are people who deserve their ranking and do a damn good job at their job, but for a U.S. military branch of service you would think discipline and hard work would get you much farther than the person next to you that doesnt lift a finger and always has an excuse as to why they can't do what they are told. That is just not the case.

So, do your research and know what you are getting into, because like everything in life, it is not all black and white. There are undesireable gray areas that are not talked about by recruiters. If you are thinking about joining, go to a base and talk to people about their experiences. Don't just trust what a recruiter says to be true. Know what job you are going to be doing. Understand that you probably won't be where you want to. Orders get filled on a personnel need as necessary, and that you will have to put up with people who have bias or people (higher ranking individuals) that dont like you for whatever reason. The experience is good on a resume, but I know people who have left the service and years ago and still dont have a job. There will be people where you have to pick up there slack. There will be people who ruin things for you because they do not do what they are told. You may have to work harder or do more menial tasks because someone messed up, and therefor your command gets punished. And understand those will get recognition for things you have done and they did not do but get credit because of said bias. These are the gray areas that recruiters do not tell you about. These are things you will deal with at some time or another.