If a person believes he/she needs to join the military then think what job in the military does not fight in war.

I had the same dilemma wanting to follow my father in to the Navy.

I did not want to be on a ship.

When I asked the recruiter if there were in job in the Navy that does not go on ships,he laughed and said yes there is.

I served for 20 years went all over the world and helped many different people of all cultures.

I never stepped foot on a Navy vessel until after I had retired!

you want a decent military training and a change in your motivation levels and self reliance that will last your lifetime?join the french foreign legion.i am an ex british military officer and if i had it to do all over again...i would be enlisting in marseilles....research it,dont be scared about learning a foreign language.hell your kids will prob have to learn spanish by law,as will my grandkids here in uk have to learn polish.lol
if its what you want to do dont feel you need to serve your country blindly.

Be very careful about what you are doing. I have never been in the military and I am not an American, but a very good friend of mine was in the Marines during the Vietnam War. There had been Marines in his family who were from an older generation, so there must have been some sort of tradition involved with his decision.

I don't want to go into too much detail here, except to say that he was conflicted about his decision to join the Marines. At the time there was universal conscription in the US (the draft) and if I remember, he might have opted for the Marines to pre-empt being sent into the Army.

He was afraid of going into any kind of infantry situation in Vietnam, so once in the Marines, he got into a program studying avionics. He said he never worked so hard on something in his life. He was so afraid of going into the meat grinder in Vietnam. He figured he could get through by being a helicopter mechanic.

When it came time to ship out for the Far East, his nerves got the better of him and he deserted the Marines and came to Toronto.

This was very difficult. He maintained contact with his family. He applied for and was accepted to university. He began a relationship with a girl. And last but not least he continued to be very conflicted about what he was doing.

Obviously he had serious emotional and perhaps psychological issues. He was a very nice guy. There was something gentle and endearing about him. He was about 6 ft., lean and fit. What you would expect to come out of the boot camp at Parris Island, especially during that era of "old school", brutal, military training.

Unfortunately, he was suicidal. He committed suicide in an alley in Toronto around 1973.

Hegel is a German philosopher. The Hegelian dialectic is a form of argument as well as a theory of history. It proceeds by putting forward an idea called a thesis. In the course of the argument a counter argument emerges. This is called the antithesis. As the discussion moves forward a compromise-like blending of the thesis and the antithesis emerges. This is called the synthesis.

The synthesis eventually comes to be seen by some people as a new thesis, to which they put forward a new antithesis. Eventually a new synthesis emerges from the encounter.

My friend's life moved forward in a sort of Hegelian dueling match between opposite intentions. He couldn't resolve his conflicts with any kind of lasting synthesis or compromise. Thesis and antithesis instead kept becoming more extreme.

His last thesis was to come to Toronto to start a new life. His last antithesis was to commit suicide.

If you find a pattern like that developing in your life, take a time out.

It is important to reach a useful and sustainable synthesis that you can live with. If you cannot do this, consult experts and get help. Asking questions on ATS is a good sign of maturity and seriousness about making your decision.

Good luck.

Do a search for "War Porn" videos and then imagine while watching them, that you are actually there and in VERY close proximity of the targeted area shown.

Now, once you are done cleaning out your drawers from you-know-what, come back and ask again about it.

Stick with COD and those other "war" video games kid.

Like a lot of people said, I would highly, highly encourage you to continue with your education first and get a college degree. I recently graduated from college and went through the AFROTC program. I'm a brand new Lt waiting to go to my first assignment, so I can't say I've had a lot of experience in the military.

What I CAN tell you is that the Air Force has some neat technical jobs, takes care of its people, and worships at the alter of higher education. The AF like all the other branches are cutting back though, so really work on your GPA and academics (if I were a year younger, my GPA probably would have been just short of acceptable - it's like a 3.2 nowadays). The AF will train you to be a thinker and a leader. We don't have the same gung-ho, guts 'n glory attitude that the ground forces have, but we get the job done and we tend to work on the "bigger picture."

Obviously take everything you read on this site with a grain of salt... most people only sign up on this site because they are very passionate about something, and you won't find a lot of people that occupy the middle ground. Talk with your school teachers or coaches - I've found them to be very insightful.

Wow, 15 pages, and all I see is a bunch of POGs, Squids, and wannabe Chairborne rangers talking out their ass.
Your 16? Make up your damn mind. Wait till you 18, or better 21-22..
Think really hard about what you really wanna do.

Originally posted by kaskad
Wow, 15 pages, and all I see is a bunch of POGs, Squids, and wannabe Chairborne rangers talking out their ass.
Your 16? Make up your damn mind. Wait till you 18, or better 21-22..
Think really hard about what you really wanna do.

Gotta agree with that. If I could go back in time, I'd wait until I was around 22 or so to enlist. Your maturity level is a lot higher. Well, maybe not alot.....

Help about what? You join the Marines , not because of a Future , you join the Marines because you love your Country or you desire a career as an officer or enlisted. If you want a Future , the Marines arnt for you.

The Army can offer you a better future than the Marines do. They offer many programs to get you jump started in the Civilian world after your service.

The Navy and Airforce have it good in terms of life in service and outside of service , if you want a career , go to one of these two branches.

By the way if Call of Duty is the source of your wanting to join the Military you have a very rude awakening. I suggest you go to a Military Academy and get a feel for what you are getting yourself into. Guns arnt blazing 90% of the time, most of the time you are just sitting there talking smack being told what you can and can not do.

Just dont be one of the Kids that kill themselves because they didnt know what kind of crap life your getting into.

Also , just to give you a tip, when we get into a real war I dont mean this Afghanistan / Iraq war , i mean a war when we are racking up 400-600 casualites a day. You arnt going to be dieing by gunfire your going to have a 1000 pound bomb drop on you and kill you and then the next unit moves up and takes your place. Ordance is the future / present. The infantry is a shield for the ordance to be delievered past.

Just to give you an example. We had a vehicle loaded down with enough ordance to = about 800 pounds or so of ordance dropped from the air , 200 yards away shrapnel causes 4 critial casualites / 2 non critical , 300 yards away had 2 people knocked unconcious from the blast. So if these bomb hits within 100 yards of you .... your going to be hurting. This isnt COD , they dont need to bum rush you. They can just shoot at you from 20 miles away or drop a bomb from 20 miles up.

Also you will realise , you may say you arnt afraid to die and it may be true , but when you get over there and you start seeing people dieing and seeing bullet holes and people ripped in half from 5.62 bullets and head shots.

You start wondering not just about dieing ..... but what your going to be thinking , how bad is it going to hurt , do i suffocate , does any one care , why am i even here , no one cares. All these things starrt hitting you when you see enemy you kill and even more so when you see your friends killed and when you get home you realise .... you went through all that and here every one is ... driving down the road exactly as it has been since you left ... and realise you have changed but everything else remains the same and no one .... cares.

And i dont care how hardened you are or think you are , when you get back you are changed. You want to kill people more even those you vowed to protect they smart off to you , you want to just put a bullet in their head. Its so much easier than listening to them. You killed once you can do it again. Only type of people you can possibly relate to is men in uniform , and then it becomes hard to leave the military because your brothers know what your going through and you make them seem like the filth of the Earth in Words , but they dont give a # because they know where you been and will go back with you regardless what you say to them

The first words out of my mouth now are , "Ill #in kill you". Didnt think id change , but hey ... i did.

Originally posted by reeferman
do not get confused by today's so called military action..

read up on history and you will realize there has not been an honorable conflict in your lifetime..

Yeah. Whatever.

Read up on history and you will realize there has not been one honest politician in anyones lifetime.

Originally posted by kaskad
Wow, 15 pages, and all I see is a bunch of POGs, Squids, and wannabe Chairborne rangers talking out their ass.
Your 16? Make up your damn mind. Wait till you 18, or better 21-22..
Think really hard about what you really wanna do.

Your forgot to mention the sick call rangers.

But on the main topic here. Join the AF and go Ammo greatest job in the world and you get these fancy bumper stickers and coins with IYAAYAS which is the militarys best motto hands down.