I would. I was a kid that grew up in a poor family and had no clue what I wanted to do in life. It was good for me and I learned a lot of self discipline. Fortunately, I was never in war and was not injured. I almost re-enlisted but got out after 4 years.
I checked off yes, but its kind of a hard call for me.
My time in the military has left me with mental and physical issues that I have to live with the rest of my life, and could very well shorten my life. Combine that with seeing how things have ended up, I have some reservations on doing it all over again.
But, last year when I visited Camp Lejeune, and saw that MARSOC Gunny skating away from work, getting a coffee at the gas station and yelling at someone for walking in the grass 2 blocks down, I realized that I could have been him. Mid to late 30s, finishing up the last 2 or 3 reenlistments before retiring. That would be a really great place to be right now. There were a lot of really fun/neat/fulfilling things that came with serving, and life was relatively easy. I didn't see it that way when I was young, immature, and finishing up my first enlistment though. If things had gone differently, and I wasn't dealing with the stuff I had been, I likely would have re-enlisted, and maybe put in my 20 years. I think that next enlistment would have gotten me to where I needed to be maturity wise.
Nope, but I didn't have a choice. Draft notice in hand and went to the recruiter.
With all the wokeness and BS the military are subjected now just like it's going in the workplace, I wouldn't make it long before a dishonorable discharge if I were subjected to the training they are putting on now.
I've talked to the younger guys that are still at the power plant I retired from. They say I wouldn't make it there now, not because of job skills but because I didn't put up with the enhanced safety bullshat and social training they are having to endure in the workplace.
You can't get your work done because of "safety regulations" put in place by pups wet behind the ears that just got a college industrial safety degree without one day of actual work in his background.
Well, it has the "potential" to be dangerous, therefore I have to designate this area as dangerous, and the safety BS starts.
Your required to wear a harness to get into a 10 foot high scaffold with double rails? Give me a freeking break. I did that job with a ladder and a bag of tools and a step ladder just like every instrument guy did it before me since the plant was built in the 70's and nobody ever got hurt, but the college boy saw the "potential for safety" and made that 30 minute job to change the thermocouple in the belly of the turbine from a 30 minute job to a three day job.
Stupidly insane thinking.
From what I'm hearing, the military is going down this same rabbit hole which is why they can't get recruits that actually want to serve.
I would go Air Force if I could go back in time. I wouldn't enlist in today's military.
I was Navy 3x6. Three years active duty, 2 years active reserve, 1 year inactive reserve.
That didn't work out too well for me. 1st I went overseas to Diego Garcia (biot) British Indian ocean territory.
Navy contracted my rating out to third country nationals. I never worked in my rating for that 3 years.
Made E-4 but was just shy of scoring high enough for E-5. Kinda easy to figure out why since I was never around the equipment I went to 11 months of school for.
Came home and closest naval base was ft.smith ark. Guess what, no air wing.
I was able to transfer to the Air national guard , 188th TFG. Finished my required active duty and made E-5 with them. Should have stayed with them. Great bunch of guys.
It isn’t what I joined in 1985 but I am positive that it is still an amazing journey for those willing to sacrifice their own personal freedoms to serve this entire country.
I still stand duty every 6 weeks for our Navy here in Oklahoma City and I will vouch that those young folks that so many of you complain about are still out on the Flight line turning wrenches in the middle of the night trying to meet a flight schedule that is as impossible to meet as the day I first enlisted. They are nowhere as “woke” as we fear, like my father believed and I’m sure his father believed about the youth of their time.
Yes, I would gladly serve all over again, I still have a few years left on this hitch to get to 62, a true “lifer” who swore up and down I was getting out every 4 years.
Yes, I’m too old for it. But yes, if our country needed me for sure. I learned how to be more reliable, how to push past pain, how to think of others and the mission more than myself. I learned I am more able than I think.
Even with the woke crap going on currently in the military, I can’t imagine the world where the USA is no longer the supreme superpower. All of us should reflect on that for a time before we answer no to this poll. As the supreme superpower the US can and does dictate its will on other’s. Loosing supremacy means now being dictated to.
I most certainly would stand on the yellow footprints again