Would You Enlist Again

[rc508pir]

Yep. Though truth be told, I was really sick of the ******** by the time I retired at 22yrs in 08. The last two years being here at Ft Sill did me in.

 

[HoLeChit]

Would I enlist now? Absolutely. Without hesitation. I’m broken down far before my time- the Corps is hard on the body. No getting around that.

The fear of the woke military is understandable. Some of the things you hear and read are outrageous. But I still talk young Marines from time to time. What they think and how they describe their life is the same as it was almost 30 years ago when I enlisted. Maybe I’m just getting a good sample- or maybe the Marine Corps isn’t nearly as jacked up as social media wants it to be.

Agreed. I got out 11 years ago. Aside from stronger talks about hazing (still happened) and sexual harassment/assault (likely was getting a little better) I always figured things were about the same as they had been the past 20-30 years. about 3 years ago I met a guy who just got out, sounded like he has a pretty similar experience as I did, except he didn't get in on any combat deployments due to the timing of his service. Everyone seems to think that the second a democrat steps in office then all of a sudden the entire military turns into liberals. I didn't see much in the way of crap from DC trickle down while I was in, aside from our ROE constantly changing in Afghanistan. Otherwise, it was just another day at work, minding our own business, doing what we were supposed to do.

 

[Camo]

Would I do it again? Yes.

Unfortunately today's military exudes the pussification of the America. Not the same as it was when it made a young boy into a man.

 

[John6185]

I punched yes but it is conditional with all the woke changing our military into "being less that what they could be." At present Russia, Iran and China have joined forces and are reinforcing, strengthening and modernizing their military while we are seen as the source of their problems.
Meanwhile, we have given billions of borrowed dollars to Ukraine, shipped countless weaponry to that country and are teaching out Officers at West Point that White is not good.
Going back to yes, if all was as it was many decades ago I would still join because i had no one to advise me of the direction in life I could take and it was all up to me and I made a multitude of mistakes over my lifetime. One of the best decisions I could have made was the choice to join the military and no one cared that I was gone within my family or neighborhood because I was reckless in many ways. In fact, I was stupid and the military gave me structure, discipline, training, running water, toilets with water, actual showers and I can;t believe that some people complained about the food. I never had tartar sauce, cranberry sauce, hot rolls or cold milk, etc until I joined my military family. And I had never flown on a plane before! They were actually paying me for a phenomenal vacation and education!

 

[John6185]

Do any of you remember your training instructors? SSgt Dubee was mine an I can still hear him scream "get out here" at 0500 in the morning. We were going to breakfast as soon a s the Chow Runner came back and reported. I joined at age 17 and said I was goin to let Uncle Same take care of me and darn if he didn't! 24 years later I retired and went to work at the VA, retired form there and here I am.
A guy in maintenance who served two years in the Army at the VA said I didn't need Social sEcurity because I was retired from the AF and my reply was "you had the same choice." He shut up an dnever brought the subject up again. I still remember some of the youth from Erick, Dallas, Weatherford etc that went through basic with me. Sitting on footlockers shining shoes and boots and talking and laughing was a great time in my life.
Tis was right after the Cuban Crisis and many military were involuntarily extended past their date of separation and sort of angry. It was common to see an E-4 (A1C) retire at 20 years because promotions were scarce. The majority of stripes were granted at the NCO clubs at the bar rubbing elbows.

 

[WoodsCraft]

Do any of you remember your training instructors? SSgt Dubee was mine an I can still hear him scream "get out here" at 0500 in the morning. We were going to breakfast as soon a s the Chow Runner came back and reported. I joined at age 17 and said I was goin to let Uncle Same take care of me and darn if he didn't! 24 years later I retired and went to work at the VA, retired form there and here I am.
A guy in maintenance who served two years in the Army at the VA said I didn't need Social sEcurity because I was retired from the AF and my reply was "you had the same choice." He shut up an dnever brought the subject up again. I still remember some of the youth from Erick, Dallas, Weatherford etc that went through basic with me. Sitting on footlockers shining shoes and boots and talking and laughing was a great time in my life.
Tis was right after the Cuban Crisis and many military were involuntarily extended past their date of separation and sort of angry. It was common to see an E-4 (A1C) retire at 20 years because promotions were scarce. The majority of stripes were granted at the NCO clubs at the bar rubbing elbows.

I remember both of my Drill Sgts and they were both as hard as the hammered hubs of hell. The day they took us from the AG BN after getting issued new uniforms to CIF right before we went to our training company. I became acquainted with the Senior Drill an E7 by the name or Rogers. He was issuing instructions as to how we would board the cattle cars after receiving our TA50 , shelter half , etc. I didn't hear everything as I should have and said what. He walked up and punched me square in the gut , after that I never said what again.


Fast forward to today and this is how the Army Drill Sgts are now trained . Big Army went woke in a big way and claims they aren't woke.




For the Army to blame the VOLAR transition at the end of Vietnam for their shortages is dishonest at best. I was in the all volunteer Army and we had plenty of people wanting to join , to be very fair about this there are a lot of reasons about the military not meeting recruiting goals. Like parents putting their kids on ADD meds because some asshat doctor tells them their kids have ADD when they just have a lot of energy. Keeping kids penned up not playing outside and attached to these electronic devices is flat out bad for them . If a kid is on ADD meds even short term they end up being disqualified from military service because of the way those drugs are classified. And of course the popularity of leftist ideals in popular culture hasn't helped either with this narrative of privilege and the communist nonsense of appropriate, and class struggle etc which never existed before here. Our society is seriously broken with a lot of very bad progressive inspired nonsense and the corruption of the education system. You want to fix the military you're going to have to purge people who tow the leftist and woke philosophical ideals and then fix our culture .

 

[Profreedomokie]

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.

Same way in the refinery. I remember once three of us saved a unit from crashing that couldn't be done today. A critical pump driven by a steam turbine shut down because the turbine had a governor bearing burned up. The spare pump was down because the motor was out to be rebuilt. One of us worked with an operator to block in the turbine while one of us started taking the turbine apart to get to the bearing. One of the guys went to the warehouse and got all the parts we would need. We had it fixed and running within 2 hours and saved the unit from crashing. Today it would be half a day just to get the work permit. Are we safer today? I don't think so because there is so much BS to deal with everyone is distracted.

 

[Hangfire]

We've got a watch thread.......how many remember the basic training alarm clock ?

 

[cboss]

I would join the Navy again knowing what I know now, except I wouldn't have waited until I was 30 to do it. I would have skipped college and joined straight after high school.

 

[C_Hallbert]

If our country was engaged in a serious war, yes I’d enlist again under the condition that the military discontinue and renounce every last one of its woke policies and trialed those responsible for this travesty for treason…..no, I wouldn’t!