…or what we Olde Pharttes used to call “coincidence”*.
Last week I posted a query from a Reader (read it here) about relocating a grandson, and there were a number of comments from other Readers on the topic.
So later in the week, I found this little snippet (via Kenny):
Only 37% of respondents would encourage their family to serve in the military, while 63% would not, according to the poll. Several branches of the military have been plagued with recruiting and retention problems in recent years as the Pentagon continues to look for solutions.
Of those who would not encourage their family members to join the military, 57% said they felt that way because it is “too dangerous,” according to the poll. Approximately 45% cited the “failed wars in Iraq and Afghanistan” as the reason not to join.
Funny thing, that. I always thought that joining the military would entail some kind of physical risk, but that probably just shows how out of touch I am with the modern world.
*I know there’s a substantial conceptual difference between synchronicity and coincidence.
There’s a huge difference between signing up as a grunt, thereby honourably putting your life at risk in the service of your country, versus volunteering to have your life thrown away pointlessly by a senile imbecile who doesn’t give a shit about you and just looks at his watch as your corpse passes by.
No rational man would volunteer to serve corrupt and venal morons like Biden and Harris.
LSWCHP nailed it. Well nailed one aspect of it. I was a cold warrior who joined for the right reasons and the Berlin Wall fell on my watch. I actually controlled two air intercepts of Russian bombers off the east coast on their way to Cuba back in the day.
I recommend people stay away from the military, inter alia, because the country is no longer worth defending, we’ve allowed the commies to take over, the military is no longer solely a war-fighting machine, it’s a woke dog’s breakfast of gender bending and DEI bullshit, its leaders have all become political hacks like Biden/Harris, it is no longer a meritocracy, and because of that already dangerous tasks have become much more so than they need to be.
Breaks my heart, but just stay away. Unless and until we turn the country around and fix all that shit, including firing practically all flag officers, en masse (there are still some good field grade officers with the right motivation and chops to promote—I hope—but not for long, I’m afraid), stay away. What if the country needs defending before we may effect that change, you ask? Do you want your son taking up a rifle next to a guy in a dress? No, don’t go until it’s been purged and purified again.
Why risk your life for a government that hates you? I’m retired USN, 28 years Active and Reserve; there is no way I would recommend the military to a young person today, especially straight white males.
Same here.
Retired mustang (E8/O5), 38 years (1975-2012). The only service choice I could possibly recommend is the Coast Guard. My nephew is a Navy Diver, just made Chief at the 11 year mark and is getting out in December, walking away from a $35K re-enlistment bonus. I can’t even recommend he stay in the Reserves, not that he would anyway. He’s getting out before he gets killed or someone dies on his watch. It’s that bad.
I don’t follow non-Navy issues anymore, but the Navy is dicked up from the ground up. Crews are woefully undertrained, understaffed, undereducated and morale is in the shitter. This decline all started with Clinton, was fast-tracked under Obama and what wasn’t broke was contracted out under Bush.
We are a solid 20-25 years from re-building a Tier 1 fighting Navy.
For a more informed and solid understanding, I recommend the CDR Salamander blog/substack.
I will keep this short.
I know a young man in his early 30s. Did the Marine Corp late. Wokeness and sissification everywhere.
Still learned because it was mostly the OC. Older noncoms and grunts taught the correct things plus trickas and traps not in the manual while out in the field away from the woke corrupt sexual predator officer. He learned things that sounded like bad action movie tricks.
After he left, the officer had enough corrupt practices reported that she and several cronies were removed from service. Not court martialed but no bennies either.
He rejoined after his father died, in the reserves. He did so because he might have been forced back to active combat. I asked him why.
He said most of the rank and file and enough of the lower OC is aware of what is going on. They do what they can and are waiting for the madness to pass one way or the other.
Hopefully the insanity will burn out. If it comes to a real war, well once the insane are gone the services will still have a core to rebuild properly around.
You must of not been here in the 80’s. During that time (I graduated in 84) the military was still reeling from the post-Vietnam fatigue and tried to re-invent itself as a pseudo-education/job-training opportunity. The whole “Be all that you can be” bullshit. I completely killed the ASVAP test and talked to more than a few recruiters (only cause I wasn’t certain my parents could afford college – whole different story there). Their whole pitch was I could learn a trade, get college funding, and we weren’t going to war anytime soon so now was the perfect time to sign up!
Yeah, I know. Recruiters lie like cheap rugs. But still when Desert Storm broke out tons of people my age in the service were shocked – SHOCKED! – that they’d actually have to go overseas and fight. Most of the women in the service fucked entire barracks in an attempt to get pregnant as fast as possible.
In any event, for people of a certain age, the prospect of a 4 year service in which they’d never be at risk, learn a trade, and get govt funding for college was a pretty sweet deal, at least on paper.
I advised my kids against military service.
The Wermacht also had a tradition of apolitical loyalty to the duly constituted civilian leadership.
The political reliability purges and woke invasions of recent years have validated my advise.
I would like to see a similar poll taken before Sept. 2001.
I don’t think those numbers are *all that far* off post-Vietnam norms. I have been in a couple conversations with “conservative” parents over the last 20 years who were complaining about the costs of college, and when I suggested military service they made it cleat that their children were better than that. No, no they aren’t you f*king hypocrites.
I’ve got a nephew who’s spoken of joining the Marine Corps. He’s 14, so his mother will probably change his mind. Maybe even his father (my brother). My daughter is finishing highschool, and has zero direction, so I’ve suggested she join the Air Force[1] to get some money for school, and have a decent job that might get her some international travel.
Given what the Democrats are trying to do to this country, being a civilian isn’t going to be all that much safer.
[1] It’s an honorable alternative to military service
23 year Army career here, and I wouldn’t advise young people to join the service right now. The leadership is corrupt and never held accountable, the injection of wokeness and DEI into the services has made standards a joke, and the people running the whole shitshow look down upon and distain the traditional warrior, and the types of people who would become said warrior. I think that people are still willing to serve their country, but not the “leadership” who are currently driving this country and it’s institutions into the ground.
Oh, and I think that Mark Milley and Lloyd Austin should be publicly hung and their bodies left to feed the crows. Then you fire every single flag officer and replace them with real warriors. Then we might have a chance of returning the military to what it was.
Same here.
Retired mustang (E8/O5), 38 years (1975-2012). The only service choice I could possibly recommend is the Coast Guard. My nephew is a Navy Diver, just made Chief at the 11 year mark and is getting out in December, walking away from a $35K re-enlistment bonus. I can’t even recommend he stay in the Reserves, not that he would anyway. He’s getting out before he gets killed or someone dies on his watch. It’s that bad.
I don’t follow non-Navy issues anymore, but the Navy is dicked up from the ground up. Crews are woefully undertrained, understaffed, undereducated and morale is in the shitter. This decline all started with Clinton, was fast-tracked under Obama and what wasn’t broke was contracted out under Bush.
We are a solid 20-25 years from re-building a Tier 1 fighting Navy.
For a more informed and solid understanding, I recommend the CDR Salamander blog/substack.