Posted on 04/07/2014 5:35:52 PM PDT by MacMattico
Wow. My daughter is 16, an A student and interested in possibly joining the military. While this fills me with great pride, and my family has a history of male members in the navy and Marine Corp, this kind of blew my mind. Not in a bad way, I guess it's just amazing, wonderful and scary all at the same time coming from MY daughter!
I was wondering if anybody would like to share any and everything they know about their daughter or females in general in the military. At this point she is thinking of an eventual career in something like Energency Management, perhaps law or intelligence, or a medical field. In other words undecided, but we have a family history of Veterans that went into Emergency Management and Firefighting, so maybe that's what she sees as "the family business"! It's a lot to take in all at once for a mom, but what should she be doing now if this were her eventual goal? She is a Varsity athlete, good student, and keeps out of trouble. Thanks so much! And while I will of course ask within the family, I appreciate outside opinions.
Yup, I can not fathom anyone wanting to serve under the leadership we have.
O Lord ,save us. Another one eager to follow the orders of an abysmal CNC.
Can one do ROTC in college if not previously enrolled in HS? We have a friend who’s son is ROTC at uni, but they had a HS program and got a good scholarship.
a) Is she a Christian? If so, and she can be IN this world but not OF it, she will do fine, but only insofar as she does not lose faith. b) is she well immunized from mental illness? (e.g., Does she know not to take personal offense at another’s mental illness and just carry on, normally? Can/will she avoid attempting to engage in logical arguments with irrational people? Can she maintain objectivity under duress? Can she defend herself when confronted by a lunatic by acting even crazier if needed and moving to safety?)
If these are true, she will be fine. Otherwise, it will not end well.
An Air Force program? Or CAP?
Read this http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/3141398/posts, then this http://www.jqpublic-blog.com/force-mismanagement-afpc-botches-retirements-airmen-caught-crossfire/, then get back to me and let me know if you still think she is making a good decision.
She sounds like an excellent candidate for the military academies! Going there will open a world of possibilities for her she never thought possible. Every year they are rated as among the top universities in the country, but it takes a special kind of person to go there. She sounds like just the type. For sure it us worth at least taking a look. I have a coffee mug on my desk with the cover of the 2009 Forbes Magazine ranking colleges titled “Why West Point Beats Harvard” ranking it as the best in the country. Really gets under the skin of the Harvard folks I work with. Great experience for young women. Heck, I met my wife there :)
Does she speak Spanish, Russian or Mandarin?
How does she look with a shaved head?
Its is really a mixed bag. Try CAP for now see how she does. Excellently? Go for a Service Academy? Successful? Keep Going. Stay ‘normal’ but KYMS. Does she see herself in this Poem? Full Speed Ahead!
If—
BY RUDYARD KIPLING
(‘Brother Square-Toes’—Rewards and Fairies)
If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies,
Or being hated, don’t give way to hating,
And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise:
If you can dream—and not make dreams your master;
If you can think—and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build ’em up with worn-out tools:
If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: ‘Hold on!’
If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with Kings—nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,
And—which is more—you’ll be a Man, my son!
(my apologies for gender-specific text)
Congrats to you and her! Does she have any interest in attending a service academy or is she enlisting out of high school or will she go ROTC in college and join after graduation?
Why?
Do you really think America circa 1984 is the same as America circa 2014?
My daughter was looking at joining a few years back. The navy had some pretty good programs, but the Air Force seemed to be the best fit. Then she met this guy in the Army, and she’s fallen in love. I don’t have the heart to tell her the life expectancy of forward observers in a real fight.
talk her out of it. they are purging out real Christians now. don’t let her join up.
I come from a military family from mom to brothers dad and uncle. I had a chance to go to Annapolis and become a Marine pilot. I still regret not going but my career anyway worked out. She’ll need some long hard thinking and research into what she wants and what branch. I think Air Force first, Navy second, Coast Guard third, Marines and lastly Army.
The military is no place for a woman....
How blessed you are!!!!!
I tried to join the Army when I was 18 - even dressed for the occasion- 4 inch hot pink stilettos, a blue jean mini skirt, Flashdance torn t-shirt and blonde curls cascading past my waist.
I stood in front of the Army recruiter, an ebony black gentleman with gold wire spectacles perched on the end of his nose, who was reading something and didn’t acknowlege me for several minutes. Without moving any other muscle, he raised his eyelids, looked up and barked, “Kin ah hep ya?” I tossed my blonde hair over my shoulder and proudly announced that I was there to join the Army. He flicked his eyes from my shoes to the top of my head, looked back at what he was reading and absentmindedly said, “Little gull, you bettah talk to yo daddy ‘bout dat.”
Thus ended any hopes I had of a military career.
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