I took the ASVAB in 1982. Because Reagan was CinC and things were getting back to patriotic then.
I was stoned because I smoked pot every day then. They called me back for a very weird follow up test on language skills - just me and one officer in a room with him playing incomprehensible sounds on a tape player and asking me to make sense out of what I heard.
I guess I passed, because before I knew it, I was at the Defense Language Institute in Monterey learning Russian for 8 hours a day, 5 days a week, for 52 weeks. I ended up at a listening post in Germany for 4 years.
As soon as I was sworn in, in never smoked pot again. And soon we won the Cold War.
Maybe if we had someone like Reagan in charge, we wouldn’t be having these recruiting problems.
Same story as you - pothead slacker to patriot same year and age- but I was motivated by a Vietnam veteran jerking me up at a grocery store over an Army jacket I had on that still had the campaign patches on (I was oblivious about). He made me think hard, recount my blessings and enlist after doing poorly in college anyway. And it was THE glorious era helping Reagan win the Cold War while my fellow soldiers were primarily straight, Christian and patriotic.
Zdrasvuitye brother. I was training in Russian at the same place in 83-84. Still speak and read it well. Actually got to preach in Russian a couple of times.