Replies

I think what you might refer to is the process of being in the military, going through basic training, etc.

If I had to choose people to belong to a team and get something done, I would choose a 20 year old soldier over any 20 year old college student every time.

That soldier has learned how to be on time.

That soldier has learned how a chain of command works.

That soldier has learned how to work as part of a team and has practical experience.

That soldier has learned how to live and work with people.

That soldier has learned manners. (This is often overlooked, but it is related to learning how to work in a chain of command. For example, I cannot recall seeing a military person being overtly rude to a civilian...without fail, they are courteous to a fault.)

That soldier has learned the value of neatness and order.

That soldier has learned how to make decisions.

Most importantly, that soldier has learned responsibility. Here is an example from my own experience: When I was in the USN, I ended up on my last cruise as a flight deck troubleshooter in an attack squadron (VA-46). We were launching a fairly large strike during an exercise, and one of our planes had some oil dripping from one of its wraparound panels on its belly. I ran over, pulled the panel off, and saw a fitting that was dripping oil. I figured "Ok, this is fixable. I'll just cut the safety wire, tighten the fitting and re-safety wire it." So I begin...after a few minutes, I felt a tap on my shoulder, and saw the shoes of one of the CPO Yellow Shirts behind me. He yelled in my ear "How long are you going to take? The Captain wants to know when he can change course..." I yelled back it would take two minutes, and went right back to safety wiring, was done and had the panel back on in under two minutes (no small feat...there were at least 40 fasteners on that panel that needed to be screwed back in with my speed handle...teamwork helped there!) and I didn't give it a second thought. The plane launched, the carrier and its accompanying ships turned, and on we went.

It was only later that I thought to myself...there I was, a 20 year old Aviation Machinist's Mate doing my job, and probably 10,000 men and Billions of dollars of ships were all heading in one direction waiting for me to finish my work. And they trusted me to do it.

You CANNOT teach that in college.

something to Add to that.

When Viktor Belenko took his MIG 25 to Japan. And came to the US. As he was shown around. He did not believe what he was being shown. He thought it was all a CIA setup for him. (a super-market with no long lines.. ya right)
It was not tell he was taken to a carrier and shown flight op’s that he started to believe what he was being shown and told was true. As he said:

I’ve never seen men work with such proficiency and coordination. They moved so casually, he marveled, without ever being given an order and without anyone shouting at them.
there’s no way you can force men to work like that. They must believe in what there doing.

How many of those 18 year old collage pukes have peoples lives in there hands from the job they do.
Add to that not everyone is setup to be a collage bookworm.
The reason that collage is pushed so. Is it’s a chance for the RATs to get kids away from there parents to fill there heads with mush.

When I got off of active duty I had 24 collage credits just for Navy training I did much less for anything extra.

One of the good lines from the first Rambo movie:

"There I flew helicopters, drove tanks, had equipment worth millions. Here l can't even work parking!"