Posted on 12/30/2005 8:15:40 AM PST by FlatLandBeer
What age did you join the Military and why? What motovate you? Any regrets?
What would advise a young person to do these days?
Hey wheels
I missed this thread when it first because I was on my last deployment before I retired. In December 05 I was off Somalia looking for pirates. How many people can say that?
I signed up in March 1982 in Olympia. I wanted to go Coast Guard but there was a year delayed enlistment at the time and I didn’t want to wait that long. The Navy could take me as a QM in July. Could have left the next day if I had wanted to go as a deck seaman.
I was 20, had started my second year of college and realized I still had no idea why I was there. I joined the Navy for what I figured would be a short break until I decided what I wanted at school. Ended up staying for 24 years.
The good outweighed the bad by a long shot. The camaraderie, the service, the travel was great. I loved being a navigator.
I’ve never thought the military as a career was for everyone, but I’d recommend a single hitch to just about anyone.
...that's a pretty damn unique sentiment, good for you! Sadly, I can go for an hour naming prominent families belonging to my political persuasion who haven't for generations produced a son that thinks that way!
“...avoiding the draft in any way was not a legitimate moral choice.”
Was for me, I proudly tell people I am a draft dodger! I joined the US Navy just before my eighteenth birthday to avoid being drafted into the US Army.
Boot camp at San Diego, electronics school at Treasure Island, one year at Keflavik and a Med cruise on the Saratoga. The Navy did far more for me than I ever did for the Navy.
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