I watched my dad have to stay in bed day after day because the VA fucked up his meds for millionth time, basically my whole time growing up… Yeah, saw it first hand too.
My condolences and fuck the ghouls who use people like that.
Eustice, who served 26 years in the Minnesota National Guard, noted that young adults were the military's prime target for new recruits—currently Generation Z, or those born after 1997—and argued that growing up in the internet age had made them used to "immediate gratification."
Oh look, another out of touch boomer. ItS tHoSe DaMn CeLlPhOnEs! Gen Z grew up watching America get involved in, then stay involved in, a deeply unpopular war. Gen Z grew up in an age where you can fact check someone on the spot and it makes it that much harder for recruiters to lie. They grew up in an age where half of the government is trying to drag the country backwards by any means.
I am in the military. I overheard my leadership talking with a woman who wanted to get out. When they asked her why she said it was because of the Roe V Wade decision. "Why would I fight for a country that won't fight for me?" I don't blame her.
I have a child who was born in 1999. The other thing men and women of that general age group has heard is “DON’T JOIN THE MILITARY” from their parents, starting at a young age.
Yeah. I was in the military, the Marines in fact. I will tell my two children don’t join the military, especially don’t join the Marines, and if you need to join the Air Force and work on AC units or some shit.
Everyone here suggesting joining the military means you’re going to combat is mistaken. When I was in a combat role, the number we always heard was 10% of people in the military are in combat ops jobs, and 10% of those people see actual combat. The military absolutely offers opportunities to learn a trade for folks who are in a tough spot, and you can make it work for you.
Everyone who says shits fucked now and the country is just billionaires, I’m totally on board. But if you’re some poor kid from Mississippi, being an engine mechanic in the Army might be your best shot at a decent life, and I wouldn’t begrudge anyone that.
A person saying kids don’t want to join the military because they’re too used to “instant gratification” is some of the most obnoxious shit I have ever heard lmao
If someone went up to me and said that, I’d tell them to go fuck themselves and leave, because fuck all of that.
Do you remember when the US Army asked “how has serving impacted you?” on Twitter and the most common answers were PTSD, harassment, rape? Maybe that’s why.
Almost everyone I know that went into the military did it for the experience and to be able to go to college. That was when people believed a college degree would set you up for a stable future. Now that millennials know this isn’t true and we’re not lying to gen Z, they sure as shit don’t believe it either.
The military should add to its incentives. If the military could for example, build you a modest home then I’m sure people would start joining again.
I mean, in a roundabout sort of way, the military does do that. If you’re active duty, you earn an okay salary (compared to other jobs whose entry requirement is a passing GED), but a significant portion of your paycheck is composed of nontaxable benefit payments. For example, BAH or Basic Allowance for Housing. As a junior NCO in a low cost of living state, I was getting nearly a thousand dollars a month specifically to offset housing costs. That afforded me the opportunity to rent a very nice apartment I would not have been able to afford on my salary alone. If I had chosen to rent a cheaper place, or cohabitate with someone, I would have been able to pocket the difference. I also received something like $400 ish for food in the form of the Basic Allowance for Subsistence stipend. Not to mention free healthcare through Tricare. Additionally, most veterans qualify for the VA Home Loan program, in which the government guarantees a portion of your mortgage, which can mean better rates from lenders vs a civilian.
So, while the military isn’t necessarily out here building homes for folks (that being said, I’ve stayed in on base housing before, and most places certainly qualify as modest single family homes), they do provide tools that vets can use to make that a reality.
Does the incentives balance out against the cons of military service? For me, they did. For others, maybe not.
Thanks, yeah I think in service benefits are great but life after the military is always the pain point. The military sometimes has crazy signing bonuses and you get the GI bill as well, I think if the military appealed to people’s life after service more then more people would sign up. Maybe do that in place of the GI bill. Homes are crazy right now because there aren’t enough homes, not so much because they’re expensive to build.
Unless you go with an MOS that you’d like to do after the military, a lot of the time the skills you learn don’t really transfer to civilian life. Young adults don’t usually know what they’d find rewarding and the recruiters can often trick you into some job you didn’t want. I wouldn’t recommend it to most people.
Any country that is a threat to American sovereignty has nukes. We don’t use armies against those countries. Ergo, joining the army is not fighting for your countries freedom. So, asks recruits, what are we fighting for?
They ever heard of “The boy who cried wolf”? You bullshit people enough times about defending the country and other noble causes and they going to stop believing you. It’s been 80 years since the US fought a war that was even remotely plausible as defense.
Why are we going to fight for our country? Because some rednecks are uppity about some orange dumbass? Who are they fighting with? The cops? I don’t see civil war as plausible.
Ukraine isn’t my country. They’re fighting for their country.
My point wasn’t that “fighting for your country” isn’t a thing that happens; my point was that the many fights the United States involved itself in over the last 30+ years…aren’t that.
If there’s one thing I can guarantee is on no Ukrainian soldier’s mind right now, it’s “What will happen to America if we lose?”
A foreign power has invaded their country, and they’re fighting back. Ukraine is on the right side of history here. They don’t need you to grandstand for them.
Is it grand standing if it’s true? There are absolutely Ukrainians who believe they are fighting to stop a modern fascist form invading all of Europe and pressing through to America, the country which led the international response to the invasion and which is Ukraine’s political and economic partner over the past decade. I know they aren’t defending America so to say as fervently as they are defending their home, but they know what is at stake.
AHAHAHHAA well I’ve got some great news for the Ukrainian troops: They can rest a little easier. Ukraine is not defending Western Europe from the Russians. That’s what NATO is for. And seeing how Russia has done against Ukraine…I think we gonna be okay. Notice who Russia very much has not invaded? They know they can’t take the heat so they’ve kept out of the kitchen.
Same reason I would have signed up to fight nazis. Authoritarianism is always worth fighting.
Inb4 someone says “the us army is authoritarian,” as if the inherent hierarchy in an army is in any way equivalent to the violations of civilian rights that actual authoritarian regimes commit
Hostile militaristic dictatorships with unchecked power will eventually be my problem or my children’s problem or their children’s problem, I would like to try to nip the problem in the bud. Of course, if the USA were to invade and conquer Russia right now it would create whole new problems of civil rights and complete lack of representation just like the Pacific Islands and Puerto Rico but at a massive scale, but that’s in my opinion still better than the risk of allowing them to expand and grow in power to the point where nothing can be done to stop them.
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