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The most important thing to realize about military service is that you sign away all your citizenship rights (free speech, etc.) when you sign up for the servic

The most important thing to realize about military service is that you sign away all your citizenship rights (free speech, etc.) when you sign up for the service. Hopefully you won't be used in ridiculous debacles like the 2003 Iraq Invasion, based on lies about WMDs pushed by Washington (and see British role as well), but you'll have no say in the matter. The other thing to realize is that, at least in the USA, they'll do everything they can to deny you medical benefits for injuries suffered in basic training, and this will persist after you get out, i.e. Veteran's Administration health care is pretty poor by all accounts. You can't just trust the system to look out for your interests in this area. In addition, the 'educational assistance' is barely enough for a two-year vocational training program, certainly nowhere near enough for a full four-year college degree. It's better than nothing, certainly, but the advertising and the reality have a big disconnect. If you're a teenage with zero alternative options and are completely desperate for a way out of an urban slum nightmare or a poverty-stricken rural life, the military is there as an option. I was once in a similar situation but I rejected military service because I'd heard too many Vietnam vets tell horror stories about how they'd been treated by the military. It wasn't much better for those who had to serve more recently in Afghanistan and Iraq, for equivalently dubious reasons.

dawsmik 5y ago
I think there is some incorrect information in this post. I know people who have completed their Bachelors and Masters completely funded by the GI Bill, including living expenses. In the experience of the people I know, the VA goes out of their way to give benefits as needed. One case, in particular, they were granted 100% disability for life with a packet submission and one phone call.
- scottshamus 5y ago
  Agreed. Even if your GI bill doesn’t technically cover all of your expenses, many schools have Yellow Ribbon Programs that waive any excess cost https://www.va.gov/education/about-gi-bill-benefits/post-9-11/yellow-ribbon-program/ https://www.va.gov/education/about-gi-bill-benefits/post-9-1...
- photochemsyn 5y ago
  The details matter. A lot of people sign up for a two-year active duty contract (it's an eight-year contract in all though, you're in the reserves afterwards). That only gives 70-80% of the benefit (which only runs for a max of 36 months, not a full four years). You're also restricted to in-state public schools, no private (Ivy League etc.) or out-of-home-state schools. Most of the military people I talked to at my local community college barely got two years of schooling out of it. https://www.va.gov/resources/how-we-determine-your-percentage-of-post-911-gi-bill-benefits/ https://www.va.gov/resources/how-we-determine-your-percentag...
  - nightski 5y ago
    The link you posted says 100% of benefits which is either all tuition at an in-state school or up to $26k/year at a private of foreign school. $26k a year is a lot... You also get 100% of the benefit if you served for 36 months. That is a far cry from what you described.
  - LanceH 5y ago
    The GI Bill is not at all limited to in state public schools.
  - dlp211 5y ago
    As others have noted, a lot of what you wrote is wrong. The Post 9/11 GI Bill will cover any tuition up to the maximum in-state university. You also do not have to return your Home of Record and can declare citizenship in any state post service and receive in-state tuition (you will of course need to meet the states requirement for citizenship). Also, many universities (private and public out-of-state) have the Yellow Ribbon program that will cover gaps between what the government provides and the university's costs. Finally, the Post 9/11 GI Bill also provides BAH based on your universities location which can be quite substantial. I used the Post 9/11 GI Bill to get my degrees in CS and ECE. If I was single, the money from the program would have more than covered me.
    - bladegash 5y ago
      Yep, same here - GI bill + yellow ribbon paid for me to go to a very expensive private university in DC. Also gave me an additional $2500 a month in BAH while I attended.
- ericmay 5y ago
  Yep! I had my entire undergraduate degree and my MBA (for a couple of semesters) paid for. While I’m undergrad I also got BAH which was around $1,000/month in Southeast Ohio. Not to mention full Pell Grants. I used every cent of my GI Bill.
soared 5y ago
Thank you for the post. I had friends in college who were previously marines, but their entire school was paid for along with something to the effect of “Anything you need to achieve the career you want, within reason”. New laptops, writing easels, etc. Are there varying levels of educational assistance?
- trackone 5y ago
  My experience is a bit old (2008 ish) so things might have changes. I had the GI Bill. I submitted paper work each month that showed I was taking a certain number of credits towards my degree to the VA dept at the school. Money was deposited into my bank account a couple weeks later. I could use that money for anything I wanted. Sounds like this is what your friends had/have. There are other programs such as paying off student loans when you join up, but I am not familiar with them.
- LanceH 5y ago
  There are varying levels of accuracy in his post. For the GI Bill, I put in $1200 ($100/month for the first year), and I while enrolled at an accredited university I was paid $400/month. I could use that however I wanted. Early 90's, that didn't come close to paying for much, but it was certainly something. I was in the Marines, however. The Army, Navy and Air Force had matching funds and paid a lot more (like triple). This may have all changed or become consolidated. I've also been through the VA for something and it's very much a government bureaucracy. If you have things documented it will run smoother, and it may run slow at times, but there is certainly no policy of denying everything. The poster above just has an axe to grind and isn't concerned with reality.
  - brandmeyer 5y ago
    It changed a ton. Over the late 90's (ie, in my day) the per-month payments were increased up to a little over 1k. The Post-9/11 GI Bill is structured very differently and is far more generous: Tuition + BAH. There's a ton of fine print around the tuition part, but in practice it really does fully cover tuition just about everywhere in the US.
ge96 5y ago
> If you're a teenage with zero alternative options and are completely desperate for a way out of an urban slum nightmare or a poverty-stricken rural life, the military is there as an option. yeah... I was in DEP for Marines felt like an ahole when I didn't follow through/returned to school. I was desperate to escape my life situation but I had to wait a while before going to bootcamp. I made a dumb choice with what I was going to do, despite getting 90's in ASVAB. I was going to drive trucks. I felt bad for the people that wanted to get into the military but could not pass the ASVAB or they had a medical condition. My education was funded with student loans/aid but I was able to leave my home. Edit: in retrospect if I didn't go into school (debt) I could have just lived off labor jobs... It was the piling up debt from school that was freaking me out because I was also failing out of it (low 2.0's GPA). Idk if I would have ended up in tech/make the 3-4x labor wage (medium-level dev).
qgin 5y ago
https://news.gallup.com/poll/186527/americans-government-health-plans-satisfied.aspx https://news.gallup.com/poll/186527/americans-government-hea... > Americans' satisfaction with the way the healthcare system works for them varies by the type of insurance they have. Satisfaction is highest among those with veterans or military health insurance…
- scottlamb 5y ago
  > Americans' satisfaction with the way the healthcare system works for them varies by the type of insurance they have. Satisfaction is highest among those with veterans or military health insurance… Sounds about right to me. The VA health care system has problems [1] but on the whole doesn't seem worse than the rest of the US healthcare system, maybe better. Anecdote: when my dad retired, my parents lost their insurance through his work, and my mom wasn't eligible for Medicare yet. They looked around at individual insurance options, which were horrible. My mom ended up using her VA benefits and was very glad to have them. The VA has treated my parents quite well, although the VA doesn't seem used to having a lot of female patients my mom's age. [1] https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/veterans-affairs-backlog-files-were-stacked-so-high-they-posed-a-safety-risk-to-va-staff-1 https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/veterans-affairs-backlog...
  - sdoering 5y ago
    Wow. I am always stunned reading accounts like this. I can't imagine living in a country where you loose health care when loosing a job or going into retirement. I have to admit reading posts like yours makes me realize how lucky I feel with the German system. And yes. I am well aware of the monthly costs that brings in terms of around 14% of my salary for health insurance. And of the limitations. But to me this still sounds better than the risk of loosing everything due to an accident. I am glad your parents found a way with your mom's benefits.
    - scottlamb 5y ago
      It's a terrible system, and it was more terrible before Obamacare. In general when someone retires they're old enough to be eligible for Medicare (government-sponsored health care). My dad was. But my mom was just enough younger that she wasn't eligible for Medicare when he retired. There were (and still are) all kinds of weird gaps like this.
2OEH8eoCRo0 5y ago
> at least in the USA, they'll do everything they can to deny you medical benefits for injuries suffered in basic training Explain this please. Are you a veteran? I am and this doesn't correspond with my experience.
goodpoint 5y ago
> you sign away all your citizenship rights > completely desperate ... the military is there as an option This does not happen by accident. It's practically indentured servitude with extra steps Step 1: cut public schooling, food programs, job programs, affordable housing, public transportation, free healthcare Step 2: fund the army to recruit a lot of people. Provide schooling, housing, food and healthcare to soldiers.
- cscurmudgeon 5y ago
  False. The US spends a lot on public education. A lot of it is inefficient due to highly politicized unions and top-level admins that pilfer the money out from benefitting ground level teachers and students. https://www.manhattan-institute.org/issues-2020-us-public-school-spending-teachers-pay https://www.manhattan-institute.org/issues-2020-us-public-sc... > 1. Thanks to decades of increases, America spends more per student than any other major developed nation. U.S. per-pupil expenditures have nearly tripled over the past half-century, from $4,720 in 1966 to $13,847 in 2016 (2018 dollars). America spends more per pupil than any other major developed nation—10% more than the United Kingdom and 28% more than France; in the OECD, only Norway, Switzerland, and Luxembourg spend more. Per Pupil Nearly Highest in the World and in History The U.S. spends 35% more per pupil than the average among countries in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).[7] Among those countries, the U.S. falls behind only Denmark, Norway, and Luxembourg.[8] In 2015, the latest year for which OECD data are available, combined primary and secondary spending in the U.S. reached $12,800, significantly higher than other major European nations such as the United Kingdom ($11,400), Germany ($11,100), France ($10,000), Italy ($9,100), and Spain ($8,300). Similarly, we spend a lot on other social programs. But inefficiently. This is due to both governmental inefficieny and rent seeking.
  - goodpoint 5y ago
    I listed 6 aspects and you cherry-picked two. Plus, your reply is besides the point.
    - cscurmudgeon 5y ago
RobRivera 5y ago
uhm, having been active duty for 10 years...i disagree.
sokoloff 5y ago
There are limits to your ability to take leadership roles in political parties and to make political statements while in uniform or where there could be reasonable confusion about whether your activity is as a private citizen or as a member of the military. That is a far cry from “sign[ing] away all your citizenship rights (free speech, etc.).”
- totoglazer 5y ago
  There are currently serving members of congress…
starwind 5y ago
> they'll do everything they can to deny you medical benefits for injuries suffered in basic training I know of a guy who got run over by a speeding MP during Basic and had his leg broken in like 3 places. The guy who got run over got a medical discharge, and now gets a full pension and Tricare
- mcguire 5y ago
  Every vet I know about has some disability payments. (Part of that may speak to a lack of safety culture, but they don't fight too hard to prevent anyone from getting them.)
jriot 5y ago
I served in the military for 11 years as an air traffic controller; 95% military jobs are non-combat related. Moreover, the military does more than fight wars, we launched aircraft to aid Indonesia after the tsunami hit them, Haiti after the earthquake hit them, Antartica for scientific research, etc... Additionally, the military completely paid for my bachelors and two masters degrees and I am now employed as a data scientist for a cyber-security company. I still have GI Bill benefits if I want to pursue further eduction.
- 2OEH8eoCRo0 5y ago
  I got my humanitarian ribbon by rendering assistance in Indonesia.
Tacos4me 5y ago
There is so much misinformation in this post is appalling. Plenty of responses have pointed out some but I will just say this: I know several people that have received masters degrees while serving
dogman144 5y ago
UCMJ is pretty clear re: the free speech angle and all points in that direction. UCMJ != the Constitution and Bill of Rights. Always blows my mind when people complain about this aspect.
- mcguire 5y ago
  The last I heard, there was a US destroyer undeployable because the Captain refused to get vaccinated and (so far) has successfully sued to prevent his being transferred to another position.
mcguire 5y ago
https://www.military.com/education/gi-bill/new-post-911-gi-bill-overview.html https://www.military.com/education/gi-bill/new-post-911-gi-b... "The GI Bill can pay up to the full resident tuition at any public school, if you are qualified to receive benefits at the 100% rate based on your active service shown above. If you are attending a private or foreign school, the VA will pay you an annual maximum of $26,042.81, that amount increases to $26,381.37 on Aug. 1, 2022."
yodsanklai 5y ago
> I'd heard too many Vietnam vets tell horror stories about how they'd been treated by the military. Not forgetting horror stories about what they did to Vietnamese, Afghans or Iraqis...
Diesel555 5y ago
As I read this post I kept thinking you had a rough time in service. This doesn’t match my experience at all. Then I saw at the end you didn’t serve, made assumptions based on stories, and had an axe to grind. > The most important thing to realize about military service is that you sign away all your citizenship rights (free speech, etc.) when you sign up for the service. False. I can say the same things as any citizen outside of my uniform. I am a US citizen with rights. I signed away no such rights. > The other thing to realize is that, at least in the USA, they'll do everything they can to deny you medical benefits for injuries suffered in basic training, and this will persist after you get out False. I have had access to every medical care I’ve needed, for free, for myself and family. This includes four major surgeries. I can go to an ER for free any time we have an issue. Zero stresses over medical expenses here. > the 'educational assistance' is barely enough for a two-year vocational training program, certainly nowhere near enough for a full four-year college degree. False. The military completely paid for my undergrad and masters at a high quality university (50k+/yr). Zero loans. They subsidized a second masters in software engineering. After all this I still have my full GI bill that I can use for myself or pass off to my kids for their undergrad. > If you're a teenage with zero alternative options and are completely desperate for a way out of an urban slum nightmare or a poverty-stricken rural life, the military is there as an option. Or if you wanted to serve with every opportunity in the world in front of you, the military is an option.
- throwaway675309 5y ago
  He's not totally wrong. If you enlist in the army and later during your service they tap you for a conflict which you have ideological differences with, YOU ARE GOING irrespective of your convictions... unless you want a military tribunal and possible jail time.
  - Diesel555 5y ago
    > they tap you for a conflict which you have ideological differences with, YOU ARE GOING irrespective of your convictions Your statement is not entirely true, it is not irrespective of convictions. A conscientious objector is defined as either: A member who, by reason of conscientious objection, sincerely objects to participation in military service of any kind in war in any form. or A member who, by reason of conscientious objection, sincerely objects to participation as a combatant in war in any form, but whose convictions are such as to permit military service in a noncombatant status. Also referred to as noncombatant duties or noncombatant service. Yes there is an application which can be denied. Here is a GAO report on the rates of that. In an all volunteer force the numbers requested are pretty small. Text version: https://www.gao.gov/assets/a267698.html https://www.gao.gov/assets/a267698.html PDF version: https://www.gao.gov/assets/gao-07-1196.pdf https://www.gao.gov/assets/gao-07-1196.pdf
Cabal 5y ago
None of this matches my experience serving, but it turns out this person didn't serve at all and is just trolling. Sad, man.
the__alchemist 5y ago
This reads like one of the perspectives other comments here lament, ie about Americans disconnected from the miilitary, and not having a clue what it's like.
mbrameld 5y ago
> In addition, the 'educational assistance' is barely enough for a two-year vocational training program, certainly nowhere near enough for a full four-year college degree. It's better than nothing, certainly, but the advertising and the reality have a big disconnect. Could you expand on this, please? My experience was different so I'm curious about what you actually know.
aethros 5y ago
> In addition, the 'educational assistance' is barely enough for a two-year vocational training program, certainly nowhere near enough for a full four-year college degree. It's better than nothing, certainly, but the advertising and the reality have a big disconnect. This is entirely false. I served my commitment on active duty and then went to college using the Post-911 GI Bill. I got 9 semesters (4.5 yrs) paid for with housing allowance as well. I dropped out of school before I joined the military, and had $10k in student loan debt with nothing to show for it. After serving, I graduated with a CS degree, and a job lined up as a software engineer. I am truly grateful the opportunities I was afforded through my service.

dawsmik 5y ago

I think there is some incorrect information in this post. I know people who have completed their Bachelors and Masters completely funded by the GI Bill, including living expenses. In the experience of the people I know, the VA goes out of their way to give benefits as needed. One case, in particular, they were granted 100% disability for life with a packet submission and one phone call.

scottshamus 5y ago
Agreed. Even if your GI bill doesn’t technically cover all of your expenses, many schools have Yellow Ribbon Programs that waive any excess cost https://www.va.gov/education/about-gi-bill-benefits/post-9-11/yellow-ribbon-program/ https://www.va.gov/education/about-gi-bill-benefits/post-9-1...
photochemsyn 5y ago
The details matter. A lot of people sign up for a two-year active duty contract (it's an eight-year contract in all though, you're in the reserves afterwards). That only gives 70-80% of the benefit (which only runs for a max of 36 months, not a full four years). You're also restricted to in-state public schools, no private (Ivy League etc.) or out-of-home-state schools. Most of the military people I talked to at my local community college barely got two years of schooling out of it. https://www.va.gov/resources/how-we-determine-your-percentage-of-post-911-gi-bill-benefits/ https://www.va.gov/resources/how-we-determine-your-percentag...
- nightski 5y ago
  The link you posted says 100% of benefits which is either all tuition at an in-state school or up to $26k/year at a private of foreign school. $26k a year is a lot... You also get 100% of the benefit if you served for 36 months. That is a far cry from what you described.
- LanceH 5y ago
  The GI Bill is not at all limited to in state public schools.
- dlp211 5y ago
  As others have noted, a lot of what you wrote is wrong. The Post 9/11 GI Bill will cover any tuition up to the maximum in-state university. You also do not have to return your Home of Record and can declare citizenship in any state post service and receive in-state tuition (you will of course need to meet the states requirement for citizenship). Also, many universities (private and public out-of-state) have the Yellow Ribbon program that will cover gaps between what the government provides and the university's costs. Finally, the Post 9/11 GI Bill also provides BAH based on your universities location which can be quite substantial. I used the Post 9/11 GI Bill to get my degrees in CS and ECE. If I was single, the money from the program would have more than covered me.
  - bladegash 5y ago
    Yep, same here - GI bill + yellow ribbon paid for me to go to a very expensive private university in DC. Also gave me an additional $2500 a month in BAH while I attended.
ericmay 5y ago
Yep! I had my entire undergraduate degree and my MBA (for a couple of semesters) paid for. While I’m undergrad I also got BAH which was around $1,000/month in Southeast Ohio. Not to mention full Pell Grants. I used every cent of my GI Bill.

soared 5y ago

Thank you for the post. I had friends in college who were previously marines, but their entire school was paid for along with something to the effect of “Anything you need to achieve the career you want, within reason”. New laptops, writing easels, etc. Are there varying levels of educational assistance?

trackone 5y ago
My experience is a bit old (2008 ish) so things might have changes. I had the GI Bill. I submitted paper work each month that showed I was taking a certain number of credits towards my degree to the VA dept at the school. Money was deposited into my bank account a couple weeks later. I could use that money for anything I wanted. Sounds like this is what your friends had/have. There are other programs such as paying off student loans when you join up, but I am not familiar with them.
LanceH 5y ago
There are varying levels of accuracy in his post. For the GI Bill, I put in $1200 ($100/month for the first year), and I while enrolled at an accredited university I was paid $400/month. I could use that however I wanted. Early 90's, that didn't come close to paying for much, but it was certainly something. I was in the Marines, however. The Army, Navy and Air Force had matching funds and paid a lot more (like triple). This may have all changed or become consolidated. I've also been through the VA for something and it's very much a government bureaucracy. If you have things documented it will run smoother, and it may run slow at times, but there is certainly no policy of denying everything. The poster above just has an axe to grind and isn't concerned with reality.
- brandmeyer 5y ago
  It changed a ton. Over the late 90's (ie, in my day) the per-month payments were increased up to a little over 1k. The Post-9/11 GI Bill is structured very differently and is far more generous: Tuition + BAH. There's a ton of fine print around the tuition part, but in practice it really does fully cover tuition just about everywhere in the US.

ge96 5y ago

> If you're a teenage with zero alternative options and are completely desperate for a way out of an urban slum nightmare or a poverty-stricken rural life, the military is there as an option. yeah... I was in DEP for Marines felt like an ahole when I didn't follow through/returned to school. I was desperate to escape my life situation but I had to wait a while before going to bootcamp. I made a dumb choice with what I was going to do, despite getting 90's in ASVAB. I was going to drive trucks. I felt bad for the people that wanted to get into the military but could not pass the ASVAB or they had a medical condition. My education was funded with student loans/aid but I was able to leave my home. Edit: in retrospect if I didn't go into school (debt) I could have just lived off labor jobs... It was the piling up debt from school that was freaking me out because I was also failing out of it (low 2.0's GPA). Idk if I would have ended up in tech/make the 3-4x labor wage (medium-level dev).

qgin 5y ago

https://news.gallup.com/poll/186527/americans-government-health-plans-satisfied.aspx https://news.gallup.com/poll/186527/americans-government-hea... > Americans' satisfaction with the way the healthcare system works for them varies by the type of insurance they have. Satisfaction is highest among those with veterans or military health insurance…

scottlamb 5y ago
> Americans' satisfaction with the way the healthcare system works for them varies by the type of insurance they have. Satisfaction is highest among those with veterans or military health insurance… Sounds about right to me. The VA health care system has problems [1] but on the whole doesn't seem worse than the rest of the US healthcare system, maybe better. Anecdote: when my dad retired, my parents lost their insurance through his work, and my mom wasn't eligible for Medicare yet. They looked around at individual insurance options, which were horrible. My mom ended up using her VA benefits and was very glad to have them. The VA has treated my parents quite well, although the VA doesn't seem used to having a lot of female patients my mom's age. [1] https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/veterans-affairs-backlog-files-were-stacked-so-high-they-posed-a-safety-risk-to-va-staff-1 https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/veterans-affairs-backlog...
- sdoering 5y ago
  Wow. I am always stunned reading accounts like this. I can't imagine living in a country where you loose health care when loosing a job or going into retirement. I have to admit reading posts like yours makes me realize how lucky I feel with the German system. And yes. I am well aware of the monthly costs that brings in terms of around 14% of my salary for health insurance. And of the limitations. But to me this still sounds better than the risk of loosing everything due to an accident. I am glad your parents found a way with your mom's benefits.
  - scottlamb 5y ago
    It's a terrible system, and it was more terrible before Obamacare. In general when someone retires they're old enough to be eligible for Medicare (government-sponsored health care). My dad was. But my mom was just enough younger that she wasn't eligible for Medicare when he retired. There were (and still are) all kinds of weird gaps like this.

2OEH8eoCRo0 5y ago

> at least in the USA, they'll do everything they can to deny you medical benefits for injuries suffered in basic training Explain this please. Are you a veteran? I am and this doesn't correspond with my experience.

goodpoint 5y ago

> you sign away all your citizenship rights > completely desperate ... the military is there as an option This does not happen by accident. It's practically indentured servitude with extra steps Step 1: cut public schooling, food programs, job programs, affordable housing, public transportation, free healthcare Step 2: fund the army to recruit a lot of people. Provide schooling, housing, food and healthcare to soldiers.

cscurmudgeon 5y ago
False. The US spends a lot on public education. A lot of it is inefficient due to highly politicized unions and top-level admins that pilfer the money out from benefitting ground level teachers and students. https://www.manhattan-institute.org/issues-2020-us-public-school-spending-teachers-pay https://www.manhattan-institute.org/issues-2020-us-public-sc... > 1. Thanks to decades of increases, America spends more per student than any other major developed nation. U.S. per-pupil expenditures have nearly tripled over the past half-century, from $4,720 in 1966 to $13,847 in 2016 (2018 dollars). America spends more per pupil than any other major developed nation—10% more than the United Kingdom and 28% more than France; in the OECD, only Norway, Switzerland, and Luxembourg spend more. Per Pupil Nearly Highest in the World and in History The U.S. spends 35% more per pupil than the average among countries in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).[7] Among those countries, the U.S. falls behind only Denmark, Norway, and Luxembourg.[8] In 2015, the latest year for which OECD data are available, combined primary and secondary spending in the U.S. reached $12,800, significantly higher than other major European nations such as the United Kingdom ($11,400), Germany ($11,100), France ($10,000), Italy ($9,100), and Spain ($8,300). Similarly, we spend a lot on other social programs. But inefficiently. This is due to both governmental inefficieny and rent seeking.
- goodpoint 5y ago
  I listed 6 aspects and you cherry-picked two. Plus, your reply is besides the point.
  - cscurmudgeon 5y ago

RobRivera 5y ago

uhm, having been active duty for 10 years...i disagree.

sokoloff 5y ago

There are limits to your ability to take leadership roles in political parties and to make political statements while in uniform or where there could be reasonable confusion about whether your activity is as a private citizen or as a member of the military. That is a far cry from “sign[ing] away all your citizenship rights (free speech, etc.).”

totoglazer 5y ago
There are currently serving members of congress…

starwind 5y ago

> they'll do everything they can to deny you medical benefits for injuries suffered in basic training I know of a guy who got run over by a speeding MP during Basic and had his leg broken in like 3 places. The guy who got run over got a medical discharge, and now gets a full pension and Tricare

mcguire 5y ago
Every vet I know about has some disability payments. (Part of that may speak to a lack of safety culture, but they don't fight too hard to prevent anyone from getting them.)

jriot 5y ago

I served in the military for 11 years as an air traffic controller; 95% military jobs are non-combat related. Moreover, the military does more than fight wars, we launched aircraft to aid Indonesia after the tsunami hit them, Haiti after the earthquake hit them, Antartica for scientific research, etc... Additionally, the military completely paid for my bachelors and two masters degrees and I am now employed as a data scientist for a cyber-security company. I still have GI Bill benefits if I want to pursue further eduction.

2OEH8eoCRo0 5y ago
I got my humanitarian ribbon by rendering assistance in Indonesia.

Tacos4me 5y ago

There is so much misinformation in this post is appalling. Plenty of responses have pointed out some but I will just say this: I know several people that have received masters degrees while serving

dogman144 5y ago

UCMJ is pretty clear re: the free speech angle and all points in that direction. UCMJ != the Constitution and Bill of Rights. Always blows my mind when people complain about this aspect.

mcguire 5y ago
The last I heard, there was a US destroyer undeployable because the Captain refused to get vaccinated and (so far) has successfully sued to prevent his being transferred to another position.

mcguire 5y ago

https://www.military.com/education/gi-bill/new-post-911-gi-bill-overview.html https://www.military.com/education/gi-bill/new-post-911-gi-b... "The GI Bill can pay up to the full resident tuition at any public school, if you are qualified to receive benefits at the 100% rate based on your active service shown above. If you are attending a private or foreign school, the VA will pay you an annual maximum of $26,042.81, that amount increases to $26,381.37 on Aug. 1, 2022."

yodsanklai 5y ago

> I'd heard too many Vietnam vets tell horror stories about how they'd been treated by the military. Not forgetting horror stories about what they did to Vietnamese, Afghans or Iraqis...

Diesel555 5y ago

As I read this post I kept thinking you had a rough time in service. This doesn’t match my experience at all. Then I saw at the end you didn’t serve, made assumptions based on stories, and had an axe to grind. > The most important thing to realize about military service is that you sign away all your citizenship rights (free speech, etc.) when you sign up for the service. False. I can say the same things as any citizen outside of my uniform. I am a US citizen with rights. I signed away no such rights. > The other thing to realize is that, at least in the USA, they'll do everything they can to deny you medical benefits for injuries suffered in basic training, and this will persist after you get out False. I have had access to every medical care I’ve needed, for free, for myself and family. This includes four major surgeries. I can go to an ER for free any time we have an issue. Zero stresses over medical expenses here. > the 'educational assistance' is barely enough for a two-year vocational training program, certainly nowhere near enough for a full four-year college degree. False. The military completely paid for my undergrad and masters at a high quality university (50k+/yr). Zero loans. They subsidized a second masters in software engineering. After all this I still have my full GI bill that I can use for myself or pass off to my kids for their undergrad. > If you're a teenage with zero alternative options and are completely desperate for a way out of an urban slum nightmare or a poverty-stricken rural life, the military is there as an option. Or if you wanted to serve with every opportunity in the world in front of you, the military is an option.

throwaway675309 5y ago
He's not totally wrong. If you enlist in the army and later during your service they tap you for a conflict which you have ideological differences with, YOU ARE GOING irrespective of your convictions... unless you want a military tribunal and possible jail time.
- Diesel555 5y ago
  > they tap you for a conflict which you have ideological differences with, YOU ARE GOING irrespective of your convictions Your statement is not entirely true, it is not irrespective of convictions. A conscientious objector is defined as either: A member who, by reason of conscientious objection, sincerely objects to participation in military service of any kind in war in any form. or A member who, by reason of conscientious objection, sincerely objects to participation as a combatant in war in any form, but whose convictions are such as to permit military service in a noncombatant status. Also referred to as noncombatant duties or noncombatant service. Yes there is an application which can be denied. Here is a GAO report on the rates of that. In an all volunteer force the numbers requested are pretty small. Text version: https://www.gao.gov/assets/a267698.html https://www.gao.gov/assets/a267698.html PDF version: https://www.gao.gov/assets/gao-07-1196.pdf https://www.gao.gov/assets/gao-07-1196.pdf

Cabal 5y ago

None of this matches my experience serving, but it turns out this person didn't serve at all and is just trolling. Sad, man.

the__alchemist 5y ago

This reads like one of the perspectives other comments here lament, ie about Americans disconnected from the miilitary, and not having a clue what it's like.

mbrameld 5y ago

aethros 5y ago

> In addition, the 'educational assistance' is barely enough for a two-year vocational training program, certainly nowhere near enough for a full four-year college degree. It's better than nothing, certainly, but the advertising and the reality have a big disconnect. This is entirely false. I served my commitment on active duty and then went to college using the Post-911 GI Bill. I got 9 semesters (4.5 yrs) paid for with housing allowance as well. I dropped out of school before I joined the military, and had $10k in student loan debt with nothing to show for it. After serving, I graduated with a CS degree, and a job lined up as a software engineer. I am truly grateful the opportunities I was afforded through my service.