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Every branch of U.S. military struggling to meet its recruiting goals

31 points by MuchoMaas 4y ago

jleyank 4y ago
Being enlisted in the armed forces is a hard go, what with little pay and stability. Being an officer is better but that requires time/OCS or college. Once through college, there's way more lucrative ways of going than military. Yeah, there's a tradition in some families and they continue to serve. But the military is seen as more a right-wing activity, and of late, there's a chance you'll have to actually do what you're trained to do... I remember when Desert Shield was spinning up and pretty much all med-tech people who had taken the King's Shilling were being called up. They complained about possible career impact but they were reminded about contracts, etc. The world's a little unstable at the moment and that has to be off-putting. And the stories out of the Afghan and Middle-Eastern campaigns were probably off-putting as well.
- mikece 4y ago
  Being an officer in the military is also a hard go unless you like being a politician with a gun. Gone are the days when mere ability and talent as a leader would get you to O-6 and beyond; now you're lucky to make O-4 if you aren't playing politics more than being a warrior/sailor/etc. This is why so many good officers get out after one tour: they see who is left above them on the ladder and what those people did to get there and they would rather apply their talents in civilian life.
  - jleyank 4y ago
    Not surprising. I would imagine that if the number of officers needed is shrinking it's a pretty bad environment for survival. There's a need for good people everywhere, and people will naturally gravitate to more gain, less pain.
    - mikece 4y ago
      I don't think it's a path-of-least resistance attitude but more "I would rather not give my all and not be passed over because I'm not into ass-kissing and other BS." I realize the civilian world is full of this as well but at least here we have the option of starting up our own thing and running with that.
  - michael1999 4y ago
    Can you make a full pension lingering at O-4, or would you be forced out for non-advancement?
  - deleted 4y ago
    [deleted]
car_analogy 4y ago
What would motivate one to join, besides pure material gain? Who still thinks the US military protects their interests? The left considers it a tool of imperialism, and the right sees it as openly hostile to them. They're both correct.
- bell-cot 4y ago
  Patriotic feelings or values? (Admitting that both the left- and right-wing sides of America's culture wars have been doing their best to stamp those out for quite a while now. Ditto the "Greed is the One and Only God" capitalists.)
  - car_analogy 4y ago
    > Patriotic feelings or values? But that's exactly my point. Few people believe the military advances those values. Edit: To clarify, when I wrote "their interests", I meant including collective interests, i.e. those of the group or nation, whose defense is usually lumped under "patriotism".
  - croes 4y ago
    "Patriotism is the virtue of the vicious"
- pjc50 4y ago
  > the right sees it as openly hostile to them This seems surprising given how much I associate all the "support our troops" rhetoric with the right. And actual military funding, although that's more a function of campaign contributions from defense contractors and otherwise unprofitable states.
  - quantified 4y ago
    Rhetoric is one thing, actual treatment is another.
  - car_analogy 4y ago
    > This seems surprising given how much I associate all the "support our troops" rhetoric with the right. Yes, the right does support the military more than the left. But they're starting to realize this support is one-sided. The number of people on the right that still believe bombing the middle east is vital to America's security is shrinking [1], while at the same time the military is demonizing its support base with training calling whites inherently evil [2]. [1] Trump to West Point grads: 'We are ending the era of endless wars' - https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-wars-idUSKBN23K0PR https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-wars-idUSKBN23K... - While he did try to start a war by assassinating Soleimani, his boasting is proof that ending foreign wars is gaining popularity on the right. [2] https://nypost.com/2021/05/17/ex-space-force-commander-dod-videos-claimed-white-people-evil/ https://nypost.com/2021/05/17/ex-space-force-commander-dod-v...
mensetmanusman 4y ago
Fewer Americans think the country is worth saving: https://amp.miamiherald.com/opinion/op-ed/article259392144.html https://amp.miamiherald.com/opinion/op-ed/article259392144.h... I wonder if there is some critical mass of integrated differences wherein tribalism re-nucleates and the sub-groups abandon the larger umbrella. This, combined with fertility rates and population level mental health all point to an empire in decline. I would give it 1-200 years before collapse, all empires have.
- shakezula 4y ago
  > some critical mass of integrated differences wherein tribalism re-nucleates and the sub-groups abandon the larger umbrella. To me this sounds exactly like the current tension between federal and states rights in America.
- rnk 4y ago
  1-200 year for collapse is not really very specific. I'd give any country on earth 1-200 years for them to collapse.
  - dron57 4y ago
    America is arguably the oldest political system today. Being ~250 years old makes it an extreme outlier. The median life of a political system/regime is much lower, so saying up to 200 years from now is a pretty safe confidence interval for any country.
    - Thev00d00 4y ago
      If we mean by that, 'Which country has ensured that all adult citizens regardless of sex, race, or ethnicity, may choose reprentatives to exercise the powers of government longest?', then the answer is New Zealand. Universal adult suffrage was first established there in 1893.
      - mensetmanusman 4y ago
        Not for the Māori, maybe some day… https://www.wilpf.org/racial-discrimination-in-new-zealand-maori-at-the-heart-of-the-debate/ https://www.wilpf.org/racial-discrimination-in-new-zealand-m...
Proven 4y ago
bdavid21wnec 4y ago
Why do you think Roe v Wade was over turned. This is my favorite theory yet and just might be true. Will never know of course, but does make sense
- thfuran 4y ago
  You think the military is secretly running the Supreme Court? At least that's probably below "the moon is a hologram" in the hierarchy of conspiracy theory insanity.
  - pibechorro 4y ago
    While i don't think its the case here. If you look where politicians rubber stamp our wealth, its all war and empire. They certainly have influence in everything.
- dangus 4y ago
  Rather than don our tinfoil hats, let's instead apply Occam's razor. The Supreme Court is packed with Catholics. Amy Coney Barrett, Brett Kavanaugh, Samuel Alito, Clarence Thomas, and even one coming in with a dissenting vote (Sonia Sotomayor). Abortion is a wedge issue that drives Republicans to polls. It's as simple as that. The GOP is unconcerned about the consequences of this policy. It's only there to get GOP voters to the polls. Roe V. Wade being overturned also has nothing to do with the viewpoints of any particular party or individual Supreme Court justice changing. The GOP has been anti-abortion for about as long as I can remember. The difference here is that the GOP got three Supreme Court picks in one 4-year presidential term, swinging the court rapidly toward the right. This is the GOP exercising its newfound power to achieve its long-stated, consistent goal. There are much more effective ways to boost military enlistment than banning abortion and waiting 18 years.
  - MandieD 4y ago
    Banning abortion will put a lot of already/nearly adult people into rougher financial situations - the kind of rougher financial situations that might make the military a somewhat more attractive employer.
luxuryballs 4y ago
Maybe if they stopped requiring spike protein generating mRNA injections…
- jleyank 4y ago
  There are several alternate vaccines that don’t use mRNA. The military needs its people to answer then call when it occurs hence lots of vax. And they’ll probably face weirder situations than normal people if the stuffs really from a lab.
- kilroy123 4y ago
  You're being down voted but this is indeed part of the issue. Many in the military are against getting the COVID vaccine and are pissed they were forced to do it.
  - croes 4y ago
    Strange if you think about all the other mandatory vaccines they got.
    - Bender 4y ago
      Unpopular opinion but I don't think its strange and I say this as someone that received vaccinations in the military. The existing vaccines are well tested, have known side effects and interactions. The nCoV vaccines were tested in real time on people and continue to produce proteins 60+ days after injections. [1] The public are not allowed to discuss the topic and any company offering alternatives are shunned. I personally see this entire debacle as some people watched V for Vendetta too many times and saw dollar signs. This routine was basically identical to the fictional 3-waters + viadoxin. [2] [1] - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hOxu09_JHpQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hOxu09_JHpQ [video] [2] - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jrfm7y5nL30 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jrfm7y5nL30 [video]
      - bloppe 4y ago
        "The public are not allowed to discuss the topic" and yet here we are... That video is a master class of truth twisting and lying by omission. Yes, the testing was accelerated by many factors, including massive guaranteed funding, intense competition, huge trial participant interest, the prior 10 years of research related to mRNA antigen delivery, including developing a more efficient regulatory framework for such drugs, but not lack of thoroughness.
midislack 4y ago
Nobody wants to fight Russia in the Ukraine for WWIII, but that's what the plan is
- emptysongglass 4y ago
  It's Ukraine not the Ukraine. Nobody calls Finland "the Finland".
  - midislack 4y ago
    And now it's Keeev too. I know, I know. Still not doing the needful, bot.
  - nescioquid 4y ago
    There is language culture and there are politicized words (like the names on a political map). The politicization of the name will take some time to alter language culture; I doubt antagonizing is going to help. If The Netherlands were to have dropped the definite article thirty years ago, I think English language cultures would still get caught up with "the". Does it bother you that we say "Munich" and "Cologne" and that the French say "Londres" (I don't think these names have been politicized in English)?
    - emptysongglass 4y ago
      > If The Netherlands were to have dropped the definite article thirty years ago, I think English language cultures would still get caught up with "the". But that's not what happened here and that's clear by the commenter returning to make a mockery of how to pronounce Kyiv. This isn't an accidental drop of the definite article: it's an intentional attempt to "dehumanize" (if there is a better word for what I'm attempting to convey here please chime in) by language. If you know the history of where "the Ukraine" comes from, you'd understand the use of the definite article here as a cudgel. The better comparison for what the commenter is doing is the equivalence of dead naming transgender people but for states. No one is antagonizing more than the commenter here.
crabbygrabby 4y ago
If they allowed medical marijuana use during off hours this would probably turn around rapidly for just about all of it's branches. I remember back in the 2000's soldiers were injecting other people's urine into themselves to not get dishonorably discharged...
- sleepdreamy 4y ago
  Facts
pibechorro 4y ago
Good. End all foreign wars, bases, etc. They are bleeding us of our wealth and destroying our international relations. Its a bloated empire at this point.
timcavel 4y ago
dumpsterlid 4y ago
I mean... good? I see it as a sign of intelligence and good morals that americans dont want to join the military. Ever since the AUMF in the wake of 9/11 the US military has gone into overdrive as an imperialistic war machine with little oversight by the american public. Not that the US military wasn't always this, but it is magnitudes worse now. Do you really want to join the military and help drone strike some innocent wedding in a far off country you can barely point to on a map?
- car_analogy 4y ago
  "We must drone strike weddings over there so we don't have to drone strike weddings over here."
  - deleted 4y ago
    [deleted]
- pjc50 4y ago
  Might want to update the talking points given the withdrawal from Afghanistan and the war in Ukraine. > little oversight by the American public I think people underestimate how popular ill-defined military action towards "terrorists" has been, and how roundly people would be criticized as unpatriotic for questioning it.
- pyuser583 4y ago
  If it was caused by good morals than that’s one thing. But there’s no shortage of engineers willing to work on weapons systems, or people willing to work for CIA. I think it’s self centeredness.
philipwhiuk 4y ago
Standard position during an economic bubble. Once the crash happens plenty will sign up rather than face the dole.
dqpb 4y ago
Pay them more.
- timapplesauce 4y ago
  I think this is a major factor. The enlisted pay scales are publicly available knowledge and for the lower enlisted ranks especially they really don’t look very appealing. Although military pay goes up every year, it has not kept up with inflation. The proposed pay raise for next year is 4.6% despite inflation being 8.6%. There are already a lot of military families that qualify for public assistance and one can expect this problem to only get worse.
the_only_law 4y ago
I tried to join at 17, as it was the fastest way to get far away from my parents that they'd approve of. They ended up blacklisting me for a medication I was on before I was even a teenager. My stepbrother faced similar issues, but with ADHD medication, he was able to get it cleared, while I wasn't. I'm glad I didn't get in tbh, I was close to losing a decade of my life in bumfuck nowhere for a $40k signing bonus. I also have to laugh at the ads. I keep seeing this airforce ad that shows all sorts of cool looking stuff, but the only people I know in the military that had "interesting" jobs were also the most vile. My brother got in and they gave him basic RF and EE training, and for a while I thought he was going to learn a useful skill... He listens to radio static for 12 hours. He's got himself into the academy though, with ambitions of being a pilot, but we'll see how it works out. Another friend of mine joined the army for economic reasons, he's mostly satisfied, but early on complained to me that he couldn't do the job he was trained to do until some civilian contract ran out. His job? Running LRUs through some diagnoses machine and writing reports. The one thing I will say is the benefits are amazing. I'm convinced the only type of non-traditional students universities give a damn about are former military coming back with their GI Bill.
toomuchtodo 4y ago
> More than half of the young Americans who answered the survey — about 57% — think they would have emotional or psychological problems after serving in the military. Nearly half think they would have physical problems. > “They think they’re going to be physically or emotionally broken after serving,” said one senior U.S. military official familiar with the recruiting issues, who believes a lack of familiarity with military service contributes to that perception. They’re not wrong. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30908249 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30908249

31 points by MuchoMaas 4y ago

Being enlisted in the armed forces is a hard go, what with little pay and stability. Being an officer is better but that requires time/OCS or college. Once through college, there's way more lucrative ways of going than military. Yeah, there's a tradition in some families and they continue to serve. But the military is seen as more a right-wing activity, and of late, there's a chance you'll have to actually do what you're trained to do... I remember when Desert Shield was spinning up and pretty much all med-tech people who had taken the King's Shilling were being called up. They complained about possible career impact but they were reminded about contracts, etc. The world's a little unstable at the moment and that has to be off-putting. And the stories out of the Afghan and Middle-Eastern campaigns were probably off-putting as well.

mikece 4y ago
Being an officer in the military is also a hard go unless you like being a politician with a gun. Gone are the days when mere ability and talent as a leader would get you to O-6 and beyond; now you're lucky to make O-4 if you aren't playing politics more than being a warrior/sailor/etc. This is why so many good officers get out after one tour: they see who is left above them on the ladder and what those people did to get there and they would rather apply their talents in civilian life.
- jleyank 4y ago
  Not surprising. I would imagine that if the number of officers needed is shrinking it's a pretty bad environment for survival. There's a need for good people everywhere, and people will naturally gravitate to more gain, less pain.
  - mikece 4y ago
    I don't think it's a path-of-least resistance attitude but more "I would rather not give my all and not be passed over because I'm not into ass-kissing and other BS." I realize the civilian world is full of this as well but at least here we have the option of starting up our own thing and running with that.
- michael1999 4y ago
  Can you make a full pension lingering at O-4, or would you be forced out for non-advancement?
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]

car_analogy 4y ago

What would motivate one to join, besides pure material gain? Who still thinks the US military protects their interests? The left considers it a tool of imperialism, and the right sees it as openly hostile to them. They're both correct.

bell-cot 4y ago
Patriotic feelings or values? (Admitting that both the left- and right-wing sides of America's culture wars have been doing their best to stamp those out for quite a while now. Ditto the "Greed is the One and Only God" capitalists.)
- car_analogy 4y ago
  > Patriotic feelings or values? But that's exactly my point. Few people believe the military advances those values. Edit: To clarify, when I wrote "their interests", I meant including collective interests, i.e. those of the group or nation, whose defense is usually lumped under "patriotism".
- croes 4y ago
  "Patriotism is the virtue of the vicious"
pjc50 4y ago
> the right sees it as openly hostile to them This seems surprising given how much I associate all the "support our troops" rhetoric with the right. And actual military funding, although that's more a function of campaign contributions from defense contractors and otherwise unprofitable states.
- quantified 4y ago
  Rhetoric is one thing, actual treatment is another.
- car_analogy 4y ago
  > This seems surprising given how much I associate all the "support our troops" rhetoric with the right. Yes, the right does support the military more than the left. But they're starting to realize this support is one-sided. The number of people on the right that still believe bombing the middle east is vital to America's security is shrinking [1], while at the same time the military is demonizing its support base with training calling whites inherently evil [2]. [1] Trump to West Point grads: 'We are ending the era of endless wars' - https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-wars-idUSKBN23K0PR https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-wars-idUSKBN23K... - While he did try to start a war by assassinating Soleimani, his boasting is proof that ending foreign wars is gaining popularity on the right. [2] https://nypost.com/2021/05/17/ex-space-force-commander-dod-videos-claimed-white-people-evil/ https://nypost.com/2021/05/17/ex-space-force-commander-dod-v...

mensetmanusman 4y ago

Fewer Americans think the country is worth saving: https://amp.miamiherald.com/opinion/op-ed/article259392144.html https://amp.miamiherald.com/opinion/op-ed/article259392144.h... I wonder if there is some critical mass of integrated differences wherein tribalism re-nucleates and the sub-groups abandon the larger umbrella. This, combined with fertility rates and population level mental health all point to an empire in decline. I would give it 1-200 years before collapse, all empires have.

shakezula 4y ago
> some critical mass of integrated differences wherein tribalism re-nucleates and the sub-groups abandon the larger umbrella. To me this sounds exactly like the current tension between federal and states rights in America.
rnk 4y ago
1-200 year for collapse is not really very specific. I'd give any country on earth 1-200 years for them to collapse.
- dron57 4y ago
  America is arguably the oldest political system today. Being ~250 years old makes it an extreme outlier. The median life of a political system/regime is much lower, so saying up to 200 years from now is a pretty safe confidence interval for any country.
  - Thev00d00 4y ago
    If we mean by that, 'Which country has ensured that all adult citizens regardless of sex, race, or ethnicity, may choose reprentatives to exercise the powers of government longest?', then the answer is New Zealand. Universal adult suffrage was first established there in 1893.
    - mensetmanusman 4y ago
      Not for the Māori, maybe some day… https://www.wilpf.org/racial-discrimination-in-new-zealand-maori-at-the-heart-of-the-debate/ https://www.wilpf.org/racial-discrimination-in-new-zealand-m...

Proven 4y ago

bdavid21wnec 4y ago

Why do you think Roe v Wade was over turned. This is my favorite theory yet and just might be true. Will never know of course, but does make sense

thfuran 4y ago
You think the military is secretly running the Supreme Court? At least that's probably below "the moon is a hologram" in the hierarchy of conspiracy theory insanity.
- pibechorro 4y ago
  While i don't think its the case here. If you look where politicians rubber stamp our wealth, its all war and empire. They certainly have influence in everything.
dangus 4y ago
Rather than don our tinfoil hats, let's instead apply Occam's razor. The Supreme Court is packed with Catholics. Amy Coney Barrett, Brett Kavanaugh, Samuel Alito, Clarence Thomas, and even one coming in with a dissenting vote (Sonia Sotomayor). Abortion is a wedge issue that drives Republicans to polls. It's as simple as that. The GOP is unconcerned about the consequences of this policy. It's only there to get GOP voters to the polls. Roe V. Wade being overturned also has nothing to do with the viewpoints of any particular party or individual Supreme Court justice changing. The GOP has been anti-abortion for about as long as I can remember. The difference here is that the GOP got three Supreme Court picks in one 4-year presidential term, swinging the court rapidly toward the right. This is the GOP exercising its newfound power to achieve its long-stated, consistent goal. There are much more effective ways to boost military enlistment than banning abortion and waiting 18 years.
- MandieD 4y ago
  Banning abortion will put a lot of already/nearly adult people into rougher financial situations - the kind of rougher financial situations that might make the military a somewhat more attractive employer.

luxuryballs 4y ago

Maybe if they stopped requiring spike protein generating mRNA injections…

jleyank 4y ago
There are several alternate vaccines that don’t use mRNA. The military needs its people to answer then call when it occurs hence lots of vax. And they’ll probably face weirder situations than normal people if the stuffs really from a lab.
kilroy123 4y ago
You're being down voted but this is indeed part of the issue. Many in the military are against getting the COVID vaccine and are pissed they were forced to do it.
- croes 4y ago
  Strange if you think about all the other mandatory vaccines they got.
  - Bender 4y ago
    Unpopular opinion but I don't think its strange and I say this as someone that received vaccinations in the military. The existing vaccines are well tested, have known side effects and interactions. The nCoV vaccines were tested in real time on people and continue to produce proteins 60+ days after injections. [1] The public are not allowed to discuss the topic and any company offering alternatives are shunned. I personally see this entire debacle as some people watched V for Vendetta too many times and saw dollar signs. This routine was basically identical to the fictional 3-waters + viadoxin. [2] [1] - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hOxu09_JHpQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hOxu09_JHpQ [video] [2] - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jrfm7y5nL30 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jrfm7y5nL30 [video]
    - bloppe 4y ago
      "The public are not allowed to discuss the topic" and yet here we are... That video is a master class of truth twisting and lying by omission. Yes, the testing was accelerated by many factors, including massive guaranteed funding, intense competition, huge trial participant interest, the prior 10 years of research related to mRNA antigen delivery, including developing a more efficient regulatory framework for such drugs, but not lack of thoroughness.

midislack 4y ago

Nobody wants to fight Russia in the Ukraine for WWIII, but that's what the plan is

emptysongglass 4y ago
It's Ukraine not the Ukraine. Nobody calls Finland "the Finland".
- midislack 4y ago
  And now it's Keeev too. I know, I know. Still not doing the needful, bot.
- nescioquid 4y ago
  There is language culture and there are politicized words (like the names on a political map). The politicization of the name will take some time to alter language culture; I doubt antagonizing is going to help. If The Netherlands were to have dropped the definite article thirty years ago, I think English language cultures would still get caught up with "the". Does it bother you that we say "Munich" and "Cologne" and that the French say "Londres" (I don't think these names have been politicized in English)?
  - emptysongglass 4y ago
    > If The Netherlands were to have dropped the definite article thirty years ago, I think English language cultures would still get caught up with "the". But that's not what happened here and that's clear by the commenter returning to make a mockery of how to pronounce Kyiv. This isn't an accidental drop of the definite article: it's an intentional attempt to "dehumanize" (if there is a better word for what I'm attempting to convey here please chime in) by language. If you know the history of where "the Ukraine" comes from, you'd understand the use of the definite article here as a cudgel. The better comparison for what the commenter is doing is the equivalence of dead naming transgender people but for states. No one is antagonizing more than the commenter here.

crabbygrabby 4y ago

If they allowed medical marijuana use during off hours this would probably turn around rapidly for just about all of it's branches. I remember back in the 2000's soldiers were injecting other people's urine into themselves to not get dishonorably discharged...

sleepdreamy 4y ago
Facts

pibechorro 4y ago

Good. End all foreign wars, bases, etc. They are bleeding us of our wealth and destroying our international relations. Its a bloated empire at this point.

timcavel 4y ago

dumpsterlid 4y ago

I mean... good? I see it as a sign of intelligence and good morals that americans dont want to join the military. Ever since the AUMF in the wake of 9/11 the US military has gone into overdrive as an imperialistic war machine with little oversight by the american public. Not that the US military wasn't always this, but it is magnitudes worse now. Do you really want to join the military and help drone strike some innocent wedding in a far off country you can barely point to on a map?

car_analogy 4y ago
"We must drone strike weddings over there so we don't have to drone strike weddings over here."
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
pjc50 4y ago
Might want to update the talking points given the withdrawal from Afghanistan and the war in Ukraine. > little oversight by the American public I think people underestimate how popular ill-defined military action towards "terrorists" has been, and how roundly people would be criticized as unpatriotic for questioning it.
pyuser583 4y ago
If it was caused by good morals than that’s one thing. But there’s no shortage of engineers willing to work on weapons systems, or people willing to work for CIA. I think it’s self centeredness.

philipwhiuk 4y ago

Standard position during an economic bubble. Once the crash happens plenty will sign up rather than face the dole.

dqpb 4y ago

Pay them more.

timapplesauce 4y ago
I think this is a major factor. The enlisted pay scales are publicly available knowledge and for the lower enlisted ranks especially they really don’t look very appealing. Although military pay goes up every year, it has not kept up with inflation. The proposed pay raise for next year is 4.6% despite inflation being 8.6%. There are already a lot of military families that qualify for public assistance and one can expect this problem to only get worse.

the_only_law 4y ago

I tried to join at 17, as it was the fastest way to get far away from my parents that they'd approve of. They ended up blacklisting me for a medication I was on before I was even a teenager. My stepbrother faced similar issues, but with ADHD medication, he was able to get it cleared, while I wasn't. I'm glad I didn't get in tbh, I was close to losing a decade of my life in bumfuck nowhere for a $40k signing bonus. I also have to laugh at the ads. I keep seeing this airforce ad that shows all sorts of cool looking stuff, but the only people I know in the military that had "interesting" jobs were also the most vile. My brother got in and they gave him basic RF and EE training, and for a while I thought he was going to learn a useful skill... He listens to radio static for 12 hours. He's got himself into the academy though, with ambitions of being a pilot, but we'll see how it works out. Another friend of mine joined the army for economic reasons, he's mostly satisfied, but early on complained to me that he couldn't do the job he was trained to do until some civilian contract ran out. His job? Running LRUs through some diagnoses machine and writing reports. The one thing I will say is the benefits are amazing. I'm convinced the only type of non-traditional students universities give a damn about are former military coming back with their GI Bill.

toomuchtodo 4y ago

> More than half of the young Americans who answered the survey — about 57% — think they would have emotional or psychological problems after serving in the military. Nearly half think they would have physical problems. > “They think they’re going to be physically or emotionally broken after serving,” said one senior U.S. military official familiar with the recruiting issues, who believes a lack of familiarity with military service contributes to that perception. They’re not wrong. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30908249 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30908249