military benefits

One of my favorite bloggers, Steve Pavlina, points out some of the benefits of the military on his site.  The irony is the truth in a bold headline on a site called military.com.

The Good News 

I was in the military of 8 years.  I got out in 2003.  When I went in, in 1995, it was a step up for me.  After my mom went jail, I dropped out of high school.  In light of all the things that happend at home, school just was not important to me.  I’ll spare you the “I’m a victim boo-hoo-hoo, poor little me” story, but the military turned my whole life around. 

I’ve always had some degree of self-discipline, but submiting to external discipline was something that came way late for me.  I rarely did anything I thought was stupid.  The military pointed me in the right direction, sometimes stupid things are necessary (even if it is just to learn).  I used the Air Force as a stepping stone to get a degree and lots of certifications.  I now have a really good job, have started a business and I am the first in about four generations to own a house.

I know some of you are thinking, “that is pretty pathetic.  I got a Masters degree when I was five years old, I own four houses, one for each time zone,” but believe it or not there are some people that have to start at a lower level socio-economic circumstance, standard and (more importantly) consciousness than you. 

In this stage of human development (consciousness), human beings need the military and yes, even war.  Why do I think war is necessary?  Well, I’m not saying that is necessarily an over all GOOD thing.  Besides auto insurance, war is probably the greatest atrocity humanity could ever submit to.  I feel we (all sentient beings) are one, so war is like suicide or self mutilation.  But at this point in human evolution it is a step in the right direction.  Every person, group and nation goes through sequential levels of consciousness.  There has been interesting research done on this, check out spiral dynamics and integral theories of psychology for more info.

The Bad News

For young people thinking of going in, I’d say just be aware of what you are doing.  You are betting on your life.  You are rolling the dice with your life as a bargaining chip.  Yes, there are excellent benefits and (like me) you might feel it is a step up for you.  

When you join, you take an oath to “defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic”.  That sounds really noble, but when you are in a war zone you are not worried about anything except your survival and maybe the guy next to you.  Patriotism, politics and all that other BULLSHIT goes out the window.  You will also make and oath to ”obey the orders of the President of the United States”.  As a soldier, airman, seaman or Marine, you may not agree with anything the current administration says or does.  You might even think that they are self-serving, lying, election stealing, idiots who are actually domestic enemies that are unraveling the principals of the very U.S. Constitution you have sworn to protect…   

I’m not saying don’t go in.  I’m saying give it some thought.

Why I got out

I was in Afganistan when I decided to get out.  After circling the run way to avoid anti-aircraft fire from the surrounding mountains, the subsequent briefing on “land mines everywhere” was what changed my mind about re-enlisting.  I missed my daughter first steps while deployed and I decided I would not miss anything else.  When I got back to the States, the operations officer mentioned that if I could go to Iraq only a month fresh from being in the middle east.  So I didn’t re-enlist.

I actually had it good.  I’d been in Saudi Arabia (not my favorite place in the world) for four months then got forward deployed (by my own choice) to Afganistan to help the troops for only two weeks.  Some of those guys (mostly army) were there for a whole year.  Honestly, there is no explicitive that is corrupt enough to describe how messed up that place is.  My heart goes out to the Afgan people (especially the kids).

What is worse, the Army is so stretched that they are sending troops back only months after being in Iraq for a year (I personally know at least two people that this has happened to). 

I recently found out my sister (in the Navy) volunteered to go to Iraq.  I told her my story but that girl never listens to me.