When I was 17 years old, I tried to join the Army.

[Bouncy Ball]

I was a senior in high school (I was 17 when I graduated, young for my grade). I wanted to go to college and my stepfather indicated he'd pay for it, but between my mentally ill mother's inexplicable voilent hostility toward me and his alcoholism, I wasn't sure how much that promise meant.

So I figured, go in the Army for a few years, get the college money, get out, go to school.

There was an Army recruiting station right across the street from my high school and I walked over there one day. It was like I was the Second Coming, all bringing me cold Cokes and asking me if I was comfortable. They asked about my grades, SAT scores, regular stuff. I felt like a frigging Queen. Figured, hell, if that's how you get treated in the Army sign me up! :eyes:

I took the paperwork home to my parents. My mother said she'd gladly sign it (remember I was a minor and back then you could sign up, but you needed parental consent), but my stepfather freaked the hell out and started yelling "NO WAY!!!! NO CHILD OF MINE IS JOINING THE MILITARY EVER!!!!"

In case you are wondering, he is a baby boomer and during Vietnam, he stayed in college all the way to his masters. He used to like to joke "it was a long damn war."

He went on and on about how I would have to join over his cold, dead body. I told him I could just wait until I was 18 in a few months and then join of my own accord. He gave me the hairy eyeball and said, "Don't you dare. You're going to college. Period."

That fall, I started school at A&M. He was good on his word to pay for it. But I wonder how much of it was fear I would join the Army......

BTW, those recruiters didn't leave me alone for the next FOUR months. Called me, came by, sent me letters. Bugged the shit out of me.

[amber dog democrat]

1. I waited until my 17th birthday and joined the Navy.

during the Vietnam War. Not out of patriotism. I just wanted to go to sea.
At that time my family was totally opposed to my enlisting. I had to force my mother into signing the paperwork.

A few months later I found myself on the bridge of a destroyer steering on a full power run....and in the lower handling room of a 5" 38 gunmount.

I also knew I could not depend on my family for financial support if I wanted to go to college.

[Bouncy Ball]

2. I wonder how many people join the military out of pure

patriotic reasons.

My husband joined at the age of 17 because he was a juvenile delinquent (they were a bit more lax in who they took back then, LOL) and my father-in-law dragged him down to the recruitment station by the scruff of his neck and said "The Army or the street, boy, but you can't stay in my house!"

He even quit high school to join. BUT I will say, it did do him a world of good. He was a completely different person because of the Army AND thank goodness, he didn't turn into an automaton unable to think for himself. He retained his liberalism!

Anyway, rambling now...

[amber dog democrat]

6. Back in 1969 people I knew in the Navy joined to stay OUT of Vietnam.

and even then that did not mean you'd not get sent there. I don't believe I knew anyone who joined out of P U R E ly patriotic motives. There may have been some of that sentiment in the mix but I can't speak for anyone else but myself.

I wanted to go to sea and also have the GI bill afterwards. It motivated me to get my GED and persue a degree. It took me 7 years to graduate with a BS.

I had the police in Richardson Texas tell me it was a good thing I was enlisting too.
I think about things like what its like to be on a tin can and go through an Atlantic storm off Cape Hattaras in March and seeing the Pleades a day or two's distance from any landfall - or the sense of being on the bridge underway at night seeing the lights of the Florida Keys from 20 miles away move past us ...

or hearing the collision alarm go off at 3 AM ... I would have not missed it for anything. - and your husband was fortunate to have the experiences he did.
Though i might add he was a tad lucky too. But this is the wrong time to be in the ground forces. We lost our way in Vietnam. This time there wasn't even any pretense. Its just a war for oil. We are no different than the Roman legions now adays.

[ComerPerro]

3. Iraq is full of people who wanted to pay for college

Its sad that the option so availible to you and to any American until 2000 is now just a method of exploitation. The media often forgets that.

I see it on the news often. They will talk about someone killed in action, and how they volunteered in 2000 to pay for college. I always think, "Yeah, they volunteered to protect America for two years in exchange for tuition assistance. They didn't volunteer to be used like toy soldiers by a power-mad asshole in an unnecessary war."

[JohnKleeb]

4. They are bugging the shit out of me now

I had to lie to one of them about calling him back.

[TheMightyFavog]

5. Do what I did...

Pretend to be gay and hit on the recruiter over the phone. Lay it on thick.

Most recruiters ran the fuck away, although it really didn't work with the Marine Corps Recruiter that kept going after me.

[fluffernutter]

7. LMAO at your stepfather.

i think it's great for some people, and not so great for others.

my parents basically said the same thing - "You are going to college, PERIOD." it was never an option NOT to in my house, it was just always talked about like the next step after HS, the same way that HS is the next step after Jr High. i'm pretty sure my parents shredded the military mail sent to our house before i even got a chance to see it.

i wonder what would have happened to your life if you would have joined up...