Ulukai on 30/10/2009 at 16:33
The law doesn't require your consent, once it's a law.
Spock on 31/10/2009 at 15:47
Not sure I can help any here but will try. I enlisted in the US Navy in 1965 basically to avoid getting drafted into the US Army. I figured, if I had to do compulsory service, I wanted to at least go into a branch of the service where I could get some kind of proper training rather than be 'canon fodder' in Viet Nam.
As it turned out, I ended up serving for 22 years and retiring. My service started as an E1 (the lowest Enlisted rank) and ended up as an O3 (Navy Lieutenant). I did everything from clean toilets to command a technical division of over 150 men while on board an aircraft carrier flying as an NFO (Naval Flight Officer).
I have good memories and bad memories, many of which I wouldn't willingly part with. Neither would I willingly live through it again! I think military service is a necessary evil best looked at in the past tense.
Whatever happens, I wish you a successful end to your military 'career' and an even more successful return to civilian life if that's what you want.
CCCToad on 1/11/2009 at 02:41
thats pretty awesome, how did you get your commission?
Spock on 1/11/2009 at 06:48
Quote Posted by CCCToad
thats pretty awesome, how did you get your commission?
I applied for a Commissioning program and the Navy sent me to college. The normal course load was supposed to take 4 years, including summers, and then we were supposed to go to Officer Finishing School (we called it 'Knife and Fork School') for 6 months before commissioning.
My problem was that I wanted to get into Aviation and I had to be 27½ or younger upon commissioning. I had a great time my first semester and then looked at where I would be if I finished in the alloted time ... needless to say, I was in a bit of a bind as it would have put me at 28½ upon commissioning if I finished in the normal length of time. :(
A full load for civilian students was 12 semester hours a semester and 6 for the summer session. Military students took 14 and 6. After I realized I needed to graduate early if I wanted to get into Aviation, I took 28 semester hours one semester (the same semester I was working 3 part-time jobs!) and 12 that summer. :tsktsk: I managed to graduate in 3.0 years with a 3.0 GPA.
I never would have made it if I'd been single. My wife was extremely supportive.
I loved my time in college but wished I hadn't been so rushed. I was supposed to get a BSEE but I took so many Computer Hardware and Software courses I asked if I could get a degree that said something about computers. They gave me a Bachelor of Engineering in Computer Science instead of the BSEE. Graduated Spring of 1976.
Wish I had taken the BSEE as I got my MSCS from Johns Hopkins in 1990.
I keep threatening to take another degreed course just so I can say I've had the third degree ... :p
Morte on 1/11/2009 at 10:19
I wasn't too fond of the time I spent in the army, it felt pretty pointless -- if the purpose is to resist invasion from the Slav, we'd been better off learning how to build IEDs and laying ambushes instead of manning artillery pieces that'll be blown up within five minutes -- but this whinging about slavery and human rights violations just makes you look petty and childish. There's nothing outrageous about national service.
Quote Posted by the_grip
I don't know any Americans who are in favor of compulsory military service, and I live in a relatively conservative area of the country. Most people have a bad taste left over from the draft in the Vietnam War days.
A conscript army in a democracy does have the consequence of curbing the population's enthusiasm for retarded military adventures. If everyone risked having to go to war instead of a professional class largely consisting of poor people, there'd be a lot less chickenhawks around.
So yeah, not going to happen.
242 on 3/11/2009 at 10:26
Quote Posted by Morte
I wasn't too fond of the time I spent in the army, it felt pretty pointless -- if the purpose is to resist invasion from the Slav
What, you're readying to resist invasion from NATO members?
Morte on 4/11/2009 at 16:01
Given that the closest slavic NATO member is Poland, not really.
242 on 4/11/2009 at 16:31
Czechia is a little bit closer ;)
242 on 4/11/2009 at 17:25
Ah, I somehow thought you were American.
