America is too fat & unhealthy to serve.

[DBdude]

Top 4 deadliest wars:
WWII
WWI
Vietnam
Korea

All had a draft. (I didn't mention the Civil War... but draft there too).

Drafts don't prevent wars.

maybe they shorten them

longest war - afghanistan

[snoqpass]

yep just like germany, the netherlands, etc,

this country needs to stop fighting bullshit wars. that will happen when every parents kid has a chance of getting maimed and killed

The people enlisting aren’t starting the wars

[mtngirl79]

thats ^^ 15 bucks an hr ish not huge money but compared to a job at the mall or convienence store for someone with no education not so bad

I was just remembering drinking beer with an anesthetist from Alberta, he told us they get more money in that province for operating on obese people he told it like " so punch height & weight into a calculator, if its over 36 ... yeah baby we got a Bimmer ! "

Wha? Most of the time nobody shoots you at the mall and minimum wage is 11 dollars an hour and going up in WA. In Seattle it's 15 dollars an hour.

[mtngirl79]

It's probably a business opportunity for somebody to provide coaching to kids to meet recruiting standards so they can join up. Phys Ed and test-taking skills, etc. I bet people would pay for that.

The kids (parents) that can afford that are paying for SAT prep and skiing and the like. Those that need it can't afford it.

[XXX-er]

Wha? Most of the time nobody shoots you at the mall and minimum wage is 11 dollars an hour and going up in WA. In Seattle it's 15 dollars an hour.

does everyone in America make that kind of big coin?

I guess they could just stay in school and get shot at by an angry white kid ?

[skinny_kid]

I'm sorta fat now but I'm glad I wasn't when I started.

[abraham]

I'm sorta fat now but I'm glad I wasn't when I started.

Woah cool to see you back around here

[Harry]

Personally, I look back on my years with great fondness.

FKNA. Best years of my life. So many great memories of cool shit I did.

[frorider]

It’s a good thing you didn’t have heel spurs amirite?

[DBdude]

I ain't no senator's son

[smartyiak]

i am not familiar with military stuff, but don't they get health insurance, housing subsidies (or even straight up housing), education (tech, trade, professional), pension/retirement for time served, and mini perks like access to discounted home/car insurance, car loans, etc

isn't that why people enlist? because the military takes care of you

I can tell you this: I got out because of the day-to-day life. People talk about boot camp like it's a big deal, but I thought it was kind of fun...like a sadist cross-fit, with camping and shooting.

It was the day-to-day bullshit that I couldn't take. Clean your room everyday...spotless 1x/week, press your clothes everyday (with creases), eat when we tell you, go where we tell you, PT 3x week at 7:30 every week, shine your boots everyday, haircut 1x per week....that shit starts to grind on you. I found military life much harder than boot camp.

Sure as hell wasn't worth the shitty paycheck I was getting. (and my re-enlistment bonus was $0.00).

That being said, I had a lot of fun: saw much of the world (lived in Japan for two years), fired LOTS of machine guns (0331), choked people (5711), and spent several summers living at the pool and drowning people (8563). It set me up wit the G.I. Bill and a two yr degree that got me where I am now.

So sure...there's cool shit you get to do...and it can be a drag...when the latter outweighs the former, it's time to go.

[wooley12]

^^^^^My dad told me that's why he joined the Rangers. He was tired of the marching, PT and cleaning his stuff. Much less BS at the front if you survived the training.

[smartyiak]

^^^^^My dad told me that's why he joined the Rangers. He was tired of the marching, PT and cleaning his stuff. Much less BS at the front if you survived the training.

Your father is a wise man...

My first four years, I was mostly deployed and in the field...I enjoyed the hell out of it. As I rose in rank, I started getting left behind or sitting at Command Center...that's when it started sucking. Also, instead of going out and shooting at stuff and marching, I was planning and responsible for people...I liked being a E1 to E3 a lot more that E4 and E5.

[MontuckyFried]

Your father is a wise man...

My first four years, I was mostly deployed and in the field...I enjoyed the hell out of it. As I rose in rank, I started getting left behind or sitting at Command Center...that's when it started sucking. Also, instead of going out and shooting at stuff and marching, I was planning and responsible for people...I liked being a E1 to E3 a lot more that E4 and E5.

Lots of truth to that. My cousin retired from the Army after getting promoted to Col. He went from driving tanks to driving desks. Same goes for my F-4 flying badass uncle who went from flying in the Vietnam war, to flying with the Blue Angels. Once they tried forcing his promotion to Rear Admiral, that's when he hung it up. When I was in the AF, most of our pilots clung to the junior officer ranks as long as they could get away with for the same reason. They wanted to fly planes, not push paper. I got out when they were trying to promote me to E-6. I was already feeling the administrative pain at that point once they put me in charge of mobility prep for the squadron (guess I was too good at it) and I found myself flying less toward the end. E-3/4 was definitely the sweet spot for getting to goof off to the max. Being aircrew, we wore flight suits so didn't have uniforms to press and they didn't care about boots being shined. Hell, in our squadron, perfectly shined boots were practically a sign of laziness. The guys with perfect uniforms and boots like mirrors got ripped on. Fun unit!

[wooley12]

Wise? Maybe. Lucky? Definitely. He had to go out at night behind enemy lines to capture and/or kill. He got blown up twice and his battalion got wiped out to the man on a mission he missed.

This is really the sweet spot IMO. I guess contractors get those jobs today.

[cmcrawfo]

I ain't no senator's son

Exactly.

Draft to support a war effort that has already begun , vs mandatory military service are two very different things.

The point being, if the offspring of the people who make these decisions are going to be involved, they would likely make different decisions. There is no measurable moral consequences to the decisions current war makers make.