In an ideal world, we wouldn’t need an army =\
However I respect your decision, I’m sure they’ll work you damn hard though, just don’t come back and talk about the army none stop for the rest of your life… all ex-military I’ve met seem to have that habit.
I mean on the one hand you have maybe the craziest sort of adventure of your life. Beyond anything you’ve ever done. And maybe you do great things, or maybe you just see astonishing things, but it’s certainly something unique and incredible, if you go out there. Not everybody wants to be an accountant and live in a house in suburbia or something. There’s nothing wrong with that. Maybe living a life like that, full of risk and human craziness, is more interesting and fulfilling, in the end, than living a really long one where you basically do nothing. Work, go to bars, **** chicks, go on vacations where you go to bars and **** chicks, ad infinitum.
But of course it wouldn’t be what it is without the danger; it wouldn’t really mean much of anything without it. And that’s quite real, and pretty damn scary. I can tell you right now I would consider joining the military, but the fact is that today it seems like you’re more likely just to get a limb or two blown off by an IED than die in battle. Frankly I’d rather be dead than come home without my legs. Nobody ever thinks they’re going to be the one, and then all of the sudden… oops! Just bad luck. I knew a guy who went through officer training, special forces, etc., wanted to make a whole career out of it. Two years of driving down the most dangerous, bomb-laden highway in the world and he was done with all of that. That kind of crap can screw with your nerves. Hell, some people come out and all they’ve got is post-traumatic stress syndrome to show for it.
But that’s how it goes, I guess.
Ness, I know, and that’s what’s bothering me. The government controls the army and is, in my opinion, abusing it.
And in countries where armies aren’t under the direct control of the government, the army itself abuses its power.
I still say joining the army is a noble gesture, but the things armies do these days make me sceptic about how much this really is about patriotism..
Well Hitokiri that is what I’m thinking about, it is dangerous in this day and age (the so called war on terror and various actions) but I knew my mind was made up when I asked my mum and dad what they dreamed of doing in life, both there answers were shocking, my dad wanted to be a goldsmith and my mum wanted to be a PA for a major company
turns out my dad’s a engineer and my mum’s a bank manager, both of which are unhappy and simply moan about their jobs and how crap it is, I ask them what they did today and they just answer “the same old crap” and don’t seem to do anything worth while
I don’t want to have to say to people “I’m an accountant” I want to do something that I really want to do, danger or not
@Davidskiwan that is something that has struck me from taking to other ex-army people, their life is the army and they talk about life, I hope I don’t turn out like that and if i do you have my personal permission to slap my silly till I turn sane again 
@Ness while I respect your honesty I can’t fully agree with it in some parts, I would actually regret dying an old man and wondering what did I do in life? Thats my worst fear
did you give thought to joining the marines? not to toot my own horn, but they really are a cut above the rest, it’s a lot harder to get in, but once you are there you can be proud knowing you’re one of the elite few.
Marine Recruit doin the OCS route. Not a bad way to make a living.
Do you actually have to go to war if you join the army in there. In finland almost every men(and even some women) go through army but they dont send us to actual war though…
I almost drowned once when I was a child
so becoming a water soldier wouldn’t be the best idea considering because of that I’m not the strongest swimmer (while I can swim, I’m not good enough at it to even consider it a type of living)
@Jariroth it would depends on what type of solider you train to be, officers for example get sent to the worst places (they used to get sent to Northern Ireland, now they get sent to the middle east) so that they can ether sink or swim as it were (as harsh as it sounds it’s actually true, most of prince Williams friends from when he was training to become an officer have actually died or are in the worst parts of the middle east) but most professions in the current army would be sent to the middle east really,
Sounds like your country has a kind of melitia, where everyone is trained to fight, but no one goes to war unless someone invades your country.
over here if you sign up, and there is a war, you’re going. the only time someone outside the army has to go to war, is if there is a conscription like during WW2.
if that was the case, i’d be going to war for sure, because anyone whos national insurance card ends in A or B are signed up first.
Same here, most people are ether A or B, I only know a few people with C and I ain’t seen anything else