Have you ever wondered how much better your life would be if you put the same effort into a regular job?

Question

Instead of joining the military and working your butt off all day, everyday. Just go to college or get a job and work just as hard. How successful do you think you would be?

Mr. James; You mentioned the excellent pay. What do you make per year? I take it by your response that you don't think you could have done better in a different career. Is that correct?

Answer 1

Piss off! you have the balls to tell me that my job is not a "regular" job. You are right it is not regular, it is a more honorable work than you can ever imagine. I live for my job and that is to protect and defend my (and your) family. I do my job for love for others. It is the most selfless job one can have. Yes I work my butt off everyday but my "co-workers" are the greatest in the world. And the work that we do is something the "masses" of regular workers could never do. We come to the aid of cities and states in need. I think you have no idea what it is that we really do in a day. Before you open your mouth to insult me and mine, maybe you should think about what is going to leave it. And as for collage where do you think we alot of us get the money and the DIRECTION we lack when young. And as how successful would I be.....Less than I am now. I save lives and help rebuild them. I avenge and teach. I help others to become more than they ever thought they could be. I wonder if you would join the military how much more successful you could be.

Answer 2

If I were to continue my work as an Army Reservist for another year, I'd still be a junior soldier. Had I started work at a pizza parlor instead, I'd probably be in a more managerial position, possibly better payed. But that's not why I joined.

Mind you, the basic soldier is provided with various benefits - healthcare, discounts and tuition to name a few. Not many jobs can match that. So no, m1a1mikegolf, recruits are often sold to the military by promises of education and financial stability rather than your typical "serving my country" rhetoric. In some cases, people just want to live the military lifestyle.

Answer 3

I wouldn't say converted really. But one of my best friends and the guitarist for our band now didn't know much at all about punk or pre-punk when I met him. He was a pretty big metal head, still is to be fair, but he had a hard time appreciating things that weren't as intricate and fast and technical as Slayer or Megadeth or Sepaltura, but over time since music is a big part of both our lives we exposed each other to our own musical tastes. And since then he's really learned that a few well placed chords or a simple but catchy progression is worth all the skill in the world. Although he still studies up on everything and is ridiculously good at guitar of any genre, the music he writes himself is almost always a cool riff or progression and his CD collection has a pretty large punk element to it. And in tunr I've taken a liking to some of his metal, although I still can't stand anything with ugly gruff vocals, like Sepultura or that sort of thing. I have however taken a strange liking to the CD Reign In Blood by Slayer, don't know why.

Answer 4

A lot of guys who enlisted with me got out after four years and got "regular jobs." Over the next 20 years they worked their way up from the mail room... or wherever they started. A few made it up to one of those offices with all the windows way up in those tall office buildings. Today they some of them are pulling down pretty handsome salaries. They're working 50-60 hours a week... but they're getting paid pretty well. Some of them dream about adventure, travel, swimming, diving, sky-diving, driving hot boats and fast cars... if they ever have the time and the money at the same time...

Three years after they left the service I was already in management. And I was doing all those things they dream about. And I did them when I was young enough to enjoy them. I retired about 20 years ago. Based on my military record, I got a job with a big-5 management consulting firm where I solved problems for companies like theirs that people like them couldn't solve...and for 15 years I was making as much or more than some of them are making now. Now I'm retired... twice. I get income from my military retirement and from the pension plan in the civilian company with which I worked. I live quite well, thank you. And I don't have to even get up in the morning.

But I do. I have a leisurely breakfast about 8:30. Then I read a while... or maybe spend some time online with some guys I know in Iraq. Then I do some work at the church I attend. Two days a week I visit elderly people in local rest homes and read to them. In the afternoons I work out a little... I run (not jog) a couple miles three or four times a week, swim two-five miles six days a week. Work out with a Karate class two days a week, and with a Kali instructor three days a week. I do some weights, but mostly low resistance with lots of reps. But the gym starts getting crowded at 5:30... the working crowd (those with "regular jobs")... so I'm out of there by 5:30. Tuesdays and Thursdays in the evening I tutor high school kids in math. I get to bed at about 9 each evening and sleep quite well, thank you

Yeah... I can see how life would have been much better if I'd put the same effort into a "regular job." NOT!!!

Answer 5

Every man who has never served secretly regrets not having been in the military. To those of us who have served we can see it easily.

I don’t know if its a macho thing or what, but its there. I have friends who never served a day in the military and I am constantly bombarded with questions like "how hard was it? do you think I could have made it? what was it like?" ect..

I also run into individuals who attempt to act like there is something wrong with serving in the military. They say things like "people in the military are stupid, or they cant get a real job." I think statements like that are made by people who have some type of inferiority complex since it is obvious that people who served in the military seem to at the very least have the courage to try it.

It is the role of the weak to find fault with the strong.

By the way my life is fine, and I did go to college and have two degrees now.

I am quite sure that had I not been in the military then I wouldn’t posses the determination, work ethic, inner strength and drive that I have now.

Then there is the issue of serving something greater than yourself, however I will not address that issue since it would seem by your statements that you would not understand what I am talking about.

Answer 6

What a strange question. Makes one wonder, are you in the military? Or do you know someone who is?

The military is a great option to get a great start in life. It's also a great place to make a career. It is a place, unlike the corporate world, where your effort is actually more likely to get you promoted, and where the paths for promotion are very strictly laid out and achievable for anyone who wants to put in the effort - regardless of sex, race, or creed. In the corporate it's often the best butt kisser who wins.

In the military, if you experience discrimination, there are avenues to work it out. Whereas in the corporate world, the avenues may or may not exist, or they may exist, but in reality lead nowhere.

In the military, you get one month of vacation per year as soon as you are done with your first year. In the corporate world, you might get a month of vacation after you have worked for the same company for 10 or 15 years.

In the military, you get excellent medical care, free of charge. You don't even have to pay anything out of your paycheck, even if you get married and have children. In the corporate world, you will probably have to pay, just for yourself to have a crappy 'care' plan that limits the doctors you can see, the kind of treatment you can have, and for the privilege of paying for it every month, you can also pay $1000 deductible, plus co-pays. Then they tell you you're lucky to have that. And if you're really lucky, you can pay extra for dental care, as though your teeth weren't actually a part of your body.

In the military, you get excellent training, and continuing education, for free. And that's just for your own job. If you want to go to college, they have a program to help you with that, too! In the corporate world, you can work your butt off going to college for 4 years. Graduate with a bachelor's degree if you're lucky and good, then walk out the institution doors to try to find a job that will actually allow you to pay for your college loans and have a life before you're 40 years old. Then you can decide that if you really want to be able to earn enough money to support yourself and a family, you're going to have to go back to college and get your masters or a doctorate. More bills.

At least in the military, the work you put into it is more directly related to what you get out of it. It's not a perfect system, that is for sure. And you'll find somebody out there who can pick apart each of my points and show you something horrible about the military. But all in all, it's a pretty good deal. It is rewarding and success is achievable.

Just read all your responses - Amen, Amen and Amen again ladies and gentlemen! Thank you for your service to our great country! Thank you for taking the time to express, eloquently, the intelligence and heart that it really takes to serve.

Answer 7

Contrary to what leftists and politicians who want to score cheap points claim, the military is actually very well paid especially since Bush got into office. Under Clinton we recieved tiny pay raises and a couple times worried about government shutdowns. Bush pushed through large increases in pay for selected pay grades and then nice raised for all. Taken with non taxable income such as housing allowance and food allowances and others such as combat pay, seperation pay and so on, we get paid nicely.
College payments are great and tuition assistance is nice as well. Not to mention the time off- 30- days after the first year and so on. Yes there are downsides like deployments or field exercises but such is life.

Answer 8

No, but I actually took the second option. I do occasionally wonder what my life would be like now, if I'd actually signed the papers back when I was 18. I don't regret the decision not to join at the time, because college was really good for me, but I'll admit I am curious.

Answer 9

I resent your question.I have a degree and have had both a military and civillian job.I worked hard at both of them.I and many of the people I serve with are in the military because we like it not because we are lazy or to stupid to do anything else.many of us do have a college education

Answer 10

The military is a way to pay for college for a lot of people.