Joining the Air Force

Discussion in 'Free Thoughts' started by Esoteric, Feb 10, 2006.

  1. Jaybee from his cast Banned Banned

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    373
    Don't confuse cause and effect, bucko. We haven't been were you were because we CHOSE not to lower ourselves to such levels as you were prior to enlisting.

    No, we enjoy the dough, while you assholes die for us. I wouldn't have it any other way.

    Get laid. That's a greater 'high' than being at 3000 feet and pressing buttons in your tin plane.


    Jaybee
     
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  3. cole grey Hi Valued Senior Member

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    1,999
    I remember talking to a recruiter once, and he said, you can choose this or that job, etc. Then I said, "so you can guarantee that", and he blanched. Even as a child I knew the difference between a promise and a guarantee.

    So in effect, your friend can end up as an expendable.

    I personally would avoid that, unless they have some better contracts these days.
     
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  5. Insanely Elite Questions reality. Registered Senior Member

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    360
    I've been in Oxygen. Army not Air force. I am a combat veteran of two foreign wars. I say for most people it is a bad idea.
    Filling others head with Pie in the sky flyboy stories is naught to me. Recruiters will have you dreaming of flying in your f-18 whatever and not mention most of what is the downside of military life.

    If you can accept the great many negatives of military life, by all means join.
    But you aught to know before you sign your life and your rights away. There are positives, but few and far between to my way of thinking.
     
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  7. Cottontop3000 Death Beckoned Registered Senior Member

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    I too have been in. Somalia. 8 years altogether, counting West Point. Officer. The army was the shittiest place I've ever been. Period.
     
  8. Oxygen One Hissy Kitty Registered Senior Member

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    2,478
    You get out of it what you put into it. Obviously you guys went in with pie-in-the-sky dreams, didn't get what you convinced yourselves you deserved, then blamed it on the service for your failures. Too bad, so sad. Given the chance I'd do it again. My brother's friend is still in, says he wouldn't trade it for the world. My bros consider their service years some of the best years of their lives, and they had pretty good lives before enlisting. Maybe you should ask yourselves what you could have done to improve your experience. To quote Sheryl Crow, "This ain't no country club..." But I have a question for those concerned, you believed a recruiter's promises? They're like used car salesmen! Everybody knows that!

    Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!

    I didn't buy the promises of the recruiter. I actually thought about what I wanted to do. I wasn't suckered in by some glorious poster or John Wayne pipe dreams. I wanted a career in heavy industrial electronics, and since I've always liked ships and the sea, I went Navy.

    For the record, however, as supportive as I am of those who choose the military path, I do not support a draft. We were discussing this a little while back, and the last person I'd want at my back is someone who doesn't want to be there.
     
  9. Thor "Pfft, Rebel scum!" Valued Senior Member

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    7,326
    Worse still, someone who sympathises with the people who will not give a second thought to killing you.

    Everyone in the military has a different experience, no two are the same. As evident here, some people have served and are now totally against it. Some here have and still see the bright side. I respect both sides of this. Most people I know who have served have said, like Oygen has already said, the time in the military were the best years of their lives. I know someone who was in the First Gulf War and came across that infamous road to Basra, he still has nightmares of what he saw there but he claims he would do it again if he could as it built him as a person. And I can honestly say he's a damned decent bloke.

    As for the people who are purely prejudice, if it ever comes down to a time where their lives need defending (for real, not in Iraq or wherever) these serving men and women would completely forget what they have said and would do their damned best to help them.
     
  10. duendy Registered Senior Member

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    6,585
    look mate. tis is the reality of war. HORROR! and we have a militray industrial complex using nuclear-tipped weapons that not only poisons their own soldiers, but melts pople, causes new hybrids of cancers much more than average rate, causes truly horrendous genetic damage of foetus's, poisopnsthe environment for millions of years.....! and you tink they wil stop now devizing even MORe genocidal and ecocidal weaponry??

    so'plaese dont glorify and rant on about 'defence'. what's defence when te fukin water and food and air is utterly and irreversably polluted?
     
  11. Cottontop3000 Death Beckoned Registered Senior Member

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    2,959
    Oxygen and Thor, all I can do is tell you how it was for me. Shitty. I would highly discourage anyone from joining the U.S. Army. As I have said, that is my background. I would guess that the Army would be a lot different than the navy or air force (where people are so afraid of getting a little dirt or brain on them that they cop out and choose a branch of repose -- with their minds set on what they are going to do in civilian life (heavy industrial electronics? Please!) as soon as they can use the service to get what they want and then leave. You know nothing of serving your country. Until you know what the Army is like, you have no ground to stand on in saying that my views are skewed because I didn't put enough into it. In fact, I will retract my statement about the air force and navy being branches of repose, as I don't know what they are like. I was in Air Force ROTC in high school, but that's hardly the same as the real thing.

    As far as me having "pie-in-the-sky-dreams," you may blame that on yourself and a society that thinks like you do. Not me. I woke up to reality. A deluded society that has forgotten when it sold out to lies and corruption. If you were really against pie-in-the-sky dreams, you'd be adamantly against what you are preaching in this thread. I say you have gotten very good at lying to yourself and others. Therefore, in my opinion, your opinion is worth less than a plug nickel.
     
  12. Oxygen One Hissy Kitty Registered Senior Member

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    Cottontop-Plenty of use for heavy industrial electronics in building construction for specialized sites such as NASA facilities, laboratories, hospitals, shipbuilding, etc. Maybe you just weren't looking far enough or deep into the future. As far as serving my country, you have no idea what I know about that concept.

    Thor- Thank you for finding neutral ground in what appears to be a very polarized thread. It was refreshing and well-put.
     
  13. Thor "Pfft, Rebel scum!" Valued Senior Member

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    I've already said that I've acknowledged and respected your views on this. I understand completely that a lot of people found military life to be shite. I've been told this quite often but from what I understand it may have been shite at times but overall the experience is quite rewarding.

    Agreed, Navy and AF life is a lot sweeter than that of the Army. Having visited a few RAF bases in my time I can say that their standard of living alone is a lot higher. It seemed to me that these were practically civilians that worked on things made for war (if you get my drift). Everyone except the Gunners had it quite easy in comparison to all the people I knew in the Army. And I have a few school friends who are in the Navy (hell, we live in Portsmouth, home of the RN so pride in the Navy is commonplace here) and they do get it easier than those in the Army. Although I don't think I could do the submarine escape training. Jumping out of a box under 300ft of water while metal debris is falling all around you with no oxygen equipment...you have to be nuts to do that!

    You do raise a valid point, there are some people who use the mil to carry them until they are good enough for a chosen civvie career. This isn't a rare thing at all and I don't think the mil minds at all (at least not here in the UK). Although you could argue that the same thing happens in outside of the mil. People work for a company until they think they're qualified enough to go work for a company they really want to. But then again there are dedicated career military men and women that will not think about getting another job until they retire.

    I cannot say that I know Army life first hand. But I can say that I have lived on military bases most of my life in many different countries and spoken to more current/former serving men from different trades and professions than I could care to count. That's my experience with the mil. I would not say your views are skewed, just that your experience is just one out of untold millions with each one being as important as the other.

    Thanks for the comment but I must say that I am not neutral in this. I am quite bias towards the military but I am seeing this from all points of view. When talking about the military, it is best to acknowledge everything said by those who have actually done it while those who have not rarely have a complete idea as to what it's like. I myself do not have a complete idea but what I know comes from those that do.

    I must also put that most of the place/people I have experienced were part of the British military. I have, however, had extensive contact with people who have served in the US, Canadian, German, Danish, Swedish, Swiss, Chinese, Spanish, Ukraine and Austrailian forces. I have only spoken to a few people from each nation so what I know of what it is like in them is far from complete. Only one thing is for certain though, I would hate to be in the Chinese army :bugeye:
     
  14. Oxygen One Hissy Kitty Registered Senior Member

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    No argument on that. And I agree that of the branches, the Army has it the roughest. It's where they stick draftees when they have a draft unless you do what so many did during WW2, which is to wait for your draft notice to arrive, then destroy it and head down to the branch of your choice that same day instead of getting sent to the infantry. There wasn't much the draft board could do about it if you claimed you enlisted before you got the message, and anyway they got you into a uniform.
     
  15. cosmictraveler Be kind to yourself always. Valued Senior Member

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    Check this link out,http://www.google.com/url?sa=l&ai=B...t.com/AST/go/gglxxaea0020000105ast/direct/01/.

    I would think you need to pick out what you want to do. Air force is 4 years don't forget.
     

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