OT: Recent Titans Flyover Under Investigation

[Nikolai]

It is also rather funny, that huge military budget, in large part, goes to pay the salaries of the men and women who serve the country. If you serve in the military you also get to take advantage of the GI BIl, which also helps pay for your college, after, or while you serve. The money spent on planes and tanks go to the almost exclusively, American companies that build them and all the people who work for Boeing and Lockeed and whomever else makes them.

I tell aimless youths I run across that the military can be a great opportunity for them. But, even within that opportunity, there are other opportunities. One can make good choices and find themselves on the other side, set for life. One can make terrible choices and suddenly, the military was a nightmare for them. There are exceptions, but success or failure in life trends depending on one's ability to recognize a good opportunity, have the courage to step out and take advantage of it, then follow that up with continued good decision making, and then applying some level of effort.

In my basic training battery on day one, we were all in the same position, literally...150 little ****bag recruits standing in formation being yelled at by 26 year old junior NCOs on the trail. The decision making began immediately. A few quit within the first six hours, some within a few weeks. A couple others decided to play the fool and got kicked out. Some did what they had to do. Some others excelled. As it turned out, excelling in basic training gets you a coin, a little piece of cheap ribbon, and a kick in the ass to MOS training (AIT).

In AIT, it was like hitting the reset switch. Decisions are made. Play the fool and get kicked out to a lesser MOS and restart AIT somewhere else, do what you have to do to make it to your unit, or excel and maybe an opportunity for something special might open up. You're given a choice. Jump out of perfectly good aircraft (Airborne) or stay on the ground (Leg). Some who excelled were given an opportunity to assess for a place in the special operations community. Believe it or not, a couple of folks said no to that. Most chosen to assess said yes.

Even there, you have a choice to excel and stay in the community. A couple were ****bags and were kicked out, never to be allowed back in. You can do that crazy **** for a number of years and then when you get out, you've got an opportunity to take advantage of all those special relationships you made and earn a rather decent living applying your skills, or you can hang your hat and do whatever you want, even if the money may or may not work out.

If you do well at that job, you will likely get the opportunity to move up into the decision making realm of things....and on and on and on.

Go all the way back to basic training to one of the guys who played the fool. He popped up as a social media "you may know" guy, and his life turned out a little rough it appears. One guy killed himself. Another was murdered. One of my buddies turned down the special operations gig and is a nurse now. Most others got out after four years and did normal things, worked on their degree (paid by the GI bill), and walk among everyone else. A couple of us stayed in the lane and worked our way through.

But the root of success or failure was making decisions; first to even join up. Most of those folks would have had worse lives if they didn't. From there, the smart decision makers ended up with lives that are, at the least, comfortable. Other chose paths that sent them into a world of suffering.

****...I sound like an old man, but I typed all this up, so I might as well post it

 

[Nikolai]

I believe the European system uses testing to a large part to determine whether you get to go to college or into the trade fields. I am not an expert, or up on that stuff.

That's true in at least Germany.

 

[tom444]

Didn't know that about them. I tend to think a lot more about what they were doing in Afghanistan, where most of the dudes I know saw a fair bit of action.

Hope your legs and back are doing better than mine these days lol

Having been in the infantry affected my whole life. While I'm certainly not going to say I enjoyed how dangerous it was, I will say that I enjoyed the humping. That turned into enjoying hiking and I did as much as I could fit in weekly from the time I got out of the Army. That's despite having been wounded in both legs. For me there is nothing more enjoyable than hiking deep in the woods, I love it, and that all comes from my time in the Army. My wife use to tell me that I became a different person, relaxed, more open, etc., as soon as I entered the woods and started hiking.

 

[moosekill]

That's true in at least Germany.

Which makes total sense, however it flies in the face of everyone needs a blue ribbon.

Even people in this thread are treating college like some right every child has. Even though the kids could go to a state school for 1/10 the cost of going to a private College, they should be able to do whatever they want. Then when they can't get a job, the taxpayers should have to pay for their degree. It just doesn't make sense on any level.

 

[PP2]

It is also rather funny, that huge military budget, in large part, goes to pay the salaries of the men and women who serve the country. If you serve in the military you also get to take advantage of the GI BIl, which also helps pay for your college, after, or while you serve. The money spent on planes and tanks go to the almost exclusively, American companies that build them and all the people who work for Boeing and Lockeed and whomever else makes them.

Do you even do any research before posting?

Operations and maintenance takes up the most spending; almost twice as personnel.

It is patently ridiculous that we spent more on our military than the next 10 countries combined.

What the **** for?

 

[Chevy]

Do you even do any research before posting?

Operations and maintenance takes up the most spending; almost twice as personnel.

It is patently ridiculous that we spent more on our military than the next 10 countries combined.

What the **** for?

So people like you can continue to question it, can speak out when necessary, can enjoy the freedoms we have.

 

[n6249c]

So people like you can continue to question it, can speak out when necessary, can enjoy the freedoms we have.

You mean like the Black Lives Matter movement, and the Standing Rock pipeline protesters? Both of them had troops used to suppress their exercise of the freedoms you claim the military protects.

 

[moosekill]

You mean like the Black Lives Matter movement, and the Standing Rock pipeline protesters? Both of them had troops used to suppress their exercise of the freedoms you claim the military protects.

Actually, they may have had national guard troops, not the active duty military.

 

[Ian]

OK ... moving on, we're on to today's games.