on to crustier pastures (goodbye thread)

[Deleted member 23824]

. . . And yet, if someone disagrees too vehemently, or slings names at another member, or one that wield the Ban Hammer, you can easily enter that famous Den

I make no pretensions of ever wanting to live an itinerant lifestyle, but I am happy to be learning a bit about trains. For that, I am glad for StP, and the people I’ve met here.The vast number here I don’t believe are true anarchists, or full time travelers. Those may be nice theories to espouse, but the realities , I think, are different.

I have thick skin, and did not get to be almost 60 by having my feelings easily hurt. I also do not believe it is right to sling names around and deliberately say things to hurt others. Well, O.K., maybe it’s right sometimes.I might agree in my mind, but think it is not productive, usually, to say what I might think.I’m also never been a fence-sitter, that much we have in common.

Are you fully living the anarchist/traveling lifestyle? I bet not. So, if it is simply a matter of degree, you’ll always be head and shoulders above me. But that does not matter to me.

If this place is to be welcome to the full menu of misfit travelers, there isn’t a real reason to be hostile, as a matter of course, to those with whom you disagree. I have lots of friends whose lifestyles I am diametrically opposed to, but somehow, because we are generally agreeable folks, it is not keeping us from being friendly toward each other. You seem to relish rudeness and contrariness, something usually more common in old fucks like me.It’s an ugly trait in the old people, but worse when it comes from younger folks. But if you are happy in your own skin, carry on, I’m happy in mine.

 

[Beegod Santana]

Lots of people on this site are ex military and the traveler community is full of vets. You don't need to look long to find horror stories. Normally I just ignore the boot licking but in this particular instance I happen to know several people who went in for exactly what this kid is going for and as I mentioned above, it did not go well for any of them. You can literally walk out your front door and be immediately praised for joining the military. You don't need to come here looking for validation.

 

[Deleted member 23824]

@Beegod Santana , you are right, of course. I worked in Afghanistan and Iraq as a contractor. I literally cried upon seeing what I considered to be children (same age as my sons) fighting. Disillusioned some were, going directly from having mom and dad run their lives, to having Uncle Sam do that, with no in between time to figure out who they were. Some will never recover, many do, and will tell you they got something out of it.

Others benefited immensely, taking advantage of opportunities. I actually met another electrician from the UK who earned three full degrees on the Queens dime before retiring aged 38. He had three separate careers during his service. Some are smart/hard working enough to prepare themselves, some aren’t.

I know vets from the Korean war, Vietnam era, and sadly, a couple of the few remaining WWII vets. Most of them said it was kind of fucked up, but they had no regrets. I wished I had served. I hope he has someone to mentor him, if he does not, it could be bad years down the road, but if he is smart, it could be good for him. There are no guarantees in life, are there?

 

[roughdraft]

tryin to be impersonal, here are two points of view I value in general in my personal life on this matter

- veterans - I respect them and don't shit on them for something that's already done, something they've experienced that they've literally no option to change. open to listen an shit. I don't dickride the military but i can't shit on people who fell for the op.

- people considering the military - i big-time discourage them from that and encourage other options, from basically what @SlankyLanky posted itt which is fucking quite true.

 

[roughdraft]

i mean, i considered joining the military not that long ago, since i have a bachelor's degree i'd go "right to officer's school!!". it's one of a variety of traps set up for many types of folk, not just the lowest of low income folk. But thankfully I have enough perspective and people in my life, including my father who is a veteran, to say that the shit is fucked - and fuck that there's better shit out there.

Aside from that very basic point of view, I would say that there are *moral* reasons to absolutely avoid *the agency* - and no matter your personal experience or those of people close to you, joining *them* is going to backfire. It's nothing disrespectful to those who've "gone and served", it's more a question of one's future, and how that'll effect the future of those in their life.

so it's a matter of past, present and future along with a panorama of other variables (as usual) but i'm just sayin - just because you or so-and-so made out perceptively OK, doesn't mean "go make yr nation proud" is the absolute smartest shit; dissent is patriotic, and I really can't take the time to even recognize a political stance let alone claim "i'm an anarchist", but i gotta figure CONTRIBUTING to the aforementioned endless war is fuckin wack

 

[EmmaAintDead]

Hope you don't die for Exxon, and I hope you don't kill any brown children for them either.

 

[Deleted member 13433]

This simple paragraph here completely sums it all up for me, and tells me that the original poster has completely thought this through:

"I know what I'm getting into. I've talked a lot with family, mentors, a retired marine sniper (one of my mentors) and done lots of studying and I know what will happen to me more or less, and I know how fucked up it might be - to who I am as well as the things I might be told to do. Matt you're right that it's gonna change me a lot, and I appreciate your concern, but this has been on my mind for several years and it's no impulse choice.
This is the natural evolution of all the things I enjoy learning and doing - sort of. I'll be traveling, learning all the time and fighting which are all things I love doing. At the same time it will be total control which is my least favorite thing. Still, after the next 4 years I'll have training, connections and experience that will prepare me for all the craziness coming in the next 10 - 20 years.
Everyone here who spends all their time saying fuck the man has my respect (mostly) but that's not my thing. I'm about actions, not words, and this is what I need to do to become my best self."


It also tells me that this person is perhaps seeing something coming, and wants to be ready for it, and that is something I can completely be on board with.


I have my own opinions regarding our government stemming from 1981, which was the very last time I was back in W.Berlin, which was still in E.Germany back then.

I have also my own opinions about our military stemming from 1982, when I made the one single choice which put me on a trajectory which is why I am where I am today, and it was not joining the U.S. Military, no... it was getting kick out - wheeled out - of high school in my junior year from severe alcohol poisoning at about 9.30 in the morning, on April 2nd if I recall........

A couple of weeks later, I decided after being told I was never going to amount to anything - I went to see the U.S. Navy recruiter above the Woolworth's building in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn only a couple of blocks away from where I lived.

I decided I was going to join the U.S. Navy once I turned 18, which would serve the purpose of getting out on my own, and also satisfy my childhood love of maritime and aviation, as my goal was to become a jet mechanic on an aircraft carrier.

Well, once my folks saw I was not kidding, things mellowed out some and after a good family discussion it was decided that going to aviation school might be a better option, and since schools were affordable back then, that's the path I took....

This has led me on a path for well over 30 years working for a defense contractor, and believe me if you want to know the truth about how our government/military works, there is no better way to do so.

It has also given me great insight on numerous world conflicts, from the Korean War up to the present, which I would otherwise never had the opportunity to truly learn about, from the folks who were actually there...

Now by no means am I pro war, quite the contrary.... I was one of the first to scream No Blood For Oil back during the early 1990s, and regarding the whole Somalia thing in 1993, we could start a seperate thread on that single conflict going into everything that is right and wrong about U.S. Foreign Policy, and I could explain at length my own personal experience regarding that conflict [*and before you ask, no I was not there - but I briefly dealt with soldiers who were being sent over from either the Night Stalkers/Rangers or the 10th Mountain Div.] which for me was a life changing experience.


I know it's hard to agree with someone who is thinking of joining the service today, or who has made up their mind and is doing so as I type these words, but based on what the original poster has stated in the paragraph which I have copied here, I for one got his back, and hope that it is a very valuable experience, especially in that it appears to be one which is felt as being necessary.

Good Luck Friend....

May your service bring you much enlightenment and personal growth.

Please let us know how it goes for you.

Respect,

Big George + Loki the Dog.....

 

[Coywolf]

Well, without wading through the septic tank that this thread has become I will say this:

For the love of everything that is Satan, PLEASE wear that vest you got at the at Jambo last year when you step onto that bus headed to basic!!!

Also, have someone take a picture of that shit and send it back to us....the StP meme thread will go completely insane with it.

Good luck, I may not agree with your decision, but it is yours, and you are enough of an adult to understand the consequences, good or bad.

I really hope the Orange ass-clown isint your commander in cheif when you get your first assignment.

I considered joining the millitary for a long time because I was completely and totally lost. Thought about the 'maybe some discipline would do me good'. I applied for the Coast Guard Rescue Swimmer program....ya know what they told me? I was too old and stupid for their liking.

Fucking wonderful, because I hit the road for the first time ever directly after that, and I wouldnt trade my experience traveling for anything else in the world. I may have committed suicide by now if I did get accepted.

When you are in, you are in for 8 years with active and reserve duty. So just know that. That is a long time. That is my entire traveling career to this point, and I'm 31.