Opinion Columnist
If you’re thinking about joining the military, you better know what the hell you’re getting yourself into. Making this decision will have an enormous impact on the rest of your life.
Shortly after graduating high school, I had to face the harsh bitterness of reality and become an adult.
There was no money to continue going to school, like I had preferred, so I was persuaded to join the Army. I would later realize that the Army-life was not at all what I had in mind.
Offering up a portion of your civil freedom and life preservation to serve the armed forces should be an absolute last resort for anyone who does not fully understand its magnitude.
Of course, there are millions of people in our country that join the military in response to an intuitive moral sense of duty. But those aren’t the people I’m talking about.
Today, getting a formal education is more expensive than ever.
According to the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau, there is over $902 billion in total outstanding student loan debt in the United States today. The Federal Reserve Bank of New York states that, “As of Quarter 1 in 2012, the average student loan balance for all age groups is $24,301. About one-quarter of borrowers”—out of approximately 37 million—“owe more than $28,000.”
It’s obvious that people just can’t afford to pay for school. So why not let someone else pick up the tab instead?
The U.S. Army, for example, makes it so easy to join their forces by saying, “Hey, don’t worry about paying for college. We’ll take care of it. Just sign this sacrificial contract.” So many poor, young Americans don’t even blink at the opportunity. Spending a few years getting in shape and mindlessly taking orders from people couldn’t be that bad, right?
When I first got to basic training at Ft. Benning, it felt as if we were being delivered to a concentration camp. At “orientation,” everyone received a complementary buzz cut in order to erase any sort of preexisting sense of individuality.
Next, we made our way through the assembly line to collect all of our initial gear. This process seemed to take an eternity. We arrived, by bus, on the first night to orientation—30th AG—about 0:30. We were literally forced to stay awake, sitting on hard wooden benches, for over thirty-six hours before they let us take a nap. I would hear horror stories of people hanging themselves in their lockers because they had been held in “limbo” for months due to injuries or not being cleared to move on for reasons unknown.
By the time I had reached permanent party, the unit that I was assigned to was already in Afghanistan. I knew it was only a matter of time before I joined them. Fortunately, I dodged that bullet. After all, I had determined that risking my life for a concept I had very little knowledge of, for money, was the wrong answer.
Do yourself a favor, and do the research. It is detrimental–to your psyche and your well-being–to ask yourself if putting your life on the line equals whatever you’re getting out of it.
tjchristie@mavs.coloradomesa.edu
Recent Comments