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How was the experience like being in the military?

Rail Tracer

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I'm interested in life experiences (like stories,) so when I found out my friend was in the Navy, I asked her many things about her time during the Navy. So, she gave me some of her life experiences and I seem to get more interested in her experiences as time goes by.

I told her that I learned a Navy term called shipmate, and found that it was a sarcastic/funny term used with peers or something of a dislike. Told her it was initially used as a kind gesture with others, but it somehow found a new connotation to it. She was like.... "YES! Our old professor was in the Navy, when I called him a shipmate as a joke.... he looked sternly at me and was like 'DON'T CALL ME THAT!' Because of that, he calls me a shipmate just to be funny."

She also told me about another Navy term called sealegs, no matter how strong you were when it came to motion-sickness, if a navy ship was moving through waves..... everybody that didn't take medicine for motion sickness will.... vomit. The term was used for those who hasn't experienced the motion sickness yet.

She talked about how cramped the ships can be, and because of it, having to be near many people. Claustrophobic people had to beware.

She also told me about her experiences in Japan and Italy. About how her groups, from time to time, got into fights because she pretty much has become part of her group because the group experienced soooooooo many things together. Like, if one of the people in her group were to mess up, they all had to do extra work.

I also asked her what time she wakes up nowadays.... she was like "4:50 AM........ like every freaking day now." I laughed sooooooooo hard when she told me about that.... and I told her that that I unconsciously, no matter how tired I am, wake up at around 6 for similar reasons (I always woke up sometime around 6 because I did it constantly as a kid.)

I have a blast talking to her about her experiences, lol. I might actually talk to my brother-in-law about his time in the Marines, and whether his experience was as great as my Navy friend.
 

SD45T-2

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A bird colonel I used to know said "You've gotta have a sense of humor, otherwise the bureaucracy will kill you."
 

Rail Tracer

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A bird colonel I used to know said "You've gotta have a sense of humor, otherwise the bureaucracy will kill you."

Yes. I had a high school friend who went into the Army and was glad that he was finally out of it because of all the bureaucratic bullshit and how it felt like he had to do all the work unless the whole team ends up sacrificing something. I mean... I am quite sure him being stationed in Alaska is one reason why it was horrible. All he ever did, besides being able to bring his Xbox over there was go out with others to the local pub or something when there was ever free time.
 

Al Hoove

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I'd recommend that you read John T. Reed's thoughts on the military. He's a West Point Grad who served in the army during the Vietnam War, in Vietnam. He was then and remains now highly dubious about the military experience, but is not a peacenik flake by any means. For what it's worth, after reading his articles, my oldest son (ENTJ) adamantly decided against the military, despite being urged to apply to military academies. I think he made the right choice. Miscellaneous thoughts on military issues by John T. Reed
 

kyuuei

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It's.. interesting.

Personally. I don't regret it at all. I got what I needed out of it.. and much more would have meant my life stagnating or being consumed by it. But it did everything I wanted it to do and more: I made life long friends and connections, it straightened my act out, made me more professional and disciplined than I would have ever hoped to have been as a young ENFP girl, I traveled the world, learned a great set of skills, and paved the way to be able to afford going to college and living on my own independently.

It also gave me things I didn't know I needed in the world.. like a lot of patience, why hurry up and wait is such an important concept, how to differentiate and balance respect and authority with doing the right thing and thinking for one's self, knowing when to lead and when to follow, learning to swallow my pride and say I don't know, how to detach myself and compartmentalize things when necessary, how to navigate bureaucracy without going bananas. Mostly... How little I truly know about the mechanisms behind anything.. and how much people truly don't see even when they think the puzzle piece they have is the whole picture.

I'd probably have learned this stuff on my own eventually.. but I got it in a huge dose at a young age, with the rest of the lessons sprinkled in along the way. I liked my job.

There were also a lot of bad things I learned from the army.. and there's no denying that not everyone goes in and changes for the better. Some people don't change at all, the atmosphere just nourishes their fucked up ways.

I don't think I'll ever stop missing it. But I am glad I'm not doing it anymore right now.

You meet some interesting people along the way.. that's for sure.
 

Snoopy22

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It’s different for everyone; I liked the Army better then the Navy.
 

Metamorphosis

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Imagine being an indentured servant or going from being an adult living on your own to going back to being in grade school and living with your parents and not having a job.

It's a lot like that.
 

kyuuei

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Imagine being an indentured servant or going from being an adult living on your own to going back to being in grade school and living with your parents and not having a job.

It's a lot like that.

:rofl1: Except worse because you have to work and are expected to conduct yourself like an adult without risky impulsive behavior.
 

skylights

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I had a coworker who was in the Marines. Love the guy but inconsistent logic and a complete pushover, which still doesn't make sense to me. I sort of wonder if either the shock or the PTSD got to him. He saw a lot of his friends die.
 

small.wonder

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My brother was a machine gunner (and also did a stint of Intel) in the Marine Corps and I also dated and was engaged to a Marine at one point in time. One thing is absolutely sure about the military, like all things it includes both amazing individuals of high quality character and miserable scumbags. My brother is definitely one of the former, very hard working, handles his leadership with humility, treats people with respect and lives his life with integrity. I definitely have encountered the other kind as well though, in fact my brother even used to warn me about them. Overly cocky, big talking guys with pretty much no actual self respect who use the military to feel macho. Usually these idiots are the least capable and the least seasoned, though they like to think otherwise.

The Marine Corps was a very refining process for my brother, his experience is similar to what [MENTION=4939]kyuuei[/MENTION] described as far as developing his work ethic, sense of self, leadership and chiseling away some of his negative habits. I think it would be good for a lot of people to go through a boot camp scenario (though Marine corps boot camp is kind of a different animal than other branches-- there's a history channel special on it which is awesome).

I'm very proud of my brother and he's never regretted his time in the service, but he's also very much embraced the freedom from it now that he's out. It gave him a lot of oppertunity for growth while in, and then paid for his education once he was out. I also think it helped him determine the kind of man he wanted to be because of the high quality of leadership he had-- well certain individuals anyway, haha.
 

Mole

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I discovered very soon that I was adverse to the military.

I have wondered why. So I looked back in history to find out.

I found that standing armies are only a very recent invention. I do recognise that at the present time standing armies are a necessary evil, but an evil nonetheless.

And by evil necessity standing armies practise the arts of war, and this evil necessity infects whole societies. So we have the civilian gun culture of the USA practising the arts of war on a daily basis.

And just as bad money drives out good money, so the arts of war drive out the arts of peace.

And civilian practice of the arts of war on a daily basis creates a paranoid personality.

We see this paranoid personality in the USA arming itself in self declared militia against their own democratically elected government.
 
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