I tried joining the Army when I was 18-years-old

[Roon]

I thought, hey!! Serve twenty years and retire? I thought that was a heck of a deal!!

I was stupid and didn't realize that my hearing impairment would disqualify me.

I sometimes wonder how different my life would have been if I got into the military. Would I still be in the closet? Would I have contracted aids? I think I would have done very well in the Army.

I wish they would have disqualified me before I registered for the draft,I would have told them to stick it and not register. Wish I could take my registration back.

They can trust a computer to guide a missile to a target less than two feet wide but they can't trust me with hearing aids.

[vadawg]

1. dude if you need hearing aids then you would be limited to what you could do

i would hate to have to rely on you finding me and dragging my ass out if your hearing aids were onthe fritz and you couldnt hear me :)

[Roon]

3. Yeah I know

That is a great point. It was still a bummer. I at least got to drive truck for a couple of years. The only requirment for that is to have extra hearing aid batteries at all times.

I wonder now. If I applied for disability because of my hearing loss would I have been approved? I can hear fine with my hearing aids, but without, I am totally deaf and useless. How would I keep a job without being in hearing aids?

[JonLP24]

4. Ha! That's what I did in the Army

Drive trucks. Didn't stay in long. 3 years.

[Roon]

6. Cool!

My buddy who got me into driving truck drove in the army.

[Sanity Claws]

8. Interesting

I think you would have ended up where you are regardless of whether you had gotten into the army.

[Roon]

9. Probably

[Sanity Claws]

2. Is it good to go there?

Like a lot of people, I've had forks in the road at several different points.
Now I realize that I would have ended up in the same place even if I had taken the other fork. I don't think I realized that when I was younger.

[Roon]

5. The warthog thread reminded me of trying to join

I was kind of bitter about it for awhile,but I quickly got over it. I just like to think how different my life would have been.

[Mike 03]

7. Great post, do you feel regret that you were rejected, or gratitude? NT

[Roon]

14. I would have probably been in several wars..gulf and today's wars

At the time I tried to join, war was unthinkable. So I guess in that sense I am grateful that I didn't ship off to war.

[quakerboy]

10. They recruited me pretty hard

Seeing as I don't care for authority, don't do well with observing standard hierarchy, refuse to take part in or assist other in taking part in killing, and don't overmuch care for physical exertion outside of the few fun applications, It did not seem a good match to me, no matter what the testing or family said.

I have wondered whether I would have been broken or not, had I followed my fathers advice and joined up.

[rcrush]

11. I was the same way.

Recruiters would follow me around the high school and then just show up at places I'd hang out at after school. I couldn't get those guys to leave me alone. It was hilarious cause no way in hell was I going to join the army. That would have been a waste of everyones time.

[quakerboy]

13. Yup.

I always asked them point blank if they had any positions where I could be guaranteed not to have to fight or otherwise use or contribute to violence, seeing as I was an affirmed pacifist. Apparently there are several military veterinarian positions, and that's about it. And they never could guarantee that I would get one of those spots. And they never did get the message.

[Brickbat]

12. I was strongly recruited by the Marines because of my language ability and standardized test scores.

For a variety of reasons I did not join, and I often wonder who I would have been if I had. I'm sure I would have been very different. I sometimes regret not studying languages at Monterey, but then, I passed for Ukrainian in Russia, and that's good enough for me, really.