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Benefits of military service
Benefits of military service
Benefits of military service
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When I was seventeen I nervously traveled about 350 miles from my sleepy little home town of Freedom, Wyoming to the relatively enormous city of Boise, Idaho to go to the Military Entrance Processing Station. This wasn 't the first time I had been this far from home by myself, but it was the first time I was making adult decisions without my parents involvement. When it came time for me to choose my job in the army the counselors presented me with a long list that I qualified for. I got tired of scrolling and reading so I chose the first job that I actually understood. I returned home and excitedly told my parents that I would be an infantry soldier. My dad 's response to this might be considered a little less than heart warming “You dumb ass. Why didn 't you choose …show more content…
In the beginning it was great. Everything was new and exciting. Whenever I went on leave I couldn 't wait to get back to work after only a few days. The years passed and all the new and exciting things became old and boring. I began going on back to back deployments and I started to get really burned out. When I went to my twenty year high school reunion I got a chance to see what life as a civilian could be like and I wanted that. I no longer wanted to move when the army decided that they needed me some place. I wanted to put down roots and I couldn 't really do that while I was in the army. Being a soldier was a really tough life. In the end I hated doing the same thing day after day with no change in sight, I despised the leaders that didn 't take care of their subordinates, and most importantly, I couldn 't lead my soldiers from the front anymore. I 'll be the first one to say that joining the army was the best thing to happen to me. I have grown so much as a person and the lessons I learned are invaluable. In the end I realized the negative factors outweighed any possible benefit I might receive from continued service. It was time for me to
Beyond my mom dressing me up as an Army soldier and playing war games on my Xbox or computer, I belonged to the Boy Scouts, there I really think my passion to serve my country started to show. I spent many hours volunteering, camping, and learning how to survive as a young man. I earned my Eagle Scout by the age of fifteen and as I continue to follow the Boy Scout motto “On my honor, I will do my best to do my duty to God and my country and obey the Scout Law; to help other people at all times; to keep myself physically strong, mentally awake, and morally straight.” I will take what I learned with me to the next chapter of my life the United States
We all have been together since my sister was born. We have been to a lot of places around the world which was pretty fun because my father was in the military. My family started here in Atchison when my mother and father met. They then got married and had my sister. After she was born, my father went into the military because they wanted to get away from the family. My father’s side was picking favorites between grandchildren and way before they got married my mother’s side was verbally abusive. They just wanted to get away from here. So my father was sent to Arizona with his wife and my sister. After a few years of being there, they had me, Collin. I started out horrible when I was born and my parents thought I wasn’t going to make it. After
Growing up in Southern California prevailed its beauty yet, growing up in a military family is something I'll forever gratify. For 20+ years my father was a marine and out of those years, I experienced 13 of them. Let me tell you those were the best years of my life. However, I will only tell you the story that has made me who I am.
I am a product of a military family. I am not the average combination of a straight mixed race. I identify as black and white. I am a mulatto. I was born in Dayton, Ohio; furthermore, I grew up in the small town of Cedarville, Ohio. My parents both growing up around the same area: Cedarville and Springfield. Even though I was not in the military, my experience as a military brat shaped me today. I endured academic and cultural identity struggles throughout the years. I bring aspects from all the locations we were stationed. Moving through five different locations I was engulfed in foreign locations. I contribute a unique standpoint of diversity to the Ohio State University.
I didn’t take high school as serious as I should have. I didn’t take an SAT or anything in Germany because either there wasn’t a way or I didn’t want to. I wanted to be a police officer but unfortunately most departments at the time wanted you to have a two year degree. Since I did not have a degree I ended up come up with something else I wanted to do. After a little thought I decided I would join the military and become part of the United States Army. I started my Army career at Fort Benning, Georgia. Being in the Army was definitely a huge change for me. It was my first time out in life on my own. I had no idea what I had got myself into. It was different from my time at the ranch. This was structured, organized, and discipline.
The summer after my first semester at XXXX, my parents saw an advertisement in the newspaper for those interested in a career as a flight attendant. My parents pressured me to go to the airline's open house. I flat out refused. After all, I was 19 and madly in love with my unemployed 30 year old boyfriend who still lived with his parents.
I grew up in a small town and after I graduated high school I wanted more in life than a 9 to 5 job; I wanted to see the world. I had a few friends that had joined the military and had come home to visit with exciting stories about their experiences. I noticed a change in a few of them; they seemed to walk a little taller, maybe act a bit more mature. This, along with the intrigue of life outside of my small town, drew me to consider joining the military. I met a recruiter in Lakeland Florida in July of 1989 and a few months later on September 26th I raised my right hand and took the Oath of Enlistment. I had no idea what I had gotten myself into.
The military affected my trust in people and my health, but the only positive thing that came out of it is the job that I do now.
As soon as you step of the Cattle Truck the Drill Sergeants surround you saying anything and everything they can to mentally break you. They make you feel small and meaningless because you do nothing until they tell you to do it. As the hours pass and the days count up they get worse with their tactics of breaking you. They run you from dawn to dusk giving you very little sleep. You have weeks that feels like days from being sleep deprived, physically weak because all they do is push you trying to make you quiet, and mentally tired and giving you the sense of frailty. It does not get any better until AIT, which once I was done with basic training I came home and finished high school. About 6 months after I graduated, I received my orders for my second part of training called
I was enlisted in the army on 23 June 1999 as an Infantry rifleman in 4th Battalion Singapore Infantry Regiment. Initially I hated the army and signing on in the army never cross my mind. I hated the army for many reasons. The regimentation, waking up very early in the morning everyday, no freedom and sometimes even been punished by the Sergeant for no apparent reason. I only decided to take up Army as a career after I ORD in 2001 when I actually miss being a soldier. The army life is so full of adventure, toughness and camaraderie.
It was February 2010 when my family and I found ourselves on a plane to an underdeveloped country that was in horrific condition. The country, Iraq, is about seven-thousand miles from the United States. The plane ride was an exhausting sixteen hours, but it would all come to be worth it when the journey was over. Most Americans know Iraq as a nation involved in corruption and wars. However, when I visited Iraq, I learned a whole new understanding of the country. I experienced a country that was struggling from past dictators who neglected the citizens and abused their positions. This showed me that the consensus is not always the truth and that you must experience something to understand it.
My high school english teacher said that I noticed the small details in life, I wish it would’ve come in handy in any way than it did on the battlefield when I noticed the look on the medic's face as he examined my best friend. In high school I always found myself in some sort of trouble. Whether it be getting detention for being over an hour late for class, or if I was being suspended for fighting out in the corridor. When I graduated, I found myself hanging out with people that I shouldn't have been with, an abundance of people that I hung around, were either drug dealers or gang member, most times they were both. One day when I was with a few of my friends, there was a shooting over something gang related and I lost my best friend, Anthony. After that night I was determined to do something else with my life. That's when I learned about the military, I went to the local recruitment office and I signed up. I was going to be in the military.
Like many service members, my story begins with my family. Born and raised in Rochester, New York, I had little to do with the military as a child. Though my parents’ families shared a rich tradition of military service to include my father’s eight years of service to the United States Marine Corps before I was born; I had absolutely no exposure besides these links. In fact, even now, only scarcely could I relate to anyone much of their military careers beyond service branch, job, and the major conflicts they served through. However, the spirit of their service permeated into every aspect of my life growing up. My father’s time I the Marine’s was well spent as he raised us with a fierce devotion to discipline, standards and respect. He instilled in us a sense of duty with an inherent expectation to help out around the house, maintain good grades, stay physically fit, and participate in extracurricular activities. He chose to stay involved in our activities either through coaching, Cub & Boy Scout leading or just participating. My mother, an accomplished teacher, was the primary home maker and just as supportive. My parents’ sense of service affected me greatly and led me to get involved in coaching, youth mentoring programs and school service organizations. The more involved...
Army life can be very challenging and a life changing experience. It was very challenging and life changing for me. I was raised by my Grandparents they did everything for me so this was a wakeup call for me on life. An independent person was not I, so I had problems with the changes about to come. Army life is constantly demanding and constantly changing without notice. Although the travel was exciting, army life for me was very challenging because I had to learn to adapt to a new system, to share my life with other soldiers, and to give up many of the comforts of home.
What more could I ask for, the military had a certain form of excitement not shared by any other profession in the world. The places I traveled if duplicated would take a lifetime of trying, the experience, the honor of serving my country, all with an adequate wage scale. The outside forces that ended this career path in the Navy would fill a volume. To keep this long story in perspective and within the confines of this assignment, it is easier to conclude that the Navy became a job and not an adventure. Three crashes, a divorce, and plethora of other smaller forces led to the decision to retire prematurely from the military and return to my home in Syracuse, New York where my family was.