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Why I'm in the Army Reserve – an explainer for my friends in tech

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Re: Why I'm in the Army Reserve – an explainer for my friends in tech

#191

Post by briffle »

ethbr0 wrote: post #124
dogman144 wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I will never view military service as a bad thing in totality. Locally evaluated, it's a good option. Putting aside the more heady concepts of public service and sacrifice, it is one of the last remaining conduits to change your stars and "make a man/woman/adult out of you," *although it is certainly not without faults and has certainly caused horrible experiences for people who served*. It is an imperfect organizati…

As the son of a son of a father who wouldn't have gone to college without WWII-era tuition assistance, can confirm it changes entire family trajectories. My grandfather had the work ethic and intelligence in him, subsequently proven, but was born dirt poor with a snowball's chance in hell he could have afforded college without the GI Bill. The military is an option which largely accepts you if you say "Yes" and can p…

Same thing here. My grandfather was excited when his dad found some pallets 'that fell off the back of a truck' so they could have a floor for the tent they lived in outside Portland, and not see the rats. (funny when people in PDX complain about the homeless problem, my grandpa was in those cities in the 30's and 40s)

GI bill put him into college, and set him up with an eductation that setup my mom and her 6 siblings with a 'normal' middle class life. Not too shabby for a man that literally grew up dirt poor.

Re: Why I'm in the Army Reserve – an explainer for my friends in tech

#192

Post by robertlagrant »

toomuchtodo wrote: post #25
jmyeet wrote: post #14

So one of the things I like about Tiktok is you get exposed to something you normally wouldn't and it can be fascinating. One example of this I had an Air Force recruiter pop up on my fyp. This is obviously US-centric (as opposed to the article, which is the UK) but here are some things I've learned: 1. The difference between Reserve and Guard? Reserve is Federal, Guard is State (this was news to me); 2. Signing up f…

This isn't a positive. It is a tragedy that these services (education, healthcare) are difficult to obtain without military service in a supposedly developed country.

> It is a tragedy that these services (education, healthcare) are difficult to obtain without military service in a supposedly developed country.

Don't be silly. Education is not difficult to obtain without military service.

Re: Why I'm in the Army Reserve – an explainer for my friends in tech

#193

Post by throwaway0x7E6 »

YATA1 wrote: post #99
sputknick wrote: post #8

I spent five years in the Air Force. Posts like this are really helpful, a lot of Americans are disconnected from members of the military, especially in the upper classes where people do not need to serve, or in fields (like tech) where people can often find less intrusive ways to pay for college. My favorite part of the article is dispelling the myth that in the military senior people bark orders, and don't ask for…

>especially in the upper classes where people do not need to serve This is a often repeated myth. The upper class serves more per capita than the lower class.

sure, but not in combat roles

and while sure, those 6 or 8 or whatever out of 10 army people per 1 grunt do contribute a lot, they don't get shot at. no risk, all reward

Re: Why I'm in the Army Reserve – an explainer for my friends in tech

#194

Post by monocasa »

drran wrote: post #186
monocasa wrote: post #159

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> A lot of people talk about Mỹ Lai, and they say, 'Well, you know, yeah, but you can't follow an illegal order.' Trust me. There is no such thing. Not in the military. If I go into a combat situation and I tell them, 'No, I'm not going. I'm not going to do that. I'm not going to follow that order', well, they'd put me up against the wall and shoot me. ~ Lawrence La Croix, a squad leader in Charlie Company in Mỹ Lai

Illegal/immoral orders can be silently sabotaged and reported later. Look at RF and Belarus. Russians are happy to kill Ukrainians, while Belarussians are wrecking Russian military trains. They received same orders.

Only if the lower echelons of leadership are on board with sabotaging the orders. If they're not that's when you end up taking the "enemy fire" that back authorizes the use of force for the war crime.

Re: Why I'm in the Army Reserve – an explainer for my friends in tech

#195

Post by oh_sigh »

toomuchtodo wrote: post #25
jmyeet wrote: post #14

So one of the things I like about Tiktok is you get exposed to something you normally wouldn't and it can be fascinating. One example of this I had an Air Force recruiter pop up on my fyp. This is obviously US-centric (as opposed to the article, which is the UK) but here are some things I've learned: 1. The difference between Reserve and Guard? Reserve is Federal, Guard is State (this was news to me); 2. Signing up f…

This isn't a positive. It is a tragedy that these services (education, healthcare) are difficult to obtain without military service in a supposedly developed country.

Is education difficult to obtain? America is the #6th most educated country in the world, when viewed from the perspective as percentage of population having at least some tertiary schooling:

https://www.cnbc.com/2018/08/30/the-10-most-educated-countri...

Re: Why I'm in the Army Reserve – an explainer for my friends in tech

#196

Post by photochemsyn »

dawsmik wrote: post #168
photochemsyn wrote: post #131

The most important thing to realize about military service is that you sign away all your citizenship rights (free speech, etc.) when you sign up for the service. Hopefully you won't be used in ridiculous debacles like the 2003 Iraq Invasion, based on lies about WMDs pushed by Washington (and see British role as well), but you'll have no say in the matter. The other thing to realize is that, at least in the USA, they…

I think there is some incorrect information in this post. I know people who have completed their Bachelors and Masters completely funded by the GI Bill, including living expenses. In the experience of the people I know, the VA goes out of their way to give benefits as needed. One case, in particular, they were granted 100% disability for life with a packet submission and one phone call.

The details matter. A lot of people sign up for a two-year active duty contract (it's an eight-year contract in all though, you're in the reserves afterwards). That only gives 70-80% of the benefit (which only runs for a max of 36 months, not a full four years). You're also restricted to in-state public schools, no private (Ivy League etc.) or out-of-home-state schools. Most of the military people I talked to at my local community college barely got two years of schooling out of it.

https://www.va.gov/resources/how-we-determine-your-percentag...

Re: Why I'm in the Army Reserve – an explainer for my friends in tech

#197

Post by simonh »

Aunche wrote: post #178
simonh wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes it does. Was Afghanistan better off before the pull out, or now under the Taliban? Iraq is a mess, sure, but at least nobody is gassing whole cities and we can be immensely proud of the liberation of Kuwait although that was more than 20 years ago. Right now we are providing vital military assistance to Ukraine, and I wish we were doing a lot, lot more. The failures were political ones. Militarily the army did th…

>Iraq is a mess, sure, but at least nobody is gassing whole cities We didn't invade Iraq because of Saddam's genocide. That occurred while Iraq was allied with the US against Iran. The sudden concern for the Kurds was simply to manufacture consent for the war.

That’s a fair point, but the first gulf war was all about Kuwait.

Re: Why I'm in the Army Reserve – an explainer for my friends in tech

#198

Post by simonh »

DonaldFisk wrote: post #135
basisword wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>> Was Afghanistan better off before the pull out, or now under the Taliban? Why is that the comparison? The comparison should be was Afghanistan better off before we invaded in the first place. And committed war crimes. And radicalised a tonne of people who then came into Europe to murder civilians. You'd have to do mental somersaults to justify the Iraq + Afghanistan wars and think they were the right choice.

Before the 2001 invasion, Afghanistan was ruled by the Taliban. Invasion of Iraq in 2003 was a different matter. At that point, Iraq didn't have WMD, and wasn't harbouring Al Qaeda, so the invasion was unjustified.

The 2003 invasion is obviously contentious. I’d argue we should have done it the first time, but that’s moot.

Re: Why I'm in the Army Reserve – an explainer for my friends in tech

#199

Post by adolph »

systemvoltage wrote: post #91

> I meet a lot of people in tech who tell me with a straight face that they genuinely think we should just unilaterally disband the Army right now, and cannot comprehend why I’d have anything to do with it. At RubyConf 2014 someone in the lunch queue asked what I did before I was in tech and asked me if I enjoyed killing babies when I explained. I think Silicon Valley has a lot to learn from this. I worked with a def…

"a lot of people in tech . . . think we should just unilaterally disband"

Not SV, but similarly myopic: https://www.cnet.com/tech/tech-industry/dell-apple-should-cl...

Re: Why I'm in the Army Reserve – an explainer for my friends in tech

#200

Post by toomuchtodo »

oh_sigh wrote: post #195
toomuchtodo wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This isn't a positive. It is a tragedy that these services (education, healthcare) are difficult to obtain without military service in a supposedly developed country.

Is education difficult to obtain? America is the #6th most educated country in the world, when viewed from the perspective as percentage of population having at least some tertiary schooling: https://www.cnbc.com/2018/08/30/the-10-most-educated-countri...

https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/SLOAS

https://hbr.org/2019/09/what-will-it-take-to-solve-the-stude...

https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/The-Debt-Trap/Josh-Mi...

https://www.npr.org/2022/04/01/1089750113/student-loan-debt-...

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