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

chrisseaton.com

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

#251

Post by foldr »

zdragnar wrote: post #140
foldr wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>You also get medical and dental insurance. This reminds me of a point Michael Moore made in Sicko – that Americans are generally fine with government spending if it's directed at the military. As he put it, America could probably have a national health service as long as the doctors and nurses wore camo.

It's a pretty lame point. We're fine with spending on members of the military because, at any point, they may have to put their lives on the line for the rest of us. National defense isn't something you can prepare for after you need it. There are valid arguments to be made for society banding together and providing health care for everyone. "but the military gets it" isn't one of them.

Still though, government-provided medical insurance is accepted as a perk in this context, where as in other contexts, many Americans express extreme skepticism about the concept.

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

#252

Post by master_crab »

oaxacaoaxaca wrote: post #83
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…

>None of that is true. All of that is true about my Army experience lol. If I could go back and do it again, I'd definitely choose Air Force. I agree that the military can be a positive experience and it's a good idea for some people, but the caveat with my endorsement is that you gotta carefully choose the branch and the job. I almost chose linguistics, but for some silly reason chose mechanic and paratrooper, and w…

Your biggest issue was choosing to be a light wheel mechanic in an airborne unit. If you think survival rates for combat dropping troopers are bad, I'd hate to show you the actual percentage of HMMWVs that drive away from a drop zone.

YMMV, but I was Army too. And everyone I dealt with was an adult.

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

#253

Post by pxmpxm »

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.

> "difficult to obtain without military service"

This is factually incorrect - you literally can get $400k in education of your choosing at the tender age of 18, which is why we frequently discus articles revolving around student debt for degrees that don't pay anything. There isn't anything even remotely equivalent when it comes to money access of this sort (try getting a $400k mortgage with zero income and zero assets )

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

#254

Post by trash001 »

nobody9999 wrote: post #236
trash001 wrote: post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> You just give them the fucking food, education, and healthcare. Look at the current US military budget and tell me that's impossible. It’s impossible. Here is some analysis: https://hwfo.substack.com/p/peace-in-ukraine-and-universal-h...

>It’s impossible. Nothing is impossible. Well, except certain classes of time travel into the past.

No post body was provided.

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

#255

Post by pmoriarty »

Before joining the military you should at least watch Winter Soldier[1] and Why We Fight[3].

Also, you should know that "Since 9/11, Military Suicides Are 4 Times Higher Than Deaths In War Operations".[3]

All things that military recruiters aren't keen to focus on.

[1] - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kzMeQGw4Bfs

[2] - https://www.amazon.com/Why-We-Fight-Gore-Vidal/dp/B088PVZHCV...

[3] - https://www.npr.org/2021/06/24/1009846329/military-suicides-...

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

#257

Post by trash001 »

micromacrofoot wrote: post #166
trash001 wrote: post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> You just give them the fucking food, education, and healthcare. Look at the current US military budget and tell me that's impossible. It’s impossible. Here is some analysis: https://hwfo.substack.com/p/peace-in-ukraine-and-universal-h...

This almost entirely ignores the phenomenon of insurance companies inflating healthcare costs and making incredibly large profits. Health insurance industry profits ($31bn in 2020) are almost equivalent to what your link says the entire military expenditure for the European theater is ($35bn in 2018). Not to mention the bureaucratic, political, and productivity costs plus the costs to employers and what individuals p…

No post body was provided.

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

#258

Post by sudosysgen »

cscurmudgeon wrote: post #231
goodpoint wrote: post #213

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> you sign away all your citizenship rights > completely desperate ... the military is there as an option This does not happen by accident. It's practically indentured servitude with extra steps Step 1: cut public schooling, food programs, job programs, affordable housing, public transportation, free healthcare Step 2: fund the army to recruit a lot of people. Provide schooling, housing, food and healthcare to soldie…

False. The US spends a lot on public education. A lot of it is inefficient due to highly politicized unions and top-level admins that pilfer the money out from benefitting ground level teachers and students. https://www.manhattan-institute.org/issues-2020-us-public-sc... > 1. Thanks to decades of increases, America spends more per student than any other major developed nation. U.S. per-pupil expenditures have nearly…

People are talking about post-secondary education here. You are quoting primary and secondary. Your numbers do not apply.

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

#259

Post by snerbles »

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…

> None of that is true.

Really depends on your AFSC (job code), unit and era. I was in one of the more infamous career fields (Security Forces), and the running joke was that we were "real military" compared to the rest of the "Corporate Air Force". A lot of maintainers I knew had similar sentiments towards other office-based career fields.

And that was only at a stateside base - the dynamic got really weird when we deployed on in-lieu-of taskings to relieve understaffed Army units in Iraq. Their Military Police had a similar level of intensity as us, but most of their rank-and-file in the role were augmentees pulled from other career fields without a law enforcement background.

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

#260

Post by giantg2 »

baud147258 wrote: post #229
giantg2 wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"My favorite part of the article is dispelling the myth that in the military senior people bark orders, and don't ask for feedback, and subordinates dutifully carry out those orders. None of those is true. There is a time to "shut up and color" but that is by far the exception." Based on my limited knowledge, I think it's highly dependent on the leaders in the unit. I have a friend who always dreamed of being an nava…

> an XO overrode a maintenance officer in order to bark orders that work needed to be done in a way that was contrary to documented procedures and resulted in loss of life (in training no less) did the XO suffer any consequences from this?

It seemed like a sore point so I didn't ask questions about it (form things I pieced together it sounded like they were injuried and their copilot, maybe others, died; in sounded like the XO probably didn't have any serious consequence or I think they would have mentioned it). Generally, I would only ask questions about the good stories they shared but let them just share what they wanted when they were not happy stories.
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