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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

#341

Post by scottlamb »

aksss wrote: post #326
scottlamb wrote: post #290

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a terrible system, and it was more terrible before Obamacare. In general when someone retires they're old enough to be eligible for Medicare (government-sponsored health care). My dad was. But my mom was just enough younger that she wasn't eligible for Medicare when he retired. There were (and still are) all kinds of weird gaps like this.

Obamacare created new gaps that absolutely sucked - made over 58k and self employed? No subsidies for you and paying a skyrocketing premium higher than any reasonable home mortgage with a 10k deductible. Completely unrealistic. And then the IRS hit you for thousands in penalties via the individual mandate. I lived through that, uninsured, for five years or so as a business owner - to “rich” to get subsidies, too poor…

That's horrible, my sympathy. Personally, I think Obamacare fixed more than it broke, even immediately. In particular, it was a huge relief to get rid of the possibility you could be permanently uninsurable after even a tiny gap if you have a "pre-existing condition".

I wanted Medicare for everyone (still do), but politics...and lies about "government death panels"...

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

#342

Post by DamnYuppie »

saiya-jin wrote: post #305
pxmpxm wrote: post #253

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> "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 ass…

You can get mortgage of 400k USD, what a great thing to get when entering 18... Sorry guys but this is so fucked up from European point of view. And that poor people are pushed to enlist to kill innocent folks half around the globe just to be able to study is yet another level of fuckery. But at least you guys get some semi-decent medical insurance to live like a human being. For which we also don't need to pay (or v…

Last time I checked most the best human rights had to be fought for and defended at some point. Stop taking for granted what was paid for in blood by your predecessors and being all sanctimonious about what are "basic human rights" it makes you sound like a spoiled child.

Your healthcare isn't a human right, is is a benefit you collectively decided to pay for. Others can make different decisions.

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

#343

Post by kfrzcode »

> It’s sacrosanct that I tell the people in my Squadron what I want them to achieve, and not how to achieve it. They take a goal from me and then use their own initiative to make it happen. This is ‘mission command’ and violating it and micromanaging my Yeomen is a real taboo. If you try to tell a Yeoman how to cross a piece of ground in their vehicle rather than telling them where to get to they’ll certainly let you know what their job is and what your job is. I feel like tech could really learn something from this.

This is huge. "Commander's Intent" is something all team leads should set; trust your team to make decisions on the ground, because they all know the mission and understand they 'why.'

This is pure Extreme Ownership in action - allow ownership over decisions by informing and providing direction.

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

#344

Post by jltsiren »

barbazoo wrote: post #152
simulate-me wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Plenty of developed countries have compulsory military service (South Korea, Israel, Switzerland). If anything, we're lucky that it's a choice.

A quick search determined that at least in Switzerland and South Korea, there is an avenue for conscientious objection, so I wouldn't say that "military service" is mandatory there. Even in Israel there seem to be plenty of options to get around military service. I recommend the Wikipedia articles about "Conscription in ".

There are four relevant categories:

a) People conscripted to serve in the military.

b) People who choose civilian service to avoid military service.

c) Conscientious objectors who go to prison instead of serving.

d) People who could be conscripted but somehow manage to avoid serving.

From my Finnish perspective, "mandatory military service" means that the ratio (a + b + c) / d is high. Civilian service does not exist because the country wants to use slave labor instead of paid labor, but because it's socially more acceptable than imprisoning people who refuse to serve in the military.

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

#345

Post by throwaway743 »

hugh-avherald wrote: post #122
rhn_mk1 wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Being subordinate didn't work for the Nuremberg "I was following orders" crowd, which makes me doubt your assertion. > if you don't trust your government to deploy military power, what do you trust them for? Do you have to trust them for anything? It's not like it's a viable option to decide that you don't want to designate any government as "yours". Good luck surviving in no man's land if you do. What makes governme…

It's often misunderstood, but the Nuremberg Defence is a genuine defence to criminal behaviour, including war crimes. It's just not an absolute one, and cannot be used for the crime of genocide. If you're in a missile silo and you're ordered to nuke Moscow, you're not responsible for the outcome.

From what perspective is there no responsibility for the actions of the last one in the chain of command?

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

#346

Post by brandmeyer »

LanceH wrote: post #217
soared wrote: post #172

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thank you for the post. I had friends in college who were previously marines, but their entire school was paid for along with something to the effect of “Anything you need to achieve the career you want, within reason”. New laptops, writing easels, etc. Are there varying levels of educational assistance?

There are varying levels of accuracy in his post. For the GI Bill, I put in $1200 ($100/month for the first year), and I while enrolled at an accredited university I was paid $400/month. I could use that however I wanted. Early 90's, that didn't come close to paying for much, but it was certainly something. I was in the Marines, however. The Army, Navy and Air Force had matching funds and paid a lot more (like triple…

It changed a ton. Over the late 90's (ie, in my day) the per-month payments were increased up to a little over 1k. The Post-9/11 GI Bill is structured very differently and is far more generous: Tuition + BAH. There's a ton of fine print around the tuition part, but in practice it really does fully cover tuition just about everywhere in the US.

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

#347

Post by scruple »

sennight wrote: post #299
scruple wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The treatment of reservists, in OIF specifically, across the board -- from active duty service members all the way up the chain to top military leadership and the GWB admin -- was disgraceful. I saw a little bit of it first hand when I was enlisted. FWIW, they're all real soldiers in my eyes.

It was well deserved in my experience. Toward the end of my deployment, statistically the most dangerous period due to complacency setting in, we had to take over an AO that the Army had given to reservists for a year. They'd been reporting for months that all was quite, so we were looking forward to an uneventful weeklong left-seat/right-seat transition. They no joke met us going the other way as our convoy moved in…

In fairness, I can really only speak to the first couple of years of OIF. I separated in January of 2006.

My larger point would be that the function of reservists and National Guardsmen changed dramatically with OEF/OIF, that the mobilization in reserve and guard forces was unprecedented over the last 20 years.

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

#348

Post by dogman144 »

micromacrofoot wrote: post #314
dogman144 wrote: post #289

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is that wrong-ness the responsibility of the military, or that of our govt/"society" not bothering to offer anything else as capable?

It's the responsibility of the government and by extension, the military. I suppose you could blame society at-large because we elect our representatives, but the majority of Americans already support single-payer healthcare and free or reduced college tuition. It's disturbing to me that it's normal to concentrate efforts on recruiting poor teenagers to fight wars. The focus on the poor also has the effect of disprop…

Guess I'm unclear what policy you think the military could do. Not recruit?

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

#349

Post by mensetmanusman »

barbazoo wrote: post #183
simulate-me wrote: post #173

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In both South Korea and Switzerland you’d still be required to do civilian service in lieu of military service.

True, that wouldn't be "compulsory military service" though imo.

It is compulsory, but with exceptions. Defining something by the outliers just messes with the language of things :)

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

#350

Post by [deleted] »

losvedir wrote: post #245
YATA1 wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>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.

Do you have a source for that? The nearest I could find was this[0] and it doesn't support your assertion. [0] https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/demographics-us-military

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