Why I'm in the Army Reserve – an explainer for my friends in tech • Hacker News Board

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

#401

Post by oneoff786 » Mon, Apr 04, 2022, 10:22 PM UTC

nradov wrote: post #366

oneoff786 wrote: post #280

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah. I’ve grown up starkly anti military due to the kinds of fights the American military has fought in my lifetime. It’s been evil. Plain and simple. And yet, I’m glad we have a strong military given happenings in Ukraine. I would strongly support putting boots on the ground. To have the training necessary to join the volunteer defense forces in Ukraine or something similar resonates as a valuable, important skill.…

Putting American military boots on the ground in Ukraine would likely escalate to WW3.

Bring it motherfucker

Edit: but bravado aside, I think no, it would not. I think Russia would just back down. If they were willing to escalate, I think we would have seen a nuke in kyiv by now

Edit edit: and it is worth it to show we are willing to stand up for such things. We cannot afford to roll over to anyone with nukes

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

#402

Post by oneoff786 » Mon, Apr 04, 2022, 10:25 PM UTC

seti0Cha wrote: post #387

oneoff786 wrote: post #280

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah. I’ve grown up starkly anti military due to the kinds of fights the American military has fought in my lifetime. It’s been evil. Plain and simple. And yet, I’m glad we have a strong military given happenings in Ukraine. I would strongly support putting boots on the ground. To have the training necessary to join the volunteer defense forces in Ukraine or something similar resonates as a valuable, important skill.…

Were you around for the buildup to the second gulf war? The rhetoric against Saddam Hussein was not terribly different in tone than that against Putin. People were similarly outraged and many people wanted us to invade because of all the awful things he did, e.g. his treatment of the Kurds. In fact, pretty much all the major conflicts that have happened in my lifetime have been accompanied by a call to action based o…

Media literacy seems like it was a lot worse back then. I’m not convinced I would ever support the invasion of another country.

I’m not supporting the invasion of Russia. I’m supporting the defense of Ukraine.

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

#403

Post by pyinstallwoes » Mon, Apr 04, 2022, 10:29 PM UTC

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…

So you’re allowed to choose your job? I thought it wasn’t guaranteed what interests you had vs what you are placed in.

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

#404

Post by PeterisP » Mon, Apr 04, 2022, 10:36 PM UTC

uxp100 wrote: post #167

adewinter wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hard to tell if you're just trolling or being serious. * Nuremberg and "just following orders" was about actual orders to specific individuals to do things that were literal war crimes, and those individuals carrying those orders out. One country designating another country an enemy is not, in fact, a war crime. >> Do you have to trust them for anything? I mean, yes? Even when you live in a libertarian fantasy land i…

> One country designating another country an enemy is not, in fact, a war crime. But an illegal war of aggression is a crime against humanity, right?

Starting an illegal war of aggression is a crime for which some people were convicted in Nuremberg Tribunals.

However, all the soldiers fighting in such an illegal war of aggression are not considered responsible for that crime. For "simply" fighting a war and killing uniformed enemy soldiers "I was just following orders" actually is a legitimate excuse, and should not result in any convictions (of e.g. murder) unless they commit some explicit war crimes, e.g. murdering captured civilians.

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

#405

Post by cscurmudgeon » Mon, Apr 04, 2022, 10:38 PM UTC

relaxing wrote: post #382

cscurmudgeon wrote: post #231

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

So you admit the money does not reach those in need.

So you admit we have increased funding.

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

#406

Post by cscurmudgeon » Mon, Apr 04, 2022, 10:39 PM UTC

relaxing wrote: post #383

cscurmudgeon wrote: post #375

Earlier quoted context omitted.

1. False. 2. Even then, my point stands. US is #2 in post secondary education (#1 is the tiny state of Luxembourg). US spends more than twice the OECD average. https://nces.ed.gov/programs/coe/indicator/cmd (See Figure 2) You are welcome! These are easily verifiable numbers.

Comparing nationwide figures is misleading since there are huge disparities in funding between rich and poor school districts.

> Comparing nationwide figures is misleading since there are huge disparities in funding between rich and poor school districts.

We spend a lot. A lot gets wasted due to rent seekers in the govt and unions.

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

#407

Post by bladegash » Mon, Apr 04, 2022, 10:39 PM UTC

dlp211 wrote: post #316

photochemsyn wrote: post #196

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 l…

As others have noted, a lot of what you wrote is wrong. The Post 9/11 GI Bill will cover any tuition up to the maximum in-state university. You also do not have to return your Home of Record and can declare citizenship in any state post service and receive in-state tuition (you will of course need to meet the states requirement for citizenship). Also, many universities (private and public out-of-state) have the Yello…

Yep, same here - GI bill + yellow ribbon paid for me to go to a very expensive private university in DC. Also gave me an additional $2500 a month in BAH while I attended.

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

#408

Post by totoglazer » Mon, Apr 04, 2022, 10:52 PM UTC

sokoloff wrote: post #218

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…

There are limits to your ability to take leadership roles in political parties and to make political statements while in uniform or where there could be reasonable confusion about whether your activity is as a private citizen or as a member of the military. That is a far cry from “sign[ing] away all your citizenship rights (free speech, etc.).”

There are currently serving members of congress…

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

#409

Post by fredophile » Mon, Apr 04, 2022, 10:53 PM UTC

blobbers wrote: post #319

tempnow987 wrote: post #139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One issue with reserves, especially army. Through the iraq/afghanistan deployments BOG time was way up (ie, your service commit is not just that weekend a month). BOG = Boots on ground time. In afghanistan Army deployments (both active and reserve) were far higher than other service branches. My quick understanding is that normally they would like to target 1/4 BOG/Dwell time. So if you are thinking of reserves, part…

Is there data on how much real service one might be doing? As in incoming mortars, bullets flying over your head, in a place with IEDs or mines etc. I feel like if I wanted to be put in that specific situation, I'd want a whole lot more training than a reservist.

I can't speak for other people's experiences but I did deploy to Afghanistan as a combat arms reservist in the Canadian army. Typically, you're expected to be overseas for 6 months but anything from 5-8 isn't that uncommon. Other roles had other expected deployment lengths. To prep for a 6 month tour involved full time training for about 8 months. This is the same training time the regular forces got and was done with them.

I think you may also underestimate the amount of training reservists do. To get fully qualified in my trade took over 3 months of full time training split up over a couple years. During my time in the reserves you'd do 1-2 evenings a week from September to May/June. You'd also have 1 weekend a month training for most of those months and 1 week long training exercise per year. During the summer, people who had the time could do full time work taking or teaching on courses.

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

#410

Post by micromacrofoot » Mon, Apr 04, 2022, 10:57 PM UTC

nradov wrote: post #378

micromacrofoot wrote: post #314

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Americans may claim that they support healthcare or education reform in the abstract, but they don't actually vote that way. Most people aren't willing to voluntarily pay higher taxes or cut other programs in order to actually implement those policies. I'd like the government to give me all sorts of stuff for free as long as someone else is paying.

We're all already paying for it through health insurance companies, who are siphoning off huge profits.

Unless you're living off-grid the government already gives you mountains of "free" stuff paid for by taxes! It's an enormously long list of utilities and services that contains everything from fire departments to food safety. Mostly things that shouldn't be profit centers.