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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

#451

Post by HWR_14 »

felipemnoa wrote: post #447
master_crab wrote: post #252

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

HMMWVs What does this acronym stand for?

It's the military term for Humvee - the huge vehicle that was popular for a while when gas was cheap. Or rather "hum vee" is how it is pronounced and the civilians spelled it phonetically.

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

#452

Post by YATA1 »

wolverine876 wrote: post #395
YATA1 wrote: post #321

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Enlisted recruits in 2006 and 2007 came primarily from middle-class and upper-middle-class backgrounds. Low-income neighborhoods were underrepresented among enlisted troops, while middle-class and high-income neighborhoods were overrepresented." [0] "Military recruits mirror the U.S. population and are solidly middle class. A recent report shows that more recruits come from middle-income families, with far fewer dra…

Thanks for providing some citations. The military.com link is to a military recruiting ad, and Heritage's business is generating talking points and 'research' for conservative/Republican policy (look at their front page). Here's a report saying that 79% of US Army recruits come from families with service members. [0] IIRC, the military is overwhelmingly rural and does not recruit in major urban areas - which matches…

>The military.com link is to a military recruiting ad

military.com is a news and information website that covers topics such as benefits to military members, veterans, their families and those with military affinity. Even if there are links to recruiting, this does nothing to refute the facts.

>Heritage's business is generating talking points and 'research' for conservative/Republican policy

Reality has a conservative bias apparently. The facts are here for all to see.

>Here's a report saying that 79% of US Army recruits come from families with service members.

Which is a meaningless statistic. This number could be the same across all income classes, or again, higher income classes could be overrepresented.

>the military is overwhelmingly rural and does not recruit in major urban areas

That is hilariously wrong. Your own sources shows Dallas, Houston, San Antonio, Tampa, Atlanta, etc. all in the top counties for recruitment. "Blue cities" != "[all] major urban areas". Your anti-Southern bias is showing.

>Also, the officer corps is overwhelmingly white people, afaik, in a country that is only about half white people in that age group.

This is to be expected due to requiring a four year degree, among other things. Whites are slightly overrepresented in the officer corps. The US is 73% White (including Hispanic), and the officer corps is 75.8% White (including Hispanic). Asians are also ever so slightly overrepresented in the officer corps.

You can see the report that covers this here: http://s3.amazonaws.com/thf_media/2008/pdf/cda08-05.pdf

I can easily attack your source(s) as fake news outlets (New York Times especially), but I'm not going to use fallacies like you have here. Your sources simply do not back up your claims.

The richest quantile is overrepresented. The aforementioned report was compiled by Dr. Shanea Watkins, a policy analyst specializing in empirical studies.

Unless you have sources that claim otherwise, my original claim stands.

QED.

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

#453

Post by earleybird »

remarkEon wrote: post #433
earleybird wrote: post #412

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The reference was to "Fortunate Son".[0] [0] https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/john-fogerty-a...

An odd reference as we don’t have a draft anymore.

Agreed, but not just because there is no longer a draft, but that the song referenced does not differentiate between the rank of those who serve. It does distinguish between those who serve and those who send them into harms way with no risk to themselves.

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

#454

Post by YATA1 »

relaxing wrote: post #359
dagw wrote: post #352

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My point stands: upper class serve more than lower class. While that may very well be true, it i worth highlighting that the reports you are citing as evidence is looking at the years 2003 and 2006-2007, and a lot has changed, economically and politically, since then. Also their cut off for "high-income" seems to be significantly lower than what most people would consider "upper class".

“Upper class starts at $65k/yr” is peak Heritage Foundation.

> “Upper class starts at $65k/yr” is peak Heritage Foundation.

Yes, peak facts that don't care about your feelings. $65k is where the richest quantile for neighborhood median household income starts, by census tract [0]. The linked report was compiled by Dr. Shanea Watkins, a policy analyst specializing in empirical studies.

Unless you have sources that claim otherwise, my original claim stands.

[0] http://s3.amazonaws.com/thf_media/2008/pdf/cda08-05.pdf

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

#455

Post by YATA1 »

monocasa wrote: post #381
relaxing wrote: post #359

Earlier quoted context omitted.

“Upper class starts at $65k/yr” is peak Heritage Foundation.

Jeeze, not just 65k, but 65k household as your neighborhood's median.

Because that is reality. $65k is where the richest quantile for neighborhood median household income starts, by census tract [0]. The linked report was compiled by Dr. Shanea Watkins, a policy analyst specializing in empirical studies.

Unless you have sources that claim otherwise, my original claim stands.

[0] http://s3.amazonaws.com/thf_media/2008/pdf/cda08-05.pdf

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

#456

Post by YATA1 »

relaxing wrote: post #396
YATA1 wrote: post #374

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>And the military is far more likely to be enlisted, so the effect is going to be minor. Immaterial. You're announcing to the world that you don't understand what "per capita" and "underrepresented" means. >Also that report seems to only consider ROTC and West Point Cadets, and I’d bet both are wealthier on average than the officer corps as a whole. No it doesn't. It specifically talks about enlistment. Of course off…

No need to be rude. It sounded like you were suggesting that if the two populations were merged, the underrepresented-rich effect would rise above the minimal level for enlisted alone (0.1%). And I’m saying it’s not going up by much. The section of the report on officers starts at page 9, I’m looking at the graphs on pages 9, 10, and 11. If you see the data elsewhere, please share.

>If you see the data elsewhere, please share.

$65k is where the richest quantile for neighborhood median household income starts, by census tract [0]. The linked report was compiled by Dr. Shanea Watkins, a policy analyst specializing in empirical studies.

Unless you have sources that claim otherwise, my original claim stands.

[0] http://s3.amazonaws.com/thf_media/2008/pdf/cda08-05.pdf

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

#457

Post by chiph »

remarkEon wrote: post #291
coldtea wrote: post #273

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, just not in any combat duty, except the rare ocassion. Combat is for the lower classes, preferably rural poor

>Combat is for the lower classes, preferably rural poor (Former 11A here) This kind of glosses over a lot of cultural reasons for why you find "rural poor" in combat branches. For a lot of the folks in my platoon, it was a family affair. Many were from e.g. Texas or Georgia, and had a brother/cousin/uncle/whatever who were also an 11B/13B etc. There isn't really a "preference" that the Army or Marine Corps has for po…

That was one of the reasons I joined the USAF. Dad was in the 99th ID at the Battle of the Bulge (Purple Heart, Bronze Star) and later crossing the Ludendorff Bridge at Remagen. Granddad was a Sergeant Major in the Cheshire Regiment[1] for His Majesty doing secret stuff he never talked about. I was the underachiever of the family - serving in Germany during the Cold War.[0] But I felt compelled to follow in the family tradition, and I'm glad I did as it helped me get my shit together.

Most of the people I served with had some college. There were a couple of guys in Basic with Bachelor's degrees, and we wondered why they went enlisted instead of officer. But each to their own.

[0] Enjoy. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fpu5a0Bl8eY

[1] Different unit than the author of the article was in. The Cheshire Regiment was line infantry, so full-time soldiers.

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

#458

Post by ryan_lane »

Diesel555 wrote: post #449
ryan_lane wrote: post #444

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> False. I can say the same things as any citizen outside of my uniform. I am a US citizen with rights. I signed away no such rights. You're not allowed to say disparaging things about anyone in your command chain, which goes up to the president. There's also limits on your political speech, in relation to making political statements in favor of candidates. The limits on your political speech aren't limited to servic…

> You're not allowed to say disparaging things about anyone in your command chain, which goes up to the president. There's also limits on your political speech, in relation to making political statements in favor of candidates. You are right, there are more restrictions for me. I'll change my evaluation of "you sign away all your citizenship rights" to mostly false. The OP made a rather encompassing assertion. I stil…

> I'd be curious to hear the facts behind this assertion. The regulations are pretty clear on how to qualify. I've never seen someone qualified then denied.

https://www.history.com/news/gi-bill-black-wwii-veterans-ben...

https://chicago.suntimes.com/2021/11/5/22765623/veterans-aff...

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

#459

Post by YATA1 »

aksss wrote: post #294
losvedir wrote: post #245

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Yes, and that data stops the grouping of household income at $87k and higher, which isn’t really that high of a floor, and is telling in itself. There are no further breakouts, such as 87-100, 100-200, 200+ because it would presumably be insignificant.

Because that is reality. $65k is where the richest quantile for neighborhood median household income starts, by census tract [0]. The linked report was compiled by Dr. Shanea Watkins, a policy analyst specializing in empirical studies.

Unless you have sources that claim otherwise, my original claim stands.

[0] http://s3.amazonaws.com/thf_media/2008/pdf/cda08-05.pdf

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

#460

Post by tapvt »

felipemnoa wrote: post #447
master_crab wrote: post #252

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

HMMWVs What does this acronym stand for?

To directly answer the question: “High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicle” [0]

[0] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Humvee

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