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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

#291

Post by remarkEon »

coldtea wrote: post #273
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.

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 poor people, but there is a cultural reason why people who like combat tend to be rural poor. This is of course my experience, and precise demographic data is hard to come by without a FOIA request.

Just wanted to throw my two cents out there. The guys in my platoon weren't the "dumb hicks" a lot of people seem to think populate the infantry.

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

#292

Post by jcurbo »

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…

High five. 6 yrs in the USAF here.

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

#293

Post by agapon »

throwaway0x7E6 wrote: post #250
notch656a wrote: post #205

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah because no one in a logistics or support role was ever awarded a purple heart /s.

sure, and if you go back in time far enough, you can say that generals get killed in combat too how many logistics and support personnel casualties did the US have in any war during this century?

why go back in time, just be a russian general...

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

#294

Post by aksss »

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

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.

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

#295

Post by VictorPath »

> defend its people and friends

Like the people in Derry marching to protest the internment of Irishmen without trial in concentration camps? Guess not, the Parachute Regiment shot into the crowd in 1972 and the Queen pinned medals on them.

How about the Jallianwala Bagh massacre in India, or the Batang Kali massacre in Malaysia in 1948, and so on.

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

#296

Post by pmoriarty »

adewinter wrote: post #119
pphysch wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> He therefore believes he can fight on its behalf based on what the democratic leadership determine. This is, at best, a naive portrayal of how London and Washington start wars. See the infamous Downing Street Memo [1]. In Washington, which often leads the rest of the West in military adventurism, Congress hasn't approved a military operation since 2002, despite a US-led coalition destroying sovereign Libya in 2011…

It might be naive but doesn't make the statement any less accurate or true. Some people have a strong belief, and faith, in democracy and democratic leaders. To the point that they'd join up and go fight if called upon. It's not for everyone but that's ok in a democratic society. Implying that people who do believe in the system are stupid or "lesser," is perhaps something you should consider not doing.

"Some people have a strong belief, and faith, in democracy and democratic leaders. To the point that they'd join up and go fight if called upon."

There must be some serious cognitive dissonance going on in those people who give Congress and the President abysmally low ratings and yet believe in democracy so much that they'd join the military and then trust their elected leaders (who they have such awful opinions of) to "do the right thing" when deciding who to wage war on.

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

#297

Post by VictorPath »

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…

No post body was provided.

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

#298

Post by selectodude »

daedalus_f wrote: post #266
giraffe_lady wrote: post #179

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Doesn't really matter for this purpose, I'm not arguing that the military is inherently wrong, or that military service is. I'm asserting that by far the most likely use of a wealthy nation's military is going to be a bad one . Encouraging people to join the military in that context is bad. People have an incredibly wide range of reasons for joining or supporting militaries, and I would absolutely not universally con…

> I'm not arguing that the military is inherently wrong, or that military service is. Just that everyone who signs up for the military of a developed nation is morally compromised at the extreme very best . Can you square that statement with believing in the moral existence of a military for a developed nation? > By far the most likely use of a wealthy nation's military is going to be a bad one And yet, as I said, de…

>And yet, as I said, developed nations require a military for defence. The world is not a nice place, as Russia is current proving, and modern conflicts cannot be fought successfully with poor quality untrained troops recruited on the fly for a particular conflict, where those signing up know what they are going to be doing in advance. Developed nations therefore need a well trained standing army.

Seriously, how do people miss this. The US Military is currently advising the Ukrainian armed forces while Germany has their thumb up their ass spending billions on Russian hydrocarbons. Unfortunately conscientious objection only works in the world we all wished we lived in. Somebody has to hold the guns and spend the money on this shit.

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

#299

Post by sennight »

scruple wrote: post #98
JoeAltmaier wrote: post #74

My son was Army Reserve (US), did a tour in Iraq back in the day. He reported that Reservists didn't get the respect of regular Army, at least in his unit. They got shot at, shot back, did convoy duty, got blown up (twice). But somehow not 'real soldiers'. His unit got no commendations or promotions from the regular army base commander. He returned, still had enlistment period left, went straight to the Army Recruiti…

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 into the old British airfield they were using as a FOB, and we soon found out why they were so desperate to put distance between us and themselves: everything that could be wrong was wrong. Total indian country, their patrol routes got tighter and tighter as they'd just never return to an area they got attacked, they hadn't left the FOB for a month. Piles of unmarked UXO, serialized weapons hidden in elephant grass... a total nightmare. The first few days we got a lot of direct fire engagement on patrol, which NEVER happened - but the locals quickly figured out that, unlike Army reservists, infantry Marines take that sort of thing personally - and they fell back to the familiar coordinated IED attacks.

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

#300

Post by watwut »

monocasa wrote: post #194
drran wrote: post #186

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Dude, they are illegal and are risking torture and jail of they will be caught. It is underground opposition doing those things.
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