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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

#391

Post by wolverine876 »

routeerror40 wrote: post #219
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…

I signed up for 4 years for the US Army in order to finish college. Ended up doing 5 years for being stop lossed due to a deployment that got extended. When I joined I had 72 hours college under my belt, went in as a PFC. The reality of service is it is both the good as portrayed here and the shit experiences I know we have all had in the service. Would I change anything, no. Was it all cake, hell no. But I wouldn't…

I don't doubt your experiences, more generally the military is quite unreal - a world with very different cultures, rules, clothes, jobs; a world where you can exist without dealing with outsiders very often. There's almost nothing else that is quite so much a parallel reality. A lot of people leaving the military have trouble adjusting to real life.

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

#392

Post by mcguire »

starwind wrote: post #223
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…

> they'll do everything they can to deny you medical benefits for injuries suffered in basic training I know of a guy who got run over by a speeding MP during Basic and had his leg broken in like 3 places. The guy who got run over got a medical discharge, and now gets a full pension and Tricare

Every vet I know about has some disability payments. (Part of that may speak to a lack of safety culture, but they don't fight too hard to prevent anyone from getting them.)

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

#393

Post by throwaway743 »

formvoltron wrote: post #373
nradov wrote: post #366

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

So says Putin. So you better give him what he wants.

So mutual assured destruction is what you're advocating for? That's some big brain shit

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

#394

Post by mcguire »

dogman144 wrote: post #309
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…

UCMJ is pretty clear re: the free speech angle and all points in that direction. UCMJ != the Constitution and Bill of Rights. Always blows my mind when people complain about this aspect.

The last I heard, there was a US destroyer undeployable because the Captain refused to get vaccinated and (so far) has successfully sued to prevent his being transferred to another position.

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

#395

Post by wolverine876 »

YATA1 wrote: post #321
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

"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 my experiece in major urban areas. [EDIT: 1] Also, the officer corps is overwhelmingly white people, afaik, in a country that is only about half white people in that age group. However, I realize I've only provided one [edit: 2!] good cite[s] myself!

[0] https://www.defenseone.com/policy/2022/03/about-face-army-ex...

[1] From 2019: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/02/us/army-recruiting-tech-i...

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

#396

Post by relaxing »

YATA1 wrote: post #374
relaxing wrote: post #361

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And the military is far more likely to be enlisted, so the effect is going to be minor. 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.

>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.

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

#397

Post by wolverine876 »

chrisseaton wrote: post #113
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.

The man who did my job back in the 80s was a literal billionaire, putting on the same uniform as me for the same pay.

Are you claiming that billionaires serve at the same rate as others? Or that there are many billionaires in the military?

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

#398

Post by 2OEH8eoCRo0 »

throwaway743 wrote: post #393
formvoltron wrote: post #373

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So says Putin. So you better give him what he wants.

So mutual assured destruction is what you're advocating for? That's some big brain shit

Ukraine has been attacking targets inside Russia, why haven't they been nuked yet?

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

#399

Post by p_j_w »

ethbr0 wrote: post #31
watwut wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Afaik, soldiers don't get to choose. The queens enemies is pretty much good description, because his guess is as good as yours.

+1. Part of being part of a national military is subordinating your desires to the chain of command, which in a democracy usually flows to the highest elected official. If one wants to pick and choose "right" conflicts, one shouldn't serve. And ultimately... while I know HN has a pretty anti-authority bend... if you don't trust your government to deploy military power, what do you trust them for? Which isn't saying t…

>if you don't trust your government to deploy military power, what do you trust them for?

Building roads, schools, and fire stations are pretty high on the list.

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

#400

Post by wolverine876 »

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…

I recently read an article where Army Chief of Staff, Gen. McConville, said that 79% of recruits come from families with service members, and how they need to expand the pool.

https://www.defenseone.com/policy/2022/03/about-face-army-ex...

As far as the rural, the military focuses their recruiting in rural areas and barely touches major cities - an odd choice given where the population centers are and the efficiency of sales in high-density population. In a quick search, I found this from 2019:

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/02/us/army-recruiting-tech-i...

> The guys in my platoon weren't the "dumb hicks" a lot of people seem to think populate the infantry.

Where have you heard that? I've never heard someone say that. People deify the military (in an unhealthy way) these days, IME.

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