Anonymous wrote:Anyone else get the feeling that most of the negative responses are by the same disaffected individual?

Anyone get the feeling the same army recruiter is loitering around this thread trying to make his monthly quota?

As the person who promoted diplomacy (what a concept, can you imagine anyone being so unpatriotric...must be disaffected)...

anyway, as that poster, I can assure you that I am NOT the person who said I am from a pacifist family. Nor am I the poster who made any of the negative comments about how I would react my kid making such a decision. So, there goes your theory that almost everyone thinks just like you

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Anonymous wrote:Understand there is a huge difference in quality of life and jobs if you are enlisted vs. officer so those saying they have degrees and officers are in a different situation than OP. OP, college first, then military.

This. I’d be fine with my kids joining after getting a four degree. I’m 42 and have a bunch of friends who did that, men and women. They were pilots, doctors, engineers, etc in the military and are now retiring after 20 years of service with excellent benefits. Those who are slightly older finished a few years ago and quickly got hired in the civilian world making great money.

What $ is great money?

I haven't asked to see pay stubs, but enough to put kids through private schools and full pay college, buy a home and nice cars in a well-heeled neighborhood, and have a spouse who works p/t or not at all. One of the guys works with my husband in the same position (senior level IT) and makes $250k.

They can do that as they got the right degree. But that is not the norm for many.

Friend of the family Col. M retired at around 40. He just had an average degree from Michigan. In no way was it the "right" degree. He has a big time job in Houston making the monies listed above plus on top of that he gets his military retirement.

I'm the PP whose husband works with the guy making $250k. He has a BS in Comp Sci from a state school. He's definitely a smart, motivated guy but it's not like he went to an Ivy League school and graduated first in his class.

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Anonymous wrote:The problem it seems to me is some people have little understanding that our military can be sent into war zones and killed. I recall one woman whose med school was paid by the military was ordered to go to Iraq and she said "woah" I didn't sign up for that!" And they said, actually you did. And she refused to go. And then they said, o.k., you owe us $700,000. We need people in our military, no question. But don't forget what you are there for.

If you join the military AFTER college and you have already paid for your college tuition then you would not have to pay the military back a thing. You would have to honor the commitment that you made to serve but nothing more than that.

A person that would join the military under the assumption that they are somehow too special to ever be sent into a war zone is going to learn the hard way that it doesn't work that way.

This woman must have been an idiot.

. Or the story isn’t true....

I read about that at the time it happened during the Iraq invasion, but there were others who decided the wouldn't deploy as well. Men and women, not to single out just one woman.

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Anonymous wrote:The problem it seems to me is some people have little understanding that our military can be sent into war zones and killed. I recall one woman whose med school was paid by the military was ordered to go to Iraq and she said "woah" I didn't sign up for that!" And they said, actually you did. And she refused to go. And then they said, o.k., you owe us $700,000. We need people in our military, no question. But don't forget what you are there for.

If you join the military AFTER college and you have already paid for your college tuition then you would not have to pay the military back a thing. You would have to honor the commitment that you made to serve but nothing more than that.

A person that would join the military under the assumption that they are somehow too special to ever be sent into a war zone is going to learn the hard way that it doesn't work that way.

This woman must have been an idiot.

. Or the story isn’t true....

My FIL is a draft dodging pacifist. Three of his sons joined the military. They have different views on military strategy, but he’s still a very proud father. Life is not black and white.

Happy that DS would be getting a paycheck.

Meant to say he stayed in the service a number of years longer than he had to to pay his daughter's college tuition.

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Anonymous wrote:Understand there is a huge difference in quality of life and jobs if you are enlisted vs. officer so those saying they have degrees and officers are in a different situation than OP. OP, college first, then military.

This. I’d be fine with my kids joining after getting a four degree. I’m 42 and have a bunch of friends who did that, men and women. They were pilots, doctors, engineers, etc in the military and are now retiring after 20 years of service with excellent benefits. Those who are slightly older finished a few years ago and quickly got hired in the civilian world making great money.

What $ is great money?

I haven't asked to see pay stubs, but enough to put kids through private schools and full pay college, buy a home and nice cars in a well-heeled neighborhood, and have a spouse who works p/t or not at all. One of the guys works with my husband in the same position (senior level IT) and makes $250k.

My experience in my family is the same. My brother in law paid for exclusive private school in Milan Italy for his daughters while in the military. He paid full college pay at NYU for the daughters (he was peeved because they could have gone to Texas for very little money), has a spouse (My sister working only part time) and makes the good money listed above.

That makes no sense. Maybe if he was high ranking officer or spending everything they had or side job. That would be very hard active duty.

His wife may have helped with some of the private school tuition in Milan. She worked for the State Dept in Milan but understand she was only an average worker bee with a high school education only. I know that he paid the tuition to NYU.
He stayed in the service a number of years longer to pay the tuition. He was pissed that his daughter chose NYU over a college in Texas that would have been nominal in cost as he declared Texas as his residence. He was a Command Sgt Major.

Only, not own.

Anonymous wrote:Anyone else get the feeling that most of the negative responses are by the same disaffected individual?

Yep. Esp the pacifist who think we should have diplomacy as our own tool for dealing with conflict.

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Anonymous wrote:Understand there is a huge difference in quality of life and jobs if you are enlisted vs. officer so those saying they have degrees and officers are in a different situation than OP. OP, college first, then military.

This. I’d be fine with my kids joining after getting a four degree. I’m 42 and have a bunch of friends who did that, men and women. They were pilots, doctors, engineers, etc in the military and are now retiring after 20 years of service with excellent benefits. Those who are slightly older finished a few years ago and quickly got hired in the civilian world making great money.

What $ is great money?

I haven't asked to see pay stubs, but enough to put kids through private schools and full pay college, buy a home and nice cars in a well-heeled neighborhood, and have a spouse who works p/t or not at all. One of the guys works with my husband in the same position (senior level IT) and makes $250k.

They can do that as they got the right degree. But that is not the norm for many.

Friend of the family Col. M retired at around 40. He just had an average degree from Michigan. In no way was it the "right" degree. He has a big time job in Houston making the monies listed above plus on top of that he gets his military retirement.

oops. responding "no" to something else

No

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Anonymous wrote:The problem it seems to me is some people have little understanding that our military can be sent into war zones and killed. I recall one woman whose med school was paid by the military was ordered to go to Iraq and she said "woah" I didn't sign up for that!" And they said, actually you did. And she refused to go. And then they said, o.k., you owe us $700,000. We need people in our military, no question. But don't forget what you are there for.

If you join the military AFTER college and you have already paid for your college tuition then you would not have to pay the military back a thing. You would have to honor the commitment that you made to serve but nothing more than that.

A person that would join the military under the assumption that they are somehow too special to ever be sent into a war zone is going to learn the hard way that it doesn't work that way.

This woman must have been an idiot.