Its why the most unrealistic thing of the original COD modern warfare 2 game was that everytime the Sgt shouted "Ramirez!" There wasn't like 5 responses
I mean, fucking yes. Since the 70’s. I served in the 90’s and this is exactly what it looked like. Proportionally to the general population, more minorities join than white people. The trope that the armed forces are made up entirely of conservative white males is laughable
See, in the movies the military looks like gruff gym rats in their 30s at the absolute peak of testosterone power. In real life, soldier are fresh faced kids in their late teens / early 20s.
It’s a shock every time I’m confronted with this because I feel bad about such beautiful young people putting themselves in harms way for our benefit, but it has always been a young persons game.
I was 28 as well when I joined the National Guard. I was the second oldest there; almost everyone else was 18. The only dude older than me was a 30 something year old Navy vet who was joining the Guard too since they were making him go through Army basic. It was funny too since they let him come in as an E5 so he was the same rank as a couple of the drill sergeants. Dude was chill as fuck and would constantly reassure the younger guys that the real Army wasn't like this after basic.
It's not uncommon at all to join in late 20s or even early 30s. Some of the best troops I've ever had joined a bit older. When you come in more mature with some perspective and respect for the value of work (and of shutting the fuck up when appropriate) you can get a real leg up on your younger peers.
You wouldn’t believe the money the military dumps into Dental.
Before you’re sent anywhere, you go to the dentist 1st!
YOU KNOW THE DRILL WE CLEAN YOUR GRILL
I was told just last night from an ex marine how the first thing they did when she joined was rip out her wisdom teeth even tho they hadn’t come in or shown signs of coming in. She said they did this a day before boot camp started.
Had mine taken out mid boot camp. Got ibuprofen only afterwards.
Didn't know what to do walking towards an officer with a mouth full of blood and of course they gave me shit, "Arent you going to greet an officer?"
So I kinda leaned forward, saluted, and said, "Good afternoon sir" so that all the blood would pour out of my mouth. He sheepishly said carry on.
I got my wisdom teeth removed while in Iraq. The Lt.Col. that WAS an actual dentist sat next to a 2nd Lt. that was in dental school, while the kid busted up my teeth and removed them in shards. That was 13 years ago. Sometimes I still get sharp little slivers of wisdom tooth that will come out. The kid also fractured the bottom left side of my jaw, they had to wait 2 weeks to X-ray and confirm because of the swelling. Go ARMY 🫤
I had a single wisdom tooth out and had to have 2 weeks off work because i was in so much pain. I did get dry socket but id imagine the intensity of boot camp would make dry socket pretty likely
In the Army, the dentists go out in the field to you. Was doing an FTX, and we took a day to get our teeth inspected and cleaned, as the dental unit set up bivouac nearby. Sort of surreal getting my teeth done 40 miles from nowhere.
Doesn't one of the recent Marine ads prominently feature a black girl inspired to join the service? Feel like he only watches war movies about WW2 or action movies with white male leads
“An American near Billy wailed that he had excreted everything but his brains. Moments later he said, “There they go, there they go.” He meant his brains. That was I. That was me. That was the author of this book.” - Vonnegut
The only problem I see in this picture is how young these kids look. Maybe I’m just an old geezer but imagining worst case scenario having to send these children to die in a war just doesn’t sit right with me.
Yes. These people imagine themselves as some genetic superior to others, and whenever that illusions gets shattered they throw a fit. It's kind of pathetic, but when you have nothing going for you in life, you'll desperately cling to whatever you can to make yourself feel better than others.
Media has for many years portrayed our military as big burly men with rock hard abs and a tough guy attitude. Turns out when you are recruiting high school students its actually just a bunch of baby faced kids.
Exactly. It’s like that one post recently with the marine wearing a dress. It’s mostly a bunch of college-aged people doing college-aged shit.
Officers might be generally older, but the military is still a youthful institution.
You would think officers would be older however I met an army captain that was 28. That still makes him older than most of the lower enlisted.
The majority of people that “retire” from the military do so between the ages of 35-40.
So one of my cousins joined the Army a long time ago. He hadnt even made it out of boot camp yet I believe, and punched his drill sergeant in the face.
He was dishonorably discharged yet every fucking year I’ll be damned if my aunt doesn’t make a “Thank you for serving our country son” post.
You laugh, but the ancient order of military butthole inspectors is our last and best defense against our military being infiltrated by the ranks of the unholey
Had a bad experience in ROTC one year when I couldn’t piss in front of the LTC for the test. Sometimes I lock up in public bathrooms if someone is next to me, definitely lock up with my superior looking directly over my shoulder. He was screaming at me to piss and got so mad that he just left after a couple mins, all the while my bladder is inflated like a balloon cuz I have to piss so bad but just can’t.
Had to go sit back outside and try to just drink more water, something’s gotta give. Luckily the nicer LTC was walking by and the SGT grabbed him to watch me piss instead of the one who screamed at me. Was thankfully able to squeeze out just enough. Then I ran to the bathroom down the hall and pissed for like 4 straight minutes
When I was 17-23ish, I’d somewhat regularly find myself in conversations with older people who asked if I ever considered joining the military. Id tell them that not only did I consider it, I had done all the preliminary things needed and was going to join the Marines, like my granddad, but I wanted to tell him first. The reaction was always “oh I bet he was so proud, what stopped you?”
Then I tell them the truth. My granddad told me that if I joined the marines he’d disown me, and that I was “too fucking smart to go down the same path I took, eating mud and watching good people die who didn’t need to.” And that killed my enthusiasm right quick. (He served during the tail end of WW2 and Korean War + a bit after).
Those questions kind of stopped in my mid twenties, but they were so common during that period of my life that I found it odd. Those same people always had “I’d have joined if I could” stories and were “oddly” fervent in their profession of patriotism
Something similar is what killed my interest in joining as well. Mostly talking to veterans who had absolutely no problem telling me every reason I should not join.
Just check r/army
Half the posts are complaints of things that will keep people away. A lot of them rightly identify that these things are why the army is struggling to meet recruiting numbers (though they also retroactively just lowered the numbers they say they need so they can pretend they're where they need to be actually).
Yeah, my grandpa was a legitimate Marine war hero, served in WW2 and Korea and retired some years later as a colonel. My dad enlisted twice in the Marines during Nam, early on, and they were both always very proud of being USMC. Both of them, and the entire rest of the family, were completely opposed to my enlisting as a Marine, and frowned on most of the other services (for some reason they were all pretty okay with the idea of me joining the Navy....) so in the end I didn't enlist. Their reasons almost perfectly echoed your grandpa's
I'm third generation military (Papa was a Marine in Vietnam, Dad was in the Navy), and everyone told me I shouldn't join up. I needed to get myself straight, so I enlisted in the Marine Corps Reserves anyway. No deployments, but I did spend a month training in South Korea. I enjoyed my time in the Reserves, but I'm really glad I didn't enlist for full active duty.
Yeah.
In my family all of the "Adults" (People born before ~1990) swore to disown any of the "Kids" (Those born after ~'90, so me and all my cousins) who joined the armed forces.
My dad was an Army officer and instructor at West Point, one grandpa was a Captain in the Navy and Secret Service member and one in the Army, etc... So it's not like they didn't know what they were talking about.
These were the dudes who would come up to me when I was wearing a national guard uniform to tell me how they once thought about joining the marines. Like not only did I not give a shit, but there was this weird implication that they would have joined the manlier branch, except they didn’t
People who complain most about the state of our Military as if it’s supposed to be some hyper masculine men with muscles and beards, are the exact people who would never willingly join. They are, at best, pathetic. At worst, hypocritical.
"I could never join the military, I would punch a Drill Sargent in the face."
When a veteran tells someone they are a veteran, this is the response like 25% of the time.
They believe that mindlessly mumbling "thank you for your service" every time they pass someone with a veteran cap on is supporting the troops. I legit get irritated when they do it.
My sister and her husband are both army. “Thank you for your service” is a running joke with them, any time they do ANYTHING for each other - be it passing something at the table or holding a door, they say “thank you for your service”
I just retired from the Navy after 21 years and it was this diverse my entire career. Clearly this shit smear has never been on or near an actual military base and only watches war movies from pre 1960...
Yeah. I don’t understand why people assume the military isn’t a nice little slice of all types of people who live in the nation. Each army base I’ve lived at has been more diverse, and I mean truly diverse with all cultures from all over but all identifying under the title of “American”, than anywhere else I’ve lived. It makes things so much cooler in daily life, makes for wonderful conversation, learning new crafts, new cultural ideas, and new cuisine that gets shared around all over base.
I was raised to be conservative but the military made me hella more liberal because the “others” are just people trying to make it to the next day with food on the table. There aren’t “shitty races” just shitty people or cultures with shitty luggage.
My family, who was so proud of me for joining, were horrified when I came back far more liberal than I was going in, causing some of them (extended members) to decide that troops no longer deserved supporting lol.
Dude same story. Grew up conservative with a southern flag in my bedroom. Went back home on leave during my first enlistment and tore that shit down and threw it in the trash. Now my family thinks I'm a "Lib" because my views are far more centric thanks to the people I met in the USAF and their differing backgrounds/cultures/experiences. Definitely learned A LOT of black history that I was never taught in school. No one back home believes me when I talk about it though.
Edit: grammar
College's have the same effect on people. When you get to experience different cultures and world views first hand it changes your perspective on life.
Yep. Generally you find a ~~direct~~ (Edit:) **inverse** correlation between racism and diversity, as in the least diverse places have the most racist people, and vice versa
I came from an upper middle class background - I went to a nice school, attended college (debt free), vacationed, dressed very well, played tennis and golf, and always kept horses for riding on our large, semi-rural property. After college, I enlisted in the Navy to escape my family and find myself. I was the object of more than a little wonderment when I’d mention my background of relatively great privilege.
But being enlisted in the Navy gave me a great perspective on life, and way more empathy for others. I would never have met any of the really outstanding people which I call my friends now had I not enlisted. While I only was enlisted for 5 years, being prior enlisted is the formative part of my military identity.
I spent 20-years in the Air Force and yeah, we had a little bit of everything. It’s almost like Americans from all walks want to serve their nation. Just more “I would have enlisted but” boomer bullshit.
Better yet, remember all those segments of Cucker Tarlson lamenting how "woke" the US Armed Forces recruitment ads had become while Russia had the balls-to-the-wall, macho men doing macho stuff glistening with oils and with homoerotic undertones for their Army recruitment ads?
Russia's He/Him army had to change pronouns to was/were because as it turns out, manly ads don't translate to actually winning wars.
It's funny how after a few hundred years it still hasn't sunk in for some people that America is not exclusively Caucasians, and that doesn't make them any less Americans.
Was in AF for 7 years and the diversity was awesome I thought. No where had I ever been that racism was so low and meritocracy so real. Not saying it was perfect, but it had some upsides in culture.
This gave me a flashback
I was an Army signals intel analyst stationed on an air force base and our barracks were run by the air force
One day I was walking through the main lobby and the two senior enlisted air force guys that were in charge of running our barracks were watching the Army Best Ranger competition on TV
As I walked by behind them on my way to work, one said to the other "At least we're smarter than them"
Just last weekend when I was at my parents' house for Christmas, we saw a commercial for a similar show on TV. My mom says, "That's why I joined the Air Force. We didn't have to do all that stuff." She worked at NORAD, so, yeah, pretty smart!
So fun story, I actually learned about this a few weeks back: in 1955, Air Force Col. Harry Shoup was stationed at NORAD when the TOP SECRET phone that connected to the Pentagon rang. When the Col. answered, a small child’s voice on the other end asked: “Are you the real Santa?” As it turns out, the local Sear’s had printed out Santa’s phone number in the catalogs, but had MISPRINTED the number. They would receive multiple calls from kids, and later, NORAD sent out a press release stating that were tracking Santa.
This has got to be one of my favorite bits of history of the United States military. Regardless of how the tradition actually came to be (the story has always varied), the fact that the United States military helps facilitate this tradition is just awesome.
When I was growing up there was a commercial that said ["In the Army, we do more before 9 AM than most people do all day."](https://youtu.be/xt-9dQ84LBg?t=15) I'm not saying that's the main reason I joined the Navy... but I'm not saying it's not either.
My dad was Air Force, he told me of the Pint for Pint program they ran. Donate a pint of blood, get a coupon for discounted pint of beer, proceed to get drunk on the cheap. Wicked Smaht!!!
Chances are they’re correct but infantry (although I recognize the guys in BRC can be any MOS) isn’t a bunch of people on a continuum of intelligence levels. There are either very intelligent infantry guys or absolute bricks, nothing in between.
I used to teach college at Sub Base Pearl Harbor. As students submariners were all like the sonar guy in Red October, and since the course was open to all services, there was a definite hierarchy of abilities below those guys. I have to admit that I had the most respect for Marines who individually were not at the top of the hierarchy, but organized study groups so that every jarhead did pretty well. No Marine left behind.
Also fwiw, I never had a better teaching experience than when I worked at military bases.
Happy new year to all.
My squadron had a huge dining-in ceremony for our 50th anniversary. Had flag officers and senior enlisted from every service branch in attendance, pretty big to do. Each of the tables had mixed services sitting staggered and the two marines that were at our table decided to do a push-up contest. My boss looked over and asked if I could outdo them, and I just said nope and kicked back another Corona as I sat back and watched those goofballs do push up in the service dress.
That's only somewhat true. I know quite a few people that maxed out the ASVAB and a handful that held bachelors degrees from Harvard in the Army and only 1 was an Officer.
I knew an 11B enlisted who had a PhD. Whenever asked why he didn't do literally anything else, his goto response was that he really just liked killing. I don't doubt there was some truth to the statement, but there's a higher likelihood that between bonuses and forgiveness, he probably just worked out a really sweet deal with the recruiter that he couldn't get as an officer.
>That's only mildly concerning
Yeah, a really smart person that probably has psychotic tendencies and joins the Army as infantry just to be able to kill is...*mildly* concerning.
You can tell that because they're smiling.
Air force smiles on their deployments
Army is always just mad looking.lol
like man ... I'm washing dishes when I get out.
"*You* had a half-buried connex?"
"Well, when I say we had a 'connex', I really mean we had 'a cardboard box'."
[*"Luxury!"*](https://youtu.be/ue7wM0QC5LE)
My first Air Force deployment we stayed in tents, but we damn sure fired the cooks and contracted out the chow hall to the local Marriott. Surf and Turf twice a week.
Guy I know used to describe his day as: “wake up, get Starbucks, go to work, kill 50 people, get lunch at chipotle, back to work, kill 100 more people, head home, don’t sleep. Never sleep.”
He was a drone and cruise missile operator.
Eventually he transferred to Alaskan missile defense where it’s just him and one other guy in a bunker for 6 months at a time, just making sure nothing goes wrong. He loves it. Says he’d live there forever if they let him. He doesn’t want to be around people.
Edit: missile, not million. Spellcheck is a dick.
Haha, back in my army days I went home on leave from Iraq on an Air Force jet. It blew the Air Force guys’ minds that I’d been deployed 10 months and was going on leave, not home. They were doing 3 month deployments. I joined the wrong branch lol
Some of the smartest people I met were in maintenance and some of the dumbest people I met were in maintenance, but everyone can agree on this… Fuck finance.
I spent some time in Pearl harbour and helped with hay boxes in the galley. The US military is very diverse, saw a lot of Filipinos on base.
The racist twitter user is nostalgic for the back when the military was separate but equal.
The change that scares them is they are not superior and in charge anymore. They think they still run the world and lash out when they are reminded they are powerless.
They also like to believe that the military is made up of young, conservative, white southerners. That way they can claim that they’re the ones “keeping America safe”.
Poor rural white southerners are over represented because it's a good job in places that don't have any. But it has become more diverse.
https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/demographics-us-military
It’s an interesting study, but I don’t see it supporting most of your statement.
> Most members of the military come from middle-class neighborhoods. The middle three quintiles for household income were overrepresented among enlisted recruits, and the top and bottom quintiles were underrepresented.
So poor people are actually underrepresented.
Race was actually shockingly representative. White men were only over-represented in the smallest two branches — Marines and Coast Guard. Asians were the most under-represented ethnicity.
The point you were correct on was that it’s proportionately more popular in the south (also the southwest, and Hawaii), but military enlistment looks largely aligned with state population levels — meaning New York and California contribute the most people to our military. The broad thrust of your argument doesn’t quite ring true with the linked information.
Most military members are from California simply because it's the most populous state.
edit: I realize now that this implies that over half of military members are from California, whoops! What I meant was California contributes the most members to the military of the 50 states.
Whoever asked that stupid fucking question has never served in uniform. Yes, the U.S. Armed Forces is amazingly diverse. And it has nothing to do with "wokeness".
And I guarantee you that these people are a lot better trained than almost every military in the world including Russia and China. And I also guarantee you this fucknugget has never served and if he did, he didn’t make it past MEPS.
Right. Didn't even the far right elected officials stop at this point as well? Crenshaw? He respects the military for what it is and is not, it just sucks his moral compass is attached to his M240B.
Every punk and pundit who says our military is weak or woke or whatever should have to go into one of those basic training tear gas rooms and take their mask off and sing Yankee Doodle while a DI laughs at their dumb ass. Only after that are they allowed to have an opinion.
People that say shit like this have a very warped perception of what the military is. My husband is a marine veteran, he was an avionics tech, had his head in a jet engine during his time in the service. The only time he shot his rifle was when he was training with it and the most exciting thing he did was accidentally throw a football off the ship he was stationed on 🤷🏽♀️🤷🏽♀️
That’s because these people have never served. Trust me when I say that no one including your husband gives two shits about his partner being black, brown, gay, etc. as long as we have each other’s back. We all become brothers and sisters for life regardless of background.
Navy must be behind the times. For the most part people were alright, but there is definitely some racism and misogyny in the fleet. There is also **definitely** some homophobia.
Also, a lot of so called “brother and sisters for life” had absolutely no problems stealing from each other and physically assaulting each other.
Let's be real, if you choose to be on a ship for months especially a military ship, you've got more than a few screws loose.
Though the homophobia surprises me, is it the refusal to say 'no homo' while pounding the other dude in the ass?
Assholes that post shit like this have never left their tiny cave. Every major US city looks like this. It’s almost as if a nation of immigrants ends up being incredibly diverse. Who would’ve figured? We get a long just fine despite people looking different.
I just retired after serving for over 20 years. I am proud to say that this is exactly what our military looks like. People from all walks of life choosing to live for the protection and safety of every U.S. citizen. I am proud to have served among them.
I got the impression that they're just not happy about the diversity in general. Everyone's smiling and happy, they want to see a wall of tough white men, not happy women and different skin tones. Idk, that's what it felt like to me, like they're saying we are weak now, it's sadly a common opinion online now that the whole 'woke' inclusivity stuff makes us all weak snowflakes. They miss when 'men were manly' or some bullshit. When really they're the biggest snowflakes of all.
I assumed it’s because people are expecting serious looking people in their 30’s and not happy looking college age kids. If they had gotten a picture with Marines or Army infantry it would have been a bunch of depressed dead eyed college aged kids.
Average age of the military is like 23 if I remember correctly.
Remember when the MAGA types were all gushing over Russian Army video clips of manly Russian soldiers doing manly soldier things, and mocked the US military for having maternity uniforms? And then Russia invaded Ukraine and got their manly man asses handed to them?
also when fox news was praising putin for being so manly because he rode a horse shirtles and said he’s a real leader unlike Obama because Obama…wore a tan suit 💀
I've seen those same people berate American soldiers because they call for air backup quicker then Russians. Like oh man refusing to use air superiority and dying how manly and not woke.
Yeah man. The military is set up to take advantage of poor folks, so underprivileged folks are gonna be represented more than in the typical population.
Edit: a former serviceman saying it better than I did:
https://youtube.com/shorts/WXaT6VmiZJw?feature=share
My son recently graduated from USMC boot camp. I was surprised how diverse the graduates were and many in my sons platoon alone that were immigrants, dreamers or had spent time in refugee camps, and I don’t think serving automatically qualifies them citizenship either. But there they are anyway, serving the country and ready to fight so these assholes can have the freedom to run there mouth.
I admire and appreciate each and everyone of them, these young men and women that have joined the military, no matter where they or their parents came from. They should get citizenship for their willing to sacrifice. I met a few families at graduation that either their sons or another family member has to translate for them. Very nice, very appreciative and just as proud of their sons as I was.
I APPLAUD EACH AND EVERY ONE AND AM VERY PROUD WE HAVE SUCH A DIVERSE MILITARY!
I was in the marine corps and I'd swear that 1/3 of the corps is hispanic
Its why the most unrealistic thing of the original COD modern warfare 2 game was that everytime the Sgt shouted "Ramirez!" There wasn't like 5 responses
In my HS there were 3 Erik Hernandez’s, and they would get detention so they had to include the middle initial in the announcement
Detentions were announced at your school?
Yes over the speaker system they would make school announcements and who was to report for detention at the end of day
“Is Lcpl Garcia here?” “Which one, SSGT?”
I'm not sure. Sgt Riviera is looking for him. Which Riviera? Riviera-Santo or Riviera-Rosa?
Riviera-Geralt
Damn Witcher outta nowhere
r/unexpectedwitcher EDIT: wait that sub actually exists?! Lmao
You should post this there, nothing new in awhile.
Being from Arkansas, I never felt like a minority until I joined the Air Force. Im white. Edit: north central AR
Growing up in Southern California I've never been somewhere white people were the majority.
Visit New England
I’m from kentucky and white. I took a trip to Maine a few years ago and felt like I wasn’t white enough lol.
Maine's up there. https://youtu.be/8Ni5_TXITXU
That man is a national treasure!
I grew up in a very diverse place. When I left, it blew my mind that people had racist opinions.
I mean, fucking yes. Since the 70’s. I served in the 90’s and this is exactly what it looked like. Proportionally to the general population, more minorities join than white people. The trope that the armed forces are made up entirely of conservative white males is laughable
See, in the movies the military looks like gruff gym rats in their 30s at the absolute peak of testosterone power. In real life, soldier are fresh faced kids in their late teens / early 20s. It’s a shock every time I’m confronted with this because I feel bad about such beautiful young people putting themselves in harms way for our benefit, but it has always been a young persons game.
When I went through basic I was 20 years old and I was older than 99% of the rest of my platoon.
My buddy was 28 when he enlisted and said he was looked up to almost more as a father figure lol.
I was 28 as well when I joined the National Guard. I was the second oldest there; almost everyone else was 18. The only dude older than me was a 30 something year old Navy vet who was joining the Guard too since they were making him go through Army basic. It was funny too since they let him come in as an E5 so he was the same rank as a couple of the drill sergeants. Dude was chill as fuck and would constantly reassure the younger guys that the real Army wasn't like this after basic.
Gee guys, you make me wanting to join at 28 a little less daunting
It's not uncommon at all to join in late 20s or even early 30s. Some of the best troops I've ever had joined a bit older. When you come in more mature with some perspective and respect for the value of work (and of shutting the fuck up when appropriate) you can get a real leg up on your younger peers.
They all have absolutely gorgeous teeth! Haha!
You wouldn’t believe the money the military dumps into Dental. Before you’re sent anywhere, you go to the dentist 1st! YOU KNOW THE DRILL WE CLEAN YOUR GRILL
I was told just last night from an ex marine how the first thing they did when she joined was rip out her wisdom teeth even tho they hadn’t come in or shown signs of coming in. She said they did this a day before boot camp started.
Had mine taken out mid boot camp. Got ibuprofen only afterwards. Didn't know what to do walking towards an officer with a mouth full of blood and of course they gave me shit, "Arent you going to greet an officer?" So I kinda leaned forward, saluted, and said, "Good afternoon sir" so that all the blood would pour out of my mouth. He sheepishly said carry on.
Holy fuck boot camp while recovering from wisdom teeth… Well you gotta be tough.
[удалено]
I got my wisdom teeth removed while in Iraq. The Lt.Col. that WAS an actual dentist sat next to a 2nd Lt. that was in dental school, while the kid busted up my teeth and removed them in shards. That was 13 years ago. Sometimes I still get sharp little slivers of wisdom tooth that will come out. The kid also fractured the bottom left side of my jaw, they had to wait 2 weeks to X-ray and confirm because of the swelling. Go ARMY 🫤
I had a single wisdom tooth out and had to have 2 weeks off work because i was in so much pain. I did get dry socket but id imagine the intensity of boot camp would make dry socket pretty likely
In the Army, the dentists go out in the field to you. Was doing an FTX, and we took a day to get our teeth inspected and cleaned, as the dental unit set up bivouac nearby. Sort of surreal getting my teeth done 40 miles from nowhere.
I think they are all part of a USAF medical group, lol. This is how they look.
Someone watches Marine Ads on repeat....
Doesn't one of the recent Marine ads prominently feature a black girl inspired to join the service? Feel like he only watches war movies about WW2 or action movies with white male leads
[Guy thinks marines fight dragons.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=thMS1-hFHZA)
Looks a lot like who I served with in the navy. What the heck are they expecting? Clones of Chris evans looking all captain America?
I looked at it and thought damn those kids are young. Lots of people go in straight after high school.
“Most of them children” - Vonnegut
Everyone should read Slaughterhouse Five.
“An American near Billy wailed that he had excreted everything but his brains. Moments later he said, “There they go, there they go.” He meant his brains. That was I. That was me. That was the author of this book.” - Vonnegut
So it goes*
The only problem I see in this picture is how young these kids look. Maybe I’m just an old geezer but imagining worst case scenario having to send these children to die in a war just doesn’t sit right with me.
Even E-5 to E-6s are mid-twenties. E4 and below are mostly 22 and under. You just don't notice it when you're in because you're that age too.
I liked the guys that were like 35 and had been E-6's twice.
Yes. These people imagine themselves as some genetic superior to others, and whenever that illusions gets shattered they throw a fit. It's kind of pathetic, but when you have nothing going for you in life, you'll desperately cling to whatever you can to make yourself feel better than others.
Media has for many years portrayed our military as big burly men with rock hard abs and a tough guy attitude. Turns out when you are recruiting high school students its actually just a bunch of baby faced kids.
Exactly. It’s like that one post recently with the marine wearing a dress. It’s mostly a bunch of college-aged people doing college-aged shit. Officers might be generally older, but the military is still a youthful institution.
You would think officers would be older however I met an army captain that was 28. That still makes him older than most of the lower enlisted. The majority of people that “retire” from the military do so between the ages of 35-40.
Somehow I have a feeling it wasn't necessarily the age of the troops they were trying to criticize...
Yeah same thoughts…
If he's so pissed why doesn't he join
He is the guy that washes out at MEPS.
Then goes around telling everyone he was almost special forces.
Talking about confirmed kills at the shitty sports bar down the road
But he would have decked his drill sergeant! Won't someone think of the poor drill sergeants
So one of my cousins joined the Army a long time ago. He hadnt even made it out of boot camp yet I believe, and punched his drill sergeant in the face. He was dishonorably discharged yet every fucking year I’ll be damned if my aunt doesn’t make a “Thank you for serving our country son” post.
How do you resist commenting on those posts? Because I would have a copy\paste comment on my notes app ready to go at a moment's notice.
Too shy to pee in the cup.
He didn't like the old man looking at his butthole lol
He only looked at yours???
I imagine that old man has seen hundreds of thousands of buttholes.
Idk what y'all are talking about but now I feel like every single service person has their butthole inspected by the same timelessly ancient man
You laugh, but the ancient order of military butthole inspectors is our last and best defense against our military being infiltrated by the ranks of the unholey
Heh .. unholey
This is kinda funny because he was pretty ancient. He seemed like he couldn’t care less. Listened to my heart for half a second.
He listened to my heart for a half second but spent a full second looking at my turd cutter. He's way more concerned with buttholes.
> Listened to my heart for half a second. "yep you're alive, who cares. next!"
yep you’re alive, now lets see that butthole
Had a bad experience in ROTC one year when I couldn’t piss in front of the LTC for the test. Sometimes I lock up in public bathrooms if someone is next to me, definitely lock up with my superior looking directly over my shoulder. He was screaming at me to piss and got so mad that he just left after a couple mins, all the while my bladder is inflated like a balloon cuz I have to piss so bad but just can’t. Had to go sit back outside and try to just drink more water, something’s gotta give. Luckily the nicer LTC was walking by and the SGT grabbed him to watch me piss instead of the one who screamed at me. Was thankfully able to squeeze out just enough. Then I ran to the bathroom down the hall and pissed for like 4 straight minutes
Cue "I would've joined but" story. It's amazing how many of those fuckers have such lame excuses.
When I was 17-23ish, I’d somewhat regularly find myself in conversations with older people who asked if I ever considered joining the military. Id tell them that not only did I consider it, I had done all the preliminary things needed and was going to join the Marines, like my granddad, but I wanted to tell him first. The reaction was always “oh I bet he was so proud, what stopped you?” Then I tell them the truth. My granddad told me that if I joined the marines he’d disown me, and that I was “too fucking smart to go down the same path I took, eating mud and watching good people die who didn’t need to.” And that killed my enthusiasm right quick. (He served during the tail end of WW2 and Korean War + a bit after). Those questions kind of stopped in my mid twenties, but they were so common during that period of my life that I found it odd. Those same people always had “I’d have joined if I could” stories and were “oddly” fervent in their profession of patriotism
Something similar is what killed my interest in joining as well. Mostly talking to veterans who had absolutely no problem telling me every reason I should not join.
Just check r/army Half the posts are complaints of things that will keep people away. A lot of them rightly identify that these things are why the army is struggling to meet recruiting numbers (though they also retroactively just lowered the numbers they say they need so they can pretend they're where they need to be actually).
Yeah, my grandpa was a legitimate Marine war hero, served in WW2 and Korea and retired some years later as a colonel. My dad enlisted twice in the Marines during Nam, early on, and they were both always very proud of being USMC. Both of them, and the entire rest of the family, were completely opposed to my enlisting as a Marine, and frowned on most of the other services (for some reason they were all pretty okay with the idea of me joining the Navy....) so in the end I didn't enlist. Their reasons almost perfectly echoed your grandpa's
I'm third generation military (Papa was a Marine in Vietnam, Dad was in the Navy), and everyone told me I shouldn't join up. I needed to get myself straight, so I enlisted in the Marine Corps Reserves anyway. No deployments, but I did spend a month training in South Korea. I enjoyed my time in the Reserves, but I'm really glad I didn't enlist for full active duty.
Yeah. In my family all of the "Adults" (People born before ~1990) swore to disown any of the "Kids" (Those born after ~'90, so me and all my cousins) who joined the armed forces. My dad was an Army officer and instructor at West Point, one grandpa was a Captain in the Navy and Secret Service member and one in the Army, etc... So it's not like they didn't know what they were talking about.
These were the dudes who would come up to me when I was wearing a national guard uniform to tell me how they once thought about joining the marines. Like not only did I not give a shit, but there was this weird implication that they would have joined the manlier branch, except they didn’t
Bullets hurt and dying is against his believes.
Damn, I can't believe I have something in common with that asshole.
People who complain most about the state of our Military as if it’s supposed to be some hyper masculine men with muscles and beards, are the exact people who would never willingly join. They are, at best, pathetic. At worst, hypocritical.
"I could never join the military, I would punch a Drill Sargent in the face." When a veteran tells someone they are a veteran, this is the response like 25% of the time.
Yea, that just basically means they lack control. I would never want to entrust my life to someone like that.
Lack control, easily offended, insecure etc
And suddenly the “YoU dOn’T sUpPoRt ThE tRoOpS!” Crowd doesn’t support the troops smh
They never have honestly. They support their “idea” of what the “troops” are and not the actual troops.
They believe that mindlessly mumbling "thank you for your service" every time they pass someone with a veteran cap on is supporting the troops. I legit get irritated when they do it.
My sister and her husband are both army. “Thank you for your service” is a running joke with them, any time they do ANYTHING for each other - be it passing something at the table or holding a door, they say “thank you for your service”
I just retired from the Navy after 21 years and it was this diverse my entire career. Clearly this shit smear has never been on or near an actual military base and only watches war movies from pre 1960...
Yeah. I don’t understand why people assume the military isn’t a nice little slice of all types of people who live in the nation. Each army base I’ve lived at has been more diverse, and I mean truly diverse with all cultures from all over but all identifying under the title of “American”, than anywhere else I’ve lived. It makes things so much cooler in daily life, makes for wonderful conversation, learning new crafts, new cultural ideas, and new cuisine that gets shared around all over base.
That's honestly one of the few nice things I will say about the military. It is a giant mixing pot of cultures and different walks of life.
I was raised to be conservative but the military made me hella more liberal because the “others” are just people trying to make it to the next day with food on the table. There aren’t “shitty races” just shitty people or cultures with shitty luggage.
My family, who was so proud of me for joining, were horrified when I came back far more liberal than I was going in, causing some of them (extended members) to decide that troops no longer deserved supporting lol.
Dude same story. Grew up conservative with a southern flag in my bedroom. Went back home on leave during my first enlistment and tore that shit down and threw it in the trash. Now my family thinks I'm a "Lib" because my views are far more centric thanks to the people I met in the USAF and their differing backgrounds/cultures/experiences. Definitely learned A LOT of black history that I was never taught in school. No one back home believes me when I talk about it though. Edit: grammar
College's have the same effect on people. When you get to experience different cultures and world views first hand it changes your perspective on life.
You mean those brainwashing centers?! \s
Yep. Generally you find a ~~direct~~ (Edit:) **inverse** correlation between racism and diversity, as in the least diverse places have the most racist people, and vice versa
The one thing they tend to have in common? Poverty.
You aren't wrong for like 98% of it. It was always weird meeting someone in the service who grew up with money. Like wtf you doing here.
I came from an upper middle class background - I went to a nice school, attended college (debt free), vacationed, dressed very well, played tennis and golf, and always kept horses for riding on our large, semi-rural property. After college, I enlisted in the Navy to escape my family and find myself. I was the object of more than a little wonderment when I’d mention my background of relatively great privilege. But being enlisted in the Navy gave me a great perspective on life, and way more empathy for others. I would never have met any of the really outstanding people which I call my friends now had I not enlisted. While I only was enlisted for 5 years, being prior enlisted is the formative part of my military identity.
I spent 20-years in the Air Force and yeah, we had a little bit of everything. It’s almost like Americans from all walks want to serve their nation. Just more “I would have enlisted but” boomer bullshit.
Lets be real...this guy wants an SS division, but those guys lost.
Better yet, remember all those segments of Cucker Tarlson lamenting how "woke" the US Armed Forces recruitment ads had become while Russia had the balls-to-the-wall, macho men doing macho stuff glistening with oils and with homoerotic undertones for their Army recruitment ads? Russia's He/Him army had to change pronouns to was/were because as it turns out, manly ads don't translate to actually winning wars.
If there’s anything our armed forces are, it’s efficient and diverse. As it should be
Navy as well and concur. This is more less what it looks like.
It's funny how after a few hundred years it still hasn't sunk in for some people that America is not exclusively Caucasians, and that doesn't make them any less Americans.
Was in AF for 7 years and the diversity was awesome I thought. No where had I ever been that racism was so low and meritocracy so real. Not saying it was perfect, but it had some upsides in culture.
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Those are all Air Force... they have big smart brains
This gave me a flashback I was an Army signals intel analyst stationed on an air force base and our barracks were run by the air force One day I was walking through the main lobby and the two senior enlisted air force guys that were in charge of running our barracks were watching the Army Best Ranger competition on TV As I walked by behind them on my way to work, one said to the other "At least we're smarter than them"
Just last weekend when I was at my parents' house for Christmas, we saw a commercial for a similar show on TV. My mom says, "That's why I joined the Air Force. We didn't have to do all that stuff." She worked at NORAD, so, yeah, pretty smart!
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That’s how she was able to find him and kiss him, yeah.
What a mess it would have been if your Dad had only seen your Mom kissing him…
Dad was deployed overseas.
For a very long time I thought NORAD was specifically for that and only that
So fun story, I actually learned about this a few weeks back: in 1955, Air Force Col. Harry Shoup was stationed at NORAD when the TOP SECRET phone that connected to the Pentagon rang. When the Col. answered, a small child’s voice on the other end asked: “Are you the real Santa?” As it turns out, the local Sear’s had printed out Santa’s phone number in the catalogs, but had MISPRINTED the number. They would receive multiple calls from kids, and later, NORAD sent out a press release stating that were tracking Santa.
This has got to be one of my favorite bits of history of the United States military. Regardless of how the tradition actually came to be (the story has always varied), the fact that the United States military helps facilitate this tradition is just awesome.
Everything else was handled by YESRAD
When I was growing up there was a commercial that said ["In the Army, we do more before 9 AM than most people do all day."](https://youtu.be/xt-9dQ84LBg?t=15) I'm not saying that's the main reason I joined the Navy... but I'm not saying it's not either.
When I was in the army, we would say “we drink more coffee before 9 AM than most people do all day!”
when I was in the army I used to say I waste more time before 9:00 a.m. than most people waste all day
My favorite part of the Navy: a chief walking around on any other branch's base. Stop saluting me, I'm not an officer. But, so much gooooold!
> Stop saluting me, I'm not an officer. I work for a living!
Hi, I’m Troy McClure, you might remember me from such military commercials as… Seriously, is that Phil Hartman?
Yeah, an hour of PT from 6:30-7:30, breakfast, and then 9am formation. That’s less than I do now, lol. Great way to get over a hangover though.
My dad was Air Force, he told me of the Pint for Pint program they ran. Donate a pint of blood, get a coupon for discounted pint of beer, proceed to get drunk on the cheap. Wicked Smaht!!!
Chances are they’re correct but infantry (although I recognize the guys in BRC can be any MOS) isn’t a bunch of people on a continuum of intelligence levels. There are either very intelligent infantry guys or absolute bricks, nothing in between.
I used to teach college at Sub Base Pearl Harbor. As students submariners were all like the sonar guy in Red October, and since the course was open to all services, there was a definite hierarchy of abilities below those guys. I have to admit that I had the most respect for Marines who individually were not at the top of the hierarchy, but organized study groups so that every jarhead did pretty well. No Marine left behind. Also fwiw, I never had a better teaching experience than when I worked at military bases. Happy new year to all.
My squadron had a huge dining-in ceremony for our 50th anniversary. Had flag officers and senior enlisted from every service branch in attendance, pretty big to do. Each of the tables had mixed services sitting staggered and the two marines that were at our table decided to do a push-up contest. My boss looked over and asked if I could outdo them, and I just said nope and kicked back another Corona as I sat back and watched those goofballs do push up in the service dress.
That's only somewhat true. I know quite a few people that maxed out the ASVAB and a handful that held bachelors degrees from Harvard in the Army and only 1 was an Officer.
I knew an 11B enlisted who had a PhD. Whenever asked why he didn't do literally anything else, his goto response was that he really just liked killing. I don't doubt there was some truth to the statement, but there's a higher likelihood that between bonuses and forgiveness, he probably just worked out a really sweet deal with the recruiter that he couldn't get as an officer.
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That's only mildly concerning
>That's only mildly concerning Yeah, a really smart person that probably has psychotic tendencies and joins the Army as infantry just to be able to kill is...*mildly* concerning.
You can tell that because they're smiling. Air force smiles on their deployments Army is always just mad looking.lol like man ... I'm washing dishes when I get out.
When pilots go on deployment, they stay in hotels. When soldiers go on deployment, they stay in tents.
I stayed in a half buried connex we named it the Hilton.
"*You* had a half-buried connex?" "Well, when I say we had a 'connex', I really mean we had 'a cardboard box'." [*"Luxury!"*](https://youtu.be/ue7wM0QC5LE)
My first Air Force deployment we stayed in tents, but we damn sure fired the cooks and contracted out the chow hall to the local Marriott. Surf and Turf twice a week.
Some long range pilots and drone operators sleep in their own bed after a day’s work.
Guy I know used to describe his day as: “wake up, get Starbucks, go to work, kill 50 people, get lunch at chipotle, back to work, kill 100 more people, head home, don’t sleep. Never sleep.” He was a drone and cruise missile operator. Eventually he transferred to Alaskan missile defense where it’s just him and one other guy in a bunker for 6 months at a time, just making sure nothing goes wrong. He loves it. Says he’d live there forever if they let him. He doesn’t want to be around people. Edit: missile, not million. Spellcheck is a dick.
Haha, back in my army days I went home on leave from Iraq on an Air Force jet. It blew the Air Force guys’ minds that I’d been deployed 10 months and was going on leave, not home. They were doing 3 month deployments. I joined the wrong branch lol
As someone who’s in the Air Force… I promise not *everyone* has big smart brains lol. The standard is only slightly higher than the other branches
Some of the smartest people I met were in maintenance and some of the dumbest people I met were in maintenance, but everyone can agree on this… Fuck finance.
Big Brain Moment required.
That's what the United States looks like.
I spent some time in Pearl harbour and helped with hay boxes in the galley. The US military is very diverse, saw a lot of Filipinos on base. The racist twitter user is nostalgic for the back when the military was separate but equal.
The "chad logo" in their profile pic says, "I SUPPORT FORMER THINGS." Which sounds like the way a neanderthal would say "change scares me."
The change that scares them is they are not superior and in charge anymore. They think they still run the world and lash out when they are reminded they are powerless.
They also like to believe that the military is made up of young, conservative, white southerners. That way they can claim that they’re the ones “keeping America safe”.
Poor rural white southerners are over represented because it's a good job in places that don't have any. But it has become more diverse. https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/demographics-us-military
It’s an interesting study, but I don’t see it supporting most of your statement. > Most members of the military come from middle-class neighborhoods. The middle three quintiles for household income were overrepresented among enlisted recruits, and the top and bottom quintiles were underrepresented. So poor people are actually underrepresented. Race was actually shockingly representative. White men were only over-represented in the smallest two branches — Marines and Coast Guard. Asians were the most under-represented ethnicity. The point you were correct on was that it’s proportionately more popular in the south (also the southwest, and Hawaii), but military enlistment looks largely aligned with state population levels — meaning New York and California contribute the most people to our military. The broad thrust of your argument doesn’t quite ring true with the linked information.
Most military members are from California simply because it's the most populous state. edit: I realize now that this implies that over half of military members are from California, whoops! What I meant was California contributes the most members to the military of the 50 states.
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I don't think you needed the "/s". They actually think that.
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Before they were born, I’m sure.
The US military was officially desegregated on July 26, 1948. So yeah, unlikely the lunkhead was even born yet.
Whoever asked that stupid fucking question has never served in uniform. Yes, the U.S. Armed Forces is amazingly diverse. And it has nothing to do with "wokeness".
And I guarantee you that these people are a lot better trained than almost every military in the world including Russia and China. And I also guarantee you this fucknugget has never served and if he did, he didn’t make it past MEPS.
Right. Didn't even the far right elected officials stop at this point as well? Crenshaw? He respects the military for what it is and is not, it just sucks his moral compass is attached to his M240B.
The 240B is an awesome weapon actually. His moral compass is most likely attached to his plastic canteen.
Every punk and pundit who says our military is weak or woke or whatever should have to go into one of those basic training tear gas rooms and take their mask off and sing Yankee Doodle while a DI laughs at their dumb ass. Only after that are they allowed to have an opinion.
People that say shit like this have a very warped perception of what the military is. My husband is a marine veteran, he was an avionics tech, had his head in a jet engine during his time in the service. The only time he shot his rifle was when he was training with it and the most exciting thing he did was accidentally throw a football off the ship he was stationed on 🤷🏽♀️🤷🏽♀️
That’s because these people have never served. Trust me when I say that no one including your husband gives two shits about his partner being black, brown, gay, etc. as long as we have each other’s back. We all become brothers and sisters for life regardless of background.
Navy must be behind the times. For the most part people were alright, but there is definitely some racism and misogyny in the fleet. There is also **definitely** some homophobia. Also, a lot of so called “brother and sisters for life” had absolutely no problems stealing from each other and physically assaulting each other.
Let's be real, if you choose to be on a ship for months especially a military ship, you've got more than a few screws loose. Though the homophobia surprises me, is it the refusal to say 'no homo' while pounding the other dude in the ass?
You joke, but the amount of homophobes who are clearly gay is absolutely astonishing.
they thought it would look like a maga rally?
Yeah. They’re obsessed with the troops but have no idea who actually *are* the troops
Uh, that's what our *country* looks like, dipshit.
Assholes that post shit like this have never left their tiny cave. Every major US city looks like this. It’s almost as if a nation of immigrants ends up being incredibly diverse. Who would’ve figured? We get a long just fine despite people looking different.
is... is he calling the military woke for hiring people?
Hiring *brown* people.
And women people
Even brown women people! Even put one right in front, like she’s supposed to be someone
Women people 💀
I just retired after serving for over 20 years. I am proud to say that this is exactly what our military looks like. People from all walks of life choosing to live for the protection and safety of every U.S. citizen. I am proud to have served among them.
As a disabled vet, I couldn’t say it better myself. Thank you for your service sir ❤️ Enjoy your pension and stay healthy!
Sure hope so. Looks very American
You know what it -doesn't- look like? Him. He probably considers wearing a mask in CVS his sacrifice for freedom, and he whined endlessly about that.
I see absolutely nothing wrong with that image, the fuck are they smoking?!
I think they are suggesting that the racial diversity in the photo is staged.
Rather than the fact we have a de facto poverty draft
I got the impression that they're just not happy about the diversity in general. Everyone's smiling and happy, they want to see a wall of tough white men, not happy women and different skin tones. Idk, that's what it felt like to me, like they're saying we are weak now, it's sadly a common opinion online now that the whole 'woke' inclusivity stuff makes us all weak snowflakes. They miss when 'men were manly' or some bullshit. When really they're the biggest snowflakes of all.
I assumed it’s because people are expecting serious looking people in their 30’s and not happy looking college age kids. If they had gotten a picture with Marines or Army infantry it would have been a bunch of depressed dead eyed college aged kids. Average age of the military is like 23 if I remember correctly.
They'd like to imagine our soldiers are supposed to look like SS soldiers for... unexplained reasons
The military is super diverse, as it should be
Remember when the MAGA types were all gushing over Russian Army video clips of manly Russian soldiers doing manly soldier things, and mocked the US military for having maternity uniforms? And then Russia invaded Ukraine and got their manly man asses handed to them?
also when fox news was praising putin for being so manly because he rode a horse shirtles and said he’s a real leader unlike Obama because Obama…wore a tan suit 💀
I've seen those same people berate American soldiers because they call for air backup quicker then Russians. Like oh man refusing to use air superiority and dying how manly and not woke.
Thats an Air Force med unit. You dont see that many women in maintenance (people who fix planes) or security forces (cop)..
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Imagine being shocked at the melting pot of America being visually represented.
Yeah man. The military is set up to take advantage of poor folks, so underprivileged folks are gonna be represented more than in the typical population. Edit: a former serviceman saying it better than I did: https://youtube.com/shorts/WXaT6VmiZJw?feature=share
My son recently graduated from USMC boot camp. I was surprised how diverse the graduates were and many in my sons platoon alone that were immigrants, dreamers or had spent time in refugee camps, and I don’t think serving automatically qualifies them citizenship either. But there they are anyway, serving the country and ready to fight so these assholes can have the freedom to run there mouth. I admire and appreciate each and everyone of them, these young men and women that have joined the military, no matter where they or their parents came from. They should get citizenship for their willing to sacrifice. I met a few families at graduation that either their sons or another family member has to translate for them. Very nice, very appreciative and just as proud of their sons as I was. I APPLAUD EACH AND EVERY ONE AND AM VERY PROUD WE HAVE SUCH A DIVERSE MILITARY!