I am wondering, and this is a serious question about the "Military Mindset".

What makes people want to join the military/army/air force, etc.? (I know the thread says Military Mindset, that was just for kicks, I'm talking about all of the army-related occupations.)

I want to know. I see lots of threads around here about people asking for information on joining certain parts of the army, or asking for information on how to join the army or get prepared for it. There are also many people around here who are in the army, or training for it, or are now veterans, or just simply not deployed. What made you want to join?

Aside from typical answers of course. (eg. "For my country"). Do people really love their country so much, or feel as if they owe so much to their country, that they would want to risk their lives to protect it? Why do some people feel the NEED to join? Do they think their enlistment will make a difference? I am just trying to wrap my head around the reasons why someone would want to sacrifice their freedom, lives and families, all to protect the freedom, lives and families of others. It's like, one for another. I know SOMEONE has to do it, but why so many people? It just feels to me like more than the necessary amount of people are risking pretty much everything to be in a war -- if there were one.

Now, I know that there are other occupations, such as repairing machinery, being a nurse or doctor, flying, etc. And I also know that there is really no risk when there isn't a war or anything. But I want to know why people pretty much give up their lives in the normal world, just to be trained and ready in the armed forces should they be needed.

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Now, after that is answered, here's like a bonus question. Why do people join the army during wars? I'm sure they know that they might die, but SO many people join the army during wars, I'm sure. What's the point? Why not just stay a civilian, the army can handle itself, don't you think?

Thanks.

Since I'm not in the military myself, I guess I can't really answer the question as well as someone who is, but my grandfather and his brothers joined the armed forces for the respect and prestige. My uncle joined because his father (my grandfather) had.

As for wars, they either get drafted, or recruiters go around convincing young men to join. They use different methods depending on the person.

Oh yeah and, army is a part of the military, not the other way round.

This seems like the normal entitled attitude of today's youth. "Well I wouldn't do it. Why would anyone else?"


What kind of logic is this? If no one joined the army, the army wouldn't be able to "handle itself". Unless you'd like to be drafted.

I was born a warrior.


So the marines were the obvious choice.

It's a job. Lots of people join for the money, the security, and knowing they'll be able to survive with even the most basic pay.

Thing is, it is at the same time both the best and worst job ever. You get paid a lot, you get great benefits, you have minimal taxes...but you're essentially working 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days of the year.

Even when you sleep you're working.

So when you factor that into the hourly pay it's actually kind of crap.

The military has drawn my attention because of the benefits. It'll pay for college, gives you insurance and good retirement plans, and a few other things that really make it sound worth while. I see it almost like a business venture. For the benefits it gives you, why not spend a few years in the service?

EDIT: Pretty much what Steampunk said.

If Id've had any sense when I was younger I would've joined the service, but I didn't so I didn't join. Now that I'm older, it's become a matter of if I knew then what I know now...damn, I should've joined. It would've done me a world of good, and maybe I could've avoided some of the problems that i brought upon myself.

I joined because I wanted a good start to my future and the Army has already given it to me. Steampunk sums it up pretty well.

"Today's youth"? This sounds like the normal, entitled attitude of today's rotting excess.

I'm asking a legitimate question as to why many people feel obligated to do this. They are not obligated, but why do they feel as though there are? What is their thinking?

EDIT: As for everyone else, thank you for actually having an answer, rather than playing Gandhi and [censored]ing at the young.

I never joined the armed forces for a variety of reasons, so I can't speak from experience, but from what I understand people join the armed forces for a variety of personal reasons. For some it is a job. For others, they feel that protecting their country is a worthy thing to do. And some join the military because they feel they have no other choice.

Of course, this is all within the context of being in a country that doesn't have a draft.

The deeper question you appear to be asking - what motivates the member of the armed forces to risk their lives each day - that is something you would need to ask each member.

Why shouldn't they? Just because you don't?

Again with the entitled attitude.

I didn't say they shouldn't. I am wondering why they feel they should.

If I wanted to make a thread ranting about people joining the armed forces, I would have made one. But, I am asking a legitimate question about the mindset and why people feel that way. Of course, your entitled attitude would simply dismiss it as something "kids say".

You consider it entitlement to have a few reservations about signing oneself up to be shot in the face?

I do it because I do love my country, I didn't join to fight or else I would of been infantry, do I know how to fight though yes. I would do anything now that I am in the military for my battle buddies in a combat situation or anything to support someone else going outside the wire overseas.

To answer another part of the original question. I never felt obligated to join. I was in JROTC for four years in highschool and I enjoyed the structure and discipline and after learning of the benefits I would receive for choosing my specific military job at the time I thought it was the best option for me.

This part of the OP lends that air:


Without people joining the Armed Forces, there is no Armed Forces.

Unless, of course, you wish to be conscripted.

The military isn't for everyone. Hell, it's not for me. But the mindset that I referenced above ("I wouldn't do it. Why would someone else do it") certainly smacks of self-righteousness and entitlement.

Since you wanted a mindset, here's mine (as a corollary to the above, but as I needed to check on my son I cut it short..)

I don't know why -I think my dad saw me playing outside or whatever, but at the age of roughly eight, he read to me The art of war, I think he wanted to teach me something about the gravity of warfare and how it always affects the innocent more than the guilty, but at the time I got something completely different out of it; that life itself was a war of sorts, a conflict to be engaged, with strategies to survive and tactics with which to prosper in life itself.

and I realized I had been thinking like that all along, or as far back as I could remember at least..

Once in the Netherlands as a teenager I found high school to be even more so, a mass chaotic conflict from every side. And once you tok the time to stand back and observe all the different angles it was pretty easy to navigate.


I figured the marines would point out whether I was full of [censored] or not, and barring a few -very- near misses, I guess I wasn't

He doesn't understand why people would join during a war rather than stay safe at home, so he's asking. It's a simple question.

I've heard something about "serving your country" or some such thing, but it's way over my head. Why anyone would would risk their life just to make someone else's life miserable, is beyond me.

To experience war I suppose. There's only so much a book can tell you.

Yes.

If I would have been accepted I would have love nothing more than to be a grunt in the front. It would have been partly for the love of country, partly to give back that which has been given to me (it is one of the few places in the world where you can go from homeless to a roof a wife and a job with the help of the countr and it's citizens). Mostly though, it would have been to ensure that my children and those oft countrymen ( I.e. you) can live and question your government without fear of retribution. You can freely speak and do, very few places allow this.

It's a simple question with a complex answer. An answer that keeps changing depending on who you ask to boot.

Huh?

I doubt a great many service-members actually go into the armed forces with the intent of "experiencing war."

Patriotism, nationalism, sense of duty to one's country. I know plenty of people who have joined because they just don't see themselves going to college. There are also those who join because they otherwise couldn't afford college. I've considered joining both for the practical benefits and the chance to experience war, killing, and death on a slightly larger scale than that of a civilian. Not that I want to wage war, kill, or die, but I feel its one of those things that the only way to know how you feel about it is to experience it.

I doubt that the numbers of people that join up during peacetime is even comparable to the amount that join up during wartime. Part of the reason that all these youngs (my age) want to join the infantry is to experience war. There's something tantalizing or mysterious about it and for most it doesn't matter how many anti-war books, movies, video games they read/see/play they'll still want to experience it. Didn't military recruitment way up a bit after Black hawk Down came out? That generation of American teens were often the ones who joined up in the late 90s or early '00s.

The military is more than just soldiers, they are engineers, pilots and all manner of skillsets with private sector applications.

Joining the military at 18 and going into a field like engineering and you can retire at 38 with full lifetime pension in addition to qualifying for and being a prime candidate for a high salary private sector job.

Don't underestimate the benefits of military service for someone who thinks in the long term.

Different for everyone. One of my friends is joining the marines. He says that he just belongs in a battlefield, and that he can't sit behind a desk and be a "pencilpusher"

I want to be an officer eventually. Part of it is the financial security, but it is mostly that I just see myself living that kind of lifestyle :shrug:Plus I am pretty patriotic and I want to fight for my country, but that probably doesn't give you much of an answer.