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Demographics Poll: What is Your Military Status?

  1. Demographics Poll: What is Your Military Status?51 votes
    1. Currently in the military (combat experience)
        0.00%
    2. Previously in the military (combat experience)
        7.84%
    3. Currently in the military (no combat experience)
        0.00%
    4. Previously in the military (no combat experience)
      11.76%
    5. No military background
      41.18%
    6. Only family/friends have military experience
      35.29%
    7. Other (please specify)
        3.92%
gorgonzolalolien
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Comments

  • semiticgoddesssemiticgoddess Member Posts: 14,903
    My dad joined the Air Force to help pay for medical school, but never had to serve overseas.
  • gorgonzolagorgonzola Member Posts: 3,864
    i am a conscientious objector, so i performed draft avoidance according to the law of my country (italy).
    now in italy conscription is no more mandatory, but at the time that i was supposed to serve in the army it was.
    i never used a firearm in my life and i had never been trained for war, still at the time i did my civil service, that was 6 months longer than the regular conscription, i was "technically" a military, the army payed for my food and other expenses, i was under the jurisdiction of the military court and so on, even if i did not see a single solder in the whole time of my civil service, i was up in the mountains helping the old people living there. this is the reason i vote other instead of no military background.
    semiticgoddessThacoBell
  • lroumenlroumen Member Posts: 2,508
    Nor would I ever want to.
    SilverstarThacoBell
  • StummvonBordwehrStummvonBordwehr Member, Mobile Tester Posts: 1,343
    Spend a coupé of years in the service.

    I was at some point stationed 5 months in Balkan - but it was peaceful at the time, so luckily I didnt see action (should have voted no action..). @semiticgod perhaps you could expand the poll by adding previously in the forces and stationed abroad?
  • Rik_KirtaniyaRik_Kirtaniya Member Posts: 1,742
    ...in real life. Otherwise, I'm a one-man army. B)
    lolienThacoBellAlonso
  • KamigoroshiKamigoroshi Member Posts: 5,870
    Back when conscription was still mandatory over here, I got invalided out real quick. I mean, really quick. Think I wasn't even inside said Bundeswehr conscription building for an hour or so. And I wouldn't have it any other way either, mind you. Being part of the military is probably in my top 5 for places I *never* wanted to work at.
    Silverstar
  • O_BruceO_Bruce Member Posts: 2,790
    My dad has some military experience. I hope I will never have any.
    Silverstar
  • semiticgoddesssemiticgoddess Member Posts: 14,903


    I was at some point stationed 5 months in Balkan - but it was peaceful at the time, so luckily I didnt see action (should have voted no action..). @semiticgod perhaps you could expand the poll by adding previously in the forces and stationed abroad?

    I can't add poll options after the poll has been completed, and there wouldn't be room to specify the difference between being deployed abroad and stationed at home. I just divided it between combat experience and no combat experience to reflect the difference between peacetime/supporting duties and direct combat.
    StummvonBordwehr
  • SilverstarSilverstar Member Posts: 2,207
    I did my mandatory year, then got the hell out. Even paid for my own plane tickets home as they'd messed up and there was no way I was spending one more day in that camp. I was in the air force, probably the least painful of the four military branches (army/navy/air force/coast guard), so at least I didn't completely snap.
  • ThacoBellThacoBell Member Posts: 12,235
    None here, my asthma would disqualify me right quick I image. My uncle piloted tanks though back in the day, no idea if he ever saw actual combat though. Oh and my great grandfather fought in a war (I don't recall which one).
  • gorgonzolagorgonzola Member Posts: 3,864
    edited January 2019
    if we go back in time so much also a grandfather of mine, his 2 brothers and his father fought in WW1, his father and 1 of his brothers died, like true heroes reading the motivations of the medals they obtained. on the same war my other grandfather was on the opposite side, as part of the northern italy was in the austro hungarian empire, but he had the very opposite approach. sent to poland he managed to don't shot a single bullet in all the war, he deserted, he was shot by friendly fire as he was sleeping inside a haystack cause a military patrol decided to try a sort of bazooka on that very same haystack, managed to convince them that he was lost and in the process of rejoining his regiment and not a deserter, spent months in hospital becoming friend to the nuns and so avoiding to be sent again to combat (actually the injury was really severe but still he recovered before the war was over).
    according of what he told me when i was a child and to what he told to my mother in the end he even managed to stole a train and loading it with soldiers that like him was ethnically italians but politically in the austrian side and crossed the europe bringing them to italy. those people was under no jurisdiction and had no nationality as was no more citizens of the empire that had just collapsed and lost the territory from they were from, but was also not italians as they were former austrian citizens. i know for sure that the ones that was not lucky to get on the train stolen by grandpa had to spend years as war prisoners in crimea before italy finally was aware that they existed, reclaimed them as new italian citizens and a solution was found for their case.
    so also that grandfather was somehow a "coward" hero, as he and the others on the train could avoid it and become immediately new italian citizens :)
    StummvonBordwehrSkatanlionwarriorking
  • QuickbladeQuickblade Member Posts: 957
    edited January 2019

    I did my mandatory year, then got the hell out. Even paid for my own plane tickets home as they'd messed up and there was no way I was spending one more day in that camp. I was in the air force, probably the least painful of the four military branches (army/navy/air force/coast guard), so at least I didn't completely snap.

    Forgot the Marines for the five armed uniform services. And NOAA has a uniformed service.

    My dad joined the Air Force to help pay for medical school, but never had to serve overseas.

    My dad was in the Army Reserve to pay for his medical school during the Vietnam War also. IIRC he graduated medical school in 1972. Never got deployed.
  • SilverstarSilverstar Member Posts: 2,207

    I did my mandatory year, then got the hell out. Even paid for my own plane tickets home as they'd messed up and there was no way I was spending one more day in that camp. I was in the air force, probably the least painful of the four military branches (army/navy/air force/coast guard), so at least I didn't completely snap.

    Forgot the Marines for the five armed uniform services. And NOAA has a uniformed service.
    No, we don't have marines. Arguably one could say the navy's (being called "Marinen") soldiers are what with being "marinesoldater", but I don't think they're the equivalent to what you have in mind. When conscription inevitably happens, we're almost always shoved into the army, navy, air force or coast guard, even though various sub-branches and special forces exist.
  • QuickbladeQuickblade Member Posts: 957

    I did my mandatory year, then got the hell out. Even paid for my own plane tickets home as they'd messed up and there was no way I was spending one more day in that camp. I was in the air force, probably the least painful of the four military branches (army/navy/air force/coast guard), so at least I didn't completely snap.

    Forgot the Marines for the five armed uniform services. And NOAA has a uniformed service.
    No, we don't have marines. Arguably one could say the navy's (being called "Marinen") soldiers are what with being "marinesoldater", but I don't think they're the equivalent to what you have in mind. When conscription inevitably happens, we're almost always shoved into the army, navy, air force or coast guard, even though various sub-branches and special forces exist.
    Ah, yeah. I was assuming America.
  • Balrog99Balrog99 Member Posts: 7,367
    Both of my ex-stepchildren joined the Air Force and one of my best friends got his med school and residency paid for by joining the Navy and his brother got his nuclear engineering degree from the Navy as well (submariner). Lots of military connections but never joined myself...
  • SilverstarSilverstar Member Posts: 2,207
    Raduziel said:

    This year I'll make some tests to try to join the Firefighters' Department.

    That is very admirable. Best of luck with that, I hope you get through.
    gorgonzolaRaduzielOrlonKronsteen
  • GalactygonGalactygon Member, Developer Posts: 412
    No military background ever, even going several generations back in the midst of WW2. We were pretty educated back then and they didn't want to send them to the frontline (hungarians & soviets). My great-grandfather was rejected (by the soviet recruitment) because of his eye condition (keratoconus) that I have inherited unfortunately. So I think I'm a bit of an anomaly of having no knowledge of anyone serving going at least 4 generations back.

    My (figurative) hat is off to those who serve. I think it's a sound choice for many.
  • ArdanisArdanis Member Posts: 1,736
    My father had served the mandatory two years in army (conscription, and recently hybrid, system here). I got rejected and put into reserve due to poor vision.


    My (figurative) hat is off to those who serve. I think it's a sound choice for many.

    Same. I could probably insist and enlist somewhere in rear lines, where I wouldn't risk accidentally shooting a wrong person, but that'd be boring. Would have liked to have served in combat unit, though.
  • Son_of_ImoenSon_of_Imoen Member Posts: 1,806
    edited January 2019
    I'm a conscious objector, but despite some 25 applications I send, I failed to find a place for replacement service and was relieved of the obligation to serve when I filed a request to be relieved of the obligation so I could go studying again in time to finish my study before I'd reach the age that you can't get a scholarship no more (27 back then). And then I got sick and my study never got finished :( .
  • smeagolheartsmeagolheart Member Posts: 7,963
    edited January 2019
    I went to combat zones during times when conflicts were announced but never directly in combat.
  • gorgonzolagorgonzola Member Posts: 3,864
    Raduziel said:

    Everyone wants to be at the front until they do.

    Until a bullet.....................................................
    It's not an adventure.

    yep , i am very aware of that, and, even if i never touched a gun and so have no direct experience i think that what you tell is only 1/2 of the problem. probably the other 1/2 in your case was less evident cause you was facing drug dealers, you was fighting against criminals, not in a war between 2 nations.
    when the war is between 2 nations a military has to try to kill other solders, not criminals, but people whose only fault was to born at the other side of a border line.
    in a regular war a soldier not only will face all the things that you tell about, but will actively try to cause them to other human beings. and the trend modern war is to have more and more civilians killed, more old people and babies killed, there is no more honor or fair means in modern warfare.
    so a soldier, even if he is lucky to avoid personal injury, has to face his own conscience cause war is the most brutal thing that humanity can do and even if a soldier has not decided himself to initiate the war the damage and killing is performed by his hands and by the weapon that he is using.

    i repeat, your case was different as you was facing criminals, people that had decided to be so and has to face the consequences of their own decisions.

  • MichelleMichelle Member Posts: 549
    Desert Storm. Nothing like post 9/11 though. I was a truck driver in support of 3rd armor division and only saw combat from a distance. I always feel guilty when someone says,’Thank you for your service.’ I didn’t do anything.
    StummvonBordwehrRaduzielOrlonKronsteen
  • semiticgoddesssemiticgoddess Member Posts: 14,903
    @_Nightfall_: The most important jobs in the world are often low-key and undervalued. Maintenance, paperwork, and transportation are absolutely vital for any large organization, whether it's a military, a non-profit, or a corporation. All great endeavors depends on a vast network of support workers.

    I don't know what your day-to-day job looked like on the ground, but I'm guessing that your superiors wouldn't have assigned you to transportation duty unless they needed those trucks moving that material. It might not have been glamorous or dramatic, but it was impactful nonetheless.

    I used to work at the homeless shelter, helping homeless people rejoin the workforce and get back on their feet and become self-sustaining. But most of my job, like most of all of the jobs of the volunteers and employees at the shelter, was bureaucratic. Making a difference in the world isn't always flashy or photogenic.
    MichelleSilverstarThacoBellPrince_Raymond
  • QuickbladeQuickblade Member Posts: 957

    Desert Storm. Nothing like post 9/11 though. I was a truck driver in support of 3rd armor division and only saw combat from a distance. I always feel guilty when someone says,’Thank you for your service.’ I didn’t do anything.

    Logistics are vital everywhere. Whether it's daily society, war, covert operations, doesn't matter, it's important work and someone needs to do it. So yeah, what Raduziel said, the soldiers participating in combat can't do their thing if everyone else doesn't do theirs too.
    Got military sci-fi where it's ALL ABOUT the logistics. Safehold series, by David Weber. Thousands starve and an entire military campaign is halted for having their supply line cut in a gamble by the smaller, but good guy, side.

    Merlin, the probably main character (in a cast of hundreds, the character appendix winds up at like 80 pages by the 8th or so book), even says "amateurs study tactics, but professionals study logistics." when unveiling the aforementioned gamble.
    semiticgoddessMichelleStummvonBordwehrSilverstar
  • semiticgoddesssemiticgoddess Member Posts: 14,903
    Reminds me of a quote by a post-WW2 economic advisor for Occupied Japan, stressing the importance of attention to detail when rebuilding the Japanese economy and government: "Policy proclaims, but details decide."
  • MichelleMichelle Member Posts: 549
    I never thought about it like that. :) Hopefully I did help in some small way.
    RaduzielsemiticgoddessStummvonBordwehr
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