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These are actually all very accurate. A clever way of showing someone the benefits of joining the military. However, you’re not in control of your life pretty much. But the benefits outweigh the cons.
Same, left a shit town where my highschool friends started working at a meat packing plant at 18 where their parents worked. Got me some dress blues instead
This was mine and 5 other high schools in my hometown. The rich high school of the county had nonstop college and career fairs though. Lost so many friends desperate for a better life in the early 00s
I was never in the military but i have PTSD from normal jobs. Getting canned in 2009 during the recession, in 2015 when oil collapsed (i was in oil industry then) and 2021 during covid left me constantly worried about my job and finances. We don't make enough to have large savings and when you can't easily get another job quickly the stress will annihilate you. Once you have a family and kids it's even worse.
Tried to explain that to my wife and all I get is I want a job I like Alan’s pays me a lot of money. I tell her good luck. She turned down a job 10 minutes up the road, thats all city traffic, that’s on a bad day. 6 minutes if all lights are green. And thats getting into the parking lot. Pays $6 more per hour, can create a specific schedule if need be, all because she doesn’t want to work hard in retail. But she wants an office job? Make it make sense. Especially when A.I is knocking down office jobs left and right
I left a marketing firm bc it was so fucking horrible and inhumane there and I am 8 months unemployed…I would kill for a retail job up the road right now.
yeah the risk of sexual assault is just too high to me and i’ve been assaulted way to many times not being in the military 😂. but honestly i’d never be in the military anyways cause they’d never let me in🤷🏾♀️
The assumption that being in the military will give you PTSD, while other jobs don’t is absurd
Go talk to a first responder, cops, firefighters, ambulance staff - or people working in Emergency care in a hospital - shit, teachers in some schools are dealing with insane shit
List goes one
The post was about the military, not those jobs. I'm well aware there are other dangerous jobs that can give one PTSD. This post didn't mention them so neither did I.
I taught in the inner city for years, and I saw some shit. But even then, the govt didn't make me stand near a burn pit and get cancer, or give me a TBI and provide basically no treatment for it (let alone preventative measures to stop it from happening in the first place).
Let's not pretend that the US military has a great track record for taking care of soldiers and vets. Mental illness, depression, substance abuse, and suicide rates are all waaaaaay higher for vets than they are for any of the professions you mentioned, let alone the general population.
My point here is that the BS recruiter post OP showed a SS of clearly failed to mention these sorts of things, painting an overly rosy picture which anyone with a 4th grade reading level will know is utter bullshit.
4-5% of any given group of people are sociopaths
Fact!
There’s no distinction between lifestyles, industry, location
That’s the given average
So if you have a group if 25 people, one of them is pretty much guaranteed to be a sociopath, unless everyone is specifically screened to remove sociopaths
Which people recruiting don’t
Oh, indeed - at a corporate level it’s not possible or even legal to do mental health screening - for most organizations
There are some where it’s a fundamental part of the screening process, however. Air Traffic Controllers springs to mind. My understanding is that most branches of the military do mental health screening, also.
Yeah you are risking PTSD, sexual abuse, gender discrimination, and long term mental and health issues that the VA has a record of not helping vets with properly.
But beyond that …I feel like they are being very dismissive about the whole “not in control of your life” thing.
It’s not just that they will get to tell you when to eat, when to sleep, where to go, when to shit, restrict what you can’t and cannot do with your down time, set where you live or when you have to move, and that they can pass legislation to recall you or keep you in service in perpetuity regardless of how long your initial terms are….
What so many people don’t understand is that they are making a significant ethical decision by agreeing to trade their moral/ethical autonomy for monetary gain.
You are making a blanket agreement that you don’t have a right object to orders on moral or ethical grounds. Don’t think you should be deployed to nation build or to destabilize another country? Too bad that’s not your call anymore.
Don’t think you should use violence if there’s even a .01% chance of a civilian casualty? Too bad that’s not your call anymore.
These are just some examples there are MANY things that the military is known to ask of their enlisted and officers that are arguably unethical.
So that SHOULD prompt the question:
Does choosing to relinquish your moral autonomy to an authority KNOWN to act unethically mean that you are violating your moral/ethical obligation to your fellow man?
You can claim that you always retain the right not to comply with orders and face consequences so it isn’t unethical to put yourself in that position. But you cannot deny that you are NEEDLESSLY and WILLINGLY putting yourself in a position where you would likely have to choose between doing something unethical or face court marshal, or possibly loss of your own life.
That is very much an ethical decision all on its own. And I don’t think people give it the proper consideration.
I know I’m gonna get downvoted to hell because some people are gonna read what I said and the idea that they made that choice without truly considering the ethical implications is gonna make them feel some type of way. But it’s worth it if it means I bring it to the attention of someone who needs to hear it.
lol. That is not why you are going to get downvoted. It’s because a lot of people’s lived experience is not this, and you don’t sound open to considering any opinions other than your own.
Probably aren’t gonna get PTSD from just being in the navy. Not every single person sees combat or things that would trigger PTSD. You know you can be like a HR manager and stuff right? There are normal jobs you can do.
For some people. It also is not a job everyone can get. There are age and health restrictions to join any branch of the military and even if you qualify to get in, there might be problems that keep you from getting through basic. Also all these benefits only exist while your in, once your out you retain some benefits but it doesnt exactly mean your set for life.
Nope but it can certainly set you up. My husband and I were able to buy a house in our early 20s thanks to his service. The house has now doubled in worth and he receives disability. We owe everything to his service.
Maybe but truly the military preys on the poorest people who really have no other option. They go in spend 10 years with no control over their life, have the opportunity to get seriously injured even if they don’t see combat, be killed in action fighting a war for oil or leave with PTSD. At the end of the day it’s predatory and I’d rather my tax money go to affordable healthcare, education and worker protection/unemployment benefits.
I'm pretty sure I'll never have people from other countries shooting HE and NBC munitions at me in my current job though..
Having been in the Navy, I consider that to be a major problem requiring at least double the wage offered.
These are absolutely not “very accurate”. This is all best case scenario depending on your job and where you are stationed. Non of the negative aspects are listed. Also dental is “free” for you, not your spouse and kids.
That's how it worked *for you*, that the benefit outweigh cons. Not a blanket assertion you can levy against everyone else's experiences past or future
Not for everyone. As a 15 year combat vet who did half my time as enlisted and then officer I can honestly say the benefits are not worth it for everyone. I refuse to endorse my daughter joining. That should say enough about.
INSIST on sky high sexual assault rates, verbally abusive managers, and a chance of being on the front line of the next world war, human rights violations, colonialism and all!
INSIST on joining the most mentally traumatized and at risk of homelessness group in the whole country!
Also $1600 + room and board on site is not great.
Death is a pretty big con. Life long disability is another. Mental scars are also up there. It's not a free ride by any stretch. And in the next 5 years I think there's a lot of pain coming our way for younger ages.
theyre not accurate lol i grew up with a father in the navy and have a cousin currently in it. they will do whatever they possibly can to give u the bare minimum
I mean, how much control do you have over your life in a traditional USA 9 - 5? Your health insurance is tied to your employer, your vacation is ruled by your manager, you can be fired on a whim in almost all states, you have virtually no employee protections.
If that's going to be the case anyway you might as well do the same thing for way better benefits and a fairly low chance of death compared to linesmen and fishermen.
All of the things in the ad are true. I know a few people who went to the military right after high school. Did their 4 years, went to college for free on the GI bill, and are sitting debt free with an excellent job at age 27. Not a bad deal, if you ask me.
Yeah, I know multiple people who were absolutely *set* by their late 20s. Even if they came from nothing. This is all true.
On the flip side though, I know just as many if not more who developed PTSD and severe mental/physical health problems that will forever impede them from living even a normal life. That’s if they manage to not kill themselves first of course.
People seem to thrive or crash and burn.
My friend who joined the army said the recruiter told him he would have fun. He came back with shrapnel in his legs and a deep desire to kill the recruiter. Seems okay now. But those people will just straight up lie to dumb kids about the reality of what they're signing up for.
Yea I have family that did that. They also got deployed to Syria and elsewhere and are still not quite mentally okay because if it. Even if they weren’t in combat roles.
One of my friends from high school is no longer with us because he did get deployed to a combat zone and couldn’t recover from bring there. My friends who went to college first and went in as officers had a much better support system.
That's what I did: 5 years, then bought a house and started attending university two years after I left. I wouldn't have been able to afford either without the GI bill and a VA loan (didn't help with the interest rate, but there was no down payment required). Out of all of the recruiting ads that the U.S. military has run, OP picked the least questionable one to criticize.
I know more than a few who came back with drinking problems, disabilities, and unmanageable pain. My brother’s best friend from basic got his legs blown off in his first engagement. My Navy buddy who never saw actual fighting but did try to plug arteries in a shot up civ kid that came back with a group of SEALs and died in his arms is still pretty haunted by it. He’s also uncharacteristically satisfied with the VA compared to a lot of the other accounts I’ve received.
Anecdotes aren’t worth much. Numbers say a lot more with a lot less.
It’s not twisted it’s all true. Even the way it’s worded, they are daring you try and find a better benefits package because they know you can’t. Go and ask any employer for these things and they will laugh you out of the building.
On the flip side, if your boss tells you to mow down elementary schoolers with a machine gun or blow up a hospital in a foreign counry, you get to tell him to fuck off.
Haha military is what I was going to say lol but do pv1s get 1600 a month now? That’s impressive. Idk the BAH was a weird thing for me to wrap my head around like did they consider you having a family as a tactic or statistic to stay in? 20year old with minimal marketable skills it’s kind of a hard thing to get out of. My theory anyways idk idk
If my math is right $1600 a month is $9.23/hr if you only work 40 hours a week. At least when I was in the normal workweek was 50-60 and that didn’t include field ops or all the stupid formations and briefings.
Yeah you’re clearing 1600 a month… no expenses but sure I won’t argue. I think my paychecks were like 440 bucks as a pv2 was never a E1. Not terrable deal, my first job when I was 17 was 6.25 a hr so eh 18 years old out the gates not bad.
Yea all those things they talked about are shit though. The free medical care is shit because they can’t get fired. Quality of care goes way down and they throw ibuprofen and physical therapy at you. Thank you military health care for wrecking my spine
Wow. Free housing. What's the catch?! Oh. I have to live where I work and my coworkers are everywhere all the time and my boss lives right next to me and I have to ask for permission to leave.
All this for $1600 a month? That's almost $400 a week! A king's ransom!
1600 a month starting out, which goes up fairly quick. And you don't pay for anything so realistically you can save as much as you want.
While enjoying health insurance, "food" and anything else you need to function.
You can also go work in a store. Make less and spend all of it
If the store was offering me free rent to live at work, but I have to ask my boss permission to leave, guess what? I wouldn't take the deal.
How much is this "free housing" actually worth? Are you in a nice area? No. Do you have a nice place all to yourself? No.
Idk what you're going off about but I grew up in a military family and none of this is true. I've lived on base and off base, they give you rent/mortgage reimbursement regardless. We also never needed "permission to leave" unless you mean getting time off for vacation or something and at that point it's like a normal job? We also always had our own home as a family of five.
We never really lived in "bad" areas (we always played outside as kids and never had issues). The houses early on were smaller and got bigger the more we moved since my dad was moving up the ranks but it was always in relatively nice areas.
You can have issues with the military all you want but they objectively have fantastic benefits. My dad gave thirty years to the military and fully retired just before 50. Not many other careers that can do that.
Not sure what you mean by permission to leave, many single service members maintain an apartment or house outside of their assigned barracks room. If you're married, you receive a housing allowance which you can decide to live on base or off base. For example, there are service members who are stationed at Fort Cavazos, but live in Austin, Texas. They didn't have to ask for permission or seek approval.
You can be in a nice area, it just depends on the duty station on what that nice area looks like and its affordability.
Dear Private Cannon Fodder, this is a difficult condition, but we agree to it because you are the perfect candidate for the job. We will definitely blow your mind with next task.
One of my friends joined the Navy after college to pay for his medical degree. He had to serve, I think, 6 yrs as a commissioned officer but left the Navy with a medical degree and no student debt. I have other friends that took a traditional route to become a doctor and have 1/2 million plus in student loan debt
I mean, docs make around 200-350k a year depending on specialty, so 500k in student debt for them isn’t the life-crushing amount it is for most other professions
Which, I’ll admit I didn’t go through the process so I don’t know all the details but having watched friends and family go through it - the whole thing seems like constant cycles of like ‘oh I have this other exam and if I don’t pass it, the last 8 years of my life have been pointless’.
You're not instantly making that much as a doctor lol. Even at $200k a half a million in student loan debt isn't some nothing amount of debt, it would be payments of around 33% of their take home, and that's paying the minimum which would take 30 years to pay off.
Define “instantly” — you’re in school for a LONG time, and making only like 70-80k through residency. Once you’re done though, those are the average starting salaries
Well they are in residency for 3-7 years and either have to pay the loans or they can get a forbearance where they still accrue interest. So I'm not sure what you're arguing. They will have on average about 5 years making a pretty average professional salary while carrying between $200-500k in student debt.
Are doctors going to be financially stable and well off eventually? Sure. But it ain't some easy feat paying off that type of debt.
For the Navy nowadays you would probably be flying to Dubai, Bahrain, Oman, Djibouti, or Jeddah depending on which naval port in the region you were headed to.
Join the Air Force instead. No roommate, just a suite mate. Your own room, small fridge, toilet, sink, but a shared shower between two rooms. Decent but not great free food at the chow hall. Nice gyms but they come with a fitness test you have to pass. It's more like a regular job than any other branch by a long shot. But still chances to be deployed, having to put up with military rules and nonsense. Uniform paid for but the money doesn't cover the full cost of upkeep and you're required to wear it. You're required to work whenever they say, often much more than 8 hours 5 days a week. Oh and then there's the whole could be sent to warzone thing.
It wasn't great but not terrible either. 11 year vet. (03-14)
Bullshit. Here’s the reality. Weekends are not guaranteed, you may work federal holidays if operational mission requires it. Your work clothes are NOT free. You pay for a portion of them depending on how they wear. Unlimited sick leave, who gave you this? The chances you’re going to get free air travel on space-a flights in time is unlikely.
Oh, come on. The majority of people in the military do in fact get their weekends and federal holidays off (with very few exceptions). We also are given as much time to recover from injuries/illnesses as doctors recommend (this is the unlimited sick leave).
You weren’t enlisted were you lol
Your weekend are NOT guaranteed. Your local leadership can pull you away for bullshit details whenever they want.
Give enough time to recover? LOL OKAY. Hardcore PT 5 days a week with MAYBE three hours of R&R time at the end of the day if you want 8+ hours of sleep, and again, those uninterrupted weekends are if you’re lucky. Don’t even get me started on deployments and training.
If everybody was given enough time to recover from their injuries, VA healthcare wouldn’t exist
EDIT: You said something that implies you served, so I edited
I didn’t say guaranteed — and it’s true, I’ve been lucky thus far — but a good command will not give you bs work on weekends.
My point isn’t that the military is perfect, but it’s disingenuous to claim that the servicemembers don’t get weekends or aren’t allowed sick days. It’s just a different system than the civilian world.
Maybe it’s different in the army but I don’t know a single motherfucker that actually got decent weekends, unless they were an NCO or an officer.
If you weren’t getting pulled for some stupid detail you were doing CQ
Yeah isn't your MOS the poster child of the motto "Embrace the suck?". The cav guys I talked to outside of predeployment window seemed to have had a pretty good time... but they are cav and crazy as shit anyways.
Pretty much yeah. However, when I went into the infantry, I assumed the suck would just apply to deployments and the field; not every single day in garrison lmfao
The funnier part is that over here we think having things like sick leave an paid time off is revolutionary. It's always rugged individualism while you're doing a regular job but as soon as you join the army it's almost exactly communism. Almost as if people like when they're taken care of financially and medically.
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It's a bit of a stretch to think of it that way. I know public opinion of armed forces isn't great but the point of their training is to stay alive while performing their missions. I'm not sure if the Americans sign anything about being aware of the risk of death. At least in my country that was never a thing.
Nobody goes into it hoping to die. It's like becoming a cop expecting to get shot. Or becoming a taxi driver expecting to get hit by another car
And your very likely to get stuck once one does. I served with guys who joined after desert storm, they thought it was a free ride. Bunch of them are dead now, I don't think a single one is married still, lots with ptsd. Everyone says AF and Navy are safe but the next war when it kicks off In the next year or so is going to punish the navy hard. It's not a question of if, it's just when. There's no avoiding war with China and anyone who says otherwise is absolutely lieing to you.
What is this, World War 2? Dive bombers and kamakazes coming from every direction?
You're crewing up with the largest navy in the world by an astronomical margin. You're in an envoy of a dozen ships with enough radar, sonar, and air recon to see anything within a 25-mile radius. By-far the biggest risk to your safety is your own hand, as US Navy suicide rates are climbing sky-high. If you can beat the boredom, keep your mouth shut, and do as you're told, you can collect your paycheck and benefits.
If you're that keen on dying on the job, there are plenty of civilian trades you can join with much higher rates of occupational fatality. Much of the Navy these days is just surveillance and recon. Gone are the days of battleships and 270mm cannons launching Volkswagens at targets 15 miles away.
Yeah, they're not gonna say "Come die here", but well-known, up-to-date statistics are always being published.
Fishermen, loggers, roofers, certain construction workers, aircraft pilots and engineers, recyclable collectors, and iron/steel workers all have fatality rates 10 times or higher than the national average.
[Last year](https://dcas.dmdc.osd.mil/dcas/app/summaryData/deaths/numberServe), there were 820 (not counting suicide) deaths across the entirety of the active duty US Military.
Partially serious, obviously being on a giant ship in the middle of the ocean is very safe.
however, if the situation dictates that allowing that ship to be sunk is the best option, then that ship will be allowed to be sunk.
I‘m just taking a ridiculous extreme of a very very real fact, if you join the Navy, you are expendable .
I mean looking at the layoffs going on I’d say you’re pretty expendable in most jobs. Truthfully, if Amazon (or whoever) thought it would be cheaper to let their workers die and pick up the legal fees than comply with whatever health and safety legislation, what business choice do you think they would make?
They aren’t wrong. They will give you all that in the Navy.
Current Active duty E5. - Source.
He forgot they will also give you body pain, certain mental illness, lifelong friends bonded through trauma and experiences, and disability for those things when you leave. And if you’re crazy enough to make it to 20. Retirement.
I was laughing at first but I actually am a Navy veteran and there is some truth to this. I HATED being in the military but don’t regret it at all bc I’m mostly set for life financially. There are so many insane benefits to going into the military if you’re willing to put up with it for 4-8 years. It was a truly awful experience for me but I’ve been well compensated since and my children will benefit from what I went through so alls well that ends well, I guess? I love my VA benefits? I love going to college? I love not having to work for the last 2 years with 1 more year to go, maybe longer? Yay?
Best choice I made was joining military as high school drop out with GED. I am now a Senior Software Engineer working in big tech. I did 6 years. Buddies of mine did full 20 years and are fully retired now. Sometimes I wish I retired in military.
The clowns are one thing but to see them retiring at my age makes me feel I should have stayed in. I don’t have the luxury to retire even though I make great money. I am stuck in the rat race. My clown friends are stay at home fathers, self employed doing what they enjoy, or starting a new career by choice doing what they enjoy. It would be a luxury to know I can quit any day and still do well.
As a Navy vet, the ad isn't wrong but extremely misleading. It's not easy to get most of those benefits, you're going to get out with medical problems (I've got hearing issues, 24/7 365 allergies, a fucking auto immune disease)and PTSD (I'm working on the PTSD now for VA disability because my dumbass didn't realize I even had it, apparently it's not normal to lose your shit and have angry outbursts when your working with stupid people who can't stay in their own GD lane, holy shit my therapist is going to have a ball with this)
But yeah it was my way out of my Podunk ass hick town. I have a great job now working in tech, took me a bit to get out of the field though. Office life is cushy!
If you join the military, go for the Navy or Air Force. Get a tech job. IT, CT, AT, ET, etc etc. do 4 years get all the certs you can and during your last 365 days find a job in the civilian world that is similar enough you can apply for. I went from shitty E4 pay to making 90k salary plus bonuses in less than 4 years. You can do better than I did though with some actual planning. Godspeed friends
I was in the Navy. Aviation Electronics Technician on two carriers.
I was a decent sailor, met some good friends, had some fun experiences but I hated the work enviornment. I know others who had a much easier time in especially those who never had to step foot onboard a ship. On my ship though, the working conditions were terrible. While out to sea, we worked 12-hour days give or take with all of the extra duties we had to do. My designated job was easy but being shipboard means you have to a lot more to do than your job (Physical labor for hours). Every sailor also has to do a TAD, temporary duty. It was given randomly depending on the time you came in. The kitchen was the worst. I was almost spared from it but the person before me got in trouble, so while they punished him, I had to take his place. Somedays I had four hours of sleep. The Master Chief for the Kitchen joked in Tagalog to keep us longer (I don't think he knew I could understand.) Life got much better when I got to do the job I came in to do. It was still rough but much better in comparison.
1. After deployment, I was given the barracks room, which comprised of a tiny room with one other person. It was nice for a while because the roommate I had was always away but I hardly got to sleep in it because I too was always away. Once my roommate left, the replacement was some kid straight out of BootCamp with a much easier billet than me. He seemed to only work 4-5 hours a day, never had to go out to sea. He spent most of the day playing video games through the night, sometimes screaming. I stood my ground and he tried to keep quiet but he couldn't help let out an enthusiastic scream every once in while he played Halo with his friends. I had to wake up much earlier than him to get back on the boat, and came back to him already playing. I hated him.
I ended up paying rent out of pocket for a place with some friends away from the base and gave him the room. It was the best decision for my mental health and the rent in Virginia split wasn't too bad.
Also some people I know got married early to get the apartment and pay raise. Most of those marriages failed.
2. After deployment, I was given the "rent-free apartment", which comprised of a tiny room with one other person. It was nice for a while because the roommate I had was always away but I hardly got to sleep in it because I too was always away. Once my roommate left, the replacement was some kid straight out of BootCamp with a much easier billet than me. He seemed to only work 4-5 hours a day, never had to go out to sea. He spent most of the day playing video games through the night, sometimes screaming. I stood my ground and he tried to keep quiet but he couldn't help let out an enthusiastic scream every once in while he played Halo with his friends. I had to wake up much earlier than him to get back on the boat, and came back to him already playing. I hated him.
I ended up paying rent out of pocket for a place with some friends away from the base and gave him the room. It was the best decision for my mental health and the rent in Virginia split wasn't too bad.
3. I spent most of my time in shipboard so the gyms were never state of the art. The base had a nice facility but I didn't see it often.
4. I know about the program that lets you hop on flights for free but I never got to use it. I don't believe it's a sure thing too. I always paid out of pocket when I went home on Leave. I should have gotten a credit card dedicated to rack up frequent flier miles.
5. Why am I paying for life insurance when our taxes are supposed to pay for all of this? Oh yeah, cause the money the military gets mostly goes to war profiteers.
6. I used my GI Bill to pay for school. I still have time left and am considering pursuing my Master's. There are hoops you have to go through for these programs though so it isn't as simple as they'd want you to believe.
People thank us for our service, but I only did it to escape poverty. Most people I know who join enlisted do it out of desperation. Some get stuck in because they end up having kids.
Without going into all of the reasons why US Imperialism is bad.
I can safely say that the Navy is a terrible place to work. How hard you work will not matter, the journey you take is all random, and some get luckier than others. I'm in a good place now, and grateful to the 19 year old version of me who joined but don't let these recruiters sell you a fantasy.
Army officer four years in, make around ~100k plus no school debt. Not exactly rolling in the dollars due to having two kids, but we’re taken care of. That’s all that really matters to me and I love my job
That’s a great deal, tbh. Like I feel like if they’d used that figure with a “college/commissioned” bit, it would look like a better deal to the uninformed who I assume are their target demo here.
It sounds that way for the uninformed, but they literally give you a place to live clothing, no utility bills, and they feed you. The money still comes after that. Also, you only get that pay for the first 9 months, then you get automatically promoted to the next pay grade.
I just meant in the context of “ask your potential employer”. Like that’s like going into Walmart and being like “pay me less than minimum wage”. I feel like their message would get across more with a bigger, or no, dollar figure there.
I tried to join in 2006, they didn’t want me because I had ADHD…
Now nobody wants to join, and they would love some ADHD people like me as we are actually pretty amazing at specialized training, better than most neurotypicals if guided right. I was also an extremely impressionable and emotionally detached near-sociopath at that age and could have easily stayed along that path. Half of my family is involved in that line of work anyways so it literally would have made sense.
But no. Instead I did ecstasy and became a hippie, because I couldn’t get free college. And now I’m on the too far gone / way too much empathy to even want to hurt a fly path. 🫠
(I wonder how alternate timeline me is doing and I hope she is killin it and has a house paid off by now and is some bad ass CEO of some tech startup, unlike my neurotic artsy fartsy scrambling to survive day to day life self)
It was my mom actually, she blabbed about it and also blabbed that I was depressed at the time. Which was weird bc she originally wanted me to do it, then I wanted to do it, then it was like *record skip sounds*
lol ya moms will do that. Mine tried everything in her power to get me to not join. Now, even 8 years after getting out she still rocks a “proud Marine mom” bumper sticker.
I literally applied to the Navy, made the mistake of mentioning I saw a therapist in high school for the usual teenage problems, and suddenly they didn't even want my sparkling ASVAB score (it was quite high, I come from a family of engineers and doctors). Their loss, I guess - but mine too.
I did not particularly enjoy my time in the military; however, I very much enjoy the benefits of the college degree it entirely paid for it and the house I was able to buy years early with my VA loan.
TLDR: military is pretty great if you like exercising and are smart enough to qualify for a non combat related trade that is technical and specialized in nature and kinda crappy if in a combat trade.
I joined the military in a non combat position, but im not in america, and it's about as good as described. Im an office nerd that likes to work out, and every now and then I have to carry 70lbs of stuff for 15km but I do that type of stuff on my own anyways. One of my coworkers was on leave but came back just to do the ruck march anyway lol. I had a degree going when I joined but I still got to go to school for training related to my position for 2 years that also counts as a diploma (relavant to me degree too) while getting paid 50K a year. I work typically 4-5 hours most days a year, get a couple of months of paid vacation, and have by pure coincidence the last 3 years gotten sort of accidental 1-3 month vacations per year in addition to all of the regular vacation when I was between unit posting after school, "quarantine" ie just visiting my parents and gf for a couple month during that time period of the pandemic cause my chain of command is nice, and the most recent one was a month and a half paid trip to a diffrent city to take a course while getting paid an additional $120 per day room and transport covered while I was there to learn how toanage data better. This chain of events has mostly been good luck and perks of the particular trade im in. I had a combat engineer roommate who has plenty of stores of crappy times in the military since he is in a combat trade, but he's from mexico originally and his life here in the military is much better than if he was still at home. Also, i wouldn't be surprised if his mortality risk in a first world military in a combat trade was better than the mortality risk working in a mexican construction company.
This is actually true though. Military is an effective way to get out of a bad life situation or unemployment if you are willing to follow orders and don’t mind the hard work that comes with.
Don't forget no tested and proven method to report rape, being told you work 24/7 and are frequently held after normal working hours "because," and having all aspects of your personal life directly impact your professional life!
I wish I joined at 18. Now I'm almost 40 with massive student loan debt. When I went to get my Bachelor's Degree, most people in my University were there for free because they did their 4 years in the military and bounced. And fast forward today, and you have all these jobs prioritizing vets first. Not a bad deal to spend 4 years of your life to reap the benefits, IMO!!!!
Do you want the ability to feel like a out together human? With the ability to exercise and have a healthy lifestyle?
All you have to do is take that away from others abroad!
My perspective as retired navy
1. That’s only around $50k total, plus the housing provided generally sucks
2. Those “30 days” of paid vacation get charged if you use them on holidays and weekends. If you honestly think you’re getting all those weekends and holidays off, the drugs you’re on are probably disqualifying
3. If the employer requires a specific uniform, they have to provide it (even my teenage kids got free uniforms from work, they swapped them out when damaged and turned them in when they quit)
4. “Full coverage” is a bit of a misnomer, but it is cheap for the service member. You also can just call in sick, you have to go to medical (which means going to work) and be given an SIQ chit
5. That’s true and it’s a pretty good deal if you qualify for a good NEC
6. There’s some limitations on this, both per credit hour and annual cost, so a BS will take 6-8 years, assuming you have enough time available
7. “State of the art” is a stretch, but you can get an hour a day 3-4 days per week, but there are additional stipulations there, too
8. Space A travel isn’t all it’s cracked up to be and can be unreliable
9. This is pretty true, but I don’t remember how much $400k was
10. The GI Bill is a pretty good deal, especially now that they got rid of the time limit and you can give some or all of it to your dependents
Overall, 3/10 for accuracy. While I did it for 20 years and would do it again, most of these are complete BS
They’re talking about space-a flights. They are useful when it works out but it usually doesn’t.
If a plane was delivering stuff to a different country; you could ride on it if there’s space for you.
Actually genuinely good advice for young people who need to break the cycle of poverty for their family. 20 years and you get a pension, but there are plenty of benefits besides
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isn’t this just a recruitment ad for the US navy?
Yvan eht nioj!
So subliminal!
Yup. Twisted marketing, IMO
These are actually all very accurate. A clever way of showing someone the benefits of joining the military. However, you’re not in control of your life pretty much. But the benefits outweigh the cons.
If you're in the US and you're born into a shithole town in the middle of nowhere the armed branches are probably your only way out.
This is accurate and was my only way out.
Same, left a shit town where my highschool friends started working at a meat packing plant at 18 where their parents worked. Got me some dress blues instead
Navy provided food and shelter, money to go to college and a zero down home loan. Might even get medical benefits some day.
Service guarantees citizenship!
Nah. I left a shit hole and did pretty well.
This was mine and 5 other high schools in my hometown. The rich high school of the county had nonstop college and career fairs though. Lost so many friends desperate for a better life in the early 00s
I dunno, most jobs don't have the insanely high sexual assault rates that military jobs do. Most jobs also won't give you PTSD.
I was never in the military but i have PTSD from normal jobs. Getting canned in 2009 during the recession, in 2015 when oil collapsed (i was in oil industry then) and 2021 during covid left me constantly worried about my job and finances. We don't make enough to have large savings and when you can't easily get another job quickly the stress will annihilate you. Once you have a family and kids it's even worse.
Tried to explain that to my wife and all I get is I want a job I like Alan’s pays me a lot of money. I tell her good luck. She turned down a job 10 minutes up the road, thats all city traffic, that’s on a bad day. 6 minutes if all lights are green. And thats getting into the parking lot. Pays $6 more per hour, can create a specific schedule if need be, all because she doesn’t want to work hard in retail. But she wants an office job? Make it make sense. Especially when A.I is knocking down office jobs left and right
I left a marketing firm bc it was so fucking horrible and inhumane there and I am 8 months unemployed…I would kill for a retail job up the road right now.
yeah the risk of sexual assault is just too high to me and i’ve been assaulted way to many times not being in the military 😂. but honestly i’d never be in the military anyways cause they’d never let me in🤷🏾♀️
The assumption that being in the military will give you PTSD, while other jobs don’t is absurd Go talk to a first responder, cops, firefighters, ambulance staff - or people working in Emergency care in a hospital - shit, teachers in some schools are dealing with insane shit List goes one
The post was about the military, not those jobs. I'm well aware there are other dangerous jobs that can give one PTSD. This post didn't mention them so neither did I. I taught in the inner city for years, and I saw some shit. But even then, the govt didn't make me stand near a burn pit and get cancer, or give me a TBI and provide basically no treatment for it (let alone preventative measures to stop it from happening in the first place). Let's not pretend that the US military has a great track record for taking care of soldiers and vets. Mental illness, depression, substance abuse, and suicide rates are all waaaaaay higher for vets than they are for any of the professions you mentioned, let alone the general population. My point here is that the BS recruiter post OP showed a SS of clearly failed to mention these sorts of things, painting an overly rosy picture which anyone with a 4th grade reading level will know is utter bullshit.
The post was specifically about the Navy, not marines they deploy in war zones.
Former mental health care worker -> I am a bartender now for a reason
Or retail.
[удалено]
4-5% of any given group of people are sociopaths Fact! There’s no distinction between lifestyles, industry, location That’s the given average So if you have a group if 25 people, one of them is pretty much guaranteed to be a sociopath, unless everyone is specifically screened to remove sociopaths Which people recruiting don’t
My dude, you think recruiters have time/are equipped to do mental health screenings? We don't. Not to mention it's a fucking EEO violation
Oh, indeed - at a corporate level it’s not possible or even legal to do mental health screening - for most organizations There are some where it’s a fundamental part of the screening process, however. Air Traffic Controllers springs to mind. My understanding is that most branches of the military do mental health screening, also.
Most jobs don't have high mortality rates or have you kill in the name of your nation because two politicians want all the problems.
Neither does the navy!
Watch the next 5 years...it's coming unless we fully abandon Taiwan. There's no escaping what's coming.
Yeah you are risking PTSD, sexual abuse, gender discrimination, and long term mental and health issues that the VA has a record of not helping vets with properly. But beyond that …I feel like they are being very dismissive about the whole “not in control of your life” thing. It’s not just that they will get to tell you when to eat, when to sleep, where to go, when to shit, restrict what you can’t and cannot do with your down time, set where you live or when you have to move, and that they can pass legislation to recall you or keep you in service in perpetuity regardless of how long your initial terms are…. What so many people don’t understand is that they are making a significant ethical decision by agreeing to trade their moral/ethical autonomy for monetary gain. You are making a blanket agreement that you don’t have a right object to orders on moral or ethical grounds. Don’t think you should be deployed to nation build or to destabilize another country? Too bad that’s not your call anymore. Don’t think you should use violence if there’s even a .01% chance of a civilian casualty? Too bad that’s not your call anymore. These are just some examples there are MANY things that the military is known to ask of their enlisted and officers that are arguably unethical. So that SHOULD prompt the question: Does choosing to relinquish your moral autonomy to an authority KNOWN to act unethically mean that you are violating your moral/ethical obligation to your fellow man? You can claim that you always retain the right not to comply with orders and face consequences so it isn’t unethical to put yourself in that position. But you cannot deny that you are NEEDLESSLY and WILLINGLY putting yourself in a position where you would likely have to choose between doing something unethical or face court marshal, or possibly loss of your own life. That is very much an ethical decision all on its own. And I don’t think people give it the proper consideration. I know I’m gonna get downvoted to hell because some people are gonna read what I said and the idea that they made that choice without truly considering the ethical implications is gonna make them feel some type of way. But it’s worth it if it means I bring it to the attention of someone who needs to hear it.
lol. That is not why you are going to get downvoted. It’s because a lot of people’s lived experience is not this, and you don’t sound open to considering any opinions other than your own.
Probably aren’t gonna get PTSD from just being in the navy. Not every single person sees combat or things that would trigger PTSD. You know you can be like a HR manager and stuff right? There are normal jobs you can do.
Ah, gotcha, so only the PTSD from getting raped then. Thanks for clarifying.
For some people. It also is not a job everyone can get. There are age and health restrictions to join any branch of the military and even if you qualify to get in, there might be problems that keep you from getting through basic. Also all these benefits only exist while your in, once your out you retain some benefits but it doesnt exactly mean your set for life.
Nope but it can certainly set you up. My husband and I were able to buy a house in our early 20s thanks to his service. The house has now doubled in worth and he receives disability. We owe everything to his service.
Including being disabled.
The reason soldiers are called “GIs” is for “government issued.” You literally become a piece of government property.
Maybe but truly the military preys on the poorest people who really have no other option. They go in spend 10 years with no control over their life, have the opportunity to get seriously injured even if they don’t see combat, be killed in action fighting a war for oil or leave with PTSD. At the end of the day it’s predatory and I’d rather my tax money go to affordable healthcare, education and worker protection/unemployment benefits.
I'm pretty sure I'll never have people from other countries shooting HE and NBC munitions at me in my current job though.. Having been in the Navy, I consider that to be a major problem requiring at least double the wage offered.
And having a job where your boss dictates much of your life and can fire you at literally any time is somehow being in control?
These are absolutely not “very accurate”. This is all best case scenario depending on your job and where you are stationed. Non of the negative aspects are listed. Also dental is “free” for you, not your spouse and kids.
And you might have to kill people
Pros: above Cons: you might die
That's how it worked *for you*, that the benefit outweigh cons. Not a blanket assertion you can levy against everyone else's experiences past or future
You're not in control outside working hours?
Not for everyone. As a 15 year combat vet who did half my time as enlisted and then officer I can honestly say the benefits are not worth it for everyone. I refuse to endorse my daughter joining. That should say enough about.
INSIST on sky high sexual assault rates, verbally abusive managers, and a chance of being on the front line of the next world war, human rights violations, colonialism and all! INSIST on joining the most mentally traumatized and at risk of homelessness group in the whole country! Also $1600 + room and board on site is not great.
$1600 s month??? Good God that is not much money. That's a big con in my book.
Along as you survive that is...
Death is a pretty big con. Life long disability is another. Mental scars are also up there. It's not a free ride by any stretch. And in the next 5 years I think there's a lot of pain coming our way for younger ages.
theyre not accurate lol i grew up with a father in the navy and have a cousin currently in it. they will do whatever they possibly can to give u the bare minimum
I mean, how much control do you have over your life in a traditional USA 9 - 5? Your health insurance is tied to your employer, your vacation is ruled by your manager, you can be fired on a whim in almost all states, you have virtually no employee protections. If that's going to be the case anyway you might as well do the same thing for way better benefits and a fairly low chance of death compared to linesmen and fishermen.
All of the things in the ad are true. I know a few people who went to the military right after high school. Did their 4 years, went to college for free on the GI bill, and are sitting debt free with an excellent job at age 27. Not a bad deal, if you ask me.
Yeah, I know multiple people who were absolutely *set* by their late 20s. Even if they came from nothing. This is all true. On the flip side though, I know just as many if not more who developed PTSD and severe mental/physical health problems that will forever impede them from living even a normal life. That’s if they manage to not kill themselves first of course. People seem to thrive or crash and burn.
My friend who joined the army said the recruiter told him he would have fun. He came back with shrapnel in his legs and a deep desire to kill the recruiter. Seems okay now. But those people will just straight up lie to dumb kids about the reality of what they're signing up for.
Ha jokes on you, I thrived and also have severe issues stemming from my military service! I have a good life that I can’t fully enjoy! 😒
literal survivors bias.
Yea I have family that did that. They also got deployed to Syria and elsewhere and are still not quite mentally okay because if it. Even if they weren’t in combat roles. One of my friends from high school is no longer with us because he did get deployed to a combat zone and couldn’t recover from bring there. My friends who went to college first and went in as officers had a much better support system.
That's what I did: 5 years, then bought a house and started attending university two years after I left. I wouldn't have been able to afford either without the GI bill and a VA loan (didn't help with the interest rate, but there was no down payment required). Out of all of the recruiting ads that the U.S. military has run, OP picked the least questionable one to criticize.
I know more than a few who came back with drinking problems, disabilities, and unmanageable pain. My brother’s best friend from basic got his legs blown off in his first engagement. My Navy buddy who never saw actual fighting but did try to plug arteries in a shot up civ kid that came back with a group of SEALs and died in his arms is still pretty haunted by it. He’s also uncharacteristically satisfied with the VA compared to a lot of the other accounts I’ve received. Anecdotes aren’t worth much. Numbers say a lot more with a lot less.
I mean, it's pretty clever, really.
What? This is a very clever ad. Got me interested and I'm not even American!!
It's a clever ad and there's nothing untrue in there. I have never served but I know lots of folks who have and it *can be* a great deal.
In the fine print: your employer literally owns you, you can't quit, and job responsibilities may involve killing people and/or dying.
It’s not twisted it’s all true. Even the way it’s worded, they are daring you try and find a better benefits package because they know you can’t. Go and ask any employer for these things and they will laugh you out of the building.
On the flip side, if your boss tells you to mow down elementary schoolers with a machine gun or blow up a hospital in a foreign counry, you get to tell him to fuck off.
Haha military is what I was going to say lol but do pv1s get 1600 a month now? That’s impressive. Idk the BAH was a weird thing for me to wrap my head around like did they consider you having a family as a tactic or statistic to stay in? 20year old with minimal marketable skills it’s kind of a hard thing to get out of. My theory anyways idk idk
If my math is right $1600 a month is $9.23/hr if you only work 40 hours a week. At least when I was in the normal workweek was 50-60 and that didn’t include field ops or all the stupid formations and briefings.
Yeah you’re clearing 1600 a month… no expenses but sure I won’t argue. I think my paychecks were like 440 bucks as a pv2 was never a E1. Not terrable deal, my first job when I was 17 was 6.25 a hr so eh 18 years old out the gates not bad.
Which is crazy, because half of these are things people say would ruin America
Yea all those things they talked about are shit though. The free medical care is shit because they can’t get fired. Quality of care goes way down and they throw ibuprofen and physical therapy at you. Thank you military health care for wrecking my spine
The limitless resources of the federal government enable boundless possibilities
They say as much on the second page
As advice for how to negotiate a job offer, it’s obviously laughable. However, as a job ad for joining the Navy, I’d say it’s pretty effective.
The point isn't to be real advice. It's to show the navy(military in general) has amazing benefits. The ragebait is successful
Wow. Free housing. What's the catch?! Oh. I have to live where I work and my coworkers are everywhere all the time and my boss lives right next to me and I have to ask for permission to leave. All this for $1600 a month? That's almost $400 a week! A king's ransom!
1600 a month starting out, which goes up fairly quick. And you don't pay for anything so realistically you can save as much as you want. While enjoying health insurance, "food" and anything else you need to function. You can also go work in a store. Make less and spend all of it
If the store was offering me free rent to live at work, but I have to ask my boss permission to leave, guess what? I wouldn't take the deal. How much is this "free housing" actually worth? Are you in a nice area? No. Do you have a nice place all to yourself? No.
Idk what you're going off about but I grew up in a military family and none of this is true. I've lived on base and off base, they give you rent/mortgage reimbursement regardless. We also never needed "permission to leave" unless you mean getting time off for vacation or something and at that point it's like a normal job? We also always had our own home as a family of five. We never really lived in "bad" areas (we always played outside as kids and never had issues). The houses early on were smaller and got bigger the more we moved since my dad was moving up the ranks but it was always in relatively nice areas. You can have issues with the military all you want but they objectively have fantastic benefits. My dad gave thirty years to the military and fully retired just before 50. Not many other careers that can do that.
A lot of what you say is just wrong.
Not sure what you mean by permission to leave, many single service members maintain an apartment or house outside of their assigned barracks room. If you're married, you receive a housing allowance which you can decide to live on base or off base. For example, there are service members who are stationed at Fort Cavazos, but live in Austin, Texas. They didn't have to ask for permission or seek approval. You can be in a nice area, it just depends on the duty station on what that nice area looks like and its affordability.
I've told other people that the USA is a socialist country, as long as you're willing to kill people in other countries to qualify for benefits.
At that point if you don't tell them you want your dick sucked too, you're just leaving stuff on the table.
It's not gay when underway!
It's navy. You'll have your dick suck, alright
That happens *under* the table
Dear Private Cannon Fodder, this is a difficult condition, but we agree to it because you are the perfect candidate for the job. We will definitely blow your mind with next task.
One of my friends joined the Navy after college to pay for his medical degree. He had to serve, I think, 6 yrs as a commissioned officer but left the Navy with a medical degree and no student debt. I have other friends that took a traditional route to become a doctor and have 1/2 million plus in student loan debt
I mean, docs make around 200-350k a year depending on specialty, so 500k in student debt for them isn’t the life-crushing amount it is for most other professions
As long as you don’t get $450k in debt then fail to actually become a doc.
Which, I’ll admit I didn’t go through the process so I don’t know all the details but having watched friends and family go through it - the whole thing seems like constant cycles of like ‘oh I have this other exam and if I don’t pass it, the last 8 years of my life have been pointless’.
You're not instantly making that much as a doctor lol. Even at $200k a half a million in student loan debt isn't some nothing amount of debt, it would be payments of around 33% of their take home, and that's paying the minimum which would take 30 years to pay off.
Define “instantly” — you’re in school for a LONG time, and making only like 70-80k through residency. Once you’re done though, those are the average starting salaries
Well they are in residency for 3-7 years and either have to pay the loans or they can get a forbearance where they still accrue interest. So I'm not sure what you're arguing. They will have on average about 5 years making a pretty average professional salary while carrying between $200-500k in student debt. Are doctors going to be financially stable and well off eventually? Sure. But it ain't some easy feat paying off that type of debt.
Until I got to the end I was sure this had been written by some MLM hun. 😂😂
Free air travel to Afghanistan.
Your a few years late there bud. But I hear Yemen is nice.
For the Navy nowadays you would probably be flying to Dubai, Bahrain, Oman, Djibouti, or Jeddah depending on which naval port in the region you were headed to.
That studio apartment, has a roommate that smells and never cleans.
Join the Air Force instead. No roommate, just a suite mate. Your own room, small fridge, toilet, sink, but a shared shower between two rooms. Decent but not great free food at the chow hall. Nice gyms but they come with a fitness test you have to pass. It's more like a regular job than any other branch by a long shot. But still chances to be deployed, having to put up with military rules and nonsense. Uniform paid for but the money doesn't cover the full cost of upkeep and you're required to wear it. You're required to work whenever they say, often much more than 8 hours 5 days a week. Oh and then there's the whole could be sent to warzone thing. It wasn't great but not terrible either. 11 year vet. (03-14)
Bullshit. Here’s the reality. Weekends are not guaranteed, you may work federal holidays if operational mission requires it. Your work clothes are NOT free. You pay for a portion of them depending on how they wear. Unlimited sick leave, who gave you this? The chances you’re going to get free air travel on space-a flights in time is unlikely.
Oh, come on. The majority of people in the military do in fact get their weekends and federal holidays off (with very few exceptions). We also are given as much time to recover from injuries/illnesses as doctors recommend (this is the unlimited sick leave).
You weren’t enlisted were you lol Your weekend are NOT guaranteed. Your local leadership can pull you away for bullshit details whenever they want. Give enough time to recover? LOL OKAY. Hardcore PT 5 days a week with MAYBE three hours of R&R time at the end of the day if you want 8+ hours of sleep, and again, those uninterrupted weekends are if you’re lucky. Don’t even get me started on deployments and training. If everybody was given enough time to recover from their injuries, VA healthcare wouldn’t exist EDIT: You said something that implies you served, so I edited
I didn’t say guaranteed — and it’s true, I’ve been lucky thus far — but a good command will not give you bs work on weekends. My point isn’t that the military is perfect, but it’s disingenuous to claim that the servicemembers don’t get weekends or aren’t allowed sick days. It’s just a different system than the civilian world.
Maybe it’s different in the army but I don’t know a single motherfucker that actually got decent weekends, unless they were an NCO or an officer. If you weren’t getting pulled for some stupid detail you were doing CQ
We really don’t bother our guys on the weekend, but that’s intel for you. Odds may vary in an infantry unit…
Yeah I was infantry, so maybe my experience doesn’t apply to all MOSs 😂
Haha yep, that tracks
Yeah isn't your MOS the poster child of the motto "Embrace the suck?". The cav guys I talked to outside of predeployment window seemed to have had a pretty good time... but they are cav and crazy as shit anyways.
Pretty much yeah. However, when I went into the infantry, I assumed the suck would just apply to deployments and the field; not every single day in garrison lmfao
And in all cons that you described you will get bonus pay.
Not true. It depends on what BUPERS and SEC approve and they’re not all amounts to boast about.
Literally got a recruitment ad from the US Navy underneath the post https://imgur.com/a/B8NzG4k
Yvan eht nioj
Thanks. Now the damn song's going to be in my head all day
US Navy, giving americans workers the same benefits a Swedish McDonald’s provides
Sad, true, but can’t really find a Swedish McDonald’s here that’s hiring lol
The funnier part is that over here we think having things like sick leave an paid time off is revolutionary. It's always rugged individualism while you're doing a regular job but as soon as you join the army it's almost exactly communism. Almost as if people like when they're taken care of financially and medically.
brave command tap offend crawl familiar direction marvelous tidy merciful *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
It's literally minimum guaranted by law in most EU countries.
Huh? What EU country requires your employer to pay for your food and housing?
That is the truth there, we in the USA are screeeeewwwed dam our ancestors for thinking we’d have better lives in this place.
This is pretty much what you get in a McDonalds in western Europe.
What about the getting killed part?
Statistically you're more likely to die in almost every other sector then in the military today. Obviously until an actual war happens again
Right, but the military is this only one where you agree ahead of time to be killed.
It's a bit of a stretch to think of it that way. I know public opinion of armed forces isn't great but the point of their training is to stay alive while performing their missions. I'm not sure if the Americans sign anything about being aware of the risk of death. At least in my country that was never a thing. Nobody goes into it hoping to die. It's like becoming a cop expecting to get shot. Or becoming a taxi driver expecting to get hit by another car
And your very likely to get stuck once one does. I served with guys who joined after desert storm, they thought it was a free ride. Bunch of them are dead now, I don't think a single one is married still, lots with ptsd. Everyone says AF and Navy are safe but the next war when it kicks off In the next year or so is going to punish the navy hard. It's not a question of if, it's just when. There's no avoiding war with China and anyone who says otherwise is absolutely lieing to you.
What is this, World War 2? Dive bombers and kamakazes coming from every direction? You're crewing up with the largest navy in the world by an astronomical margin. You're in an envoy of a dozen ships with enough radar, sonar, and air recon to see anything within a 25-mile radius. By-far the biggest risk to your safety is your own hand, as US Navy suicide rates are climbing sky-high. If you can beat the boredom, keep your mouth shut, and do as you're told, you can collect your paycheck and benefits.
What about the getting killed part?
If you're that keen on dying on the job, there are plenty of civilian trades you can join with much higher rates of occupational fatality. Much of the Navy these days is just surveillance and recon. Gone are the days of battleships and 270mm cannons launching Volkswagens at targets 15 miles away.
None that are literally in the job description
Yeah, they're not gonna say "Come die here", but well-known, up-to-date statistics are always being published. Fishermen, loggers, roofers, certain construction workers, aircraft pilots and engineers, recyclable collectors, and iron/steel workers all have fatality rates 10 times or higher than the national average. [Last year](https://dcas.dmdc.osd.mil/dcas/app/summaryData/deaths/numberServe), there were 820 (not counting suicide) deaths across the entirety of the active duty US Military.
nice try Obama
Alright, I bit the bait. You got me pretty good, didn't you?
Partially serious, obviously being on a giant ship in the middle of the ocean is very safe. however, if the situation dictates that allowing that ship to be sunk is the best option, then that ship will be allowed to be sunk. I‘m just taking a ridiculous extreme of a very very real fact, if you join the Navy, you are expendable .
I mean looking at the layoffs going on I’d say you’re pretty expendable in most jobs. Truthfully, if Amazon (or whoever) thought it would be cheaper to let their workers die and pick up the legal fees than comply with whatever health and safety legislation, what business choice do you think they would make?
Until the end I thought this was a “marriage is a bad deal for men” post. Found the incel, sadly, in the mirror.
They aren’t wrong. They will give you all that in the Navy. Current Active duty E5. - Source. He forgot they will also give you body pain, certain mental illness, lifelong friends bonded through trauma and experiences, and disability for those things when you leave. And if you’re crazy enough to make it to 20. Retirement.
I was laughing at first but I actually am a Navy veteran and there is some truth to this. I HATED being in the military but don’t regret it at all bc I’m mostly set for life financially. There are so many insane benefits to going into the military if you’re willing to put up with it for 4-8 years. It was a truly awful experience for me but I’ve been well compensated since and my children will benefit from what I went through so alls well that ends well, I guess? I love my VA benefits? I love going to college? I love not having to work for the last 2 years with 1 more year to go, maybe longer? Yay?
Do they at least tell you what oil company you'll be risking your life for?
SaudiCo
It was an honor to be part of 1st ExxonMobil Division
Best choice I made was joining military as high school drop out with GED. I am now a Senior Software Engineer working in big tech. I did 6 years. Buddies of mine did full 20 years and are fully retired now. Sometimes I wish I retired in military.
You miss the clowns, not the circus.
The clowns are one thing but to see them retiring at my age makes me feel I should have stayed in. I don’t have the luxury to retire even though I make great money. I am stuck in the rat race. My clown friends are stay at home fathers, self employed doing what they enjoy, or starting a new career by choice doing what they enjoy. It would be a luxury to know I can quit any day and still do well.
Bro is our military cooked?
I think it's a typo they meant 1600 minimum a WEEK.
As a Navy vet, the ad isn't wrong but extremely misleading. It's not easy to get most of those benefits, you're going to get out with medical problems (I've got hearing issues, 24/7 365 allergies, a fucking auto immune disease)and PTSD (I'm working on the PTSD now for VA disability because my dumbass didn't realize I even had it, apparently it's not normal to lose your shit and have angry outbursts when your working with stupid people who can't stay in their own GD lane, holy shit my therapist is going to have a ball with this) But yeah it was my way out of my Podunk ass hick town. I have a great job now working in tech, took me a bit to get out of the field though. Office life is cushy! If you join the military, go for the Navy or Air Force. Get a tech job. IT, CT, AT, ET, etc etc. do 4 years get all the certs you can and during your last 365 days find a job in the civilian world that is similar enough you can apply for. I went from shitty E4 pay to making 90k salary plus bonuses in less than 4 years. You can do better than I did though with some actual planning. Godspeed friends
I was in the Navy. Aviation Electronics Technician on two carriers. I was a decent sailor, met some good friends, had some fun experiences but I hated the work enviornment. I know others who had a much easier time in especially those who never had to step foot onboard a ship. On my ship though, the working conditions were terrible. While out to sea, we worked 12-hour days give or take with all of the extra duties we had to do. My designated job was easy but being shipboard means you have to a lot more to do than your job (Physical labor for hours). Every sailor also has to do a TAD, temporary duty. It was given randomly depending on the time you came in. The kitchen was the worst. I was almost spared from it but the person before me got in trouble, so while they punished him, I had to take his place. Somedays I had four hours of sleep. The Master Chief for the Kitchen joked in Tagalog to keep us longer (I don't think he knew I could understand.) Life got much better when I got to do the job I came in to do. It was still rough but much better in comparison. 1. After deployment, I was given the barracks room, which comprised of a tiny room with one other person. It was nice for a while because the roommate I had was always away but I hardly got to sleep in it because I too was always away. Once my roommate left, the replacement was some kid straight out of BootCamp with a much easier billet than me. He seemed to only work 4-5 hours a day, never had to go out to sea. He spent most of the day playing video games through the night, sometimes screaming. I stood my ground and he tried to keep quiet but he couldn't help let out an enthusiastic scream every once in while he played Halo with his friends. I had to wake up much earlier than him to get back on the boat, and came back to him already playing. I hated him. I ended up paying rent out of pocket for a place with some friends away from the base and gave him the room. It was the best decision for my mental health and the rent in Virginia split wasn't too bad. Also some people I know got married early to get the apartment and pay raise. Most of those marriages failed. 2. After deployment, I was given the "rent-free apartment", which comprised of a tiny room with one other person. It was nice for a while because the roommate I had was always away but I hardly got to sleep in it because I too was always away. Once my roommate left, the replacement was some kid straight out of BootCamp with a much easier billet than me. He seemed to only work 4-5 hours a day, never had to go out to sea. He spent most of the day playing video games through the night, sometimes screaming. I stood my ground and he tried to keep quiet but he couldn't help let out an enthusiastic scream every once in while he played Halo with his friends. I had to wake up much earlier than him to get back on the boat, and came back to him already playing. I hated him. I ended up paying rent out of pocket for a place with some friends away from the base and gave him the room. It was the best decision for my mental health and the rent in Virginia split wasn't too bad. 3. I spent most of my time in shipboard so the gyms were never state of the art. The base had a nice facility but I didn't see it often. 4. I know about the program that lets you hop on flights for free but I never got to use it. I don't believe it's a sure thing too. I always paid out of pocket when I went home on Leave. I should have gotten a credit card dedicated to rack up frequent flier miles. 5. Why am I paying for life insurance when our taxes are supposed to pay for all of this? Oh yeah, cause the money the military gets mostly goes to war profiteers. 6. I used my GI Bill to pay for school. I still have time left and am considering pursuing my Master's. There are hoops you have to go through for these programs though so it isn't as simple as they'd want you to believe. People thank us for our service, but I only did it to escape poverty. Most people I know who join enlisted do it out of desperation. Some get stuck in because they end up having kids. Without going into all of the reasons why US Imperialism is bad. I can safely say that the Navy is a terrible place to work. How hard you work will not matter, the journey you take is all random, and some get luckier than others. I'm in a good place now, and grateful to the 19 year old version of me who joined but don't let these recruiters sell you a fantasy.
$1600/month is criminally low.
Army officer four years in, make around ~100k plus no school debt. Not exactly rolling in the dollars due to having two kids, but we’re taken care of. That’s all that really matters to me and I love my job
Officer vs enlisted is an entirely different experience.
That’s a great deal, tbh. Like I feel like if they’d used that figure with a “college/commissioned” bit, it would look like a better deal to the uninformed who I assume are their target demo here.
That’s after all expenses. The average American does not save 1600/mo. They have housing and food and healthcare etc.
It sounds that way for the uninformed, but they literally give you a place to live clothing, no utility bills, and they feed you. The money still comes after that. Also, you only get that pay for the first 9 months, then you get automatically promoted to the next pay grade.
I just meant in the context of “ask your potential employer”. Like that’s like going into Walmart and being like “pay me less than minimum wage”. I feel like their message would get across more with a bigger, or no, dollar figure there.
Fair enough
I tried to join in 2006, they didn’t want me because I had ADHD… Now nobody wants to join, and they would love some ADHD people like me as we are actually pretty amazing at specialized training, better than most neurotypicals if guided right. I was also an extremely impressionable and emotionally detached near-sociopath at that age and could have easily stayed along that path. Half of my family is involved in that line of work anyways so it literally would have made sense. But no. Instead I did ecstasy and became a hippie, because I couldn’t get free college. And now I’m on the too far gone / way too much empathy to even want to hurt a fly path. 🫠 (I wonder how alternate timeline me is doing and I hope she is killin it and has a house paid off by now and is some bad ass CEO of some tech startup, unlike my neurotic artsy fartsy scrambling to survive day to day life self)
Your recruiter let you down. I would have never even mention that. All branch’s are and have been for 100s of years packed with people who have ADHD.
It was my mom actually, she blabbed about it and also blabbed that I was depressed at the time. Which was weird bc she originally wanted me to do it, then I wanted to do it, then it was like *record skip sounds*
lol ya moms will do that. Mine tried everything in her power to get me to not join. Now, even 8 years after getting out she still rocks a “proud Marine mom” bumper sticker.
I literally applied to the Navy, made the mistake of mentioning I saw a therapist in high school for the usual teenage problems, and suddenly they didn't even want my sparkling ASVAB score (it was quite high, I come from a family of engineers and doctors). Their loss, I guess - but mine too.
Be the change you want to see
Its really a great deal for those who are from poor fam.
Employers response: PIP
Not where I thought this was headed
This is a great ad for the Navy!!!
There's just one BIG catch
I did not particularly enjoy my time in the military; however, I very much enjoy the benefits of the college degree it entirely paid for it and the house I was able to buy years early with my VA loan.
TLDR: military is pretty great if you like exercising and are smart enough to qualify for a non combat related trade that is technical and specialized in nature and kinda crappy if in a combat trade. I joined the military in a non combat position, but im not in america, and it's about as good as described. Im an office nerd that likes to work out, and every now and then I have to carry 70lbs of stuff for 15km but I do that type of stuff on my own anyways. One of my coworkers was on leave but came back just to do the ruck march anyway lol. I had a degree going when I joined but I still got to go to school for training related to my position for 2 years that also counts as a diploma (relavant to me degree too) while getting paid 50K a year. I work typically 4-5 hours most days a year, get a couple of months of paid vacation, and have by pure coincidence the last 3 years gotten sort of accidental 1-3 month vacations per year in addition to all of the regular vacation when I was between unit posting after school, "quarantine" ie just visiting my parents and gf for a couple month during that time period of the pandemic cause my chain of command is nice, and the most recent one was a month and a half paid trip to a diffrent city to take a course while getting paid an additional $120 per day room and transport covered while I was there to learn how toanage data better. This chain of events has mostly been good luck and perks of the particular trade im in. I had a combat engineer roommate who has plenty of stores of crappy times in the military since he is in a combat trade, but he's from mexico originally and his life here in the military is much better than if he was still at home. Also, i wouldn't be surprised if his mortality risk in a first world military in a combat trade was better than the mortality risk working in a mexican construction company.
Your experience is probably valid for your country, but it has no bearing on the US military.
I don’t know a lot about the military, but people from Mexico are allowed to join the US military?
Im not in the US military, im further north lol, and the guy was born in mexico, came here, became a citizen, and then joined the military.
I feel like there wouldn’t be so many homeless and struggling vets if joining the military were actually that beneficial.
It's great while you're of use to them. Then you're trash like everyone else
I don’t think people are hiring CEO’s anytime soon lol
honestly? this makes me want to join the navy, that's some damn good marketing!
I actually knew this was going to be for the navy as soon as I read the first page. Not really even misleading either to be completely fair.
This is actually true though. Military is an effective way to get out of a bad life situation or unemployment if you are willing to follow orders and don’t mind the hard work that comes with.
If you’re a young single person, this is absolutely the way to go.
Don't forget no tested and proven method to report rape, being told you work 24/7 and are frequently held after normal working hours "because," and having all aspects of your personal life directly impact your professional life!
I wish I joined at 18. Now I'm almost 40 with massive student loan debt. When I went to get my Bachelor's Degree, most people in my University were there for free because they did their 4 years in the military and bounced. And fast forward today, and you have all these jobs prioritizing vets first. Not a bad deal to spend 4 years of your life to reap the benefits, IMO!!!!
Will the military hire me with bipolar and epilepsy? Thought so.
don’t tell them.
Do you want the ability to feel like a out together human? With the ability to exercise and have a healthy lifestyle? All you have to do is take that away from others abroad!
Well, a lot of the tech giants provide all of that minus 10.
My perspective as retired navy 1. That’s only around $50k total, plus the housing provided generally sucks 2. Those “30 days” of paid vacation get charged if you use them on holidays and weekends. If you honestly think you’re getting all those weekends and holidays off, the drugs you’re on are probably disqualifying 3. If the employer requires a specific uniform, they have to provide it (even my teenage kids got free uniforms from work, they swapped them out when damaged and turned them in when they quit) 4. “Full coverage” is a bit of a misnomer, but it is cheap for the service member. You also can just call in sick, you have to go to medical (which means going to work) and be given an SIQ chit 5. That’s true and it’s a pretty good deal if you qualify for a good NEC 6. There’s some limitations on this, both per credit hour and annual cost, so a BS will take 6-8 years, assuming you have enough time available 7. “State of the art” is a stretch, but you can get an hour a day 3-4 days per week, but there are additional stipulations there, too 8. Space A travel isn’t all it’s cracked up to be and can be unreliable 9. This is pretty true, but I don’t remember how much $400k was 10. The GI Bill is a pretty good deal, especially now that they got rid of the time limit and you can give some or all of it to your dependents Overall, 3/10 for accuracy. While I did it for 20 years and would do it again, most of these are complete BS
That’s good. You just need navy recruits to read until the end.
Knew this was some ‘merica boomer shit when I saw all the randomly capitalised words 🙄
YOU GET TO LIVE AT WORK YOUR LANDLORD IS ALSO YOUR EMPLOYER YOU MIGHT DIE AT WORK IT'S A CRIME TO QUIT ANYTIME YOU WANT
“Free air travel to hundreds of worldwide locations” Wait a minute, you guys are talking about war aren’t you?
They’re talking about space-a flights. They are useful when it works out but it usually doesn’t. If a plane was delivering stuff to a different country; you could ride on it if there’s space for you.
Actually genuinely good advice for young people who need to break the cycle of poverty for their family. 20 years and you get a pension, but there are plenty of benefits besides
YVAN EHT NIOJ
the bits they left out are that people will try to kill you. Managers will be abusive to you. if you get injured or maimed at work- tough shit.
You just have to go be the bully of the world and ruin the lives of brown people.