Military Service

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Goonsquad Officer
5,708
13,692
I had the "struggle" version. my grampa was born in a house with no floor became korean vet who went into machine shop because he loved it. Then dad started to do that, was IN college. then had 2 kids. my mom went wacko so then he couldn't do college anymore. So for him it was like "bla bla i couldn't college, your grampa couldn't college but you can!". Then college blew smoke up my ass. I would have done better not going to college at all and just getting a few IT certs.
 
Gravel

Gravel

Mr. Poopybutthole
36,328
115,288
TJT said:
Dude, big reason why I joined the Army was because my mom kept telling me, "go to university or you will work at McDonald's for life!" I didn't really know what I wanted to study or anything yadda yadda.

When she didn't go to university herself. Yet she built multiple businesses and ran all of them for like 40 years before she sold them and retired. My father is a commercial fisherman who only had a degree because he got a football scholarship to Oregon State back in the early 1970's.

They were the worst examples conceivable for telling me that I absolutely had to go to university.
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Similar for me. I was a slacker in high school, but had signed up for community college. A few months before I was going to start I decided to go to the recruiter. Was probably for the best. I'm not sure how much effort I would've put into community college. When I went back for my bachelors after getting out of the military, however, I crushed it because I was a lot more mature at that point.
 
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McCheese

McCheese

SW: Sean, CW: Crone, GW: Wizardhawk
6,889
4,248
TJT said:
US Army 2005-2010, 82nd Airborne. Hooah! 2 years in Iraq, DLI Arabic graduate, interrogation specialist...

Okay I've expended my gung ho allotment for the year. Not even Veteran's day yet! Shit. I should at least get my free Steak and Shake.
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I've always been envious of DLI graduates. I'm in linguistics, and all the people I know who speak languages the best were in the military. I sometimes wish I had gone that route instead of plodding through learning a language in college.
 
Muurloen

Muurloen

Pronouns: zie/zhem/zer
13,522
38,066
I did 5 years in the navy. Served as a sonarman in the greatest submarine fleet in the world.
 
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Chanur

Chanur

Shit Posting Professional
<Gold Donor>
26,615
38,775
5 years in the Coast Guard . Plank owner in the OS rate.
 
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TJT

TJT

Mr. Poopybutthole
<Gold Donor>
40,938
102,749
McCheese said:
I've always been envious of DLI graduates. I'm in linguistics, and all the people I know who speak languages the best were in the military. I sometimes wish I had gone that route instead of plodding through learning a language in college.
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While the education you get at DLI is good and very effective. The school itself is a shitshow in terms of getting there. You are given a language at random basically. Pooled into your qualification score.

Personally I would have preferred to learn Chinese, Korean, or Japanese or something. But Arabic it was. 64 weeks of 8+ hours of [target language] a day and you do indeed get pretty good at it lol.

Funny story. The Warrant Officer who ran my department in Iraq was Korean. His dad was Korean American and married a woman in Korea and just stayed there. He grew up in Korea and went to university there. Got a degree and decided to move to USA with his dual citizenship. Then he joined the Army and they sent him to DLI...

Into the Korean school. He was unable to change it and it was obviously a complete waste of time for him. Army gonna Army.
 
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Larnix

Larnix

Blackwing Lair Raider
547
2,521
5 years in the marine corps; swinging with the wing. Electronic calibration tech, worked in a nice air conditioned box in hawai..
 
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Lejina

Lejina

(╯°□°）╯︵ ┻━┻
<Bronze Donator>
4,485
11,468
13 years and counting...
 
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A

Algrinon Stormbringer

Golden Knight of the Realm
7
8
Enlisted when I was 16 in the Navy - got degree and BUPERS said I was too old at 26 to fly F-14s. Ended up with a commission in the Air Force. Great career flying in the back of E-3s.

Then did some space stuff.
 
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Chanur

Chanur

Shit Posting Professional
<Gold Donor>
26,615
38,775
Breakdown said:
Yeah there are alot of vets here. I think im one of 4 Navy if I remember right?

I dont recall any Marines by name, but we are heavy 90-2008 or so Army

There is also at least 2 air force fags and no puddle pirates to my memory
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I'm then only puddle pirate I know of squid.
 
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Borzak

Borzak

Bronze Baron of the Realm
24,609
31,930
Sorry. I'm 4F. Registrant not acceptable for military service.
 
Fadaar

Fadaar

That guy
10,457
11,396
Larnix said:
5 years in the marine corps; swinging with the wing. Electronic calibration tech, worked in a nice air conditioned box in hawai..
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Fuckin' backshoppers!

TJT said:
While the education you get at DLI is good and very effective. The school itself is a shitshow in terms of getting there. You are given a language at random basically. Pooled into your qualification score.

Personally I would have preferred to learn Chinese, Korean, or Japanese or something. But Arabic it was. 64 weeks of 8+ hours of [target language] a day and you do indeed get pretty good at it lol.

Funny story. The Warrant Officer who ran my department in Iraq was Korean. His dad was Korean American and married a woman in Korea and just stayed there. He grew up in Korea and went to university there. Got a degree and decided to move to USA with his dual citizenship. Then he joined the Army and they sent him to DLI...

Into the Korean school. He was unable to change it and it was obviously a complete waste of time for him. Army gonna Army.
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My bunkmate in BMT was crypto linguist and got Chinese. Dude was super smart, had a degree from Ohio State (though now that I think about it not sure what it was in) and was one of those people that you could just talk to and tell they were intelligent. Was jealous that he got to spend so much time in non-shitty places, ie the DLI in Hawaii.

Edit: Kinda forgot Facebook is a thing, guess his degree was "East Asian Studies (Chinese)" so if I had to guess he probably had that match before he even left for basic.
 
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a_skeleton_03

<Banned>
29,948
29,762
Big Phoenix said:
Don't be jealous, i would have shared if you stopped by camp Hit.
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Thank you for your service.

That story is sort of real though. I got a panicked call from some LT at some border cop, it was Trebil or Waleed or some shit. He tells me the RO got caught doing that and I needed to get an Osprey out there because he didn’t know if he was going to make it through the night. Be gay all you want but the corpsman is off limits especially when it’s a high stress border crossing.

Surprisingly I made it happen and got the kid to Al Asad where he manned an MWR trailer for the rest of the deployment. We went back and he EAS’ed a few months to a year later. He killed himself the next year.
 
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Arrion

Trakanon Raider
28
88
Army 12B from 89-93.

Not going to DLI was my greatest regret from my military service. It was offered to me, but I turned it down as I wasn't sure I wanted to extend my enlistment from the 2 years+training I had to 4 years. Then I wound up re-upping and doing 4 years anyway.

I've wondered what language I would have ended up learning. The Berlin Wall came down while I was in basic, so I would have reported to DLI during the transition at the end of the Cold War, and before Desert Shield. I spent the Gulf War watching it on AFN in Korea.
 
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Sebudai

Sebudai

Ssraeszha Raider
12,022
22,504
Oh you guys served? Yeah well I got a BA in PoliSci.

You're welcome.
 
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James

James

Ahn'Qiraj Raider
2,804
7,056
My Air Force job qualified me to operate a firework stand when I got out, but hey so does a PoliSci degree I suppose.
 
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Sumdain x

Sumdain x

Trakanon Raider
1,549
483
Navy 12 years active, in the reserves now. Just waiting to hit that magical 20 and drop it.

The Navy is mostly a poorly managed shitshow 90% of the time but it gave me the skills I needed to get paid more than I probably should.
 
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