Did where you grow up have an impact on your decision to join the military?

I was raised in South Cal. near Vandenberg A.F.B . I never could get the hang of asking would you like fries with that. My father was a Marine and after the Chosin Reservoir he went A.F. After that past, I decided the Army was for me. Well that and I am prone to sea sickness.

New Jersey. The area had no real impact on my decision. Perhaps it did... Single Mom... had to figure it out myself... So....

In 1979 I had a scholarship to play college hockey out of HS. I went for a year as Phys Ed Major... I was an average player, a horrible student, as liked parties and hockey more than school. It was apparent I was not going to make a career out of hockey. One of my HS buddies who I played with in college, asked to come to the recruiter with him for moral support... He joined the AF, I joined the Army.

I joined the Army because college was not the answer at the time. I tested with the Navy and they wanted me for their Nuke program, but I was not feeling school or looking for more school at the time. So, I thought maybe I would endeavor to be NJ State Trooper... and Army was the best option to that end at the tome. So, I enlisted as a MP, and once I was in... it just felt right.

I hope that helps. SSG (Join to see)

(Get ready for a good argument) I'm from the South: Maryland. Yeah, I know. You don't think that's the South. Well, it is. It was a slave-holding plantation state that didn't secede with the rest only because Lincoln, with the help of the state's governor, was able to keep the legislature from convening to vote for it. Harriet Tubman (remember her, founder of the Underground Railway) was born into slavery on a plantation in Maryland. I could go on, but that's not the question (I'm just anticipating the cries of "foul")

Baltimore is a Northern city in the middle of a Southern state. It was heavily populated by Germans who were recruited by the Union to fight in the Civil War. (Which is why Baltimore at one time consumed more beer per capita than any other city in the world and left me with an appreciation for it) They had no other place to go when the war ended and took over the city. They were joined by freed slaves inasmuch as it was the closest major city to where they were freed from. Thus, I grew up with conflicted politics: A city dominated by Republicans who freed the slaves and Democrats in the surrounding areas who owned and fought to keep them. It definitely caused me to be circumspect in my political views.

However, the greatest influence was the Chesapeake Bay. That's where I spent most of my formative years. I hid from an abusive father by going sailing, fishing, swimming, etc on its waters. I crewed for yatchsmen who became my surrogate fathers. I explored its multitudinous rivers and creeks. (The Bay has more coastline than the entire West Coast of the United States) I ate some of the finest seafood in America and that influence has left me disappointed with almost all other regional fare.

Like most Southerners I grew up with a great appreciation of the military. I was a guinea pig at the Army spy school at Fort Holabird when the experimented with methods of better teaching foreign languages. I used to sit on a boat and admire the marksmanship of the men at Aberdeen Proving Grounds who could sink a small buoy with left over mortar rounds after completing their firing on Pooles Island for the day.

Sorry for getting carried away but you asked...