What Things Were Difficult to Communicate to Family and Friends About Your Military Service? Login & Share to Win!

After being Commissioned I felt I needed all the Military experience I could get. It was sometimes hard to explain to my family as to why I had to be away so often.

In the 49 years since I returned from the Army in VietNam, no one will ever understand, not VietNam Era vets, not family, not men who married Vietnamese women since the war and have visited. They can learn of the culture and nation, but not the war experience.

I joined at 17. I was unsure of myself, what I believed in, what was important to me. I gained a sense of purpose. Confidence in my ability.

What it means to totally trust and depend on each other. Nothing like it other than the military. What it really means when they say, "I got your six".

What Chain of command was and how to use it properly

Of all of the many opportunities that were available why in the Hell I signed up to jump out of airplanes.

Fortunately, all of my family was in agreement with me going into the Army. They always asked me about the places I've been and how the cultures were in those places. We kept in constant contact throughout my career.

Why, despite me complaining and joking about Army red tape and bureaucracy, I continued to reenlist and volunteer for schools, deployments, and mobilizations and after more than 25 years of service, I would do it all over again.

Pretty much everything, but especially being "in the shit" with people that makes them become closer than blood. There is a level of trust that is pretty much unmatched anywhere else. Whether you "joined for a paycheck" (cough-cough, toolbag in another comment) or to serve patriotically, regardless of reason, the fact that you entrusted your life to others, and they entrusted theirs to you and then having to actually PROVE that trust . . . Well, the strongest steels are forged in some of the hottest fires.

Not much. many members of my family had served during WWII and Korea.