Why did you join the military?

I was born in the military, my whole life was Army. The day I enlisted I was 6months short of 20 years. It is what I wanted, it's what I did and glad I did.

I was broke. I had $37 and a used car. 36 years later I retired.

The first time I enlisted in the Air Force for 6 years because I had a low draft # and I wanted to pick my branch. The second time I received a Commission through ROTC and a BS in GeoChemistry through SUNY Fredonia. As an Air Force Airman I was an Aircraft Electrician (maintenance) as an Army Officer I was Commissioned as an Ordnance Officer (maintenance). Retired as an Ordnance Officer. Loved both branches.

In 1966 at age 19 & newly married, I received my draft notice. I decided that I should enlist. Joined the Air Force. Severed 22 yrs. & am still married to the same lovely woman for over 52 yrs!

Early 70s, President Carter’s economy sucked. Needed a job. Then at some point love of country and being part of something bigger than me kicked in. As well as my love for military history and being able to see places I had only read about.... Normandy, Pointe du Hoc, Bastogne, Berlin etc

Growing up i had heard all the stories that all my uncles would tell from WWII thru Vietnam. I also had some older cousins who also served in the US Military. I guess you can say that it has been a family tradition to serve in our great countries military. I am very proud of my 26 years of service.

I wish I could tell you it was for noble reasons. It was not.

As a kid I was reckless, not in criminal trouble with the law, just reckless in trouble with the law. For my Dad the final straw was during my sophomore year in high school. I was brought home by National Park Service Rangers, after I was banned from Sabino Canyon National Park for rappelling. My expertise consisted of seeing rappelling on a National Geographic special. I bought my gear at the local hardware store and used that brown manila hemp line. (Yes the kid that frays when you look at it real hard.) I had no idea how to tie rappelling knots so my rig mostly consisted of granny knots and half hitches. The park rangers were waiting for me at the bottom. It was one of a series of about nine incidents in three years where law enforcement stopped me from doing perfectly legal, but really stupid stuff. Plus the time when my uncle brought me home from his ranch for trying out my matador cape skills with an extremely unfriendly Angus Bull. Yes, I know what it is like to have a mud hole stomped in my ass.

My Dad sat me down and told me that he had no expectation that I would live to be 25. Based on that assumption, he saw no reason to pay for me to go to college, and would not do so until I had proven that I had developed better judgment. But he gave me no idea of how to prove myself. So I talked to a Navy recruiter at the beginning of my junior year. The next thing I knew, a Naval Academy Blue and Gold Officer was knocking on my door. Despite being a dumbass convinced of my own immortality, I was an excellent student, class valedictorian, student body vice-president, three sport varsity letter man, and a National Merit Scholar. To everyone's astonishment, especially Dad's, I was nominated and accepted.

So I ended up in the military as kind of a "screw you, I can do it myself" to my Dad. He never did pay for my college, but he did transfer the college fund to my daughter.

I joined to keep the legacy going in my family. It skipped a generation with my parents, aunts and uncles. My grandpa served in WWII as an MP.
With that and I had no other options in front of me at the time. Needing something career wise, stable work, after high school. So I joined in the summer as soon as I turned 18 before my senior year, then shipped out to Basic after graduating.

Sometimes, though, quite honestly, I often wonder, in retrospect, of our Dad knew what he was actually getting my brother and myself involved with...honestly, I think, quite frequently, that may well have been why he didn't similarly indoctrinate and condition our younger fraternal twin brothers...as I may have already said, the whole thing was really, really complex, honest....

That's a real complex question, in general...I've related on Jere in the past our Dad conditioned my next younger brother and myself to both go in, I was Army ROTC 3 yes, on scholarship for the latter 2 yes, though I didn't finish the program, I went USAF OTS afterward instead, my brother went USMMA Kings Point, I commissioned him when he finished...the whys were really complex, our Dad had been a Nay aircraft mechanic on Grumman TBM Avengers, the carrier based turboprop planes with folding wings, he'd gotten out when his family lost his Mom, he had to take care of my uncle, his younger brother, he passed as a result on Navy observer training, which always nagged at him, he'd also taken the NROTC exam, of read in his records later when I'd sent for them...also, my uncle, his sister's husband, as I've related, was a SSgt in the 3118th Signal Svc Battalion/Group, one of Eisenhower's radio operators, his unit got a Presidential Unit Citation endorsed by Gen Eisenhower, I did read that, he'd relate having met Eisenhower, and having seen the Germans surrender at Reims Germany in the little red schoolhouse, he swiped a copy of German surrender Telex to Gen Marshall, he helped send it, my cousins still have it, also, Gen Eisenhower gave him his diploma at Columbia Univ on the GI bill while Gen Eisenhower was president there before getting elected, the Gen actually recalled him briefly, though the aide with the diplomas looked positively aghast....