Why did you join the military?

My dad said I needed to learn discipline. And would only let me sign up in the Marine Corps! Well it worked, no hands in pockets in this house !!!

Back in '74 the judge offered me door #1 or door #2, best thing that ever happened to me.

To get the heck away from my parents!

It was not because my family has a history, I love the military or that I'm super patriotic. I needed money for college, not to mention all the organization and leadership skills the Army had to offer. I would not trade the 20+ years for anything but I'm also happy I spent my entire career in the AR/NG other than deployments because how anal most soldiers can be.

I needed training in a new vocation. I joined the Army in 1983 when I turned 21 as a Combat Medic in a reserve unit. It was a great opportunity that became my career after I went to active duty service 18 months after basic and AIT. After 5 years on active duty I returned to the reserves and found the best kept secret, the AGR program. I served 24 years as a full time Medic and retired an E8 at 29 years of active federal service through retention control. I have great respect for those that I served with and for those that continue to serve. God bless America and all those who serve in Uniform.

I joined to "stack bodies", wear little shorts and yell, "rah" but I joined the wrong branch apparently.

We were a dysfunctional family. Everything I ever had was because I was born an American. I survived because I was born an American. Had I been born in another country, in a Third World Country, I may not have been where I am today. Things may not be ideal. We may not be perfect. But we are not the monster some people would like to make us out to be. Even as a kid I knew how lucky I was to be born an American and I knew I wanted to pay it forward one day by joining the Army. So I did. I have never regretted it. I would do it all over again.

I didn't want to go to college after I graduated High School in 1987, but I knew I had to do something positive with my life. So I joined the Army.

I was wandering through lie aimlessly for about a month after High School. I couldn't afford college and tried working at a Campbell Soup company factory in Ohio. My Dad had been a Marine during Korea, my older brother was in Vietnam as a Wing Wiper at DaNang Marine air base. So I went and joined the Marines. spent 3 years active and 9 months reserve as an 0331 (light machine gun M-60) I was only qualified as a proof director at a fire arms factory. I was going to college on the GI bill, gotten married, worked on lift trucks with my dad, and played music in bars whenever I could get a gig for 40 bucks a night. Wife got pregnant then complications with the baby and I couldn't afford the medical bills. I was not going to be a grunt in the Corps the rest of my life so I tried the Navy, Took the test and became a Computer tech. No Macs no PC's ,they weren't invented yet, 10 years before I was medically discharged. No regrets on either experience, although I found later the Marine recruiter in 73 lied when he said all I could re-enlist for was an 0331, again.

I got into a heated discussion with a soldier I arrested. He asked a question that changed my life. Asked if I felt so strongly about it, what was I doing?
I found a recruiter and backed up my opinions.