Why did you join the military? Why did you leave?

I wanted a non traditional job and to serve overseas. I got everything I wanted. I managed to serve for 177 months OCONUS completing 9 overseas tours. No complaints.

Needed a job

When the idea first popped into my head it was because I started to grow a huge interest in aviation and figured why not do something cool like fly planes in the Air Force. Multiple family members of mine had either joined or attempted to join (mainly the AF) so it felt like a good idea. Overtime my reasoning evolved from that to just doing something rewarding that got me out into the world and gave me solid experience. I gave up on the idea of being a pilot when I figured out that you had to be an officer which involved high academic scores of which I didn't really have. Then I looked into the idea of working in the missile fields because it was what I did as a tour guide and seemed cool. Eventually I just settled on the military because I had been saying I was going to do it for so long that I felt I couldn't back down from it and hey, the college and benefits were pretty nice so I signed up and here I am.

To send freedom and justice down range. While I'm here leading the troops into battle training the shit out of them. Train hard fight hard. Shoot the enemies in the face, go to ranger school, and further my career positively influencing as many people as I can along the ride.

Play the Game
Rangers Lead The Way

Family Tradition

I was actually hesitant about joining at first. I was assistant manager for Domino's at 19. Going to College. Repeat. Marine Corps broke that cycle and made me see the world for what it is. It was worth it. Didn't learned about benefits till days near SEP/TAPS.

9/11...

Same reason as most others. Family that served. Work. No plans for school. My younger brother joined too and actually outranks me now. Two things that stand out would be the small amount of other people in the community were going and I felt like I should go to. I also thought about what I would tell my grandkids, if I have them what I did during these years when they ask about it. Who knows and it took some time I eventually got through MEPS. Our battalion had orders and I could of easily did something stupid to get out but went anyway. Whole life's been a washing machine I guess you could say surrounding this.

It was in the stars that I would follow in my father's footsteps. I grew up on Army bases in the '60s. My parents even insisted that I could not leave their home unless I enlisted or went to college. I was 17. It was 1973. I wanted Vietnam to start back up, just so I could get some.
My first week in college, I knew I was too immature to fit in. Then I read a novel about a hero's swashbuckling life aboard a British man-o-war. That night I heard the news about a brave FBI agent stopping a bank robbery. Next morning, I woke up inspired, raring to go immediately.
The Marines didn't answer the phone. The AF wanted to make me a journalist, which wasn't exciting enough for me. When I saw the long line for the Army, I started to leave, but the sergeant stood up, pointed at me and screamed "You! Come here!" And he made me skip the line of about 20 Black guys, made a guy get out of the chair, sat me down in it and said excitedly: "You're going to be a spy. Not really a spy. I want you to meet a guy from the Army Security Agency on Tuesday." The whole thing kind of freaked me out, so I never went back. Finally, a fat old Navy chief from drove me home. We sat in my kitchen, drank beers, forged my dad's signature, and I was signed up to be a gunner's mate. There's more, but that's enough for now.

I was army ROTC though went USAF instead I was noncombat. My brother was usmma Kings point I commissioned him. Our maternal grandfather had been USMC very briefly during ww2 around the time of iwo Jima though he wasn't used in it. My wife's dad got a bronze leading a minefield charge on the Moselle river in France during the battle of Nancy during ww2 in 9th army and was right behind the guys who took the remage bridge over the Rhine. My wife's stepdad was interior comm tech on destroyer escorts inpacific during ww2 and Korea in combat. My dad was noncombat Navy during Korea an aircraft maintenance tech on Grumman TBM avengers with a reserve unit in TN deploying to sevl ships especially the USS block island near Gitmo in caerribean during Korea though not used there. Mhdads sisters husband, one of my uncles, knew Eisenhower slightly at southwick house shaef HQ befr normandy and d day. He also saw Churchill de Gaulle Marshall flt ADM King all of the combined chiefs and was handed his diploma by eisenhower onntje steps of Columbia Univ on the GI Bill after ww2 when Eisenhower was it president before getting elected where Eisenhower though surprised did in fact recal him.My uncle was in the 3118th signal svc battln or GRP and helped run the Telex network for Eisenhower, he was at the little red schoolhouse at Rheims Germany when the Germans surrendered, saw it helped send the Telex of the surrender, and lol swiped one of the flimsy copies of the Telex whic both of his sons my cousins still have in a safe deposit box for both of the sons of one of them, it was displayed for many yrs every 4th July meml day and vets day at their local library on long island. And one of moms 1st cousins was army armor in Germany noncombat during the cold war in the 50s as well. Many thanks hope was of interest.