Don't Serve Your Country!

Welcome to joeuser, George.

I respectfully remind you that there is more to military service than the pay and benefits we recieve. While they are imortant to us, for the great majority of servicemen they are only part of the reason we serve. We are all painfully aware of the disadvantages to military service that you've listed, including healthcare, low pay, long deployments, etc. They are not surprises.

As for your other points, such as WMDs, Pat Tillman's situation, and even our president's military record, these aren't reasons to not serve, these are indicators, symptoms of a larger societal problem, and what they show us is that now more than ever our country needs men and women who are willing to serve, who are willing to put the welfare of their neighbors and their nation before their own.

Perhaps we are being used, but aren't most of us? a good chunk of Americans are wage slaves, working from one paycheck to the next, gettinng by as best they can, knowing that their efforts will never make them wealthy, and are very likely making someone else wealthy instead. I would rather be used to defend those people, citizens of the greatest nation on earth, from all enemies foreign and domestic.

I have been to a lot of different places on the planet, and lived in a lot of different countries, and I can tell you from first hand experience that the other nations of the world cannot hold a candle to the United States of America when it comes to the freedoms, liberties, and luxuries that it affords its citizens. My country does serve me. Perhaps not always in the manner I would choose, but far better than any citizen of any other nation can expect.

Many years ago, before I was born, the President of the United States challenged the people of the nation to 'Ask not what your country can do for you - ask what you can do for your country.' Then, as now, our nation faced various crises at home and abroad, and fixing those crises required the efforts of all citizens of the nation.

This is what I can do. I voluntarily give my time and effort to serve the United States in her armed forces. I leave my family for years at a time and put myself in harms way to serve you and yours. Because of this, I find your protest against my service to be distasteful; at best it is short sighted and ignorant, at worst it is personally insulting.

If you genuinely feel that wrongs are being perpetrated against the members of the armed forces by our own government, I urge you to get involved in your local veterans groups and help them lobby for change and improvement to the benefits awarded our servicmen and women. Until then, please drop this anti-call to arms. Like I said above, our country needs men and women willing to serve, willing to fight and protect. Service to the nation is not a joke, it is an honorable profession, and instead of avoiding it, the citizens of the United States of America should aspire to it.

I am Staff Sergeant Wanderer, United States Army

I am Staff Sergeant Wanderer, United States Army

hooah!

I am (always) Sergeant Life Happens, United States Army.

Medical?

Well my son whose served less than a year, in the AF, has had a medical procedure called PRK done at a cost of $0 to him. I'd say that's a pretty good perk. Gonna cost me, his mom at least $3,000 to do the same. His wife had a baby. Cost? $0.

Education?

He just signed up for a master's course. Cost to him? $0.

He gets to travel and see the world. Cost to him? $0



Doesn't it go......

"Don't ask what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country?"

I don't know what happened to you, George.

Your points are valid. are any of them the source of your discontent and or disillusionment with the Service? When you were counseled while being outprocessed (I'm guessing you are now discharged - but they can always call you back) what do you believe the interviewer derived from your responses to their uestions (sp - my keyboard is mussed)?

Perhaps you are simply providing advice to possible new recruits with this thread, but I think you want to give back a little pain to the source that provided you with unhappiness.

I also did not have a pleasant experience in the service, and it does have many problems.

If you are just looking for a way to hurt the Service branches by reminding people of their collective problems, let me assure you that problem has already been dealt with.

I wanted to let you know that american policy has already devised a way to work around short recruitment levels with the link to this article.

U.S. Contractors Outnumber Troops in Iraq

The number of U.S.-paid private contractors in Iraq now exceeds that of American combat troops by 20,000, newly released figures show, raising fresh questions about the privatization of the war effort and the government's capacity to carry out military and rebuilding campaigns....

http://www.drudge.com/news/96211/us-contractors-outnumber-troops-iraq

While soldiers die for pennies, private contractors (like Vice-President Dick Cheney's Halliburton) are making bank hand over fist with mercenaries at a higher cost to taxpayers.

While the Service branches are flawed, don't blame the Services, blame the leaders.

You will find that though it seems the Service (I don't know which branch you were in - I was active army) has abandoned you now that you are seemingly discharged, you will find support from the many good american civilians and, particularly, other former Servicemen - and women.

Good luck, and look forward.

.

at great risk of exposing myself to people i am trying to screw with a little, my wife is retired military and years after she retired, she came up with a weird thing. i won't go into it, but the army hospital referred her to the af doc, who referred her to three different doc's in three different states. just to get opinions.

they paid for all the travel, and all the civilian doc's to check her out. they paid for us to stay in a pretty nice hotel.
they even sent me with her, and paid for me to go too.
they cut military orders for me so i could go and hold her hand.

for all of that, and full coverage and free prescription drugs (for my wife its over 1800 smackers a month) plus a free emergency room for both of us and all the kids, we pay $420 a year. get that anywhere else.

plus a tax free retirement for a disability she suffered on the job while in the military, that fully pays our mortgage, and most of my truck payment.

for 9 years she served, and would happily go back to the air force today if they would let her. she was retired as an e-4, and they take great care of her, and our whole family.

if it wasn't for her service in the military, we couldn't live like we do. we are very lucky to have all that we do and we owe a lot of it to our military and our government.

by talking the way you do, you are the one using people, you are uninformed and a regurgitator. its sad.

my country serves me, and no matter what you say or think or do, no matter how much you cry, it serves you too.

Yes, don't serve your country. It does nothing for you. I mean that is the reason people give their lives for, right? I don't do anything for free, I will not help a person in an accident unless they will somehow repay me, lunch will do just fine. I will not save a baby in a burning building unless I know I will get some kind of reward of at least a medal. I will not join the Armed Forces because I may have to fight for my country but my country will not do anything for me. Oh, wait! What's this? A paragraph from John F. Kennedy, look what it says:

"It's not what your country can do for you, it's what you can do for your country".

Oh, so I'm suppose to do things not because I expect something in return, but because it's the right thing to do. Oh, I see. Man, how stupid of me to expect a free lunch from someone I just help in a car accident or a medal for saving a baby's life. Shame on me.

BTW, imagine what would happen if no one else ever joined the US Armed Forces. We would no longer have a military force to protect us, we would be sitting duck. Who will protect this right for you to post this ridiculous article if we don't have people serving for their country?

Well my son whose served less than a year, in the AF, has had a medical procedure called PRK done at a cost of $0 to him. I'd say that's a pretty good perk. Gonna cost me, his mom at least $3,000 to do the same. His wife had a baby. Cost? $0.

KFC, I need a favor.  Can you email me at wan4u2 at yahoo dot com?  I need to ask you some questions about this.

Thanks

This so blatantly anti-american in so many ways that it isn't even funny. George grow-up! And while you're at it....grow a brain!

While all of your responses were well crafted, they were wasted on yet another habitual liar. This guy exists in NH and CA at the same time. He doesn't have a degree on his myspace page but he has two on another.

For someone who is supposed to be telling it like it is, you should Google yourself and find out just how many different ways you have told 'it'. And, if you are going to blatantly lie, don't use the same picture on diferent sites with diferent info.

It's even rumored that you are Elvis.

Reply By: just johnPosted: Tuesday, July 10, 2007 While all of your responses were well crafted, they were wasted on yet another habitual liar. This guy exists in NH and CA at the same time. He doesn't have a degree on his myspace page but he has two on another. For someone who is supposed to be telling it like it is, you should Google yourself and find out just how many different ways you have told 'it'. And, if you are going to blatantly lie, don't use the same picture on diferent sites with diferent info. It's even rumored that you are Elvis.

once again Detective First grade justjohn gets to the villian in this peice of garbage and it sure is not the military.

Semper fi! DO OR DIE!

in my heart I remain sgt, moderateman U.S.M.C.

When you were in, I find it "very" doubtful that you were a moderate.  

I thought he was that one guy.

Remember Spammy McTalksalot?

You know, the guy who pretended to be a famous literary genius and had Bakerstreet buying it?

They make it so easy. George Vreeland Hill... Wtih a full name like that you gotta by just a little bit bonkers from all the ass whippings you took by the school bully.

He must be a popular liar. He has like 11,000 MySpace friends.

My guess is that it's Sanjaya Malakar in his most recent recreation of himself.

Temple of the hemmoraging appendage... what silliness. I clicked on his posts by accident far too often.

"Oh I'll never be happy, no I'll never be free, til I done the Army like the Army done me!"

Your theme song George? :~D

George Vreeland Hill is right.
I know his blogs, posts, letters, whatever can piss people off.
I have read them here and there.
A lot of readers like what he says.
I think the war has gone bad, and that sports guys family was pissed on and jerked around by the army.
My uncle served in the Navy and a couple of guys he served with complain about their health benefits, or lack of it.
The Navy fills guys with bullcrap to get them to join.
The service stinks, but I love my country.
I think GVH loves it too.
I think he is really sick of the service crap of bull, and Bush.
Major Bush hater.

Margo: Yeah, no one should be in the U.S. Military, you would love that wouldn't you. I wonder which freedoms you would enjoy losing first.

OF course, you and George would applaud and cheer the loss of many freedoms... until they started to effect yours... then you would whine like a stuck pig.

HBW couldn't let this one pass. Heeheeheeeee. That's my boy...ditto what he said...couldn't have said it better.

LifeHappens...that's my girl...proud to tears of her.

Toothache and his girl...they are mine, too, and boy did he lay the wood to the theme's premise...way to go, Jimbo...proud of you...

As for the idiot who wrote this piece...eat crap and die...yours truly, 1SG James E. Big Fat Daddy.

JJ, MM, TW, LW, Ted, and the rest. Good on ya.

Sometimes the diplomacy just isn't there, ya know?

To add a little balance. When I left the marines I was a hurt puppy, the government refused to give me medical care because there was no documentation of my being wounded. It happens when you do stuff off the books. Three months later I get a call from a friend in the agency and he asks how I am doing and I tell him of my heart trouble. A month later I get a check in the mail. Suddenly I am in the VA system fully covered for my injuries and disability payments as well. The VA has treated me well and with respect. My buddy calls me up again I tell him what happened and he laughs. The last thing he said before he hung up was we take care of our own. Uncle Sam has been bery, bery good to me. He as never called me again.

George is correct.

I served, and I get little in return.

And I stand in line behind illegals to get less than them.

you good sire, just got screwd. Try to find a way to help the situation, like maybe rtake a college course so you can get a better job. If you already have a good job and a college education then I will shut up because I did not know.

I am so sorry, I did not know civil or military service was suppose to do anything more that serve your country. You served, you got out, and you go on with your life. You are not supposed to get any special treatment because you served your country. I am currently serving again this time in civil service rather than military service. I do my job and get paid. Uncle Sam thanks me twice a month for my service.

I served 28 years, my wife 22. Our son and daughter-in-law are almost at 8 years. Six of our seven kids were either born in military hospitals, or civilian hospitals courtesy of Champus (yes I am that old) or Tri-Care at no or very little cost to us. Our 6th child was born with severe birth defects, and spent almost the first 2 years of his life in and out of Children's Hospital, at no cost, including visiting nurse care. That service is now paying for 2 of our kids college education, and will cover the youngest 2 in the next 3 years. Our service son and daughter-in-law are attending Georgetown through the military. Our oldest 2 worked and we toughed it out to cover college for them since neither of us was retired yet, and benefits were'nt available then.

My wife is using her Vocational Rehab benefits to become a Nurse Practitioner. We have available to us, per our qualification through the VA:  VA Home Loan, Small Business Loan, Vocational Rehab Training, Home Improvement Loan, Disabled Vet Home Improvement Loan, Debt Consolidation Loan, and the GI Bill for school just to name a few. Oh, and let me not forget the Veteran's Preference for Government jobs,and Government Contractor jobs, that's emplying us both at present. Nevermind the almost 5k per month between us for the rest of our lives from our retired pensions and disability pensions. I am 51 and my wife is 44. We have a conventional mortgage on our home, but will probably use the VA Home Loan when we actually retire completely.

Granted, things such as the pension are only available to career retirees, but the vast majority are available to just about every honorably discharged veteran, usually after 4 years of service, (some only after 180 days of active duty!). You just have to get off your butt and go see the VA. Yes there is a lot of red tape and hassle, but the www has streamlined that from the bad old days.

Yes, serving is a risk. Wars kind of go with the job. At the risk of minimizing that risk, I see more people every day taking more risks, repeatedly, by talking on their cell phones on the highway.

So, yeah I guess they're not taking care of me, and I wouldn't encourage anyone to serve.

Edit: By the way, I've had stents put in my arteries, and my wife went through breast cancer, in and out of the military...little or no cost as well.