Why do we do what we do?

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Once again Catalina well put. I cant put it in any better words than you can. Without the men and women who have given the ultimate sacrifice before us, we would not have the freedom that we have today. People dont seem to appreciate that but one should not fight for appreciation. Many have their different reasons for fighting but expecting to be appreciated should not be one for it will never come.
 
you serve:
for your country, for your beliefs, for personal fulfillment.
you serve for the men and women beside you.

do not expect sympathy or praise or anything, civilians will never understand what you are doing or why you are doing it.

if you are getting annoyed because people are ungrateful, prehaps you have joined for the wrong reasons, you should not have joined to gain acceptance from others. you would hopefully have joined so you can "be all that you can be"
ignore them and do your job
 
Civilians will never understand... unless they have military interests. So many people I know ask me "Why" i joined? So I tell them, to serve my country, to be patriotic, to make good friends, to pay respect to those who served before us, and to have a satisfied mind (as Johnny Cash would say).

At least most of my mates have been army cadets as youngsters, and a lot of them are now in the forces.
 
Grimnar said:
battery said:
I'm not joining for those purposes. I'm there to go to war/die honorably... Yeah, I know, it probaly won't happen though ;)
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Do you want to die?
I think you're joining for the wrong reasons.
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No I don't want to die. I have alot of things to live for. But, if I'm going to die, I want it to be doing something honorable. What's more honorable then serving your country? Even though I know there probaly won't be a conflict when I join, and even if there is I probaly won't be there... I'm also joining for my friends and family, to learn some things about myself, to push my body to the breaking point, and to, quite frankly, kick some ass. 8)
 
Damien435 said:
I did however managed to turn this around quite well the other day in class. All my classmates were freaking out about College, I was sitting there nice and smug while they are all panicky, sure, I was a little jealous that they were talking about going to University of Iowa as a fallback and Stanford as their primary choices (Iowa would be my first choice.) So I made the comment to one of my friends "I'm glad I am not smart, look at them freaking out over there, I already have my future taken care of." The teacher over heard this and asked me to explain, so I stood up and said proudly that I had joined the Army, she then asked me the question "So you can't be smart and join the Army?" I once again stood up and pointed to half the people in my class and said "According to them it was the stupidest choice I ever made, he said I am gonna be hit by a roadside bomb and she said I would be killing babies." They immediately when very red in the face and I enjoyed seeing them get lectured by the teacher (whom they all suck up to) and they all seemed to be pissed at me. But why do I care? I am doing something with my life why they panic about their future. Get this, they were the one's worried about college and on the day that our 11 page paper was due I was one of two people done. Oh the irony.
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i shoulda read this more closely :oops:

i totally understand what ur saying dude, i was hoping to go to ADFA (australian defense force academy) after finishing high school. none of my friends could understand it, but i could have thought of nothing better to do. i mean 'excuse me' they pay for your course, they get you a job, you get fit, get trained to lead, all while earning a degree. now excuse me if i cant find anything wrong with that!!!!:D

unfortunately i didn't get a high enough mark and didn't have it high enough on my preference list :(
 
Students who leave our school for the defence forces (if their marks are good enough) are usually well supported. I live in the Albury/Wodonga Area in Aussie.

There are Army bases close by so plenty of families at our school have a military connection.
 
I think the problem is that people tend to focus on the bad things that soldiers and sailor have to put up with and have done. I know, while living in Hawaii, there was tons of military around. Most of them were really good guys, but when a couple people do something stupid like assault some locals or disrespect the culture then everyone sees them as trouble. When I told my friend I was joining her mother asked me if I was stupid. I took it personally because I was a pretty good student and thought I was a relatively smart kid. But her experience was that soldiers would hit on her daughter a lot and it was never good. So the reputation that goes with the armed forces doesn't help.
 
You brought up a good point EGOZ about mliitary personnel's rep. Soldiers, Marines, Sailors, etc.. have a bad reputation for being, for lack of a better word, male whores add to that unfortunate and isolated incidents like the Abu Grahib scandal, the beating and subsequent dead of a homosexual soldier, and many other such scandals, and people automatically tend to judge based on that. Unfortunately, everyone gets measured by the same yard stick, and that is just something so inherent in human nature (stereotyping and generalzing), that inevitably and sadly, that's just the way it is.
 
egoz said:
I think the problem is that people tend to focus on the bad things that soldiers and sailor have to put up with and have done. I know, while living in Hawaii, there was tons of military around. Most of them were really good guys, but when a couple people do something stupid like assault some locals or disrespect the culture then everyone sees them as trouble. When I told my friend I was joining her mother asked me if I was stupid. I took it personally because I was a pretty good student and thought I was a relatively smart kid. But her experience was that soldiers would hit on her daughter a lot and it was never good. So the reputation that goes with the armed forces doesn't help.
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Need I mention Abu Gharib(sp?)

A few people do something incredibly stupid (Under the CIA's watch, civlians.) and suddenly it is like all American's in Iraq are doing the same thing everywhere, big misconception and probably one spread by our own media, the backstabbing traitors they are, whose idea was it to put that freedom of the press thing in the constitution?
 
A few people do something incredibly stupid (Under the CIA's watch, civlians.) and suddenly it is like all American's in Iraq are doing the same thing everywhere, big misconception and probably one spread by our own media, the backstabbing traitors they are, whose idea was it to put that freedom of the press thing in the constitution?
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Just ignore them. There is nothing you can do about it. They just don't understand how harmful it can be to the nation.
 
I wouldn't go so far as to say deny people the freedom of the press. If anyone remembers that far back, the press used to actually respect people's privacy and had at least a little bit more morals involved in what they were posting. It's a different story nowadays.
 
As I mentioned before in another topic, the Media is not interested in Privacy and is more concerned about exclusive reporting.
 
egoz said:
I wouldn't go so far as to say deny people the freedom of the press. If anyone remembers that far back, the press used to actually respect people's privacy and had at least a little bit more morals involved in what they were posting. It's a different story nowadays.
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EGOZ, I agree with you on the fact that it is a little extremist to go as far as to deny people the freedom of the press, but I disagree on the fact that the press "back then" used to have more respect. The media has been always been sneaky and conniving, always looking for a "juicy story" however, with today's technology advances in media and communications, the press and overall newsmakers now have a wider reach than ever, in most instances in real-time. In addition, more people have access to media sources such as TV's, newspapers, radios, Internet than ever before, so it's hard for anyone to be completely oblivious to anything now a days.....
 
Well I guess the instances I was thinking of were isolated. There was a reporter/photographer back in the 50s who had exclusive access to all the stars because he was their friend. He had all the stories and pictures and the scoops but never published almost 70% of them. The only reason his pictures came out later (in the 90s after he passed away) was because his grandchildren found them. They turned it into a book and there were some really great pictures. But in that case there was a mutual respect for one another that wasn't very common.
 
I enlisted because I felt the desire to do something other than sit in a lecture hall . I'm alittle different though. I graduated high school at 17 went to college for 2 1/2 years and did the ROTC thing.
I reenlisted (twice) because I enjoyed doing what I consider something with a purpose.And because I had the respect and friendship of some of the greatest men on the face of the earth.
The media and the anti military people out there are Mind over Matter, I don't mind and they don't matter. Because when it comes down to go time it's the Marines, Soliders, Sailors, Coast Guardsmen, and Airmen who make sure that their right to voice those opinions are protected. They need us far far more than we need them.
 
I see people makeing jokes and critisiseing the military day in and out, but one thing i dont see is why.
I ask them why you slagging the military and they reply well they are gay or something like that or they will say cause they shoot civilians.
I dont see them going to stand with a rifle or anything in thier hands, sure its ok to have an opinion and question the military because we are taught to question things from day 1 but to slag them with no reason is just ignorance.
I respect serveing men and women and hope to become one some day.
 
dunno

I joined just before i was 17.......................mainly to get away from home (like most ppl tend to).................but i honestly think I joined as it was a life set for you.............no hassal, you got security of pay every month and a secured job and this can be for life.

I don't think of joining up cus i wanna "die for my country" bugger that cus that is just stupid talk. Ain't gonna make you macho or big.

No one has ever said to me "your gonna/or could die" Its a risk you take and i know I ain't died cus obv. still here. Let people say what they want at end of day they don't know the stress that a person can go through during their time in the military cus god knows I have been to the bottom and back. If its not good enough for a civvi to know your in the military then bugger them.

You do a job and you do it to the best you can. And if you are defending some thing for the rights of good then be it so. You know you and 1000's of other people are doing the country proud. so don't worry
 
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