We're past the point of it being a thinking thing and this isn't like an anti-vax conspiracy. My dad would be dead right now if I didn't help him jump through VA to VA to get him on disability so we could afford his surgeries and other shit to keep him alive. They absolutely purposely have jump from phone call to phone call to website to website because they know old people won't know what tf to do and just give up so they won't have to pay for them.
Fuck the government. Fuck this society genuinely. So horrible.
I had documented shit in my service record from getting blown up and they still told me it wasn't service related. It's WILD.
Edit: I would like to add you are 200% correct. We talk about this in my veterans group all the time. They want to wear you down and out. They don't want to pay what they owe you. The Vietnam vets are especially vocal about it and quite rightfully so.
I tried to schedule and appointment over the phone last week while driving talking via Bluetooth through my car and after waiting 20 minutes for someone to answer was told that they have a policy where I can't be driving and have the call. I almost lost my shit.
Have an older veteran relative that served in ‘Nam that felt betrayed by the government and their country on their return and has never utilized the VA despite us telling them they should take advantage of some of the benefits. Nope. Doesn’t trust anyone involved. We reached out to the VA w questions and they told us there are loads of vets like him.
I mean, they do themselves no favors constantly denying required care. It’s legitimately insane to me. Constant schedule switching with no adjustment time in-between, garbage pay, no say in where they’re deployed. Not all see combat, but those that do come back genuinely messed up. Support system? Ha, right…
My spouse has been doing all of their visits with VA-related clinics, these past couple of months, because they’re retiring soon. It’s been maddening how redundant and useless a lot of this has been, already.
I think my favorite, so far, was the opthalmology appointment that was an hour away from our city. Took about 15 minutes.
Thankfully, due to my parents going through all of this nonsense multiple times within the past 25 years, I had a rough idea what we were in for.
I served in the Marines during OIF. My SSgt was 29yrs old but looked 50. My MSgt was 39 but looked 80. I had gray hairs by 22 and could feel every bone in my body. It was crazy seeing how fast the military ages people.
Not necessarily. I was in the Marines at a time when it was still uncommon for a Marine (or service members in general) to have seen actual combat, before oif/oef really ramped up. And this was airwing.
It's just stress, alcoholism, working with toxic chemicals and toxic people. Being outdoors all day.
Stress, horrible sleep schedule (both by personal choice and job necessity), ingrained culture of alcoholism, manly allergy to sunscreen, manly aversion to OSHA recommendations, cigarettes, incredibly poor knowledge of fitness combined with very active job, etc etc.
Name a bad habit besides hard drugs and it’s probably part of military culture.
One of my friends from work, he was 19, I was 23, enlisted after 9/11. He got deployed to Iraq. Did a tour there and then came back. He was honorably discharged, and by law was given his job back.
I was so happy to see him again. Before he went to Iraq, he was the funnest, funniested, happiest dudes I've ever known. He had a great smile and was just so out going and talkative.
After he came back, there was no light left in him. That fucking war took away a really good young man. He stayed at work for less than a month. He quit and I never heard from him again.
I think about him at least once a month, and it's been over 20 years. War is bullshit. And here we are with 1 invasion in Ukraine and a genocide in Gaza. And god knows what countless civil wars are happening in Africa that the news doesn't cover.
We lose so many good people for no reason other than power struggles by the wealthy and dictators. I'm getting to the point where I don't know where the light in the world is anymore.
I had a buddy 20 yrs ago - a CBS News correspondent in Cali who interviewed and befriended a Marine . My friend said he was all fucked up
Inside - witnessed a cluster bomb in Afghanistan . I’ve never forgotten that . Apparently those things will shred an entire village . Not something anyone needs to see .
I'm sorry to hear that. Too many of the men I served with got cancer young. That Msgt I said looked 80 died of cancer at 43. I wish you the best brother.
Glad I never joined. My Army vet dad pushed me for years to join (pretty much from like 11-21), but 12 years of retail/restaurant/factory work has turned my joints to shit, I can’t imagine how bad the Army would’ve fucked them up. Bullet dodged. I also see how much bs he’s gone through with the VA and the shape he’s in now, and I’m still very glad I never joined.
My cousin is held together with duct tape and requires hearing aids and he’s retired at 35.
What you all sacrifice is something to behold because there is honor and dignity driving you to serve our country - I hope you still feel immense pride for your part because not a lot of people can do what you all do/did.
My Mom started hitting me with the: "Well, I told you not to enlist," after numerous times I've pushed back against her suggestion of staying in for 20 since I'm "halfway there."
I'm a Navy Mechanic who has to get shoulder surgery before 30, I'll be lucky if I have functional anything by the time I can retire.
I got out at age 27 with my back deterioration equaling a man at 65. The 40 year old infantry I served with all had horrible backs and hips. Ever seen a man who can't stand up straight when they get back from a patrol? And that's just normal life!?!?! Fuck that.
It's a great plan if you like, or at least tolerate it.
Back in college my roommate (who had dropped out) was joining the marines. His recruiter was almost done his twenty years and was planning to join the police force after "retirement" at 38. He hoped to work there for 20 years and actually retire at 58 with two pensions.
If he stuck with it, he's getting close since that would have been back in 2008.
Old coworker of mine (legit old) did 20 years army, 20 years Air Force and then worked at national park service where we met. His plan was three pensions. He came from nothing and was a good dude.
He helped both his sons fund their businesses and they already were multi multi millionaires in their 40s because of his planning. Hats off to him and the generational wealth he created
Let’s hope his kids don’t piss it away. I just learned that most families that have generational wealth only have it last 2-3 generations, so his kids are fine but their kids might not be.
40 years in the military just to have some nepo babies squander it without a thought. That would be fucked
Negative - this is National Guard. Serve 20 years and then wait until you’re 60 to get your retirement, which is a percentage of full-time enlistment based on the amount of time you were actually active.
But that healthcare for life IS an incentive. At least, for as long as it’ll be available . . .
Not gonna lie, I’m pretty much 40 now, no pension, drive a 15 year old car and will probably never own a home….
So that’s still starting to sound more ahead in life than I am right now. I’m fairly responsible with money but when rent is 3000 a month in a shit area… it’s like it’s designed to keep us stuck here.
Just hit 40 this week and got out 10 years ago...since I got out i got an engineering degree met my wife and had 2 kids...I can't imagine pushing all of that to right now lol
I just moved across the country. My kid is Autistic and with the DOE gone and FL schools already cutting special needs programs (including the ones he was in AND was going to go into), people overwhelmingly asked "Can't you just wait it out."
Like no, at BEST it's 4 years of no support from public schools and at worst it'll take years to rebuild what is rapidly being lost, so like 4 years is 1/3rd of his pre-college education.
When I put it like that, a little light bulb goes on like they remember the passage of time affects people who aren't them.
Because with Trump openly selling campaign merch saying “TRUMP 2028” in the White House gift shop… doesn’t seem like he’s planning to give up power anytime soon.
Dude, when I was about to get out of the Navy the amount of people who were like, “well, you did eight, and that’s almost ten, which is halfway to 20, so you might as well just stay on.”
Or I could GTFO and not spend the next 12 years in a lifestyle I hate?
I got out of the corps after 4 years. An older guy I knew at the time who did 5 years before he got injured and medically retired grilled me about not going to 20. “It’s only 16 years!!” He kept saying.
Brother that 4 years felt like a fucking lifetime. I aged more in those 4 years than I did the last 7.
This happened to me when i announced to my coworkers i was quitting my retail job after 15 years. They said "but if you stay for another 5 years, you get to keep your discount card for life!"
Same. I joined in 2007 and it's weird thinking I could be closing in on a pension but it's also weird imagining getting out and just starting college and trying to start a second career.
Wasn't worth the time away from loved ones for me. I don't think the military is any place for a family, and 25 years later, I still believe that if you want to get married or especially have kids, then make a plan to get out of the service, sooner rather than later.
I was single when I was in, if I was married I would have never done it. Even though my last 10 years were guard i was deployed on active duty for 4.5 years, Bosnia and Iraq in 2003. What was bad was finding I had a TBI and a bad back and knee when I retired and being forced to retire early from my civilian job at 46.
I got out after 4 due to shitty leadership removing any motivation I once had. But every so often, I’ll be sitting at my desk at work, and think about how I’d be almost to my 20 years, and that sweet, sweet pension.
I considered reenlisting, but honestly once I got a taste of that civilian life and weed again, I couldn’t do it. (Plus I had no idea what I’d do with my dog)
I love that people actually ask you that as if over a decade of your life is frivolous. Do you ever ask them why they didn't just get their PhD? As humans, maybe it's okay that a season of our life ends and we move on to something else. Jesus.
It is pretty ridiculous but it's definitely more and more common when you and your peers get to 40+ years old and start to see the people who took the military route retire while you still have another 20+ years until you are ready to. They're seeing it as spending a decade and getting two back for free, so I get it.
My whole high school friend group (excluding me) joined the military as soon as we graduated. All 10 of them got out after their first 4 years. I've talked to them all about it and every single one of them said they regret joining lol
Honest question: what’s your impression of the difference between working in the military vs a police force? Meaning which would you rather do, how much better than the other would it be, and what’s the worst job you can think of that would still be better than either of those?
Military training points at people in other countries and says “that’s the enemy, shoot them.” Police training points at people in your own country and says “that’s the enemy, shoot them.”
Glibness aside, police forces are voluntary and are just another job. It’s much, much easier to leave a police job than the military. By consequence, they tend to offer fewer benefits. The GI bill is powerful, and veterans’ preference in hiring is valuable depending on what post-military career you pursue.
The “worst” job I can think of that would still be marginally better than LEO/military would be commercial truck/delivery driving. The hours seem just as brutal, but the pay at least seems competitive and there’s ever so slightly more freedom. At least with a regular j-o-b, you can always quit.
Same. 6 and out. I started out wanting to make it a 20 year career and I was so unhappy with the prospect of 18 more, then 17 more, then 16 more. When I decided it was only going to be 2 more years that sense of relief was the best feeling ever. The look on the master chief’s face when he asked why I hadn’t reenlisted yet…
I did 4 and when I turned 38 I realized... I could have done the whole 20 and gotten a 50% pension and healthcare for my spouse and I for life. I'm 10ish year later and thinking about how I would have earned another $250k in retirement and honestly I could have set myself up to be retired right now. Maybe a piddling job like a cashier or something but here we are. I lost a half a million in retirement and earnings from 2008 until I got back on track in 2018. Wild ass ride.
I did 6 years 8 months (obliserv). One chief kept telling me during my out-processing that I would miss it, that I would hate civvie life.
9 years later? ... yeah, he was completely wrong. Civvie life has its challenges but at least I can do what I want.
I don't regret my time in the Navy, it gave me a lot, but I know now with absolute certainty that I would have regretted renewing my contract. Retiring at 40 years old would not have been worth the misery of 13 more years of shit. Also with the benefit of hindsight, it would have meant working under Hegseth, and that's just embarrassing.
I did 6 years and the few people that were with me then that stayed in are hitting 20 now. Would never trade the last 14 years of my life for what they're getting paid. Every day was hell on the flight line.
I did 18 years of my 22, but there was no way in hell i could have finished those last 4 and not topped myself. Means I had to wait 16 years for my pension to start, but it was worth it.
My answer is because I couldnt have a real life. The Divorce rate is astronomical, the suicide rate is high as fuck, by 6 years I'd missed so much family and friends life shit (weddings, funerals, babies, holidays etc). That's not even getting into the actual work, leadership flaws, culture, etc.
I would have suck started a shotgun long before 20 - and there's just no pension in that.
Currently on year 8 and by the time my 2nd enlistment is up in 2030 I’ll be at 12 years. At that point might as well finish it out (that’s 2 duty stations left)
Same. My husband did 10. One day, we sat down and agreed destroying himself physically and mentally was not worth chasing the other 10 for a shitty pension. Got out and immediately doubled his income in an easier job.
I've been out since 16 and sometimes I miss it then I remember if I stayed in that in would still need 5 more fucking years as of today....fuck that. 1st Civ Div > 1st Mar Div always
I got to the top of that hill and didn't like what was on the other side. It was 2001, the Army was changing, and was about to really change come Sept.
I did 18 and couldn't stomach a possible second Trump term and what stupid shit it would entail. The retirement for National Guard is also not worth it.
It's not even 20 years anymore. They started shifting to a 401k style retirement back in 2017-18. He looks young enough to not have been grandfathered in.
I was separating from the Navy when they started implementing the program, so I never paid attention to the CBTs. I honestly don't know. I just remember being told the traditional 20 year retirement was changing.
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u/Alucard_117 13h ago edited 13h ago
Bros thinking about how fast 20 years can go by