Should I join the army?

[TCO]

What rank was the most likely to die in combat in VietNam?

[Sava]

I would say "no", but only because I wouldn't want to be a tool for some corrupt politician. But I can't speak for everyone.

[MichaeltheGreat]

Originally posted by GP
What rank was the most likely to die in combat in VietNam?

By sheer numbers of line doggies, I'd assume E3 or E4. Although O1's might be up there in proportion to their numbers in the field.

[Az]

Seems about the same in the wars here.

[Panag]

hi ,

, join the French Foreign Legion , .....

have a nice day

[MichaeltheGreat]

I'm bored, so your ass is mine, girlie...

{Army career counselor mode}

GP is right, show 'em or grow 'em.

I assume you're of the male gender, despite some indications to the contrary. If so, God Almighty issued you a set of vertebra and a pair of balls for a reason, although He may be questioning the wisdom of that decision based on the original post of yours.

It IS your debt, and your responsibility, period. If your attitude is to try to shuck that off, or whine about it, as it seems from this thread, do the Army a favor and don't bother. Never mind that "Army of One" horse**** - it ain't all about you. Good soldiers shouldn't ever have to have their lives in the hands of ****ups trying to find themselves, or sad sacks who won't take responsibility for anything and are just trying to ticket punch their way to the most bennies with the least effort. If you want to join the Army, grow up first, take responsibility, and make a commitment to it.

Maybe the Navy (sorry, George) or the Air Force can find some place to stick you where you can't do any harm.

{/Army career counselor mode}

[Spiffor]

Originally posted by MichaeltheGreat
By sheer numbers of line doggies, I'd assume E3 or E4. Although O1's might be up there in proportion to their numbers in the field.

Wasn't there a time where you had complete word referring to ranks ? like "private", "corporal", "sargeant" etc ? I don't understand anything to this E3 / E4 thing....

(now, maybe if someone explained to me )

[MichaeltheGreat]

It's to standardize it across the services.

The Navy invents all sorts of cute names for their ranks, so God can't even figure out what they all mean. The air force - who knows, except for a few units (air commandos, pararescue and combat pilots), they're not really in the military anyway.)

For Army and Marines, the names are different - in the Army, a PFC (Private First Class) is an E3, and in the Marines, a PFC is an E2, with a Lance Corporal being an E3. Corporals are the same in both (although the Army also has Specialist-4, the last holdout from a dual rank system that at one time had Specialist-4 through Specialist-9), Sergeants (E5) and Staff Sergeants (E6) are the same in both Army and Marines, but then at E7 (navy Chief Petty Officer, but they do the cutesie thing and call them stuff like Chief Machinist's Mate or some such for each different job), the Army has Sergeants First Class, while the Marines have Gunnery Sergeants (Gunnies)

O1's are the bottom officer grades, but it's a lot simpler and shorter than 2nd Lieutenant (everyone but navy) or Ensign (Navy)

[Kuciwalker]

Originally posted by Tassadar5000
I voted no.

Isn't it the lower ranks that become cannon fodder? Syria and Iran are next oun our list, so this isn't the best time to join any military branch.

And, of course, there is the brainwashing that goes on

"cannon fodder"

Didn't you notice that during the Iraq war we had > 700 to 1 kill ratios (on the ground )?

[MichaeltheGreat]

That's because the Iraqis were a third world **** army, and didn't show up to fight.

[Kuciwalker]

MtG - you forgot Coast Guard they use Navy ranks (at least for officers)

[Spiffor]

Thx for the explanation MtG !

[Nubclear]

Originally posted by skywalker


"cannon fodder"

Didn't you notice that during the Iraq war we had > 700 to 1 kill ratios (on the ground )?

But do remember that an averege of 1 service member is killed each day

Also, don't join simply because you have (Well, I assume you have) morals. Not calling people in the army immoral, but....Invading countries isn't exactly a moral thing to do.

Join when bushie is out of office.

[Lancer]

Join the army, be a grunt. You get to play with all the fun things that go bang, and if you go lifer you'll never have to worry about those nasty debt collectors wanting their money back! Instead of studying lame crap like math and technical charts as you would with any other service, you can spend your off time as any REAL MAN should, chasing girls and drinking beer! Also, you can still safely bend over to pick up the soap in the army, DON'T try this in the AF or definately not in the navy... Anyway, ask for 3rd infantry, these days it's like a video game all damn day. You can prepare yourself with a few thousand hours of DOOM if you like... In 20 or thirty years, if some head full of mush ******* doesn't blow you away, you're out with a fat pension and alot of stories, some of which you might be able to tell.

Girls and beer! Let your free time be free in the US army!

[Static Universe]

Zero,

Have you thought about the National Guard or Reserves? You can get money for college, room and board for one weekend a month. Some states pay full tuition.