Descriptions:
The Military does a good job marketing themselves with the cool stuff with the movies and advertisements
– Go to bootcamp, physically train, learn the job, get out there, travel and do the cool stuff.
Which it’s true, but really that’s only 10-20%. The other 80% is the crappy work to build up to that point, and that’s what you don’t see.
Through the marketing and recruiters you come in with this expectation when in reality it’s here. There’s a mismatch, that leaves the space for frustration. “My recruiter lied to me” “Military sucks, it’s not what I thought it’d be” ever hear of those words?
I personally believe, the military should be much more transparent, conversations like these should be had. Because at the end of the day, we’re dealing with people’s lives. We’re contractually obligating them for X amount of years based on false expectations.
Let people decide with as much transparency as possible.
Finally some sense
I just can't imagine the military making commercials showing young enlistees, cleaning toilets, mopping floors, getting smoked by instructors, having their lockers and racks thrashed because they failed an inspection, folding and ironing their skivvies into neat orderly squares, or being screamed at by 4 or 5 instructors because they are taking too long in the latrine.
Facts. I joined and had no clue what the job that I signed up for was. Thankfully it was the Air Force so it really wasn't too bad.
And that’s their fault, I’m enlisting and I know it’s gonna suck. It’s not all badass movie type shit. They will make you mop the sidewalk in the rain ?
Wholeheartedly believing it should be up to the enlistees to do their research. Yes, Hollywood will glamorize but if you enlist strictly based off a 'movie' or it's commercials, dang well knowing that commercials are to market, to selllll something.. then it makes me think they sort of ask for it??♀️. That's how they decide their 20:80, right?.. wouldn't it already be a tell-tale sign where some reside on a scale?
(Goodness this sounds effed up)
But, people should do their research, study, apply themselves… If they're absent minded then their recruiter will also play as absent minded, too… It's like a sales tactic/philosophy, "approach him in terms of his experience instead of referring to what he does not know" Being n Nothingness by Jean Paul Sartre, page xv. It's how people may relate to persuade…
But! On the other hand!
I also agree to the fact that recruiters are there to help GUIDE potential enlistees.. as they should do so PROPERLY.. be transparent about what the service will entail. Set up for success!! Maybe then the discharge/ suicide rate would diminish… If people are made truly aware by someone they are intended to trust (their recruiter) with the whole process of enlistment; instead of starting off with a bad taste in their mouth – dubbed military as untrusting from the get-go, just to recruit numbers to meet a quota… The first initial clue to it being a game.
"Don't ask, don't tell"
The military isn't designed to be truthful. I believe they're designed to be tactical. To get a difficult job done. Why would their recruitment process be any different. It's up to the individual recruiter, their moral compass, to discern their tactic to enlist our citizens. More and more people are seeing the light. ? At least I hope.
It's interesting, both sides to the topic. But what do I know. I'm just thinking out loud ? ?
Thank you for opening my mind to this today, Yoon [Kim] ?
21 years and it never got any better. Towards the end of my career it was like a bad dream I couldn't wake up from. As an NCO my quality of life got worse after every promotion.
That won't happen because if they were transparent with people when they were recruiting them then they wouldn't join