Not Everyone Serves in the Military

[MineralMan]

We don't need everyone to do so. Military service seems to run in families. My father was a B-17 pilot in WWII. My maternal grandfather was a soldier in WWI. My brother-in-law served in the Army during the Vietnam era.

When I became uncertain of what I wanted to do at age 19, I dropped out of college, knowing that I was likely to be drafted. After 6 months of indecision, I enlisted in the USAF for a four-year term. Why the USAF? Well, partly because of my father's Air Force service. He and my mother objected to my dropping out and enlisting, but I did so anyhow.

It turned out to be a good choice. After four years of service, I went back to school, got a degree, and started my real adult life. I was never in combat, nor even in a combat zone. The USAF sent me off for a year to learn Russian and then sent me to Turkey to use those language skills and finally, to Ft. George Meade, where I continued to use those skills working in the NSA building there.

Was my military service valuable to the nation? Heck, I don't know. But, I do know that I chose to enlist as a way to give myself some more time to decide what to do with my life. In the end, that had nothing to do with what I chose, but I served anyhow.

Most people in the military are never involved in combat situations. The vast majority perform some sort of support role for that. In providing that support, their lives aren't at risk, but they are still serving in the nation's military, at some sacrifice of the time spent in the military. In 1965-69, military pay was lousy, to say the least. When I left after my enlistment, I was making $256/month as an E-3. I got room and board, which I suppose had some value, if living in a barracks and eating in a sketchy mess hall has value.

It was four years out of my life in my early 20s. It turned out to be valuable to me, but might not have, I suppose. I voluntarily enlisted for my own personal reasons. That was the choice I made. Others made different choices. I made my own choice.

Donald Trump does not understand the military. He does not understand, nor value, those who serve in it. He would never have served in the military. That's not his style. So, he got a doctor to write down that he had "bone spurs," and skipped military service at the same time when I was wearing a USAF uniform. That was his personal choice.

Donald Trump does not respect my choice to serve. I do not respect his cowardly choice to not serve and to cheat to do so. Simple.

[mahina]

1. Thank you for sharing your life's path.

What an interesting life. What did you decide to study?

[MineralMan]

5. Before I dropped out, I was an Electronics Engineering major.

I graduated, after being in the USAF, with a Masters in English. I have spent the rest of my adult life writing for magazines, and later writing web content for small businesses. I've done some other things as well - owning small solo businesses.

[luvs2sing]

2. Lots of my family in the military until after the Civil War.

Then, nothing. My grandad was in the Civil Air Patrol during WWII. My dad wanted to enlist and become a fighter pilot, but he failed the physical. Too underweight, and he had a lung condition. I think that was his biggest regret..he wanted to fly those planes.

[Wounded Bear]

3. A problem in the modern era is that not very many people do...

I did 7 years during the early 70's. Also never served in a combat zone.

Now, with the draft long gone, very few people even have the threat of military service hanging over them. Back in our day, when kids graduated from High School, military service was almost always one of the options in front of them, voluntarily or otherwise.

Your last paragraph...

Donald Trump does not understand the military. He does not understand, nor value, those who serve in it. He would never have served in the military. That's not his style. So, he got a doctor to write down that he had "bone spurs," and skipped military service at the same time when I was wearing a USAF uniform. That was his personal choice.

...can be fully applied to many of his supporters.

[MineralMan]

6. Yes, the end of the mlitary draft changed many things.

As you said, we came of age in a time when being drafted was a likely thing. That played a large role in my decision, since I lost my student deferment when I dropped out of college.

[ProudMNDemocrat]

4. Trump is a "Loser".

My Maternal Great Uncle Anthony DaVersa was a Ball turret gunner on a B-17 crew that was shot down over the Bering Strait in 1944.

My Paternal Uncle Steve Horvat served in the US Navy from 1939 to 1976. He won 2 Navy Crosses, the first one when he risked his life rescuing some of the USS Indianapolis survivors in shark infested waters. The others during Vietnam.

My Maternal Mexican Grandfather served in the US Army from 1939 to 1945 in Europe as an MP and earned his Citizenship after the war.

What Donald Trump did was dishonor them as well as those who have served, are serving, and died in the service of this country.

[MineralMan]

9. Trump is in no way a man of honor.

[beachbumbob]

7. my family goes back to 1630 and Massachusetts Bay Colony era and "We"

have served in all phases of American military efforts from French and Indian Wars to Iraq. My brother and I, along with 4 cousins served in the military during Vietnam era .My family had those who died in the Revolutionary war. the War of 1812, the Civil War on both sides. We had wounded in WW1 and WW2 and Korean War. My grandfather served in WW1 as a frontline messenger in France and came back an elnlisted in WW2 as a cook and was with Pattons 7th army and the fight up Italy. My uncle served as a 16yr (he lied) Field Medic in Korean War and was at Chosin Reservoir. He saw and lived an experience that no other 16yr old should have.

I gave up 4 years of my life and would do all over again. To me its duty to serve. I do not tolerate the criticism of our military members and veterans, they did what 90% of Americans refuse to do.....these same vets NEVER MAKE THE POLICY, they follow the orders to do the policy.

The only reason we wake up in America we have is by the efforts of all those who have served in the past. One reason why I HATE chickenhawks with a passion.

disrespecting our military places you on my piece of shit list.

[Pacifist Patriot]

8. The comment in Goldberg's piece that I thought sums it up perfectly...

was about Donald lacking the capacity to view any decision in anything but a strictly transactional way. He sincerely cannot fathom making any sort of choice without the "what's in it for me" and zero-sum game motivations in play.

I've made career choices in my life that weren't based on much more than, "sure why not? Let's see how this goes."
I've made career choices because I wanted to give something of myself to the welfare of my community.
I've made career choices precisely because I got something I valued in return.

Donald would be puzzled about those first two sentences and only be able to identify with the third.

I've never made a career choice because my decision would result in a loss to someone else. That would blow his addled mind.

[MineralMan]

10. Trump is always a narcissist. He has no concept of

any other way to live one's life. It's always "what's in it for me" with him. Nothing else matters to Donald J. Trump.

[Pacifist Patriot]

11. Yep

I honestly think he's a sociopath. Ticks all the boxes on the Hare Psychopathy Check List.

[Still Sensible]

12. Thanks for your story

I was an army brat in that both my parents were DOD civilians at army bases Throughout my childhood. Dad was a navy vet (WW II Radio Operator). My mom was a civilian RN-NC at post hospitals.

During college I enlisted in AF ROTC. Was training to be a missile launch officer when the Titan program was ended in the SALT II agreement. I took the DD214 they offered and graduated college going a different way.

I was pleased they ended the draft. I never demean people that choose a military career, but I have been dismayed that the USAF evolved in the 80s forward into what I perceived became a haven for RWNJs with a common peer force toward evangelicals... my observations of seeing liberal friends change sides among other things.

I can report, Mineral Man, that by the mid 70s the mess hall food was pretty darn good compared to my expectations.

While I didn’t ultimately stick with the AF as a career, I am certain that the experience and my childhood played an important part of the politically progressive person I’ve been since I could vote. By the way, the first thing I did after while transitioning out was to work as a voter registrar in Jimmy Carter’s 1976 campaign.

I can also assert that the posts we were at when I was a kid were pretty much anti the Vietnam war before it was mainstream. But we NEVER disrespected those who served in that misbegotten adventure.

Thanks for reading!

[kskiska]

13. My dad was a B-17 co-pilot and was shot down over Germany in 1944

and spent 13 months as a POW in Stalag Luft 1 on the Baltic. He loved the military, flew planes and even did aerobatics and skydiving and in his old age hung out with a couple of other vets at an airport in Connecticut watching the comings and goings until the day he died (5 years ago).

He was a lifelong Republican who voted with his wallet and I have to wonder just what he would have thought about Trump.