The US military went to an all volunteer force right after the Viet Nam draft ended. Depending on particular branch of service and the wants/desires/recruiter, various individuals received various deals and promises.
In reality, you volunteer for the military. After that, the oath that you swore means that you accept what comes next. You are serving the needs of the military. The military is not particularly obligated to you. After all, you are one little cog in a huge organization.
There is wisdom that says – don’t volunteer – if someone wants you to do something, you will be told or receive orders.
Now, we move on to the issue of deployments. A number of us were discussing the phenomena this afternoon. Of knowing that a deployment was on the horizon and just trying to position for the best job, good length of tour or locaion that was going to be tolerated.
One of the guys said he was “volunteered.” Ok, means that someone else made the decision and he just complied. Well, he replied, not really, I was told it would be much better if I just tossed my hat in the ring. It woud be a really positive thing and stand me in good stead when I was applying for long term civilian school.
Several heads nodded sagely – oh, you were voluntold……
We had a military recruiter who tried fiercely, relentlessly, to the
point of stalking, trying to get our son John to sign up. The guy made
all kinds of fair promises–he would guarantee he would never go to the
front, John’s education would be free, he would promise blahblahblah.
And I said to the kid, he gets paid by the head for who he suckers into
this, and he may even believe what he’s saying but it’s not true–once
you’re in they own you and that’s that.
I’ve wondered occasionally if the guy was needing to prove himself an
effective recruiter so *he* wouldn’t be sent to the front.
Anymore, everyone deploys that recruiter has been deployed before and will go again. The recruiter is telling the truth – if “the front” means combat arms. Otherwise, yes, he gets rated on his job by how many qualified candidates he finds.
Young, competent men, like your son, are great recruits and soldiers. They are smart, disciplined and make it through training….
That word should be added to the dictionary!
I know that pain very well… I was voluntold on more than one occasion.
My favorite was the, “you have no children, it would be best for everyone if you took this deployment.”
love it!