Is the military for me?

Don’t get mad bro. The standards are there for a reason.

Just like you could just dream of being a navy diver. If you had lasik you can’t go. Or if one doesn’t mean any other standard for other jobs that can get you dead or others dead.

 

You don’t even know. I’ve taught people how to shower, yes, grown ass people not knowing how to shower or do laundry. You’d be dumbfounded about the basic life skills people don’t know.

 

Pssh I don’t know. Call up a squadron and ask a ACTUAL pilot.

Talk to me if you want to suffer through being a door kicker or sniper.

 

Yep. And that's why I will never, ever, ever recommend any young person to join our armed forces.

You know why navy divers can't have lasik though right? Cause underwater pressure. That's not a thing that effects people above one ATM of pressure...

 

That’s a recruiter question that’s branch specific. Some things like that have a cool down period from time of surgery.

 

One word: Academics. Google:What does it take to become a fighter jet pilot in the Military. Eyesight is just a small part of the equation.

 

Terrible reasoning. “I wasn’t qualified so I’m going to tell people not to do it.”

 

20 years ago it was a big fucking part of the equation. Still bitter. Still venting lol.

 

This is good advice. At least on the Army side you needed letters of recommendation and one had to be from an Army pilot. Get a mentor.

 

No, not at all. Because when I talked to the recruiter, I told them I wanted to fly jets. They said, "ABSOLUTELY kairo, you can fly jets. Take these tests, make this height and weight requirements, and you're in! F-18's are all yours."

And then

"Sorry kairo, your eyes are jussssst below what we accept for jet school. You wanna fly cargo planes tho? that's pretty fun rite? come on sine in bud.

Fuck off of all that shit. Don't make me take the tests if you aren't going to let me do the job I want to do.

Recruiters will lie to get bodies in to make their quotas. They'll tell you whatever you want to hear before you pass inspection. I wouldn't recommend any civilian go through that bullshit for a normal job interview. You'd have to be insane to sign on the dotted line after listening to a recruiter without a guaranteed contract.

 

I am intensely proud of my military service. I did some amazing things. Hanging out of helicopters, seeing crazy parts of the world, doing things that others can only imagine, yet alone dream of. I learned a craft that has served me extremely well for my entire life, plus the VA benefits have helped me have a life that I could never have imagined based on how I grew up.

But, it doesn't come without a price. My back has never been the same. It's been almost 30 years since I could sit in silence, hearing damage sucks ass in a way that can't be explained. And I was unfortunate enough to get to experience PTSD. (it's real and if you have it, it's not because you are weak, the VA has done studies and can see the physical manifestation of PTDS in the brain - it's a trauma injury not different than shrapnel. There's no shame in getting help.) 30 years later, I still get stressed at the stupidest crap, like fucking fireworks. I hate fucking fireworks.

So, would I do it again. Yes, but probably differently. I would have joined the Coast Guard. It's the only branch dedicted to saving lives, not taking them. That, or I would have been more persistent at getting into flight school. Pilots weren't critical when I joined, but they were a few years into my enlistment.

If you do join, you get from the military what you take from it. Embrace the suck, temper your drinking, and keep one foot in reality. It will be exactly what you make of it. Choose to be misearable and feel picked on, you will be. Choose to view everything as an opportunity to learn and grow and become a better version of you... You will.

 

Then pass the tests?

Not qualified is not qualified, no matter the reasoning and it was outside of your, your recruiters, and technology’s hand at the time.

 

Guess so. Just sucks having them fondle your balls the whole way through, take the asvab, be the right height and weight to fit in a jet cockpit, and then rigggght at the end they say you can't fly because your eyesight is minimally poor.

I wouldn't recruit for my company like that. Shame on the military for being misleading.

But then again, I have more respect for the folks I hire than the us government does.

 

I really don’t remember any of that crap. I knew some flight docs, they signed off on my airborne physicals and in later Iraq, we had a pilot on the ground with us to help gets us fast movers and ISR. Never looked or cared about the qualifications of a job I would never do. I was aware of the mentor programs.

Bro, that’s it? Lololol

You did some administrative preliminary meps bullshit and didn’t make the cut and your telling every young person now to not join because your eyes sucked 20 years ago?

You made it sound like they pulled you half way out of flight school or something. They didn’t mislead you...lol they told you when they knew that you wouldn’t qualify.

It’s not like they trapped you into a contract and banished you to a life of flying big ass planes for 20 years.

 

My recruiter told me a lie.
Join the army and learn to fly
Hail 'O, Hail 'O, Oh Hail O, Hail 'O infantry
the queen of, the queen of
the queen of battle follows me

 

Military recruiter: "kairo, if you make this height and weight, and score this good on the asvab, you can absolutely fly jets!"

It wasn't: "kairo, here's everything you'll need to meet requirement wise to be eligible to fly jets. Please read over this and if you'd like to join our organization (military) and test in, contact us."

If they had been upfront about the entire process I'd have been totally fine with it. NOBODY said anything about eye sight ahead of time. It was scores, height and weight.

So yah, I'm not going to recommend that any young person even considers the military until they have a college degree and a bit of age on them to understand what they're getting into.

 

Man, talk about being super butthurt over something that happened 20 years ago. For all you know you would've been a shit pilot anyway and not made the cut for jets after getting in and then been stuck flying C130s after all.

We have standards in the military for a reason.

 

At least I'd know then. If I flunked out of jet school and ended up hauling paratroopers to their drop zones I could have lived with that. I've just been disappointed that the recruiter didn't lay out all of the requirements ahead of time. Would have saved me a shitload of time and effort.

 

This thread went to total shit trying to help a young man out.

 

They'll offer you the hot seat in the mail chopper