Once again Catalina well put. I cant put it in any better words than you can. Without the men and women who have given the ultimate sacrifice before us, we would not have the freedom that we have today. People dont seem to appreciate that but one should not fight for appreciation. Many have their different reasons for fighting but expecting to be appreciated should not be one for it will never come.

you serve:
for your country, for your beliefs, for personal fulfillment.
you serve for the men and women beside you.

do not expect sympathy or praise or anything, civilians will never understand what you are doing or why you are doing it.

if you are getting annoyed because people are ungrateful, prehaps you have joined for the wrong reasons, you should not have joined to gain acceptance from others. you would hopefully have joined so you can "be all that you can be"
ignore them and do your job

Civilians will never understand... unless they have military interests. So many people I know ask me "Why" i joined? So I tell them, to serve my country, to be patriotic, to make good friends, to pay respect to those who served before us, and to have a satisfied mind (as Johnny Cash would say).

At least most of my mates have been army cadets as youngsters, and a lot of them are now in the forces.

Originally Posted by Grimnar

Do you want to die?
I think you're joining for the wrong reasons.

No I don't want to die. I have alot of things to live for. But, if I'm going to die, I want it to be doing something honorable. What's more honorable then serving your country? Even though I know there probaly won't be a conflict when I join, and even if there is I probaly won't be there... I'm also joining for my friends and family, to learn some things about myself, to push my body to the breaking point, and to, quite frankly, kick some ass.

Originally Posted by Damien435

I did however managed to turn this around quite well the other day in class. All my classmates were freaking out about College, I was sitting there nice and smug while they are all panicky, sure, I was a little jealous that they were talking about going to University of Iowa as a fallback and Stanford as their primary choices (Iowa would be my first choice.) So I made the comment to one of my friends "I'm glad I am not smart, look at them freaking out over there, I already have my future taken care of." The teacher over heard this and asked me to explain, so I stood up and said proudly that I had joined the Army, she then asked me the question "So you can't be smart and join the Army?" I once again stood up and pointed to half the people in my class and said "According to them it was the stupidest choice I ever made, he said I am gonna be hit by a roadside bomb and she said I would be killing babies." They immediately when very red in the face and I enjoyed seeing them get lectured by the teacher (whom they all suck up to) and they all seemed to be pissed at me. But why do I care? I am doing something with my life why they panic about their future. Get this, they were the one's worried about college and on the day that our 11 page paper was due I was one of two people done. Oh the irony.

i shoulda read this more closely

i totally understand what ur saying dude, i was hoping to go to ADFA (australian defense force academy) after finishing high school. none of my friends could understand it, but i could have thought of nothing better to do. i mean 'excuse me' they pay for your course, they get you a job, you get fit, get trained to lead, all while earning a degree. now excuse me if i cant find anything wrong with that!!!!

unfortunately i didn't get a high enough mark and didn't have it high enough on my preference list

Students who leave our school for the defence forces (if their marks are good enough) are usually well supported. I live in the Albury/Wodonga Area in Aussie.

There are Army bases close by so plenty of families at our school have a military connection.

I think the problem is that people tend to focus on the bad things that soldiers and sailor have to put up with and have done. I know, while living in Hawaii, there was tons of military around. Most of them were really good guys, but when a couple people do something stupid like assault some locals or disrespect the culture then everyone sees them as trouble. When I told my friend I was joining her mother asked me if I was stupid. I took it personally because I was a pretty good student and thought I was a relatively smart kid. But her experience was that soldiers would hit on her daughter a lot and it was never good. So the reputation that goes with the armed forces doesn't help.

You brought up a good point EGOZ about mliitary personnel's rep. Soldiers, Marines, Sailors, etc.. have a bad reputation for being, for lack of a better word, male whores add to that unfortunate and isolated incidents like the Abu Grahib scandal, the beating and subsequent dead of a homosexual soldier, and many other such scandals, and people automatically tend to judge based on that. Unfortunately, everyone gets measured by the same yard stick, and that is just something so inherent in human nature (stereotyping and generalzing), that inevitably and sadly, that's just the way it is.

Originally Posted by egoz

I think the problem is that people tend to focus on the bad things that soldiers and sailor have to put up with and have done. I know, while living in Hawaii, there was tons of military around. Most of them were really good guys, but when a couple people do something stupid like assault some locals or disrespect the culture then everyone sees them as trouble. When I told my friend I was joining her mother asked me if I was stupid. I took it personally because I was a pretty good student and thought I was a relatively smart kid. But her experience was that soldiers would hit on her daughter a lot and it was never good. So the reputation that goes with the armed forces doesn't help.

Need I mention Abu Gharib(sp?)

A few people do something incredibly stupid (Under the CIA's watch, civlians.) and suddenly it is like all American's in Iraq are doing the same thing everywhere, big misconception and probably one spread by our own media, the backstabbing traitors they are, whose idea was it to put that freedom of the press thing in the constitution?

A few people do something incredibly stupid (Under the CIA's watch, civlians.) and suddenly it is like all American's in Iraq are doing the same thing everywhere, big misconception and probably one spread by our own media, the backstabbing traitors they are, whose idea was it to put that freedom of the press thing in the constitution?

Just ignore them. There is nothing you can do about it. They just don't understand how harmful it can be to the nation.