>BackgroundI am a United States Coast Guard veteran. I left under a medical discharge after 4 years of active duty. When I left, I was adamant about leaving for the following reasons.>I was sucidally depressed. >I hated the idea of proscuting anyone for drug crimes.>I hated the "preception is reality" believe where you must accept any claim against you as truth and never fight it. Anyone could minapulte the comand using this system and they did.I now reap the health and education benefits. Looking back, I can not, in good conscience, say it was overall bad. >Some of my suffering was due to me being a little bitch and not working hard enough. Some was due to the fact that I quickly learnt that hard work don't pay off. It's hard to seperate which was which.>The lessens I learnt about having a work ethic, determination, and generally being tough were valuable. In a way that's difficult to discribe. I look at the civilan populion with some distian now because of how lazy they are. I used to be the lazy one, I am now the hardest worker. TL;DR: It was hard, it was isolating, but it made me who I am. >Current problemI sometimes get asked about it by kids interested in joining a branch. I don't know what to tell kids about military service. I feel like I'm the last person anyone should ask about any military branch. I'm fucked in the head, that's why I never talk about being a veteran unless I have to, and even then I leave out the more fucked up shit. So I usually just say>It's complicated, I don't have a consistent anwser and never will.I can't tell them is should they do it. Because with a good plan, you could get out what you put in. But you also have to accept that you are only a small cog in a machine and will always be a small cog. And that's a hard concept to get across to people. What do I even do about this? Just stare into the distance for a while and say, "ask someone with a better head on their shoulders."
>>32323801I think the correct answer to give anyone is>”Don’t sign up. We are being sent to fight and die for nothing. It’s not in defense of our country - we funded the Taliban. You will only know weeping and pain, watching good men die for foreign interests, and if you should survive, you are bogged down by PTSD and mental illness as repayment for all your sacrifice.”That would be the honest answer, OP. I’m sorry you had to go through it.
>>32323810Well, I suppose this is a good example of why it’s hard to answer people. What you say is true to an extent, but it’s not that simple. The fact of the matter is you could serve without ever seeing combat if you wanted to. Hell, I was in a domestic branch. I had like one serious fight on a boat with supposedly drug smugglers. (It’s a long story.)But even fighting, I see the benefit. You get paid pretty damn well to kill an Islamist and then go back home for a few months. You could suffer a lot worse by being poor and fighting someone you know in the streets here.
>>32323801Say whatever is true.
