Recently my youngest daughter joined the American armed forces of the USA. I retired from the U.S Army aviation. Throughout the years she has listened to many stories from me and my friends. One friend is a retired Navy seal he told her if she joined the Navy she would be treated well as a woman and the food and training were great not physically demanding as deployment was by ship. She was working as a bagger at TAFB so there was a lot of Airforce opinion. The opinion which she heard the most from the Airforce was if you went to the field you stayed at the Holliday Inn and the Airforce was less physically demanding as deployment was by airplane. As she is only 5’2” the Marine Core was a bit intimidating and thought to be too physically demanding. She talked to the Coast Guard but was unable to find a MOS or job she qualified for or wanted to do. I don’t know what the Airforce recruiter told her but the Airforce seemed to be off the table.
Most of the stories she heard about the Army were about SOCOM or elite units as I was Airborne and an avionics repair technician I spent my time in a 189trailer or TSS unit or the flight line. I was trained on multiple aircraft and systems. As Avionics QC I got to fly on, and crew many different aircraft on test flights and missions including firing the M134 mini gun from a UH60 Blackhawk (that was incredible) I want one.
My father was Army as was my wife’s father. We all survived with a few scares and some worn-out body parts and my PTSD from a couple of “HARD LANDINGS” aircraft and parachute we all got a small retirement check each month and some post/base privileges and medical that is slowly being diminished by the military hating Democrats. The VA used to be known by the troops as where a soldier went to die. President Trump fixed a lot of the problems with choice and the ability to fire those who needed to be removed at the upper levels of the VA. Sorry I got sidetracked being in the service during the good President Regan, and the bad Clinton and Obama I didn’t want my daughter to join any service during Beijing Biden’s term in office, as shown by the loss of life during the pullout and arming the enemy with our left behind weapons due to only bad planning.
Back to my daughter’s choice, we had a long discussion I told her if she joined the Army she would go to the field eat food from a plastic bag dig a hole, and sleep in the hole she dug, do heavy rucksack marches in boots, and learn a lot about what her limits could be expanded. Her choice is the Army! She did well and made it through basic training where she called us from the hole she dug and was guarding, I told her we weren’t allowed to have phones, and she said she thought I was kidding. Nope! She has now made it through AIT (advanced initial training) and is now stationed in Tennessee. More to follow.
