Green Thumb sends us a link from NBC entitled “Stray anti-military vibes reverberate as thousands of veterans head to college” which recounts some experiences of some troops as they try to re-enter their communities as college students after a decade of war. For example;
“Why should we pay for these guys to go to college?” [Scott] Hakim said he recalls a female student asking during a discussion on the nation’s responsibility to service members returning from war. “Everybody who goes into the military is stupid – that’s why they joined the military instead of going to college.”
Hakim – a Marine infantryman in Iraq and Afghanistan – immediately vowed to out-study every classmate on the midterm exam and said he ultimately posted the highest mark: 98 out of 100. Later, he said, he overheard that same female student reveal her grade: F.
“I guess I proved her wrong,” Hakim said. “It wasn’t a me-versus-her thing, more like: Maybe now she realizes how idiotic her statement was.”
And that’s the proper response. Every member of the military who went to college after their service has had to deal with pinheads, both students and teachers, who think we’re stupid and lazy when we’re not busy killing babies and eating live puppies. But they’re not the reason we went to do our duty (that, by the way, you’d never catch any of those doofuses doing even if we didn’t), and they’re not the reason we’re in college.
Yeah, I can tell you stories about communists who were upset that they’d just lost the Cold War and decided to make me pay by working harder for my grades than the other skulls full of mush. But then I was never quiet about their inability to tell the whole truth, so it was partly my fault, I suppose. But, on the other hand, I found some teachers who were simpatico, and those were the ones who got my repeat business.
The goal of college is to graduate and get that piece of paper in your hand so you can begin your new life, f**k everything else. Let the teenagers go to college for the social experience. You’ve already had the greatest social experience of your life that will last you all your days – and you’ve accomplished more than most of them ever will. Their opinions of you don’t count, because they can’t can’t even imagine what your life has been like.
The biases against veterans won’t end in college, either. I’ve had co-workers and supervisors tell me to my face that all veterans are crazy. But they still think that college was tough. They have no idea. Personally, I have no friends, either at or outside of work who aren’t veterans, because civilians just generally piss me off. I reached that point the first few months I was in college.
Your mileage may vary, but that’s just me.
I had a little of that after going back to school in the early 1990s and believe it or not, I had some of the reverse in the military when folks found out that I was from an affluent Washington D.C. suburb and had already gone to college for a year and a half before I joined the Air Force. “Why are you here? You’re rich” (or some such comment)
And for some reason, the first respones that came to my mind was “No, it’s because not everybody can go to college on daddy’s money”
Hey, nothing wrong with eating puppies.
Signed,
The Choomer-in-Chief
On my second semester and really haven’t seen any anti military discussions in my classes. Doesn’t help there’s Ft Riley right down the road. Only anti military vibe I see are related to the drunken shenanigans the soldiers cause in the bars.
This is for all of you……
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fj5k6toS7i8
/lmfao.
I see this shit everyday. College kids bitching because they have to use Stafford loans, work, etc to pay for school.If that is the case, apply for a scholarship. It is called sacrifice. In order to appreciate caviar, one must first eat bologna.
I went on a ROTC GTG scholarship the first go around. School was paid for but I still had to go to class, pass, study, etc and I still worked on the side for beer money.
These kids have a real isssue with the GI bIll. They think it is some free ride. I explain to them that I worked BEFORE I went to school. They do not get it.
So then I explain that I know a thousand men that would trade places with them right now to have the priviledge of going to class. They still do not get it.
They (college kids), well at least a majority here, hate the military, hate working, hate everything for that matter where they have to earn or work for it. It is easier to complain and bitch about the “man” while taking Daddy’s money for school and getting by with C’s.
Roger that.
I will stop before I explode.
Thanks for the post.
The Money the Govt puts out to pay for Veterans Education or training programs is peanuts compared to what they put out for illegal immigrants, Drug addicts, ex felons and underprivledged to get into schools.
I joined the ARNG as an 11B in 1978, I left a technical job that was paying 3 times the minimum wage of that time to do so (at 19 I had a 4 year old car with no loan, no bills and my own apartment thanks to that job).
Attending a community college in my late 20s after leaving the guard I was asked if I had to join to avoid going to jail….several people in my business management class could not understand leaving a job in a good career field for lower pay even if the absence was only a short time for training before coming back to the Guard. I would have hoped people would have become a bit more educated as to the variety of reasons others enlist, or serve after college. Based on this article, I guess that is not the case.
I left AD in 1996 to go back to school after 10 years in, at the age of 33. I never encountered any anti-military bias but there was definitely a “disconnect” between the military and civilian communities.
I was also a PSG in a USAR unit based at Bragg while going to school (at UNC Charlotte) and just for fun, I asked in one of my classes if everyone who had a parent or sibling in the military would raise their hand. Maybe 6 hands out of 30 went up (remember, this is NC, pretty conservative part of the country.)
Then, at drill that weekend, I was put in charge of mentoring a platoon of pre-basic enlistees (most of them were still in high school and were slated to go to basic on the “split option” that summer. Because they hadn’t been to basic, they couldn’t do PT or handle weapons for fear that they’d get injured and then not be able to attend BCT.) Just for fun, I asked them the same question and every single hand shot up. Every one.
What does that show? It shows that for years we’ve been creating a self-perpetuating military “caste.” The people serving in the military today are, by and large, the sons and daughters of those who have served before. That’s not a good trend. Our country was founded with the notion of the “citizen-soldier” and if the military is not representative of the citezenry as a whole, sooner or later the citizens are going to see the soldiers as people “not like us” and vice-versa.
I enrolled in college on the newly reinstated GI Bill in the summer of 1967 after six years in the 101st and 82d and one tour in Nam.
When Congress extended the bill to cover Vietnam vets, I was sitting in a muddy hole with my C-rats running out and down to a half of a basic load of ammo with no resupply for several days because of monsoon storms. When the cloud cover broke long enough for a Huey slick to drop several bundles, I took a couple of privates to the hilltop TOC to draw my share for my squad. Guess what? No C-Rats and no ammo, just several bundles of Stars and Stripes with the banner headline, “Congress signs GI Bill Extension”. That was precisely the moment I decided to go back to college, get a degree and perhaps apply for a commission.
The war was going full tilt that summer and the student opposition was incredible, even in conservative West Texas. Talk about classroom hostility. I did the same as Hakim and swore to show all those stupid, snotty little bastards that ol’ sarge wasn’t the dummy they thought he was. I was on the dean’s list for four years and graduated in the top of my class.
By the time I graduated in 1971, the situation had cooled somewhat but I still had the occasional run-in with anti-war zealots.
@6: The anti-military types are just ignorant fools who know little of life.
Much more disturbing, IMO, are those who come from solid middle-class families and who “support the troops” but would never, themselves, consider serving. That relates to what I posted above WRT us having a military “caste.”
There are lots of people in this country who will fly Old glory, slap an “I support the troops” sticker on their SUV, extend a heartfelt “thank you for your service” to a returning troop – and yet would also cringe, faint or turn red-faced at the thought of their son or daughter actually joining up.
The unspoken (but well understood) thinking is “that military stuff is fine for ‘those people.’ You know the type – born on the wrong side of the tracks, can’t get into a decent school, don’t know what they want to do in life. But I’ll be damned if my precious Tyler or Meagan is going to waste 4 years of his/her life dodging IEDs or scrubbing pots at Fort Bamfouk. I didn’t slave away at my job for 20 years and cultivate relationships with the dean of admissions at Old Snooty to see my efforts wasted. You’re going to college, young man/lady, and that’s final!”
I was in the guard and ROTC while in college at a PAC-10 school in the early 80’s. One of the more conservative cow colleges in the PAC-10, actually. Can’t tell you the number of times I caught crap walking across campus in uniform.
On dates, the girls typically would ask why I was in the military. “Dad was a career soldier, as was his dad, education benefits, etc.”
Invariable answer: “You just want to kill people.” Then, of course, no joy in th ebedroom.
One time, when asked the question, I said, “I just want to kill people.” She rejoined with, “No, you said your dad was in and you neede dthe money for school.”
I married her almost thirty years ago.
My kids are both college grads, and one is going to law school in DC. They have both related arguments with liberal doofii (plural for doofus) over what military service really is and means to this country.
The one still in law school interviewed with USAF and Army JAG last month.
@11 It was thinking like that, listening to people from my church at a support-the-troops rally talk about thank-God-my-kid-never-joined-or-got-out-already that started me thinking about enlisting in 2003.
“Much more disturbing, IMO, are those who come from solid middle-class families and who “support the troops” but would never, themselves, consider serving. That relates to what I posted above WRT us having a military “caste.”
I agree 100% with this martinjmpr (even if you did go to UNC-Carowinds).
Go Mountaineers! 😀
I’m there. I quit HS and joined. When I ETS’ed, I had a chip the size of a redwood on both shoulders and I used it to good advantage. I pulled a 4.0 GPA over two years at community college and was awarded a university fellowship. Some years later, following a brief stint at GWU grad school, I entered law school and earned my JD while working fulltime. Not bad for a high school dropout. If there’s one thing the military taught me it’s that so long as your breathing, it can be done!
But my English is faulty in my old age, sometimes. That should have been “so long as you’re breathing.” Dammit.
FWIW-I was a community college instructor for many years and I was also in the guard during that time. A lot of the kids are in college because they don’t know what else to do and feel that it is expected that they go to school. Periodically I would be approached by a student who would ask me about the military and I would try to give them the straight dope about what they might want to pursue, what to expect and what they might get out of the experience. A few joined and all of those seemed to get a great deal out of the experience.
A lot of college kids are legally adults, but have virtually no life experience. So there they are in school and they’re uncertain here comes this GI who has been to some seemingly exotic place and done something dangerous and difficult and they’re intimidated. That’s not an excuse for the kid to act like an ass which I have no doubts that too many do, but I think it is context.
And co-workers/fellow students – tell me again how you almost/were going to enlist.
@12 –
“..extend a heartfelt ‘thank you for your service’ to a returning troop”
I’m not so sure it’s heartfelt anymore. I think there was a time, not too long ago, when it was. Now it’s become something people just say.
Everytime I hear someone say “I support the troops”, I want to ask “How? How have you supported them?”, then I sigh and don’t because I know I’ll be disappointed in the answer, namely a blank stare.
@14: I only did three semesters at UNCC. In 1997 a relative (my Uncle Sam) decided that I needed to take a European vacation so I spent the next 9 months in the Balkans with the 805th MP Company. After that I returned to Colorado (my home state) and finished college at CU Boulder (the Berkeley of the Rockies.)
@15: Aircav, you aren’t the only HS dropout with a law degree here on TAH!
I was hoping this was going to get posted. While a lot of my mil friends (I am a drilling reservist with a prior deployment to Iraq.) have dismissed the story, I still don’t like that the bias exists at all.
I still believe that ever since the end of Vietnam and with it, the draft, the babyboomer cynicism never went away, as it trickled down to their kids. In 1991, with the quick victory in the Gulf War, as was cited earlier here, it became popular to “support the troops” I think mostly b/c the same baby boomers now felt guilty and rightfully so. Their kids however had no baggage and sure enough, as Afghanistan and Iraq dragged on, the anti-warriors returned with a vengeance, as if decades worth of healing old wounds didn’t mean a thing.
Personally it disgusts me only in that people are simply ignorant of the profession of military service, not necessarily warfare, when it comes to larger philosophical arguments. The kind of people the MSNBC article cites have been weaned on at least two generations of anti-war films wherein we seem to inhabit a Hollywood circa cum 1970’s-mentality. Soldiers are functionally illiterate, poor, desperate and but one step away from becoming either LT Calley or having PTSD. In short, the worldview is a stereotype. If we’re going to teach kids how to think, perhaps making more troops into teachers might be a good start to educating them.
So, now that some of you have been regaled with the academic accomplishments of a few TAH fans, the question is, what about you? If you want a degree, it’s there for you to go and get. The discipline to multi-task and to do what needs to be done to achieve an objective and, I might add, to put up with horseshit and see beyond it, YOU all ready possess. So, if you want it, whether you’re 25 or 45, it’s yours.
Yeah, I understand. I was just a dumb grunt at 20 years old… what did I know except how to kill folks? I went to college with some (late) help from the VA. (took several months before they figured out that they needed to send me money).
I was on the Dean’s High Honor list ever semester..and I worked 36 hours a week (part time) to make enough money to survive with the $325 a month I got from the VA.
If I saw some of these turds in person, I’d out study them and tell them to kiss my ass.
@18: I call it the “veterans confessional.” A lot of guys who hang around in groups that are populated by a large proportion of veterans seem to feel the need to “confess” the reasons they didn’t serve. For example, if you’re in law enforcement, or if you are a recreational shooter, or even a motorcycle rider, there are so many veterans in those kinds of organizations that those who aren’t veterans often feel the need to “explain themselves” to the veterans in the group.
The medical disqualifications are understandable (diabetic, bad back, etc) less so are explanations like “I was going to join up but then my wife got pregnant” or “I landed a great job right out of college so I never got the chance to join up”
I think it’s kind of a holdover from the draft-era days when just about every able-bodied male served, if you didn’t serve, you were an outlier who had to explain yourself to the group. It’s kind of touching, in a pathetic sort of way, that these guys (and it’s an exclusively male phenomenon) feel that by having not served, they have not acheived true adulthood until and unless they are granted “absolution” by a veteran.
Elaborating on my last post: The “Confessional” approach obviously applies to those who are predisposed to be pro-military in the first place.
For those not so disposed, denigrating the troops as illiterate baby-killers is their way of assuaging the latent guilt they feel at not having served, as is all the faux-concern for “troubled” vets returning home.
IOW, if the troops are all either baby-murdering knuckle-draggers from Redneckistan, or if service in the military causes anyone exposed to it to turn into a broken, PTSD-afflicted casualty, then the “good kids from good families” don’t have to feel guilty, instead they can either pat themselves on the back because they were too smart to fall for that patriotic propaganda, or they can express their oozing, patronizing “concern” by trying to “fix” the poor, troubled, broken vets who WERE deluded by all that flag-waving nonsense and foolishly enlisted.
@17.
Good point.
It looks a little different from the other side. When I went to college, there was one veteran on campus, who topped all of his classes, mainly because he did weird stuff like, read the syllabus, do the assignments on time, and take good notes that he would re-read. I heard stories about a veteran at Texas A&M who was also somehow involved with the Corps. Some kid would tell him to do pushups, and he’d do them perfectly, and grin at ’em.
The dirty little secret is that college is not all that hard for an adult. What makes it difficult for most people is their own lack of discipline and focus, as well as way too much beer, and heartbreak.
Went back to school in 68 and lasted one semester. Tried again in 73 and ended up with MBA.
@21. Are you serious? You too?
@6 “They (college kids), well at least a majority here, hate the military, hate working, hate everything for that matter where they have to earn or work for it. It is easier to complain and bitch about the “man” while taking Daddy’s money for school and getting by with C’s.”
Yeah, things are no different now than they were when I went back to school in 1970 to finish my degree. The only real difference is the hairstyles and clothes. I saw exactly the same thing then, except for the kids who (back then) were working their way through undergrad school at pizza parlors and restaurants and gas stations, and worked hard and were as independent as I was.
These kids now don’t have a clue what that means.
You do not do your kids a favor by coddling them.
We have a similiar thing going on also up north. Funny thing is the ex Service fella or Gal still out shine the yappers. The yappers love to yap and then they can not put up or shut up. As a former Instructor in the CF (still current serving)it is funny when they (Students in civie land past)now serving bring their Civie attitude into the ring and well the outcome is the same, they lose. Though how ex service members still get messed with when it comes to education? It must be one of them wheels that go round and round. I wish Scott all the best and hopefully he graduates with honours! Let her stick that in her pipe and smoke it!
@30. Yes.
November of my senior year at high school I cut class one day, drove down to the community college and took the GED. Passed it and never went back to school. I had a job and didn’t see the point in staying to get the diploma because at that time a GED was considered the same by a lot of employers.
After a few crap jobs and not really knowing what I wanted to do with life, I joined the Army the following year (1980.) Came in when we still had the old green “pickle suit” fatigues (what a horrible uniform that was!) Was only in a short time before a training injury sidelined me but by 83 I was in the National Guard. Rejoined active duty in 86.
By 1996 I had left AD and was back in school. Graduated college in 2000 and law school in 2005 (normally law school only takes 3 years but my NG unit deployed me to Afghanistan in 2003 and then I joined a different NG unit – which deployed me to Kuwait for almost all of 2004.)
Graduated law school in 2005 and passed the (CO) bar in 2006.
@33. Excellent! I quit at the start of my senior year. Years later, in my law school application, I wrote that my rebellious nature and dislike of authority prompted me to quit high school– so I immediately thereafter joined the Army, an organization that abhors rebelliousness and esteems authority. I was cautioned not to use humor in the application but, contrary to that advice, I declined to delete it. It was true.
She needs to shut her cockholster before some veteran fuck-starts her head
Hey, can we all just coexist?? 🙂
Kinda lucked out and fell into a cushy civilian job midstream. Had watched all this mess unfold in the 60’s, attended college a couple of years before going radical and moving across the country. Then went back to school again. Became a good little civil servant upon discovering that they paid 100% tuition reimbursement even at my university. Fine with me! A single job with tuition paid instead of scraping by to make tuition $$ at 12 part-time jobs?
Meanwhile, also joined the ANG. There was no college benefit at all when I joined. (They started adding it a little at a time, but always at a level which I was already beyond – like paying for the first two years when I was a senior.)
Of course, the municipality where I worked also started phasing out the amount of tuition they paid, so I had to pay some big bucks to finally finish 18 years after I started college.
All I can do is echo what others have said – take advantage of all the education benefits that you can, whenever you can. Even if it is not in a field which will return monetary benefits for you, or you are “too old,” there are things to be learned on a campus which may just be fun or helpful in other ways. I have never regretted getting that degree even though it did not help me an iota in career development.
Oh, forgot to say that my college campus was insulated from most of the 60’s nonsense. There was some, but it was really not acceptable behavior. We were aware that there were eruptions elsewhere, but not where we were.
I’m on the other end of this – as a parent. My husband tried several times in the early 80s to sign up but was disqualified because of his poor vision. He even tried to get a waiver through his uncle, a retired general, but no luck. His father got in as a navy pilot at the end of WWII but never saw action. My father enlisted before being drafted in 1960 and served in Japan for 4 years but never fought. Other relatives before them also served, we’ve always been proud of our family’s military history.
In 2002, we went to DC for the Medal of Honor ceremony for my uncle. My kids were 9,10, and 15 and were quite impressed with all the pomp and circumstance. The boys especially enjoyed talking to the soldiers on duty and all of the military guests for the ceremonies – from General Shinseki to Medal of Honor recipients, to Joe Galloway. It left an impression on all of them.
My eldest son considered joining the Navy but eventually decided it wasn’t for him. My youngest was my one child who had the academic talent to be successful in college, but decided to join the Colorado Air National Guard first. He’s currently in tech school. He has inspired my daughter, a year older, to also join. She is tentatively scheduled to go through MEPS next week.
The military has always been an option in our home, but no so that of my kids’ friends. Some are also serving, one is at the Air Force Academy and one at Marine boot camp, but others tell my kids, especially my daughter, that they’re stupid and that the military is bad. A lot of that is from my daughter’s co-workers at Starbucks. My daughter would much rather have a positive future in the ANG than spend the rest of her life working for Starbucks.
There is a general disconnect from others their age. Not just because of their service, but because they’ve already been out in the world in positions of responsibility. They don’t relate to the immature behavior and lack of goals in their friends. Even at tech school, my son as little patience for people who don’t take their responsibilities seriously.
I think a lot of this stems from keeping kids kids, long after they should be adults with adult responsibility. It used to be that kids started working as soon as they became teenagers, or helped out in the family business, or helped care for the family. This perpetual childhood into the 30s is detrimental for our society.
My kids will be all the more successful in college because of their military experiences.
I must say I’m impressed by the intellectual credentials of those who post here and who frequently comment on my own posts. I, quite honestly, had not considered the possibility of all those advanced degrees, short-sighted thinking on my part, no doubt.
I’m sure that Jonn must feel very good that he has such an formidable following and has to feel secure in the knowledge that should he get sued, the Cav will come riding to his legal rescue, right?
Heh…
I loved hearing that crap when I was in recruiting as well. Me, 99QT, nuclear-trained, being told by school counselors we weren’t welcome because “all our kids go to college anyway.”
Of course, what they never told mommy and daddy was how many kids dropped out, which was about 50 percent, and half of them within the first year.
I was one of those kids–dropped out of college after freshman year. I knew I was smart, but I also knew I was unmotivated. What I didn’t know at the time (and learned while in NPS) was HOW to study.
Got out, went back to school, got my previous stuff and Navy schools accredited, finished my BS in less than a year with a 3.7 GPA. I think the reason so many former military do as well as they do in a college environment is that for the most part we have our priorities straight and aren’t nearly as easily distracted by the shiny as your average 18-21 year old.
It’s not just college/”higher ed.” The truth is that the civilian workplace and civilian world does not want “all these returning vets” back either.
The truth is that society has been shafting war vets since before Independence. Google Shay’s Rebellion. What was all that about?! Goode olde American culture, descendent from English, has always harbored a disdain for those who serve, with brief respites during the Civil War (US) and WWI (Europe). Enlisted Soldiers have alway been seen as criminals and junior officers the disowned and bastard sons of gentlemen
Today it is literally easier for violent felons to get jobs in some places than it is for (real, actual) OIF/OEF veterans. Interestingly enough, fakers/embellishers seem to do better from what I’ve seen.
Many, many years ago I decided to burn up the remainder of my GI Bill and “master-up.” One particular class that I took was not too challenging. I was pondering the “counting my blessings” with “getting frustrated with the waste of time” phase. During week three, the professor brings in his “favorite” graduate assistant (btw-a real looker) and announces to the class that he wants her to test us students on learning curves for her PHD thesis. He said it would “only” take three classes and did anyone object. The power of the grade was in full effect, and like an idiot, I raised my hand and objected. No one else objected but me. He then asked me why I objected, and I stated that “I literally busted my ass to take this specific course, and not a course to further a PHD candidate.” He glared at me (I guess he was never challenged before?) and asked, “What do you mean, literally busted your ass?” I then started naming DZs… saying “Arkman, Taylor Creek, Turner, Luzon and a few other drop zones where I busted my ass on.” The war was now on between us. He had the experience of a tenured professor and knew exactly when to bring in the assistant… so a student could not have a withdraw from class without penalty. I remember my grandfather’s advice, if you are going to get in a fight, hit hard as you can and see it through, or avoid all together. No in between stuff. I was in a lose-lose situation, and bailed with the penalty. I got W, but it burned my VA money an had to repay. I wrote it up as it occurred, to no avail.
A few year later, I was dating a professor at the university. She knew the professor I had a run in with, and told me that he proudly would state that he was a draft era individual, who took advantage of student deferments and became a professor.
@ 23 – You are exactly right! But, you can do it at 49yrs old too 😉 Yep, I retired in 2011 anad decided to do something with all of the credits I accumulated over my career. I have not experienced any bias yet, but then I am going to a WV college.
I do however agree with John, I have very few civilian friends. My Wife is even a veteran and we did not meet in the military either. I cannot stand to be around civilians very long and John knows, we have to support quite a few t have never spent more than a weekend in a RV, let alone months sleeping in mud with the bugs.
@43. Good for you, man. When you have a degree, you have options, choices, otherwise unavailable. All the brains in the world count for naught if one can’t get by the first cut requiring a college degree. Want to drive a truck, build things or demolish them? Great! But in the future, if the job pink-slips you or the back goes or you lose interest in what was once THE job, it’s nice to have options.
2-17 AirCav – That is exactly why I’m going. Got my first retirement check and thought “Damn gotta find another job”, so now I work with John and have decided that I need something to fall back on when I finally do walk away from the Gov. Thinking about becoming a teacher, maybe pass on the “military caste” to a new group of young people.
Funny you would ask about driving a truck, building things or dmolishing. I come from a truck driving family, have worked as a carpenter and welder and am retired EOD! So, yeah, I’ve did all three!
@39, Don’t worry I’m balancing it out. I’m still working on my Associates and hope to get my Bachelors before I retire.
AirCav, you are right. I want to have options in case the job I want at the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, which doen’t require a degree, falls through. The acronym PACE says it all, Primary, Alternate, Contingency, Emergency.
@45. I would love to see more Veterans get into teaching–at the lower grades. For Veterans who are retirees, many states DO NOT require a college degree for substitute teaching at the grade, middle, ahd high school levels. They’ll pay more with a degree, however. The early years are where so many of the future banner carriers are lost, thanks to the hard left education system.
You guys hearten me.
My daughter went to a large Southern university, where she was an officer in the College Republicans (and graduated Suma Cum Laude, thank you very much). She’s cute AND brilliant, so I wasn’t too surprised one day when she called tell me about a run-in with a male student.
He was a douchebag, but still tried to chat her up while wearing a Che t-shirt. When she asked him why he supported a mass murderer he got flustered. When he found out she was an Army brat he went on to opine that soldiers were the lower strata of evolution, stupid, uneducated, etc. Then the “I looked at joining but decided not to.”
She gave him a synopsis of my CV, and ended it with, “It takes brains and balls to be a soldier. Which do you lack?”
You know, not all schools are like this. I just got accepted to the University of Pennsylvania for my Masters Program, and during my interview process, my program director said
“You know, we’ve had Navy and Air Force members come through here, and they have all done very well, but we’ve never anyone from the Army. It’ll be cool to see the difference in mentality, discipline and approach to our program from your branch of service.”
That makes me me think there’s still hope at the institutes of higher learning in the US. Maybe Penn is the outlier; I sure hope so. They have a good track record of helping the US military and working with the Military medical community for some good research that’s benefited all of us in uniform.
If you guys have ever take the ‘Master Mental Health Resiliency Training Program’, that came out of Penn’s psychology school. One of the lead guys is on record as wishing that the Military had asked for help sooner, as they estimate that they could have prevented half of the suidices if this program had been in place from the start.
Anyway, my two cents. Cheers fellows.