I know this is a deeply American thing to say but I am begging everyone to stay the fuck away from military recruiters. Especially high school kids. You are going to be seeing an unholy amount of them in schools or around schools or literally anywhere kids are known to congregate. THIS INCLUDES ALL FORMS OF ROTC. Stay the fuck away from military recruiters. As someone who’s familiar with entirely too many branches through entirely too many friends and family, including my partner, recruiters are authorized to say literally any fucking thing they think will make you sign on that line. They cannot and will not deliver on those promises. They need bodies for the war they’re pretending is only now starting up again. That’s all you are. A body. Stay the FUCK away from the military.
No but this. Seriously.
My brother enlisted coming out of high school. I was in high school the next year. He bombed out of basic training PDQ and was back at home and SERIOUSLY fucked up from it and never actually recovered, I don’t think.
So I get to my junior year in high school and we *must* talk to the military recruiters. It’s required. We can tell them any old thing we want to, but we *must* at least hear them out. Being the kind of person I am, I did. I listened. I talked, and I listened to the guy’s responses. I told him I’d discuss it with my brother who had done basic training.
I got home, and told him that I’d had the conversation with the recruiter. He looked me dead in the eye and said, “Whatever he told you, it was a bold-faced lie. They’re allowed and ENCOURAGED to lie to get recruits. Do NOT even give him a “no thanks.” Just ignore any contact.”
This was in 2001, BEFORE 9/11.
Imagine how desperate they are for recruits now.
If they ask you what time it is, refuse to even look at your watch. Don’t even let them get into it. If you *have to* talk to them, tell them flatly that you’re not interested and that you aren’t going to budge. And then DON’T.
Because they don’t give one single solitary shit about you.
Can confirm, those fuckers LIE
They also go out of their way to target poorer areas and prep kids to barely pass the asvab, and if I hadn't been a stupid 17 year old, I should have noticed the giant red billboards they were waving
DON'T DO IT!!!
There are other options like trade schools and apprenticeships and things that I wish I'd known about
