NLIC.org

Erica Said:

Advice on me enlisting and the situation I'm in...Please help me?!?!?

We Answered:

Go look in a mirror. Take a look at that guy looking back at you. Family, friends, loved ones, wives, children of your own, and kibitzers like those of us on YA... we come and go in your life. That guy in the mirror is there for the duration. He's the one you need to live your life for.

Do your research. Make the best decision you can based on that research. But YOU have to make it. If you're worried about making a wrong decision... I can almost guarantee you you'll make some... it's part of the "human" thing.

“The time to take counsel of your fears is before you make an important battle decision. That's the time to listen to every fear you can imagine! When you have collected all the facts and fears and made your decision, turn off all your fears and go ahead!” (General George S. Patton)

I enlisted in the Navy with a BA in Math at age 20. "A waste of an education," I was told. "Why join the military," I was asked. Some asked why I didn't use my degree to go in as an officer. But I enlisted.

In Boot Camp my rating (Navy enlisted specialty) picked me. "Too dangerous," I was warned. "It's not going to do you any good when you get out," I was told.

When it came time to reenlist for my E-6, somebody dusted off my degree and recommended me for OCS. I accepted the officer. "Why are you making the military a career," I was asked. "The war's illegal and immoral," I heard... it was during Vietnam. During the next eight years I was considered by the media and many back home to be a murderer, a killer of innocent women and children, a monster.

Eventually Vietnam ended and so did the dire predictions for my immoral soul. But I got promoted out of the action. I elected to retire at 45. "Dummy!!! Why didn't you stay in for 'Flag' rank," I was asked. "You're too young to retire," I was told. "You're not going to find anything to do once you get out... you'll want to get back in," I was warned.

I went back to school, got a couple more degrees on the GI Bill, and started a second career managing government projects on the West Coast for a management consulting firm. I was able to get the job because of my military experience, my management experience (a little over 20 years as a Navy officer), my recent DoD security clearance, my experience dealing with military bureaucracy (two tours at the Pentagon), and my education. I made enough on that job to purchase a house on a VA-insured loan and pay it off in 10 years. In 12 years I built up quite a retirement fund. So I retired again at age 60. I did a little traveling (it's free if you're retired military). About three years ago I rented my place out and moved into a Veterans Home. I have my pension, my retirement check and the rent from my place. And, on top of that, just about everything here is paid for.

Most of those nay-sayers are dead. And those who aren't have long since shut up.

I still look in the mirror. It's kind of a habit. I've done it something like 57 years... I'm almost 71 now. I can barely recognized the old goat looking back at, but I notice that he hasn't been smiling much in the last ten years. He's got this big, stupid grin...