Hello all, I have a question, I may be going homeless soon, family is kicking me out, I pondered the question of joining the military as a point of a new start, have a place, healthcare, get my feet together. I don't have anything too loose.

Do you know anyone in the same shoes?

Thanks

My brother who’s currently in the Air Force(not sure what his rank is, he’s only been in for a year) got mad at me for not wanting to join. This is also not the first time he’s asked me as well.

So one day he texts me out of the blue to ask how i was doing then he immediately resorts to ‘do you plan on joining?’ & obviously I say no. Then goes to explain how I can utilize my bachelors degree in the air force and whatnot. He then tells me that ‘he regrets not joining earlier and doesn’t want me to feel the same’ which I tell him I’m not interested at this time & there are many other options that are out there, military isn’t for everyone. He then tells me that I’ll regret not joining and to not ever text him again.

Mind you my brother joined at the age of 28 yo. He was practically at a dead end in life working at a gas station so maybe the military was a better fit for him. Me on the other hand I have a BA degree and a full time job in the behavioral health field with full benefits and a ladder to climb if I want to move up. I don’t see why he was pushing this decision on me so hard. Why do people become absolutes dickheads once they join the military?

Russian in US Army / Advice

Currently, I am on active duty in the US Army. I am a Russian born national, and I am also a naturalized American citizen. In the past year, my perspective on the military has changed by the ongoing Russian invasion in Ukraine, leading me to develop a strong hate for violence and war. My close family member serving in the Russian military has been out of contact for months now, and I worry about their safety every single day. I am struggling to cope with my circumstances and need to get out of my current situation. I am anxious that my role as an active duty service member in the U.S. could have negative repercussions on my family, and I fear that I may never be able to return to Russia. The separation from my loved ones that I have not seen in years weighs heavily on me. I hate war, weapons, and the entirety of this situation. I never liked them, but now I hate them.

Recently, a friend of someone I personally know was apprehended at a Russian airport for contributing a small sum of money to Ukraine. Now, they are facing years of jail time for actions considered against the government they are citizen of. Due to the sensitivity of my circumstances, I am cautious about revealing details of my military occupation online and refrain from sharing my photos in uniform. Most of my family members are unaware of my dilemma due to concerns about potential repercussions. I find my presence in military unbearable, and my mental well-being is deteriorating. While I have sought BH therapy and shared my emotions, I am firm in my decision to leave.

Any thoughts on this would be greatly appreciated.

I decided that i'm going to BH after this 4 day. What should I do to seal the deal? (Other than claim suicidal thoughts). My gramma could really use my help, I miss my homies, my homies miss me. I really miss Mary Jane, she never did me dirty and I left her for this bunk job. I always think about my plan on buying and smoking a godly amount when I get tf out of here. And most importantly to finally be at home with my family not having to worry about a deployment to Syria or Iran.

So in my last command before I got discharged I had been so deprived of sleep that I became chronically tired. I would wake up from an 8 hr sleep and be incredibly tired. I would stay tired throughout the day and I would go to bed tired at around 8-9 pm and I’d do it all over again the next day. After I got out I was so tired that I passed a whole day or two doing nothing but sleeping all day and all night long. Then throughout the next two weeks I would sleep at around 8-9 pm and not wake up until like 11-12 sometimes even 1 pm.

I have a very bad case of dry eyes now after the military and if I sleep for too long my eyes are gonna feel very irritated due to the lack of tear production while being a sleep.

Im 24 years old and a lot of people say I’m young and some are even bothered by the fact that I’m so tired and boring being so young but I don’t feel 24 at all. If I don’t have a very particular sleep schedule I will feel immensely tired throughout the day. So much I’m barely even capable of functioning. I tried juggling two jobs so I wake up at 5:30 am to go to my job at 7am and then later in the afternoon I’d go to my other job at 2pm and finish it off a few hours but while I could’ve been able to pull that off before the military. After the military I’m almost incapable of functioning at all without a good sleep schedule that I adhere to

Definitely regret joining Active Duty. Was also very convinced by my recruiter that a 6 year contract was the best choice for me which I regret with everything. I’m still entry level which means I’ve been in less than a year. I keep thinking about entry level separation but this would really undo everything I’ve accomplished and my family would be so disappointed with me but I miss them so much I miss my friends that I lost contact with since I’ve been here it’s not the same. I really threw away my life for this mess. I’ve ruined my life and I’m depressed. What do I do? Someone please give me answers. I don’t need reassurance that everything is going to be alright I’ve heard that way too much and I’m still suffering.

Just a rant,

I had a pack of them get in my car doing Lyft last night. Jesus Christ, I should have canceled before letting these chodes in.

"Hehe so uh were you doing donuts or something in the garage? Where were you?"

"I had to drop off my previous rider"

"So how many people have you hit with your car? Hehe"

I felt like saying "get in front of my car bitch, you'll be my first. In fact, imma go for the high score and run over all of you." Or better yet "how many people did you kill in Iraq? You clearly weren't that smart seeing you lost a leg. Guess you didn't see that IED, huh tough guy?"

"Hehe hey Dave, go step in front of his car; that'll pop his cherry..."

"Ewww gross"

Douche looked like Sean Strickland was eyeballing me the entire time in the rear view mirror with that dumb smirk. Hey, at least I'm not skiing between 2 grown ass men in the back seat like you asshole. Maybe that's why you have that dumb smirk?

The entire ride consisted of these animals talking about gay porn and talking shit about me for doing my job? Bitch, if you don't like it, you can get the fuck out of my car! The amount of hubris and sarcasm was fucking cringe. I really felt like saying something, but just gave them a 1 star review, had them unmatched, and reported them for being rude, leaving a mess, safety.

The moral of the story is that next time I do Lyft; if I see dudes with tattoos and a prosthetic leg; I'm going to hit that cancel button so quick you'd shit yourself.

Hey how's it going. I thought maybe I should tell my story here. My father was a Vietnam veteran. He got hit with mortar shrapnel to his left leg and eight rounds down his back. He survived that and had me.

ALS is correlated with combat wounds and the severe PTSD that follows. My father died of ALS. His ability to move faded away, no speech, just eyes and privates work. He died quickly after as he refused to have a feeding tube put in.

Here's another problem. I have it also. It was not in my family line before this. I have a different variation than is known genetically. I am now essentially crippled. I can move around the house but using my muscles for more than something small causes severe cramping.

I have REM Behavior Disorder, which I've had from birth, which causes me to act out my dreams. I get injured by this all the time. I don't sleep much.

I had trouble walking as a kid because it's like my muscles are like a hair trigger and controlling that was hard and it took a long time to get some handle on.

It's not just my muscles though, this same hair trigger/spiking effects my behavior as well. That also took a long time to learn to control.

What's happened? I've studied this for a while. I believe that men can pass on their GABA:glutamate ratio, and this is unknown. What is that? Glutamate induces the generation of electrical impulses, whereas GABA inhibits or counteracts this effect. The more glutamate you produce, the higher your electrical output will be and electrical impulses will be stimulated.

This also effects explosive output. That's where it really comes into effect. I believe this change happens due to hyper vigilance.

A lot of people believe ALS is caused by triggers. I think that's correct and if you consider my hyper vigilance to causing a permanent change in GABA:glutamate ratio in order to provide the energy needed to be hyper vigilant. The electrical spiking is where the real damage happens. For example, loud noise and a combat veteran. Their emotion spikes. This causes electrical spiking to the entire system.

Over time, this spiking destroys the nerve pathways to the muscles. And after too much damage, they start to sever, and result in ALS. However, if you didn't catch that part, ALS was not in my family line prior to my father being severely wounded. Now I have it also.

That means the military is responsible for my condition and I have been completely unsupported my entire life. And I have been living in poverty trying to get by with people helping me. It is also a variation in my case. I think I am more able to handle the output. Or my regeneration is better. But it has become very painful.

The electrical spiking has gotten so high that it literally burns my muscles. I scream in pain from this. And I was never one for screaming.

I found medication that lowers the electrical strikes. Gabapentinoids. Anyways, I think people should know that this could happen to them and their genetic line as well. You children, and perhaps further on. I am also an army veteran but I served only a short time as my mother was dying of cancer and needed assistance.

Not sure if this is the right subreddit to post this but long story short, I’m not in the military and I don’t plan on joining anytime soon. But I am the son of a man who served 20+ years in the Marine Corps. Growing up in various military communities your told that “you’re mommies and daddies are fighting the bad guys” and “People in the military protect your freedom” and “You should be proud to be an American” all that stuff. Fast forward 15 years and you have me, I’m 24 years old now but I still live with my parents because of the cost of living currently but I’m also saving up to move out . I have a bachelors degree but recently I quit my job due to the stress it gave me so I currently DoorDash until I can find another job. One night, me and my dad got into an argument about something which lead to my dad saying that I’m “lazy and that I “Do nothing all day” and because I’m 24 that i “need to make a name for myself like he did at my age when he joined the military” Fun fact about my dad is, the military was his only option. Like many others who joined the military he grew up in a poor impoverished part of the U.S. and the military was his ticket out of that environment. For some reason because of this, he thinks he’s better than the average person and that he deserves some kind of praise for “serving our country” at all times. I’m not sure if I’m making sense but I just wanted to see if anybody else has this experience with veterans who have this god complex because of serving in the military. Don’t get me wrong I still love my dad but I feel like he’s fallen down a rabbit hole of some sort since he retired.

Btw dude literally had a desk job his entire career.

Someone goes AWOL, there goes their whole life. Can't own guns, can't vote, basically get something the equivelant of a felony. And for what? For simply not wanting to be apart of this toxic work enviroment.

As someone that's conservative and has a strong advocation for the natural right to bare arms when i'm not dead inside. I just see this as very fucked up.

As far as political views go, I respect your views as long as you don't shit on mine. I'm a firm believer in free speech and freedom of expresssion. Which is another thing I hate about the military, I get shat on for talking shit about the commander in queef. Like bro quit being a bootlicker and admit you're working for a careless politican who doesn't give a shit about you. I can admit that no matter who is in said position, they don't give a shit about me, so why should I pretend I give a shit about following orders from an old barely functioning puppet. (This goes for any politican, I hate them all).

Anyway, just a fun little rant. Fuck this job and I hope I get out in the near future because I do not wanna fulfill this contract.

I hear this a lot. But does it actually hold any water? I feel like it's too good to be true. Whenever this is brought up all I can find is a bunch of anecdotes. Surely there's gotta be a way they test for sleep walking.

I joined this subreddit about 2 years ago roughly around the time I was at my all time worst in the marine corps.

I felt completely alone, completely overwhelmed and I was so depressed that I couldn’t see a future with me living through another week. I hated my job (still do, 9 months left) I hated my peers, I hated all the senior lances and the corporals. If I hadn’t found this little sanctuary of like minded people I would’ve killed myself.

I still struggle and I still feel alone but I know I can talk about it here without a filter and without being judged to a group of people that understand.

My advice to anyone who is still in and feels like they are alone would be this, the one person who will always be there for you is yourself, you need to stop judging yourself based on external circumstances and influences. You shouldn’t hate yourself for not being good at PT, for not learning something as fast as everyone else, for forgetting to dust something during a room inspection. This job and everyone in it will already judge you and berate you for that stuff, don’t add to it by stooping to their level. You need to define what you think makes you a good person and you need to be proud of yourself, this job is full of people who will tear you down to prop themselves up, don’t believe their lies. You are the only person who’s judgment should matter.

For me personally I suck at running distance, I would fall out all the time no matter how much we ran. I hated myself, I would constantly berate myself for not having done track in high school or for not having whatever it was that allowed everyone else to be better at it than me. I realized it was all bullshit, I’m a decent human being and I shouldn’t be accepting their opinion of me as truthful. Does this help the situation or does it change it in anyway, sadly no it doesn’t but it gives you a foundation, it gives you a compass and it gives you something they don’t have, it gives you the freedom to judge yourself without the standards of your environment.

Sorry that got a little long I just want to say thank you to everyone on this sub that has supported me and helped me. I don’t think I would be here today if I hadn’t found this community.

I'm going to try to get a hearing test done. Me and a few of my friends think i'm experiencing hearing loss. On top of that i'm 99.99% sure I have a hemmorhoid. Will this answer my prayers and get me separated?

Currently on a profile when I look at at it on medpros it shows: 90 days in block 23 "Total days on temporary profile in the last..." But in block 20 "Days on profile" it shows 69.

Which number is considered when starting the medboard process? I ask because I'm trying to plan accordingly how I'll spend my time and effort trying to get to 180. Medical services from a specialist are not easily available where I'm stationed and require a 4 plus hour drive and appointments you may get are spread out over a lot of time due to the limited resource. This works in my favor trying to wait out the clock. I have an appointment in a month now, and I'm making an appointment for surgery following that. Based on the count in block 23, by early July I should be considered for a med board. 99% certain I will not have an appointment for surgery at or before that date. Even if I do, my plan is to make it clear it has not helped my condition. Surgery they're offering me is not likely to help that anyway. (Due to an injury during training I have it on good authority I've developed arthritis, if it matters).

My questions are: Am I basing my countdown off the correct information? What strategies should I use to maintain this time on profile to qualify for a Medboard? Other than primary care and my orthopedic specialist, is there anyone else I should communicate with?

Also, general advice for medboards in the comments would be greatly appreciated. It'll help me, and anyone else who may have found posting about their own situation difficult.

I thank you in advance for your contribution.

Beards, Grunt Style, the thinking they're cooler than lame civilians who didn't serve, generally conservative, the "back in my day..." Arguing who was in the better unit/mos, Black Rifle Coffee, bro vet shit gets really annoying. Really makes me not want to associate with them

My 23 year old just graduated from college with a natural biology degree. He wants to join the Air Force. We don’t understand why since we are really NOT a military family. We are very much against the US meddling in foreign affairs and killing innocent people so that the rich can benefit. My dad was a conscientious objector during Vietnam. We think our son is just sold on the things recruiters and gung ho vets/enlistees have told him about the benefits after you serve. His gf’s dad is a vet and now a fireman (which is a career my son is considering). I just don’t know what to say that we haven’t said before. Also, he’s not on the brink of homelessness. He lives comfortably with us in a middle class suburb in Hawaii and we told him he can live with us for as long as he wants to save money to buy a condo or whatever. >_<

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Serious question: Why are processes and methods so unnecessarily tedious and long in the military? To do one thing, you have to fill out tons of forms, get zillions of signatures, etc. It's exhausting and stupid. Why is it like this? Anyone on the outside would bitch-slap anyone being this stupid.

I have been pulling 12-14 hour shifts waking up at ungodly hours of the morning. We were made to give up our weekends the last few weeks as well. Well yesterday I got berated for asking "hey when are we allowed to go home" because it is a long commute back home, and I've been up for a long time already. I was told "asking when you can go home is not a good look and you joined the army so you know the army owns you and your time isn't yours." I literally couldn't believe this. I asked them "do you even like to go home to your family?' and they gave me a whole spiel about how I am half committed to this army life. Today after another long ass day I thought it was finally time to go home, some officer came in and addressed the whole room and goes "hey I have y'alls food it's in the breakroom." I go in there and take a piece and leave to go eat it and think nothing of it. Moments later some people come up to me and say, "hey did you eat so and so's food?" I said "oh I'm sorry i didn't realize." They said "yeah well they are pissed and looking for you". So for context, all week long they have been providing us food and putting it in the breakroom, so it was in the same spot as the free food had been all week. I didn't think anything of it. I go inside to apologize and I hear the officer complaining loudly to my NCO saying "if that had been anyone else they would've gotten an ass whooping." I walked up and said sorry and tried to explain what happened but the officer maintained "why would you not ask first?" and "no the food wasn't for you i was addressing the other section in the room." I offered to pay them back and run to the ATM and they got an attitude with me and continued to be an asshole to me in front of the NCO. I ran out to get the money and started crying. I couldn't find the ATM but the fear I had of this officer and the rage they would unleash was triggering it. I finally pulled out money and went to go give it to them but the NCO stopped me and told me they would hand it to them as the officer was still angry. I gave them DOUBLE the amount of money they paid for the food. I felt the whole thing was extremely unprofessional and anyone in that position of authority who makes five times what I make and can still take money from a junior enlisted over a small piece of food. This organization doesn't care about people. They care about humiliating them and asserting power. To make matters worse the whole car ride back I was berated by the NCO telling me I needed to be more aware and I should know to always ask for clarification. I cannot possibly predict every single little reaction that these high strung people will have. I don't know how I am expected to function in this environment, I am overworked, always in fear of messing up and being disrespected, and constantly chastised.

I am about to start working in the military in a short while (edit: I meant like in a few minutes, not in the sense of just starting my military career), and the dread and anxiety is building up. Of course I'm going to be in meetings where my contributions are going to be shit on by some of the higher ups, even though I did my job and made things happen. I hate the military, I can't fucking wait to get out of this disgusting place. I'm gonna buy one of those dd 214 blankets when I get out too. Man, I can't wait...

Hey everyone,

So I have a quick story I'd love to share. I was doing Uber the other day and I pick up a retired Army veteran. He was combat arms. We start talking about Vegas and construction, traffic, etc. I tell him I moved here from the Florida Panhandle about 6 months ago.

"Oh I used to be an adjunct professor at Eglin AFB. That area is such a joke. Rednecks from Alabama come down there, get drunk, and get their boats stuck on a sandbar despite having GPS technology literally every summer. The beaches aren't even that nice, and they think it's the greatest thing since sliced bread!"

We start talking about how apparently Vegas has terrible doctors, which later segways into government spending on wars instead of healthcare.

"I was in the Army for almost 35 years, I wouldn't recommend that shit to anyone! We're spending all this money on war, yet we always leave places worse than the way we found it. We lost Iraq, Afghanistan, all this money being blown at Ukraine and Israel, why should I care about these countries, fuck em! Ibril, Kurdistan is waaayyy safer than Vegas!"

I tell him to take a look at my bumper stickers after i drop him off. He gets out, puts his glasses on, looks at them all ranging from "Ted Cruz ate my son" "Giant Meteor 2024" "Veterans for Peace" and simply says "Yeah, pretty much..." and walks away. It always warms my heart when I know I'm not alone in my struggle for sanity and change in the world.