Veterans what prompted YOU to serve your country?

I wasn't all that interested in going to college when I graduated from high school. So, I decided to join the Navy, for several reasons.
It worked out for the best, though...when I got out of the Navy, I knew darned well that I wanted to go to college. Plus, I had the GI Bill to help pay for it.

I think my service experience was a very good thing. It matured me, gave me some self-discipline, and made me want to go to college. When I got out and started to school, I was there to learn and not party. Had I gone to college right after high school, I would not have done as well. Plus, I think every young man and woman should serve their country...when they get old, they can look back on it with pride, no matter what their motives were for serving at the time.
 
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Bottom line - could not wait to get away from home. Hoped to travel overseas, but got stuck underground in New Mexico (ICBM mechanic with SAC) Never got out of the USA. Air Force was the best!!
 
Basically did it to get out of the folks house and do some growing up away from their misguided direction. Didn't even tell Dad.
 
High school was a fun place to socialize and p/u girls. Therefore the grades for college weren't there. The local economy was driven by textiles and I had worked some in the mills already b/4 graduation.

Military was an exciting choice for an old country boy that wanted to see the world. The Air Force seemed like a good place to start.
 
My two older brothers were both in during the early years of Nam in the mid 60s and made it home, so when I turned 18 I followed suit and enlisted in the Army. Not to mention I was already 2000 miles from home and hungry at the time:)
Had some regrets while I was in but never since getting out - well maybe just one! I wish I would have had the smarts to go into the Air Force instead of the Army. The food and living standards were a whole lot nicer...
 
I joined the Navy 1978 one step a head of a pregnant girl friend with a shotgun toting uncle.(I married her a year later).
 
I joined because there was nothing happening in Western Maryland. Jobs were scarce and I didn't feel like 3 more years of college were going to be much help. So later, I let Uncle Sam pay the tuition and I got a nice pension out of the deal. 21 years well spent: Wurtsmith AFB MI, Sheppard AFB TX, and Andrews AFB MD.
 
Wasn't ready for college, so told the draft board I wanted voluntary induction. This was after Korea but before Nam got serious. German beer, brats and schnitzel for two years courtesy of Uncle Sam.
 
Several reasons. My father and uncles had all served. I felt it was my duty to give something back to the country that provided me with such a great standard of living. It was a way to get away from home, grow up, travel and do things that other people my age didn't have the opportunity to do.

I joined the Marines because I wanted people to know that my commitment to our country is unquestionable. The fact that the dress blues are a total chick magnet was just a bonus.

"Some people spend an entire lifetime wondering if they made a difference in the world. Marines don't have that problem."
-Ronald Reagan

Semper Fi and Happy Veteran's Day to all who have served our nation in our armed forces!
 
My fear when going to high school in the mid 60s was getting drafted before I could graduate and join. No one in my family had been drafted and I certainly didn't want to be the first. I think my father would have disowned me if I got drafted instead of enlisting. Its always been that way.

All the kids in my senior class were worried about being drafted, knowing most would (I graduated in '66). I couldn't understand that, I couldn't wait to enlist.

After spending three years in the Army, including a tour in Vietnam as an infantryman with the 101st, I joined the National Guard, remaining until I retired in 1992. My only regret is retiring when I did, I regretted it. Its easier to get out then get back in after you retire.
 
I tell people that "sure, a lot of guys volunteered. But I was invited!"
 
The best I remember, it was because I was young and dumb and full......
 
I graduated college with a degree in Journalism and a loathing for journalists. My Dad had been in the Army Air Corps during the big one, so I applied to Air Force OTS. Much to my surprise, they took me.

When I showed up for Navigator training at Mather AFB, I asked what would happen if I flunked the training. "We make you a cop and send you to Minot."

Nine months later I realized they really weren't kidding.

It all worked out - the hunting was good in North Dakota, and I wanted to be a cop anyway.
 
sigp220.45 said:
I graduated college with a degree in Journalism and a loathing for journalists. My Dad had been in the Army Air Corps during the big one, so I applied to Air Force OTS. Much to my surprise, they took me.

When I showed up for Navigator training at Mather AFB, I asked what would happen if I flunked the training. "We make you a cop and send you to Minot."

Nine months later I realized they really weren't kidding.

It all worked out - the hunting was good in North Dakota, and I wanted to be a cop anyway.
Click to expand...

You know....Hunter S. Thompson was a journalist in the Air Force at one time.......................Just sayin'.............:D
 
I would love to say that I had a sense of duty, or that I felt obligated to serve. The truth is I received a letter that started:

"Greetings from your President,
You are hereby ordered to report...."

Nothing like getting a letter from your President to get your rump in gear.
 
A socially acceptable way to leave (and get paid for it), the GI Bill, and because I thought it was the Right Thing to Do. i was 17 at the time, didn't register for Selective Service until after my release from Active Duty.
 
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