this post was submitted on 23 Oct 2025
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As a teenager, my friends and family always told me I was the nicest guy they knew... and they were genuinely shocked when I joined the US military.
I came home after Basic Training for a couple weeks before moving to my first assignment and everyone was surprised I came back successful. They expected I would've been kicked out for being too nice. In fact, I earned Honor Graduate.
I didn't know much about the military when I joined, except for what I'd seen in old war movies. But they had some amazing benefits that I couldn't pass up, and my uncle, a retired service member himself, highly encouraged it. I got free medical and dental, free college education, my initial career field training qualified me for most of an associate's degree in my field, free travel around the globe, free food/housing... and they paid me to do it all. It was the best deal I could get right out of high school.
My whole military experience was a lot different than I expected; I spent a lot of time correcting stereotypes about military service with my friends and family. I actually had a pretty good career and retired after 20 years of service.
I've noticed anecdotally that people who join the military are mostly either really nice people or really terrible
With terrible being The kind of ppl that murder random civies from range and will high five each other for it. Then claim they felt threatened.