• pearsaltchocolatebar@discuss.online
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    9 months ago

    My high school made us take the ASVAB. I ended up with an 88, and it took threats of harassment charges to stop all 3 major branches from just showing up at my house unannounced.

    They also straight up lied when trying to get me to join the reserves, saying I’d never be called to active duty. But, they had already been calling reserves to active duty in Afghanistan/Iraq. Idk why they thought I’d be dumb enough to believe them, considering they wanted me because of my test score.

    • CheezyWeezle@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      I got something stupid like a 96 on the ASVAB and I just told the first air force guy I smoked a lot of weed and I never heard from any military again lmao

      It was tempting when they offered me to go right into a program to become a satellite operator starting off making $125k/year immediately after boot camp… but I don’t regret not taking that offer. Who knows what would have actually materialized, anyways. Probably would have been 6 years deep dreaming of hopefully seeing 6 figures one day while I end up managing logistics or something.

      • The_v@lemmy.world
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        9 months ago

        My highschool made us take it as well. My school also made us take the SAT or ACT for the required 0.5 career credit. I do not remeber the actual scores after all his time, just that it was at the maximum on a few.

        I understand they tried calling on me for years but never tracked me down. I skipped my senior year of highschool and went to college. Between work, school, and coeds, I was rarely home for them to bother me.

        • stoly@lemmy.world
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          9 months ago

          It was the fact that you can sign up for years but not be guaranteed the job you signed up for that kept me from joining.

    • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      Idk why they thought I’d be dumb enough to believe them,

      It’s literally their job to lie and there’s a good chance this is a lie they were successfully sold when they joined.

      The US Military is basically just an MLM that ends with your kneecaps blown off in a friendly fire incident.

      • niktemadur@lemmy.world
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        9 months ago

        That’s what it became after the draft was abolished… for the time being, hopefully forever.

        Imagine the power these people had before that legislative event. “You’ve been drafted. You will go to South Pacific/Korea/Vietnam or you will go to jail.”

        • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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          9 months ago

          It was a double-edged sword. Conscription was deeply radicalizing, both in terms of domestic discontent and labor militarization.

          Once Nixon ended the draft and converted operations to air war/special forces, the domestic opposition to the wars in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia rapidly fizzled out. And by the 1980s, our War on Poor People Crime effectively put the kabash on the kind of neighborhood organizing/defense that kept communities from falling under aggressive police cartels.

          I think American politicians don’t really want conscription today any more than the people do.

        • Wolfeh@lemmy.world
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          9 months ago

          “You’ve been drafted. You will go to South Pacific/Korea/Vietnam or you will go to jail.”

          Jail has never sounded so good.

    • PizzaMan@lemm.ee
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      9 months ago

      Idk why they thought I’d be dumb enough to believe them, considering they wanted me because of my test score.

      I think therein lies your answer. Their own test scores were low enough to think you might eventually join.

    • sexual_tomato@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      9 months ago

      What’s funny is they ignored all the people that scored 95+ on the ASVAB in my high school. They knew those kids were too smart to join the military.

    • son_named_bort@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      My high school made us take the ASVAB too. I filled in bubbles at random and got a 72. I graduated in 2004, so yeah I had recruiters contact me all the time despite the fact that I had no interest in going to Iraq.