Before You Enlist

I was doing more research on the military in general and came across a post by a former Marine trying to convince a wannabe not to join the Marines.

The young man was saying how he wanted to join the Marines because the uniforms were cool and he could play with guns and he'd get respect and earn the title and yada, yada, yada.

The Marine said he had joined for the same reasons and after Boot Camp the blinders came off and he saw the real Marine Corps. The drama, the politics, the mindless repetition, the BS. He couldn't wait for his contract to be up.

He shared a link called BeforeYouEnlist.org and I clicked on it.

While I was at MEPS I had to flinch at the preconceptions of what poolees thought the Marines are like or are going to be like. No, I'm not a Marine yet but I have spent the last eleven years intimately close to more Marines than I could try to count. Their experiences and lives have touched my own in a very personal way. So personally, in fact, that I married a Marine. I have seen a Marine off to war and welcomed him home again. I have gone through separations. I have dealt with so much political crap, mistakes and irritations that it's a wonder I would ever consider the military myself. I have held my husband as he shook in the wake of a flashback. I have heard the stories and seen the lives of real Marines first hand.

It's not always glorious. It's not always cool. It's often ugly, terrifying, depressing, lonely, tiring and even damaging. There are Marine wives I know who have never welcomed their Marines back home alive. There are marriages that have been destroyed through the separations. There are legs, hands and eyes missing because of combat. There are mental scars.

To this day my husband tells me he can still smell burning bodies at times.

This is the part that the recruiters don't tell you. This is the part they try to hide. This is the part that this site (beforeyouenlist.org) tries to show.

But it's important to note that while it's not always good, it's also not always bad, either.

If it were all bad there wouldn't ever be reenlistments and there are plenty of Marines who live to be Marines. There is something good there that brings out the best in some and they thrive under the brutality of it all to emerge as fine, good men.

So many Marines I have known (the good ones, at least) are men among men. They are stronger, prouder, more confident, surer, more skilled, faster thinking, smarter, than so many other guys I have met.

My husband, the best man I know, is a Marine.

Is there a bad side that the military tries to hide? Certainly!

Does it mean that it's all bad? Certainly not!

I do agree that anyone enlisting should be fully informed. I also think that the kids who run off thinking that the military is going to be some big video game are in for a huge surprise.

I think the video on the site is one that should be watched and considered and while it does smack of a slightly anti-military message, someone joining for the right reasons should be able to watch it and soberly trek forward with their enlistment without pause.