Only Dumb People Join The Military
This one has always irritated me because I have always wanted to become a Marine (since I was like 8-9 years old) and I had always been an A student without having to study.
When I went to see a recruiter, he told me that with my scores, I could have my choice of any MOS. While in boot camp, I was selected for “Special Screening” which is where you are selected for additional testing, which will open up additional MOSs such as Presidential Protections, or any of the Intelligence fields. In my case, I decided on Intel and I worked 10 years as a SIGINT and ELINT Marine and an ELINT instructor for a little over 3 years of my career.
For those that are not in the know, SIGINT is Signals Intelligence, which is basically intercepting radio signals and decoding them. ELINT is Electronics Intelligence, which is intercepting radar signals.
In Elint, we were the Marines that the pilots came to before their flight and got a briefing of threats in the area. Radars are usually associated with a weapons system, which can be deadly for pilots.
I got out of the Corps and got job offers from a half dozen different companies that wanted me to work in their IT departments and another dozen or more companies that wanted me to be an instructor for them. I loved both IT and being an instructor, but I opted for IT over an instructor job.
I have been in IT as a civilian for the past 25 years, and a combined 14 of those years were as the lead IT Technician for two different organizations.
I joined the Corps because it was a calling for me, not because I was not smart enough to cut it in the real world. In fact, I have worked with some very smart Marines (and a handful of dumb ones too) over the years. Some were from a poor upbringing, some were well off, and one was even a lottery winner. I have met some that went to college and some that haven’t. So categorizing those in the military as dumb, is well, not very smart.
