> I suggested the current poll question. I expected
> about at least 50 percent of the people to have
> enlisted or been drafted. I was *extremely*
> surprised when I saw 60% had never joined because
> they didn't want to. I myself plan to join the
> Marines or Army, and my father was two months
> away from Vietnam. I was just wondering why some
> of you people weren't interested. Was it a
> personal situation or was it you did't want any
> personal risk?

Neither of the above.

I simply feel that I'm not the sort of person who's cut out for military duty, at least not in the conventional sense of "grunt work"-- a thought echoed by several others who replied to this thread. My personality is the complete antithesis of what a recruiter would be looking for: I'm rather shy, and don't put up well with the sort of, erm, "criticism" dished out in boot camp; I'm not exactly a violent sort of person, and indeed, my ideas tend to be rather pacifistic; and I'm so clumsy and so directionally impaired that I'd probably end up shooting myself in the foot most of the time I was there anyway. It's simply not what I'm best suited for (and no doubt I'd be rejected anyway!).

Not that I'm not patriotic, by any means (though I sometimes do disagree with the decisions of those in charge, but that's another rant entirely); it's just that I could better serve my country, I think, in some other way.

If I were, by some chance, to be drafted, I wouldn't mind doing something along the lines of software engineering, cryptography, or some other field of technical work. Call me a geek if you will, but that's more of my niche in life...

Oh, and ditto what other posters have said about the 50% amount.

-- codeman"my 2¢ worth"38