01 February 2008

Some of the "why" behind my decision (January '08)

In the past 12 hours, I have gotten a TON of feedback about my decision, and while 98% of this feedback has been positive, most people have asked me "why?" in one way or another.

I'll try to avoid being as verbose as usual, and instead aim for some rare brevity.

Of course there is the usual sense of duty to my fellow man and the honor of service and all of that, but most of my reasons were more personal.

My family has been represented in the US military in some form almost since my various ancestors arrived in this country. My great uncle has a Navy pilot who had a destroyer named after him (Ohio State football fans might be interested in knowing that the first commander of this vessel was Woody Hayes!) My great aunt was an Air Force surgical nurse who helped develop an open heart surgery procedure that radically increased the survival rates of surgical patients (a procedure still in use today.) Another great uncle was a UDT, and I believe at least one of his sons became a SEAL. One set of grandparents and one set of great grandparents worked on The Manhattan Project. My father was a career Navy officer (he enlisted, but mustanged), and two of his brothers were in the Navy. My generation is the first generation that was not represented in the military (until now.)

I have grown up with great health care, banking, and insurance benefits because my father was in the Navy. I would like to make those same benefits available to my wife and (if we have them one day) children. I could sit here and type out all the details, but I'll summarize by saying that the Navy takes very good care of its people and their families. In this case, the Navy can provide what I could not otherwise provide.

As I mentioned in yesterday's post, there is also the issue of long term-joblessness and the hopelessness that comes with having a degree that nobody takes very seriously. I tried a lot of things out before I went with this option, from bouncing to work with a television program that will be aired this year. Nothing panned out as a viable long term option. I needed stable employment, or the education to get it. The military has always represented a path to education and employment for people that would otherwise be out of luck. I looked into other avenues for education, but when all was said and done, nothing came even close to what I could get by joining up. The education I will be getting in the Navy translates directly to a rapidly growing civilian job field. That's a good feeling.

Finally, there is the fact that I've always wanted to go into the medical field. I dig helping people, and what more tangible way to help people than healing them? There is also the fact that helping wounded people is pretty morally unambiguous, even in the most heinous of conflicts (and I'm not making any political statements here, I'm just saying that helping people is good stuff no matter what.)

I'm a little scattered at the moment, as I think of all that I have to do in the next couple of months before I leave (sell a car, return some things, see some folks, etc.,) but if you have any questions, just ask away...

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