Magnus McFaulds
Lantern Staff
Military enlistment is not what it once was. America tends to take pride in having the world’s most powerful military, but there are less people making their way in to recruitment offices to put their name down to serve. Has school become more appealing to young people? Or is the idea of being away from family scaring them?
The military is a lot of what you would expect, but also a lot that you wouldn’t. Advertising the real side of it is hard. What is shown on TV is glorified and each branch knows it. One branch doesn’t shy from the dark side, the real side, the Marine Corps. Military life is hard for any of the four branches; that’s indisputable, but what you choose to do changes how hard that life is. Away from the hardships, there is a lot to be offered and most don’t see what it can really provide.
“People coming in here want to be in here, but once they start thinking about being away from family for the three-month long boot camp with no contact, they get scared,” Gunnery Sergeant Quillin, a military recruiter, said of recruitment.
To hear this is worrying, knowing that people would rather be cradled by family than do something good not just for their country but for themselves. Woman are harder to get into a recruitment office, too.
“We don’t go out of our way to get women to come in,” GySgt Quillin said.
It’s often that men decide young that the military is the way they want to go, but it’s often influenced by family or friends whereas women will decide on their own and enlist.
Deciding to enlist isn’t for everyone; it’s at least four years of your life run by what someone else says. Those four years can change your life, but there are huge benefits even if they are not always good such as education, job security and hands on training. For a student coming out of high school, the military can provide a future that they may not have thought possible. I chose to enlist and decided to work in aircraft maintenance. It was a dream I had, but that dream didn’t work out. If it had, I would be working on aircraft I have dreamed of since I was a child. I would be set up with a technical skill that taken out of the military would have left me with endless possibilities.
Enlistment isn’t for everyone, and it’s not always the best thing that will ever happen in your life. It is, however, an amazing opportunity and can set you up for a future that you may not have imagined otherwise. College isn’t for everyone. Talk to a recruiter. It’s the first step to knowing whether it is for you or not. If you want to be a Marine, go see GySgt Quillin at his office on the corner of Central and Rock in Wichita.
