Military, the only job you can't just quit

I keep arguing with people when they bring up "non-deployed" soldiers committing suicide. They cannot seem to understand that just going into the military can be very traumatic for these young "adults" unprepared for the reality of combat training against playing war on a computer game. They think they are ready for it. Most of them are.

They are wired differently, able to put others first to the point where they are willing to die for their sake, endure every hardship and follow orders, ready, willing and able to be sent across the world for what this country says they need to do.

Among the many things we don't talk about is that the jobs in the military are not jobs these young "adults" can just quit. They get out of high school thinking it may be a cool job to have then when they realize they have made a huge mistake getting in way over their heads, they cannot just walk away. They will lose a lot when their record will follow them the rest of their lives.

We take jobs all the time we end up hating fast. We either don't show up for work or we give our notice and go work for some other company. For them, it is a totally different story with a very tragic outcome.

The case of Marine recruit changing his mind in just four days, escaping and then being chased by police,  shows just how hard it is for them to change their minds.

Marine recruit arrested at San Diego airport after mad dash to freedom from boot camp
A 22-year-old Marine recruit apparently had second thoughts about going through with boot camp. The man scaled two fences, one topped with barbed wire, before being arrested at a nearby San Diego airport. Police say this isn’t the first time a Marine recruit attempted an escape from the training facility.
BY DAVID KNOWLES
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
THURSDAY, JANUARY 17, 2013

Perhaps “Semper Infidelis” would be a better motto for this Marine.

A Marine Corps recruit proved anything but faithful on Thursday when he scaled several fences and attempted an escape from boot camp.

Police arrested the 22-year-old recruit, who has not been identified by name, at San Diego’s Lindbergh Field, an airport that borders the Marine Corps Recruit Depot.

After scaling two fences, one of which was topped with barbed wire, the newly conscripted Marine darted across the tarmac shortly before 6:30 a.m. on Thursday, and hid in a janitor’s van near the Southwest Airlines terminal.
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