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The only Teachers I am aware of enduring a higher safety risk are working Juvenile Hall or in Adult Jails. Years back, I was a substitute teachers aide for the office of education where my jobsite was at Juvenile Hall.
My Dad was in the seminary and taught at the jail a long time ago. He told of when two guys were going to kill each other with sharp objects and he (unwisely) put himself between the two and broke them up.
Air Force veteran here, most military folks will hardly see war.
And you have the volunteer force to thank for that (largely staffed by America’s underclass). Without it, Uncle Sam would have zero problems throwing your kids into the back of a humvee and shipping them off to basic training. Or throwing them in jail for dodging the draft.
The selective service system keeps track of your sons (and every other registered male) and if the SHTF they will be shipping them off.
They sign up because you won’t, you’re welcome.
Oh and they sign up for the benefits: free travel, military discounts, free education, free healthcare, VA loan to get a house, free dental, and veterans preference for job employment when they get out, and for the marketable skills the military will teach them for free including jobs with clearances or in cyber that pay 6 figures in the civilian world.
Oh and a lifetime pension after only 20 years.
Freedom isn’t free. The American revolution, civil war, both world wars, and Cold War should’ve taught you that. I’m glad you think they all died in vain.
Hell I don’t know why anyone would sign up to be a policeman, since a simple domestic dispute call could turn deadly, but I respect the hell out of them because you sure aren’t going to keep any of us safe.
But of course police and fire fighters also have the First Responder pedestal and tend to have those life pensions kicking in after 20 years of service, but without move up in rank or get kicked out of the service before qualifying for pension policies that military service members in the post draft era do.. The First Responder pedestal has probably been higher than the military pedestal since 9/11. But then as a community we curse those First Responders as cowards who found themselves alone facing some danger and waited for help rather than rush in alone.
But then if that first reponder was military and not police we do worse than publicly call him a coward. We use the legal system to prosecute with bad paper discharges making harder to find further employment and jail sentences as his possible penalties.
By public service I assume you mean working for the government (Federal, state, county, city, etc). Let's just look at the public sector equivalent of the jobs I mentioned.
Corrections officer: I don't think this really needs a lot of explaining. Having the constant threat of bodily fluids thrown at you, being physically attacked, verbal insults, and being around prisoners all day certainly qualifies as a great sacrifice to me. Not to mention their combination of pay and benefits with equivalent years of experience is probably way less than someone in the military.
Janitor: At least in my area, the state and county janitors get paid peanuts, certainly no housing allowance provided. Cleaning toilets and other dirty work all day every day is certainly a sacrifice. Not to mention they're generally looked down upon.
Teacher: I know some have said in their areas teachers are paid well. Here it's just the opposite. Low pay forces many teachers here to take second jobs or move to lower cost of living areas. Until recently, teachers here often had to teach in classrooms with no AC with a heat index in the 90s. Buying supplies with their own money. There are local news stories about what teachers have to face here.
Lawyer: Here, lawyers who work for the state and county start off as low as $50K. They still have to pass the bar exam after the academic rigors of law school, along with the likely associated student debt. Law work is tedious and mentally stressful. Your average person cannot graduate from law school and pass the bar.
Sewer work: Don't know how much they make but I'm sure state and county workers here don't make nearly enough for me to even consider a career in this field. You may not face death, but you may wish you were dead sometimes.
Some of this is local and may not apply everywhere. IIRC you also live/lived in Honolulu, like myself so you may be familiar with these issues. A lot of "sacrifices" are subjective too. Ex. for some being relocated to a new base every 3 years is a welcome adventure rather than a hardship. Most military personnel aren't in any real danger physically. And that housing allowance is a huge part of their total compensation. What I'm saying is that when you weight the benefits against what you have to put into a job, often times military service will win out for a certain segment of the population.
(last paragraph) yet only 17% of those entering the military stay in the military for 20 years.
Vietnam ended my families tradition of military service. Not right away, but since then it's greatly lessened.
When Bush lied and sent our men and women to die in Iraq based on those lies, both my parents said they didn't want any of their kids involved. I could tell that came from Vietnam. One of the three times I've seen my dad cry was at the Vietnam memorial as he ran a crayon over a piece of paper on a name there.
Gee, you(falsely) accuse Bush for Vietnam, yet fail to mention Kennedy and Johnson being responsible for a meaningless war that led to 60,000 dead soldiers. I’m sure it was just an oversight.
Tell me why ordinary citizens treated the military badly during the Vietnam era if it wasn't that protesters and the media had swayed them into doing so.
29yr vet here. Why would I belittle the people I'm willing to die to protect?
Humility in the great makes them greater.
The military guy in the op was rude and out of line HOWEVER there's a reason bullet stoppers are trained to believe they're the best. Whether it's true or not, they need to believe it for survival. However (again) the military has so many blurred lines, the mission has lost focus.
I don't think any one person is better than another. Except Marines. They're better.
All those who serve and protect us are paid to do so. But as the mother of soldiers, I can tell you that I’d sleep a lot more soundly if my sons had been policemen or firefighters.
I honor members of the military above all others, because I know that my sons could easily have lost their lives-still could, had to leave their families for months at a time, missed their children’s important milestones, and have suffered physical consequences as a result of their service. They are Rangers and Green Berets, and they are brave. They never talk about their job....only wannabes do that..
Sure, that old fart on a bar stool who can’t stop talking about ‘Nam, might have never seen combat, but I still would give him the benefit of the doubt. The soldiers in Vietnam Nam didn’t even have the satisfaction of believing in a cause. That must have been awful.
I'm curious to know what public service jobs you'd consider as requiring greater sacrifice than military service. I'm having a hard time thinking of any
dude. Cooks, desk jobs etc, 8-5. Cake as hell. They have rent paid, they have medical, half of them dont do any PT anyway. Half of the regular job personnel I would see extremely overweight and just walking to chow hall during PT hours. Extremely low stress.
Civilian counterpart, multiple jobs, not making rent, cant afford healthcare. Oh, they deploy? >they sit inside a base and do their regular job that they would overseas getting paid bank tax free. The military is kush for a lot of people. I honestly think being a civilian is a lot harder than my military service. Just my opinion, but heck I was infantry and just got paid to workout and do exciting stuff.
A lot of my friends will be lifers and talk how much a cakewalk it is. Some even have 3-4 day shifts and 3-4 days off, and they just sit in a office playing on their phones.
Apple to oranges. Can't be compared. Some jobs are stressful of course, but dont say all jobs in military are sacrificing. Theres a reason why a lot of people go in because cant get a good enough job to live in civilian life.
I support everyone equally, I just dont like reading false statements.
I still stand by my previous post. Just because a job has some unique characteristics such as what you're stating, doesn't mean their sacrifice is any greater, or less, than any other job. Try giving current military personnel the choice of either staying in their current job or taking a civilian job, like corrections officer, janitor, teacher, lawyer, sewer worker, etc. A lot (most?) wouldn't do it because they know their current job offers them a better lifestyle and better pay and benefits for the work they do compared to certain other jobs. I'd certainly want to join the military rather than do any of those civilian jobs that I mentioned. I'm not putting down anyone in the military, I'm just saying I don't believe they're anything special. For many it's actually a great path to accomplish something in life when they have few other options.
No you wouldn't. You would not put up with someone having absolute control over your life, and also your death, from the moment you start basic training. You want to be able to to make plans for the weekend, let alone, your next four years. You want to go to work at your office and not have someone rush in, hand you a rifle, and point you to the enemy. You want to get in your car and go to Mickey Ds, not have to eat your "free" MRE with hands covered in dirt and blood. You want to go to sleep and not wake up in the dark hours of the morning freaked out and not know why. You want to be a individual and not have to look out for a stranger you just met. You want be thought of a someone "special" who made it, and not the guy/girl with no options. You would not join the military for all the money in the world.
But of course police and fire fighters also have the First Responder pedestal and tend to have those life pensions kicking in after 20 years of service, but without move up in rank or get kicked out of the service before qualifying for pension policies that military service members in the post draft era do.. The First Responder pedestal has probably been higher than the military pedestal since 9/11. But then as a community we curse those First Responders as cowards who found themselves alone facing some danger and waited for help rather than rush in alone.
But then if that first reponder was military and not police we do worse than publicly call him a coward. We use the legal system to prosecute with bad paper discharges making harder to find further employment and jail sentences as his possible penalties.
Not sure what your point is. The military, police, first responders/firemen all deserve the high pedestal they get.
Theses are necessary services required to have a functioning country. We would be speaking German, Chinese, or Russian right now without a powerful military.
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