Immigrant parents! Would you be ok if your US born/raised son wants to be a US Navy SEAL out of genuine passion instead of pursuing a career in big tech, finance, consulting, medicine, law or the likes? Except for the Hispanics, I’ve hardly seen other US born immigrant kids pursue this route If no, why?
To serve and protect the country you've immigrated to? It certainly should appeal to them - it is high rank in prestige, tier, etc in the military. Because thats all they care about right is the perceived prestige and rank of someone/thing
Many parents say they’re ok with it but if such a situation actually comes up, particularly high income families - they’d end up opposing
The high income families would go into politics. That would just be the paper pusher side of the argument, still part of the same "machine" overall
I don’t have kids but I don’t want him or her to be in the political drama
Military roles are heavily targeted towards high school students in more rural / suburban areas. It’s attractive if you have family issues, financial issues, etc. it’s also not a “job” where you can sign up and decide overnight you want to quit, there’s a process and time duration for you to exit as you sign a contract. Compensation isn’t particularly high. Veteran affairs is nothing to be praised for, in the event you’re actually injured permanently. Doesn’t help that you have no political or military connections going in.
No. I don’t want my kids to join the military. I maybe open to them joining one of the military academies but even then it’s not ideal because they’ll then need to serve. The only upside is it can open up doors for them to become astronauts but otherwise don’t see the point. Btw ex. wife was a senior Navy officer (O-4). I’ve seen first hand how crappy the US military is and how it treats its soldiers. She went to Annapolis and was really successful and still it was so shitty. I’d much rather they either get into academia, finance, medicine, law, business, or tech.
Only citizens or GC holders can join Where was that post last week talking about how Indian and Asian immigrants don’t really assimilate to American culture… proximity/exposure to veterans and the military is a big part of American culture. It’s subtle, but it’s there. But for people/cultures who don’t assimilate to American culture, the military isn’t even a career option for them I don’t think Indians/asians don’t join the military because their parents don’t let them, I think they don’t join the military because they never even considered it and don’t care about the military at all
Lots of Koreans in the armed forces
True. Koreans tend to assimilate well to American culture and be typically right leaning
My family are all immigrants and I was told from a young age that military people are dumb and poor. Which for the majority of recruited high school graduates is true. But officer rank and West Point weren’t even in my knowledge base until I went to college
This is what I find interesting. Military are for dumb and poor people (per your post)? Politics is the "management and executive leadership" of the greater "machine" or "system" which needs the military (trigger pullers) to operate as a whole. Why is being a coder pusher (trigger puller) at a company (machine/system) widely accepted in immigrant culture (99.99% will never be executives in tech), but being a trigger puller in the military not accepted? Both are trigger pullers/the "do the thing" people in their respective industries, are they not? Is it simply because tech gets paid high salary? Is that really the culture? Pay = self worth?
Dumb and poor is a huge oversimplification The military is a genuine career aspiration for lots of kids, you can make a really good and fulfilling living in the military after climbing the ranks The military provides opportunities for kids who come out of high school feeling useless, unsure of their future. Funny thing is that American kids aren’t the only ones feeling this way, immigrant kids feeling academic pressure from their parents can get the same feelings, but generally push through and give into that pressure to pursue high income careers they may or may not actually want, vs the American kids who opt to try to carve their own path in the military. Not that one is better than the other, either path can lead to feeling lost and with no purpose, or you can find purpose and fulfillment. Different strokes for different folks The poor part isn’t always true, but what is true is that the military can provide economic and educational opportunities (via the GI bill) for lots of kids who’s parents can’t afford to give them the same opportunities. I think that’s an overwhelming good. I went to a state school in TX and I had lots of classmates going to school for free after spending some time in the military. They were going for a degree just as I was, but without the debt and just a couple years older
No. (1) high mortality risk— don’t want my kids dead (2) very tough working conditions for family life (1) >>>> (2)
Do you realize how hard it is to become a SEAL? Just a reality check. If your kid wants to join the Navy, there's lots of opportunities for him/her. Including cool tech jobs, cool blue collar jobs, and cool combat roles. And who knows, maybe they'll actually make the cut! You can't just go straight to SEAL school either. You have to qualify to qualify to qualify. You have to submit proof of about 12 weeks worth of consistently high PT, diving, marksmanship and nutrition regimen, just to take the initial assessment. Then you take the assessment. If you pass the assessment, you go to BUD/S school. And if you pass BUD/S school, you become a SEAL ... meaning you have to maintain proof of continuing PT, diving, marksmanship and nutrition. Every year, the Navy recruits 40,000 seamen. Every year, about 1200 people qualify for BUD/S. And every year, about 150-200 of them graduate and become actual SEALs. My oldest son is in the Army. He wants to be in Special Forces, one of the Rangers. He's currently made it to the 101st Air Assault, which is pretty damn impressive. He's ranked up to E5, and he has a niche MOS (68W, combat medic) with significant field experience. He's trained with some exceptional warriors and he's won a ton of medals for successfully training younger enlisted to perform the tasks he performs. He even attained the coveted EFMB (expert field medical badge) And yet, in spite of all of this, he probably won't make the cut. He's lost about 1-2 inches of his height performing Air Assault exercises .. his ruck is so heavy that his spine has permanently compressed and he's literally shorter than when he enlisted. He tore his labrum during hand to hand training, and it hasn't been surgically corrected because a surgery would likely result in a discharge .. or migration to a calmer MOS. He's had several TBIs including one that had him in the hospital for about 3 weeks. And he has PTSD from various field exercises gone wrong, as well as overdoses and suicides he's had to help deal with. Plus, he's really old. He didn't accomplish these qualifying skill sets until 27 and I believe 28 is the cutoff age for Ranger school. I know it's the cutoff age for BUD/S school. Saying he wants to be a SEAL is like saying he wants to be a rock star. Now, there's plenty of good paying jobs in the music industry. Teaching. Sound engineer. Marketing. Production. Guest/studio performer. And so on. But very few professional musicians become rock stars. And very few Navy recruits become SEALs. Just wanted to give you a quick reality check. On the plus side, the Navy will give zero fucks if a BUD/S applicant is an immigrant. Zero fucks.
I think OP was just kind of passive aggressive or coy about the intent of the post. if you read between the lines, I think what he was getting at is immigrant parents just care about the prestigious, rank or tier of someone/something right? Being a SEAL would most certainly be very high achievement of rank, prestige and tier but would still be frowned upon because the industry as a whole (military) is not acceptable. Which absolutely baffles me.
tbh, I kind of recommend against enlisting right now. Not because of anything political. It's just an absolute shit show. Like, the military has never been "okay" but the level of bullshit recruits deal with now is unprecedented. I'll give you an example. So my oldest, he was stationed in Tacoma WA battling covid shit. He was dating this girl for a while and they were becoming very close. He was thinking about maybe possibly marrying her "when the time is right" but didn't want to rush into it. But then he got his dream gig and qualified for the 101st Airborne. So he thinks "if I don't propose I'll lose her" because training is in Kentucky. So. They get married. He finishes his assignment at Tacoma. They drive to Kentucky. He checks in with Housing and they're like "oh. Yeah. Sorry. The admin people at Tacoma forgot to send your marriage certificate. So we don't have on base housing. So you'll have to stay in the barracks. Ooh, but no pets or women allowed so your wife and dogs will have to figure their own shit out" So instead he gets a cheap motel. Lives there for 2 weeks comped by the Army while he waits for them to sort this out. 2 weeks comes and goes. Army still can't find his marriage certificate. He gets a new one, the guy who fills that out is on leave. He gets back, they lost his marriage certificate again. And on. And on. 9 weeks, he's taking out payday loans to live in a motel. He's ... TECHNICALLY SPEAKING ... homeless at this point. He finally overcomes this problem BY TAKING OUT A VA LOAN AND JUST BUYING A GOD DAMN HOUSE He finished paying off payday loan debt last year. That's just one example of the US Army absolutely shitting the bed. And it's so widespread. Widespread sexual assaults on aircraft carriers. Widespread murder at Ft Hood. Suicides increasing year over year. Not to mention, the VA aggressively denying claims, refusing student loans, making home loans less attractive. This is why recruitment levels are down. Its got nothing to do with who's in the White House, or how mean their tweets are, its got nothing to do with the "woke agenda" allowing trans or Islamic people to serve. It's blatant mistreatment of active duty service members, and refusal to honor commitments to veterans. So if I'm being completely honest, I'd recommend against enlisting at this time. Unless you come from a wealthy family. I mean, fuckin hell, I've had to buy his combat boots 3 different times now, because they got shredded or blood soaked on some training exercise and command wouldn't buy him new ones. I'm talking my younger boys out of enlisting.
you never heard of Johnny Kim?
I would love to have my son in military but in officer ranks.
Pathetic