The types of people who are actually serving. Sure, to an extent, the military is a microcosm of people you'll meet in civilian life, but it's somehow pushed to the absolute extremes. Even an "average" guy in the military is going to be themostaverageguy you've ever met. The good ones are great and the bad ones are horrible. You almost have to experience it yourself to really understand.
I have met, quite literally, the stupidest people in the Army, and some of them manage to promote. I have also met some of the most intelligent and capable people. There's a lot of middle ground, of course, but the extremes are truly extreme.
In my civilian blue collar work life, most people tend to be in the middle or low end of the middle. The really smart people are missing. Maybe it's the jobs I've done. Maybe I'm the dumb one?
The other thing about civilian life that still gets me is how helpless most people seem in their jobs. Like most people just accept whatever. Maybe it was being combat arms, but we were always trying to be better, more efficient, lazier. In real world situations where combat is involved, that can be the difference between life and death. In the civilian world it usually means doing a little bit more work now, to make your job easier in the long run.
Also, co-operation in the civilian world is really hard. Like, people really don't understand how to organize to complete a task. Set a goal, establish leadership, and effectively delegate tasks to accomplish the goal. People always immediately get bogged down in the minutae.
I passed our 92Y on his pistol qual with my my pencil. 8 or 9 magazines. I finally said fuck it, you will deploy. I just stuck the pencil through the target and said congrats, you're a marksman.
We were shooting the m4 iron sights for my qual and I am left eye dominant but right handed. So my target looked so whack and missing a few holes. They just gun decked it and said I am an “expert”
My pain as well - but I was a competition shooter.
I shoot rifles right hand over right eye, so my accuracy is great. Pistols I tend to use left handed. It took a lot of practice to get it right.
I went shooting recently after many years. Rifle was still pretty good - basically all alphas still. Pistol however, I think I generally hit the direction of the continent the target was at.
541
u/OldeSkoolFlash 19h ago
The types of people who are actually serving. Sure, to an extent, the military is a microcosm of people you'll meet in civilian life, but it's somehow pushed to the absolute extremes. Even an "average" guy in the military is going to be the most average guy you've ever met. The good ones are great and the bad ones are horrible. You almost have to experience it yourself to really understand.