Asshole Army Recruiters

This kind of randomly popped into my head today while I was looking around my house noticing all the American flags and army memorabilia. Why you ask? Because my dad is an army vet so there's tons of flags, hats, stuff from the VA and other armed services related things floating around my house. Looking around at this stuff made me flashback to a phone call I got in high school from an army recruiter who was a total ass.

So we all know that once you reach your junior or senior year in high school you start getting letters, phone calls, etc from recruiters asking you to join the armed forces in exchange for tuition. I was no exception to this solicitation during my last days in high school. For the most part they were okay and generally nice about me turning them down. I actually went so far as to have a meeting with one of them at their office and he was really cool but eventually I turned that down too, even after I took some kind of reading test or whatever it was on the computer. It was a while ago so I don't remember exactly.

Unfortunately not everyone was so nice about my decision not to enlist in the army. One guy called and gave me his little speech about why I should join and I said "no thanks, I'm not interested" to which he replied "so you're gonna leave our nation's freedom up to other people?" To that I replied "I guess so" to which he replied "well, freedom isn't free" and hung up the phone. Really sir? Who the hell does that?! JERK! Everything isn't for everyone. Not everyone and their mother was meant to join the army! And I think it was a very asshole move for him to try to make me feel bad that I turned him down. Believe me when I tell you, I was NOT meant to be anybody's soldier. Though I did consider working as a nurse for/in the army for a short time.

Anyway, after that little exchange I really had a bad taste in my mouth about any and all army personnel. Actually I have a problem with most men in uniform (i.e. cops, army guys, marines, etc), I don't think I could ever date one which is odd because my dad was in the army and he's great (and I'm not just saying that because he's my dad). Weird how that works out. Maybe I've seen too many Law & Order episodes about guys coming back from overseas with PTSD or police officers who abuse their wives and get away with it just because they're cops.Who knows?

Now of course I appreciate everything that people in the armed forces do for our country, however I do NOT appreciate being made to feel uncaring or un-American just because the army wasn't MY calling in life. So asshole army recruiter if you're out there, kick rocks and fuck off. Please and thank you.


ps: Where were all those "Proud to be an American" bumper stickers BEFORE 9/11? Yeah, exactly.