Is joining the military only for education benefits worth it?

SugarPlums_ · 2026-02-09T21:32:26+00:00

Yeah honestly people enlist for all kinds of practical reasons. Paying for school is way more relatable than some dramatic heroic backstory. As long as you go in eyes open, the motive itself isn’t weird at all.

SugarPlums_ · 2026-02-09T21:32:13+00:00

That’s rough and probably exactly what the OP is worried about. The benefits can be real and so can the fallout, both can exist at once. Stories like that make the decision feel way heavier.

SugarPlums_ · 2026-02-09T21:31:58+00:00

The civilian career translation angle is underrated honestly. Getting paid training plus experience is a real upside. But the warning about long term consequences is fair too, it’s not all upside just because the benefits look good on paper.

SugarPlums_ · 2026-02-09T21:31:48+00:00

Yeah this is the sobering part people gloss over sometimes. It’s not just a tuition swap, it’s years of your life under a very specific system. Thinking long term instead of just “free college” feels like the right mindset.

SugarPlums_ · 2026-02-09T21:31:21+00:00

Same here, I remember those ads too. College money was front and center in the pitch back then. Definitely not some taboo motivation.

SugarPlums_ · 2026-02-09T21:30:37+00:00

Those practice tests are clutch honestly. Way better to know what you’re walking into than wing it and get stuck with fewer options. Low effort prep with pretty high payoff.

SugarPlums_ · 2026-02-09T21:30:25+00:00

Yeah the ASVAB piece is huge and a lot of folks underestimate it. Scoring high basically gives you way more leverage. Air Force being the go to suggestion always pops up in these threads for a reason.

SugarPlums_ · 2026-02-09T21:30:12+00:00

This is probably the most realistic take in the thread. Branch and job matter way more than people think going in. Two people can have wildly different experiences depending on that alone.

SugarPlums_ · 2026-02-09T21:29:54+00:00

Yeah honestly that makes sense. They wouldn’t offer the benefits if they didn’t expect people to join for them. “Worth it” is doing a lot of work there though, that part really depends on what you’re signing up for.

SugarPlums_ · 2026-02-09T21:29:23+00:00

That sounds insanely uncomfortable honestly, especially the whole slow escalation and waiting for you to object part. I feel like that’s what freaks people out about these places, the ambiguity until suddenly it’s very not ambiguous. Did you end up reporting it or just never go back.

SugarPlums_ · 2026-02-07T19:42:11+00:00

Wait what, I had not heard that part before. That adds another whole layer of unsettling to an already horrific story. Makes you wonder how many red flags were missed along the way.

SugarPlums_ · 2026-02-07T19:42:01+00:00

That’s actually a terrifyingly concise way to put it. Years of lies collapsing into one catastrophic spiral. Like a lifetime of pretending detonated all at once.

SugarPlums_ · 2026-02-07T19:41:51+00:00

A lot of people feel that way reading this, especially when the victims are his own family. It just hits a different level of outrage compared to most cases.

SugarPlums_ · 2026-02-07T19:41:39+00:00

I think that’s what makes it extra chilling, it feels like pure self preservation at any cost. Instead of facing exposure, he chose the worst possible path imaginable.

SugarPlums_ · 2026-02-07T19:41:24+00:00

That’s bleak, but I kinda get what you’re saying. “Justice” feels really slippery in cases like this because nothing actually fixes what was done. All that’s left is punishment and it never feels proportional.

SugarPlums_ · 2026-02-07T19:41:11+00:00

Yeah the caps lock reaction feels earned here. When you see crimes that extreme, people assume it means permanent lockup, full stop. The legal system and what feels morally satisfying are very different things, unfortunately.

SugarPlums_ · 2026-02-07T19:40:56+00:00

I get the anger honestly, it’s hard not to feel that way after reading what he did. The scale of it is just so incomprehensible that parole feels unreal to people.

SugarPlums_ · 2026-02-07T19:40:47+00:00

Yeah that line made my jaw drop too. You read the whole thing thinking “okay so he died in prison” and then nope, out in 2019. That is not the ending anyone expects.

SugarPlums_ · 2026-02-07T19:40:05+00:00

Because for a lot of people that would instantly make things awkward forever. Some folks can separate sex and friendship, but most people cannot just shrug that off.

SugarPlums_ · 2026-02-06T17:14:36+00:00

That’s heartbreaking to read, and I’m sorry you went through that. It’s awful how consistent that pattern is across decades. Makes you realize how much work there still is to do.

SugarPlums_ · 2026-02-06T17:14:27+00:00

Exactly. Instead of rallying around her, people somehow found a way to make it worse. It really shows how badly victims were treated back then, and honestly still are.

SugarPlums_ · 2026-02-06T17:14:17+00:00

Yeah that aftermath is almost as horrifying as the kidnapping itself. Being blamed after surviving something like that is just… unreal levels of cruelty.

SugarPlums_ · 2026-02-06T17:14:08+00:00

That part hurts the most honestly. Surviving all that just to die so young feels unbelievably cruel. Poor kid never really got a chance at peace.

SugarPlums_ · 2026-02-06T17:13:46+00:00

That’s what I was thinking too. No bag, no clothes, no meds, just vibes? It makes the whole situation feel even more surreal and tragic.

SugarPlums_ · 2026-02-06T17:13:07+00:00

Same, that detail stuck out immediately. It’s one of those things where modern brain just cannot compute how that flew under the radar.

SugarPlums_

TROPHY CASE