Here are more readers explanations of why they joined the military and other stories. I’d like to keep this going as long as I can, so, if you’d like to give your own explanation of why you joined the military or have a military story, please e-mail me with the subject “Military”. Thanks.

Al from New Cumberland PA writes:

Two things:
1. I joined the military at age 18 because I was a little wild–in a blond, middle-class white guy sort of way–after high school. I didn’t want to go to college, my car broke down, I broke up with my girlfriend, my parents had just had a bad divorce that had followed a really bad marriage, and my Mom and I weren’t getting along. So I had her drop me off at a local mall, joined the USAF, and two weeks later I was in basic at Lackland AFB. Best thing I ever did–taught me self-respect, honor and dedication to something other than my own selfish needs.
2. We all loved Reagan, especially those of us overseas in the early 1980s (I was in West Germany). We sensed that he understood us and the seriousness of the threat posed by the Warsaw Pact. Also, he gave all of us a badly-needed raise in pay.

Here’s a Ranger story from jg:

Saw that Shazam! Story about the guy on guard duty.
Here’s one that I heard many years ago, from a couple guys that had been to Ranger School (can’t vouch for the veracity of it, since I wasn’t there).
Ranger School is pretty intense, lots of patrolling in God awful weather with insanely heavy rucksacks, not very much food and very little sleep — any time of the day or night.
Anyway, they’ve got a group of Ranger students doing a patrol in the middle of the night and they’re all exhausted, tromping around a thickly forested area — the footing sucks, can’t see holes or ditches – basically sneaking up on an objective. There’s always a Cadre member tailing the groups for grading purposes, making sure nobody gets hurt, lost or whatever.
So, one guy takes a tumble, there’s some clatter, and curses loudly. The cadre member is somewhere off in the dark and starts yelling, “who is that, who’s making all that goddam noise?!!” The guy that fell says, loud enough to be heard, “fuck you!” The cadre guy goes insane, yelling “who is that? Come over here right now!” The guy that fell says “you don’t know who this is?” The cadre guy says, “no, who is it?”
Then you here a chorus of “fuck you” and snickers from all over the dark.
I’m sure all those guys got smoked-till-their-elbows-broke afterwords, but it was pretty funny.

Here’s a warning from Malcolm about aviators:

Did you know that June is National NAS Awareness Month? NAS, or Naval Aviator Syndrome is a tragic disease afflicting many former Navy Airmen, and not a few civilians who have watched “Top Gun” a few too many time.
Please post these danger signs on your influential and respected website.
We’re NASSTY (Naval Aviator Syndrome SocieTY), and we can help.
Top Ten Signs your loved one is afflicted by Naval Aviator Syndrome
1. Always rides with one passenger. Passenger must sit in back seat behind driver and navigate. Passenger must answer to name “Goose”.
2. To depart house, parks car at end of driveway, applies brakes, revs engine to redline rpm, salutes smartly and pops clutch.
3. Welds pipe to front fender and connects it to gas tank. When the low fuel light comes on, announces “bingo fuel” and attempts to dock with a gasoline tanker on the freeway for “in-flight refueling”.
4. Paints crosshairs on windshield. Whenever a Yugo is aligned in the crosshairs, will depress 4-way flasher button and yell “Fox one”.
5. Feels uncomfortable unless accompanied on freeway by “wingman” who must drive one lane to the right, three cars back.
6. In case of engine trouble, will shout “Eject! Eject! Eject!”, pull the hood release handle and depart the vehicle through the sunroof.
7. Equips car with radar detector. When it goes off, throws tinfoil out the window and conducts “evasive maneuvers”.
8. When gassing up, requests attendant supply “0.12 thousand pounds of fuel”.
9. Purchases house with circular driveway. Enters driveway at 40mph. In the event the car is not perfectly aligned, shouts “Bolter! Bolter!” and accelerates out of the driveway at full speed.
10. Spends one day a week on the garage roof grading other drivers on their “landings” in the driveway.

For those wanting information on donations and how to help (it may surprise you who are the biggest donators to Iraq):

Hello! I am Specialist David McCorkle – 308th Tactical Psychological Company, back in the USA after serving in Iraq starting in March 2003 before the war began. I started an organization called American Aid for Children of Nineveh Iraq (AA-CNI), www.iraqkids.org last year while I was serving in Iraq with the 101st Airborne Division. AA-CNI’s purpose is to help the orphans and street children in the Nineveh area of Iraq as well as helping schools. Our focus is education, getting sponsored children back into the classroom and off the streets, helping schools with needed supplies, equipment, workbooks desks etc, and launching a safe house for homeless street children working with a partner organization called Concern4Kids.
This isn’t the story I am writing you about!!
The story I am writing about is our sponsors and donors! A majority of our donors are US Army Soldiers and US Marines as well as their Dependants and families. I received a letter about 10 days ago from the student council at the Rainbow Elementary School in Ansbach Germany. The students there raised over $100 dollars for us to send to Iraq to help a school there. Most of these kid’s dads are deployed in Iraq and in incredible danger. Still these children want to reach out and help the Iraqi children. We have sponsors taking on the responsibility of supporting an orphan or fatherless street child paying $60.00 a month from their military pay. Some of our sponsors themselves are deployed in both Afghanistan and Iraq. A lot of our sponsors are reservists and at least one is an MP. In light of the prison scandal isn’t this a story that needs to be told to the American people? I am so proud of these people I am writing to you about! I think if someone told the story America would be so proud too. For people interested in sponsoring a child, donating toward our other projects or getting involved please e-mail AA-CNI at info@iraqkids.org or visit our website www.iraqkids.org .