Joining the military comes with all kinds of perks — you get to shoot guns, wear sexy uniforms, and take out car loans with ridiculous interest. But the best perk is the deployments.
It comes with its own set of bullsh*t, like your command putting on dog and pony shows everywhere you go to make you look good, but it also sends you to new, interesting places, even if your goal there is to forcibly remove select people from the population.
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1. You get to visit their country
Joining the military gives you the opportunity to boldly go where most of your high school friends won’t. You get to go on trips to countries all around the globe and you get to work with their military. In your off time, your command affords you the opportunity to go and see the sights.
2. You learn their culture
Going on vacation to another country is one thing — you mostly choose where you want to go and who you want to interact with — but when you take a trip with Uncle Sam, you’re essentially forced into interactions with whoever is required.
Even if your command had someone give you a two-hour lecture on customs and courtesies, there’s no better teacher than experience.
3. You learn their language
In culture briefings, someone will usually give a basic rundown of the language. Typically, these cover the phrases for ‘hello,’ “thank you,” and “where the hell is the bathroom because your food is ripping apart my insides?”
Okay, maybe not that last one, but when you start to actually work with a foreign military, you’ll get the opportunity to expand your vocabulary to include insults and curse words.
4. You learn about their tactics
This is, by far, one of the coolest aspects of working with another country’s military. You get to see how they respond to certain threats and how they approach different situations, giving you the chance to understand their strengths and weaknesses.
This comes in handy in the event that you have to work with that country in a real war. You’ll know how they can help or hurt you.
5. You get to learn about their weapons
If you work with Southeast Asian countries, this point won’t always stand since the United States usually sells their old military weaponry to these countries. However, many countries use weapons that are foreign to Americans and it’s a cool opportunity to expand your knowledge, making you a more versatile warfighter.
6. You get to flex American tactics
Every country has a different approach (as mentioned above), but everyone knows Americans are the best at fighting wars. So, it’s always fun to learn about another country’s tactics and then immediately sh*t all over them. This gives you the opportunity to reinforce the idea that America is the best and you shouldn’t ever mess with us.
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*Bonus* You get paid to do it
When you go home and tell your friends about your experience overseas, this is the last thing you should mention. Your stories should always end with, “and, I got paid to do it!”
At the end of the day, this is the best part of the whole deal. No matter how much bullsh*t your command put you through on deployment, you got paid to go to another country and experience everything mentioned above.
