Originally posted by Squirt
In reference to the quote above... how did you join? Were you recruited?
Out of high school I applied to several of the service academies. Military Academy (West Point), Naval Academy (Annapolis), Air Force Academy (Colorado Springs) and Coast Guard Academy (New London). Got an appointment/acceptance to each.

I didn't join out of some higher sense of service. I applied because 1) they're all esteemed institutions of higher learning 2) you're guaranteed a job upon graduation (as a commissioned officer in the academy's respective service) and 3) because they're free. I didn't want to burden my family with the costs of a college education, nor did I want to assume untold thousands of dollars in educational loan debts. Further, I wasn't a resident of any state and was denied resident tuition status to all the public universities I applied to (I grew up overseas, though am an American citizen). So I chose the USCG Academy in the beliefs I'd be practically and actively engaged in doing good things - saving lives, keeping drugs from entering the country, protecting the environment - as opposed to conditioned for the purpose of taking lives and aggressively asserting the influence of one state upon another.

Once there, I did indeed eagerly embrace the sense of duty and patriotism that they work hard to instill in you right from the get go and was very proud to be doing what I was doing. But it was definitely a financial decision from the start. It all became pointless in the end anyways, however, when ... "No one asked, but I told the wrong person", as I refer to it these days. hehe.