True Stories of Life in Japan, pt 10: All Good Things

[coriolinus]

My contract in Japan specified that I would stay one year at that company, and that nine months into the process both the head office and I would determine whether the contract was worth renewal. If we both decided that I should stay, I would get a raise of about $1000 annually and an automatic visa renewal. Otherwise, I was free to do whatever I

Comments

Re: Army for You?

[coriolinus]

What it comes down to is that for me, flight has been a dream since I was tiny. The Army was offering a path through which they would pay me a decent salary, while learning to fly, and then guaranteeing a few years of experience at it. It was pretty much an unbeatable deal. Consider any childhood dream: maybe you wanted to be an astronaut, or maybe a combined stuntcar driver/fireman/baseball player. Now, imagine discovering that the Army will pay you to do exactly that job, with their only requirement being that you do it for them for six years. Could you honestly say you'd turn it down?

I'm not exactly looking forward to actually going to war. On the other hand, flight training lasts a very long time. There is a very real chance that by the time they've got me trained to their satisfaction, the new administration will have set in place troop reductions sufficient that I might not actually have to go. Given that, the risk of going to war is sufficiently low that I'm not terribly bothered by it.

Am I throwing my life away? There are times when I bitterly resent the fact that I've committed years of my life to a particular objective; there are so many other opportunities and possibilities I could be following. On the other hand, I had echoes of that same sentiment when I was just starting college. In retrospect, college took almost no time at all. I'm thinking that military service might end up being the same way.

Re: Army for You?

[pnolan]

Hey, coriolinus! I hope you weren't offended by my comment, but I wanted to get a reaction. Sounds like you have very rational reasons for joining up and learning to fly. If you don't get killed, you could have a great career afterwards!

Seriously, I don't trust the military one bit and after hearing about all the methods they are using to recruit and (illegally?) keep people in Iraq, and the care the GIs are NOT receiving when they return with their legs, arms and minds gone, I just worry about you. Are you SURE they won't send you to fight? And if they do, do you have any WRITTEN contract to protect you legally?

I know I am from a different generation and we learned during the Vietnam era to question authority!! But that attitude comes from experience, not just paranoia. So beware!!!!

And please write some more about your adventures in Japan. The little details are what I love to read about.

By the way, on my journal page I have an essay I wrote about my experience teaching there-mostly about educational ideas. See what you think.

Best,

Patrick

Re: Army for You?

[coriolinus]

Heh. Yes, the whole risk-benefit analysis which makes it worthwhile to have joined the Army is predicated on the assumption that this job doesn't actually kill me.

I am not sure that they aren't sending me to fight; all I have is the hope that our foreign policy will be significantly changed before I'm through with training. I'm not particularly worried about my chances even if I do get sent to combat, though; helicopter pilot is one of the safer career fields the Army has to offer.

I'm not sure when I'll write again about Japan; one of the side-goals that I managed to accomplish in the writing of this series was to express the majority of my thoughts on the experience of living there. When I go back, I'll be sure to write more, but until that time, I'm a lot more likely to be writing about current events.

Re: Army for You?

[pnolan]

Hey, coriolinus! Thanks for the considered response, although it did little to allay my doubts. I remember helicopter pilots as being especially at risk in Vietnam and that's before they had such sophisticated hand-held rockets!

I thought you said you were GUARANTEED a flight training position if you became a Warrant Officer? Please tell me what a Warrant Officer does?

By the way, when do you have to start your training?

I understand your desire to become a helicopter pilot, but regret that you have to do it this way. Oh well, none of my business. Just take care of yourself!

P

Re: Army for You?

[coriolinus]

Part of my enlistment contract stated that, unless I failed out of prerequisite training for some reason, I was guaranteed flight training. All my prerequisite training has been completed without incident; I've been waiting for flight training to start for a few months now. In theory, it'll start Real Soon Now.

The Army definition of a Warrant Officer is about three paragraphs long. The short answer is that traditionally, regular officers are supposed to be generalists whose only focus is leadership and management, and enlisted people are supposed to actually do what work needs doing. Warrant Officers were invented to fill the gap and do jobs which require more responsibility than you'd want to give an enlisted person and more focus than you'd want to give a regular officer. We're helicopter pilots, we're boat captains, we're air traffic controllers; that sort of thing.