Quote:
Originally posted by Nathans_Dad
Moses is dead on about the 8 year total service committment. I am waiting to see if I will owe any inactive reserve time right now.
Again though, that is clearly stated in the contract that you sign with Uncle Sam. I just don't get how people think that someone holding you to a legal document that YOU SIGNED is unfair in some way.
Would any of us feel sorry for a 20 year old kid who signed a lease on a car and then is complaining because there is a balloon payment at the end? He THOUGHT he was buying the car for cheap and didn't read the whole contract. Poor kid, we should just give him the car, right?
|
No.
Leaving military service if you decide, based on experience with it, that it's not for you (for any reason) lands you in jail if caught. Abandoning a lease leaves you on foot, or at the worst on foot and owing money. Hardly in the same category.
And yes, as I stated initially, it is an 8 year hidden obligation. If you serve three years on active duty, you're strongly encouraged to participate in active reserve status with the Army Reserve or Army National Guard and after that adds up to six years you may be placed into the individual ready reserve (IRR). That means that the vaunted "all volunteer force" is in actualy fact a non-volunteer force by contract. It is in fact prohibited by the 13th Amendment to the Constitution, but the courts won't enforce that Amendment.