Not just US Military -- would be interesting to see other nationals' answers.

Any specific reasons to why you first decided to enlist, and why you chose the branch you chose?

Glad you asked the question the way you did.

Why I joined the military.
When I was younger I was in love. I knew that I really didn't see myself in college and I knew that I needed to provide for my new wife. The military had great pay and benefits for a young, smart individual with little skills or experience willing to take on hardships, and especially for a young family. Not to mention that someday I might just like to go to college and coming from a poor family... well, the military financially filled a great deal of holes.

I come from a family where most of the men had served, not to retirement, but had done their time and military was highly respected to us. Grandpa was in Europe for WWII, Dad was a Green Beret, uncle was in Vietnam, so there was a great deal of support when I started thinking about joining. It wasn't pressure, but it was support.

I also thought this would make for a great opportunity to get out there and see the world. Growing up the only nerd in a tiny Oklahoma farm town where there were more livestock than people was agonizing, well boring at the least. There was almost nothing new to do and virtually no cultural diversity. Joining the military gave me the experience of living in a beautiful city, and many experiences with people from other parts of the country, different socio-economic backgrounds, and I even had the opportunity to learn Arabic and have conversations with numerous people from all over the world. I kind of expected that something like that would happen.

Put this together and you see me talking to recruiters.

Why I joined the Marines.
I appreciate honesty. The army recruiter (whom all the other members of my family had been) seemed like he was trying to sell something he didn't have. The air force was trying to convince me that I could have my own jet and that I would retire as the owner of Lockheed Martin. The Marines recruiter told me that boot camp for the Marines was twice as long and twice as hard as any of the others, the jobs are tougher, the people are meaner and the suit is friggin' awesome. He also showed that all benefits are from the the same Department of Defense, so I wouldn't be getting my own jet. I liked that I felt I was getting the truth. I also always had a thing for doing things in the hardest way possible for no real reason. Perhaps it was just that doing something that was harder made me feel more pride in what I was doing. In any case, I am pretty sure that now I would have always felt, had I joined the other services, "Could I have succeeded in the Marines?" After being a part of them for four years, I am now sure that I could have succeeded in the others.

NB: In my country, many people join the military for economic reasons. They know they would collect salaries. If they’ve other options, they wouldn’t join the military.


Source: https://www.quora.com/What-made-you-join-the-military

Neteller here: www..com.ng

I wanted to be in the military since I was a kid probably because of all the gun movies I had watched. I just knew I'd be good with a gun. The dream did not materialise though. I would have made a good soldier.

i can never join the nigeria military not to talk of dying or fighting for nigeria