I wasn't doing anything with my life,
Figured it would be a decent source of money and GI Bill college as an option.
Figured if I wasn't self motivated, I would use the military 'to motivate me. Bit difficult to back 'out of the military once you're in.
I suppose I might have had other options, that could force me into movement, I though about trying to find employment on some merchant or cruise ship for example.
But figured military would be easy entry.
I was also kind of depressed around that time in my life.
People sometimes die in the military,
If I 'did happen to die, my parents would be my beneficiaries, thus gratitude could be fulfilled to a degree.
My father's father was an officer in the Air Force, flew a bomber, eventually retired.
My mother's father was in the Infantry, drafted into the Korean War , she said he never talked about his time in the military.
My eldest brother joined the Air Force (Repairing and checking planes) some years before I joined the navy, I considered joining the air force, but I didn't want to feel as though I was just 'following whatever my eldest brother did. So I joined the Navy.
Joined as Hospital Corpsman because it sounded a job for smart people. Medicine, doctors and all that.