The US army uses basic socialist policies (we will help you if you're dying from cancer etc) to recruit. It only works because the US state refuses to take care of its subjects. The moment people are no longer desperate, the recruitment numbers will fall.

It's not terrible, but the housing allowance is because they force you to move wherever they want. And that salary is within the normal range:

https://www.salary.com/research/salary/listing/aircraft-mechanic-salary

You are looking at the "pros" without really seeing the "cons".

"... til then I'm good at home." Funny, that's most likely where you'll have to kill some Nazis next.

And the good thing is you'll have plenty of warning because your government is unlikely to join the war against the nazis for a good couple of years into the war against the nazis.

I jest....but kinda not really given current US foreign policy (or that of the past 100yrs tbh)

Because the US government pays a private company to advertise for them

Join Yvan? You mean join Lemmygrad?

I used to work for a company that contracted out programmers to a defense contractor (Northrup Grumman). It honestly never even occurred to me to redact out the stuff I worked on when I put it in my resume. Nobody said anything about that when I left the company, even though I'd gotten a security clearance to work at NG in the first place. I wonder if your "redacted" person just did it themselves to create a sense of mystery.

Kind of yes. Wikipedia says: Basic Combat Training.

I know that when I joined up in 1997 a lot of those bonuses simply disappeared if you didn't keep ahold of your original paperwork. Sometimes they had a lot of hidden clauses, so you could lose the bonus for a minor infraction. Or, the bonus was really part of your pay and the full amount would be paid out after if you actually completed 8 years instead of the 2-4 year commitment you started on.

All I know is I personally ended up permanently disabled at 18 and fought with the VA until 2019 to get my disability compensation. Which they only paid me back pay from 2009 instead of from the date of disability in 1997.

Getting money from the government takes a long time. The people downwind of the Atomic test sites have been fighting 50+ years for the full payments from being irradiated during the 50's.

But hey, joining the military is a good job if you aren't stupid and taking a combat MOS when you could have a steady non-combat job with perks. Right now the Commissary benefits for cheap food is worth it with how food prices have been going.

Half the point of basic training is to break or subvert the part of the brain that questions authority and objects to doing violence. Psychologically, humans are not designed for killing other humans. Taking a life is difficult for a good fucking reason, and bypassing that instinct is dangerous.

Valid point. I do worry, though, without the training you describe - which I went through - is reverting to pre-ww2 training where soldiers would freeze up in combat instead of reverting to their training (hopefully). At the end of the day, soldiers are trained for combat, and I wouldn't want to put people into those situations without as realistic a training regime as we can devise; you train as you fight so you don't have to sacrifice soldiers to gain the proficiency to operate in a combat environment.

Ideally we'd get rid of war.

I think "fed" is typically used to refer to the 3 letter alphabet agencies, but as you are technically correct (the best kind of correct), I'll accept it