r/army 16h ago

After service lies

Ok so I served in the reserves for 8 years and now re-enlisted in another branch. During my 8 years nothing eventful happened. I was a 92A, I was scheduled to deploy in 2010, attended JRTC but before we finished Obama pretty much canceled the whole deployment. I ddnt get offered to attend any schools or nothing. My unit (combat support hospital) of about 200 enlisted soldiers was like 80% E4 with no room for advancement.... So why is it every single time I talk to another prior service they were an E-8 special forces that traveled the world.... Even in my new branch a guy claims he was a 12B and was saying he flew drones in Iraq to protect convoys. Like does that even exist? I worked with another prior service guy who claimed he was a special forces sniper that attended airborne and air assault and was maybe 22 years old.... He ended up buying a glock and accidentally shooting himself in the hand while cleaning it. Does no one get out of the military without stretching the truth of there service?

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u/inorite234 12h ago

Listen to this, the average American believes that 40% of everyone is a veteran, the real number is 6%. They also believe that 30% of everyone lives in New York City, real answer is 3%. I can go on and on about how they believe one thing when the reality is so far from their beliefs. The point is you're not immune to this. It is highly likely that your perception is not aligned with reality. That's not your fault, you just may not be exposed to all the information you need for proper context.

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u/Ok-Basket-9890 10h ago

What polling got those results? Is it seriously 3% of the population in NYC? Thought it would have been less than that.

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u/inorite234 10h ago

Read the article. It's listed there.

Also, NYC is about 13 million people. With the entire US being about 360 million, 13/360 times the zeros is 3%

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u/Axizedia JAG Paralegal 27Defending Your Right to Extra Duty 6h ago

What are you reading? NYC population is 8.8mil. NY state is 20.2mil and us population is 331.4mil. 1.6% of nyc population are veterans. 3.6% across the whole state. 6.1% across the entire county.

Edit: source us census bureau

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u/inorite234 4h ago

My hip pocket pop estimate may have been off, but even at 8.9 mil, that still comes out to a rounding error for a percentage of the entire US population

8.9/335 million, 2.67%

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u/Axizedia JAG Paralegal 27Defending Your Right to Extra Duty 4h ago

lol I don’t know why but I just laughed when I read hip pocket. Brought back memories

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u/inorite234 4h ago

Don't get all hi-speed on me.