Almost Canadian

Are officers so indoctrinated too? In 1994, 25% my squad were graduates. All had enlisted as privates.

caretaker

Well, points for saying sir. My reply was to Davelovesdee's post. I took most of the essay from Principles and Methods of Instruction (it's probably the same book in UK NCO training so you've seen it), and a handfull of other texts. Without indoctrination you have no esprit, and without that, well, it's no fun. Yours isn't the only success story and I wasn't saying the military was no good.
The longer you've been out of school, the harder it may be to take to the classroom, so that can be a factor.

bats

Why would you enlist as a private if you had a degree?

caretaker

The military paid for their education and they worked their way up, probably, it's a good deal if you qualify.
Edit: I have no way of knowing how they got their degrees, and Officer Candidate Training Program or equivalent may not have been a factor.

dave_j

The military have a great deal to answer for in many countries.
We list the beneficial aspects of military life and conveniently forget to mention that a major part of their education is one of learning how to kill efficiently and most worryingly without question when ordered to do so by lunatic politicians...

DaveLovesDee

If only as much training was invested in deprogramming.....

caretaker

The armed forces act in aid to the civil power all the time, in the case of natural disasters at home and abroad, provides vital search and rescue services in addition to the defence of the country's borders, honouring our obligation to participation in NATO and peacekeeping roles undertaken as part of a U.N. force. Of course there is a huge pyramid of support and infrastructure personnel and materiel behind all that. When things go wrong and the armed forces gets bad press is almost always when someone doesn't think, so they don't want to create any killer zombies, and weed out any with zombie aspirations when they find them. I worked for a man who was refused a transfer from an infantry regiment to Canadian Airborne because his psych profile showed he wasn't stable enough. I think he was either mustered out or given admin duties until his enlistment was over. I thought he was crazy as hell and he did get in trouble, but luckily didn't shoot anyone.

Almost Canadian

You would have to ask them, I didn't have one at the time.

I could have enlisted as an officer, but chose not to do so. I can only assume they did too.

Almost Canadian

From my experience, if the military paid for their degree they would enlist as officers and would have to spend a minimum period in the military or else face repaying a portion of their education. I have never heard of anyone that had the military pay for their education enlist as a private.

Almost Canadian

While I accept that all military personnel undergo basic training for most, once they have finished that part of their training, they rarely practice "killing" ever again and almost certainly would be most unlikely to ever have to fire upon another during their military service.

When I was in the British Army, it was possible for members of the RAF to enlist as conscientious objectors and so be able to avoid any form of training that dealt with firing their weapons.