Join The Navy, See New Places, Meet New People, And Return To Broken Dreams And Limited Health Insurance
Join the armed forces you guys! We cannot stop counting the perks! You'll maybe get to travel to foreign and exotic places, shoot Bin Laden in the face and kill him, and then come home a hero! Movies will be made about you, people will sing your praises, the world will be your oyster! Until you decide you want to retire, and then things may not go so great! This is how things have turned out for the guy who shot Osama bin Laden in the face -- literally, the exact guy on SEAL Team 6 who shot Bin Laden in the face. He has decided to retire and can't find a job and thought he didn't have access to health care ( only to find out later that he has health care for five years and his family isn't covered ). According to a profile on Esquire that is so amazing you should have read it yesterday:
But the Shooter will discover soon enough that when he leaves after sixteen years in the Navy, his body filled with scar tissue, arthritis, tendonitis, eye damage, and blown disks, here is what he gets from his employer and a grateful nation:
Nothing. No pension, no health care, and no protection for himself or his family.
Ha ha what a Commie, expecting health care and pensions and benefits when he isn't even working anymore, GET A JOB HIPPIE. This is America, OK? Also, you are a trained Navy SEAL, do you really need protection for yourself or your family?
Since Abbottabad, he has trained his children to hide in their bathtub at the first sign of a problem as the safest, most fortified place in their house. His wife is familiar enough with the shotgun on their armoire to use it. She knows to sit on the bed, the weapon's butt braced against the wall, and precisely what angle to shoot out through the bedroom door, if necessary. A knife is also on the dresser should she need a backup.
[...]
When the White House identified SEAL Team 6 as those responsible, camera crews swarmed into their Virginia Beach neighborhood, taking shots of the SEALs' homes.
[...]
When the family asked about any kind of government protection should the Shooter's name come out, they were advised that they could go into a witness-protection-like program.
Just as soon as the Department of Defense creates one.
We are being snarky, because that is our Thing, but this is really nothing to be snarky about. Apparently if an ex SEAL is unwilling to work for a defense contractor (with millions of dollars of training and know-how tucked away in his brain, btw), he is not really worth much to the current labor market. He can maybe consult on video games, but that is kind of it. But this is America, OK, and if the Free Market has no use for you, well, you can't just expect the government to step up and take responsibility, we have a word for people like you, and it is TAKERS .
Here's the standard formula:
1. Dupe foolish young male into signing up for the military to avenge the sympathetic injury to his ego inflicted by foreigners when they resist encroachment by US Corporatocracy.
2. Use until damaged/destroyed.
3. Discard.
4. Repeat as necessary.
Phil Bronstein responded to the "Stars & Stripes" bit. Unfortunately (for them) S&S took issue with things that were not in the Esquire article...