Aspies in the military

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I wouldn't recommend it - depending on "where in the spectrum" you are. If you posses most of the ASD diagnosis criteria and those symptoms challenge you in everyday life, they will challenge you in the military too I believe. I speak from experience as an almost-normal, severely socially disabled guy, who conscripted in the infantry. It wasn't all bad - I found myself among peers and put my behind me the social disaster of highschool. Finally an environment in which my surroundings actually respond according to my behaviour, reeping what you sow, judged on your actions and merits - something that's a lie anywhere else.

I had no problem learning the physical and technical skills, but the rutines in soldier's life weren't the kind of rutines that I value. Lot's of being busy waiting and tedious tasks, no funny intellectual challenges to make any use of my Aspie brain. I can follow orders but i can't suppress my negativity if I don't see any fairness or reason in those orders, or if I feel my rights are being violated. I don't respect authority if authority doesn't respect me! Clearly, my platoon leader dispised me for attitude, though I never failed or acted out and was well regarded amongst fellow privates.

You will need big shoulders to shrug off the s**t they dish out in any military organisation. I don't have that and I can easily see myself in war becoming a ticking bomb, falling out of line, break down and really creating a mess. Besides, in current state of affairs, society doesn't deserve my loyalty. There is no willingness to defend anything, and why should I. Soldiers are tools, sometimes placed in harms way, expected to kill and get killed, and who actually appreciates such sacrifice? I mean, seriously.

Watch 'Born on the Fourth of July' if you need a reminder about the ugliness of war

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Just throwing this out there but I think it would be better if no countries had men and women ready and willing to throw grenades at and shoot people. But this isn't a perfect world also I am not sure that I agree that joining the military is the only way to 'serve' ones country. What about people who have pushed for positive changes in society via petitioning, protesting or people who provide charity to those struggling. Just saying the whole idea that the military is the most honorable thing to do is not something I really agree with.

well great glad I knew that after I typed out all that......oh well maybe the discussion will continue.

Wow. Lots of negativity towards the Armed Services in here. Though I suppose I shouldn't be surprised.

I'm a United States Marine. Served six years, from '01 to '07. I was on active duty for four years.

My job was as an avionics technician. I worked on F/A-18 and C-130J aircraft. I also worked in the logistics chain for parts and supply (AMSU and AIMD)

Now, Marines are some of the most highly-trained members of the Armed Forces, not counting special-operations outfits. In fact, our basic training, or Boot Camp, is equivalent to the Spec-Ops training of many foreign militaries. We are trained in marksmanship, hand-to-hand combat, and many, many types of weapons. But we're also trained in non-lethal techniques. We're trained to communicate, and to de-escalate a situation if at all possible. In fact, shooting is a last resort 99 percent of the time. That's why we have Rules Of Engagement.

As far as people thinking that "violence never solves anything". That's a great idea, in theory. But if you took the whole world down to two people and put them on an island, eventually, one of them will want to kill the other. The use of naked force has solved more problems in history than any other factor. Period. End of story.

Yes, I am trained to kill people. Yes, I am prepared to do just that, if there are no other options. But I will make damn sure that I've exhausted all those options before taking a life.