Apsies in the military

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A friend of mine in the military recently heard while talking to his superiors that the military loves people with AS because they make great leaders in combat since (aside from sensory issues) they dont freak out and are able to calmly make life or death decisions logically rather than emotionally.

He also says that unfortunately they are also the most commonly overlooked for promotion due to lack of "social connections".

What do yall think?

I'd be awful in the military. I'm physically pathetic and always have been, and I'm almost incapable of taking orders if I don't think they're worth following.

Some people think Hitler had Asperger's. He was promoted with the Iron cross in WWI but, as you know, never got higher than corporal before he turned to politics. Wittgenstein probably had Asperger's and he was an excellent soldier in WWI (not to mention what great philosopher he was) who reportedly run among the shell crevades to observe the enemie's cannons...

The military was extremely depressing for me. It seemed like they were abusive just for the sake of being abusive.

I would be an excellent soldier but I am not interested.

One of my interest is samurais , I'm interested in all things about samurais, and if had the oportunity of being another person for a short time (instead of me), I would chose being a samurai

The samurais are in past, so military life is the closest thing to samurais. Being a military sounds great!

Intersting what you say about keeping calm.... I remember lots of times when people arround me were panicing, for example the time a toaster was on fire in the staff canteen once. I calmly sauntered over, unplugged it, chucked a wet towel over the thing and went back to my lunch. I am also a 1st aider, and have helped out a few times when needed and everyone else was making a fuss. I never thought I was doing anything other than prooving what a bunch of air heads they were!

Old vaudeville joke:

Q: Can you play the violin?

A: I don't know, I never tried.


Interesting that the military is aware enough of asperger's to have an opinion on it. I was in right after vietnam, so I never saw combat, but the military did have a few upsides for me as an aspie.

They usually made it clear what you were supposed to do, and as long as you did it, there weren't too many problems. It helped some if higher ranking people liked you, but it made much less difference than it did in most civilian jobs I've had. If they were going to put you on the s--t list, they were generally expected to have some kind of reason based on what you'd done, or failed to do, not like one zoo director I worked for who told me, "It's a whole lot of little things." Nobody would have the authority to burn you in the army with such a vauge justification. If your platoon sergent said that, he would have to explain it to the first sergent who would have to explain it to the commanding officer, and a lot of those people didn't like each other that much.

I was in trouble a lot, but it wasn't just because somebody didn't like me.

The social heirarchy is straight out of the middle ages with officers and enlisteds and everybody has a rank. This actually eliminates a lot of the nitpicky squabbling because rank is assigned. You don't have to worry about body language and all that nonverbal stuff when talking to someone superior in status because everybody has to do it the same way, so you're actually approximately equal to all those normal folks. There's pretty strict rules about not fraternizing between ranks, so if one of your peers doesn't like you, it's unlikely that he's good friends with the boss.

The boredom drove me crazy, but it was useful. People who were eccentric tended to be valued because they could talk about something different or act different so they offered some variety.
You were judged by how you looked, but if you cared enough to want to make a good impression, it was totally clear what you needed to do - iron your uniform, get a regulation haircut, shine your boots. Nothing like trying to be well dressed in a civilian job.

I never advanced far beyond the bottom of the pile. I'm sure it gets much more political at the higher ranks, but I have no experience with that.

Aside from that, I'm much more comfortable with physical danger or deciding what to do out in the bush than I am trying to talk to people.

Hehe sounds like me.. growing up Id spend most of my time out in the forest from sun up to sun down.. if I stumbled across a rattler or ticked off bear I knew exactly what to do.. but if I ran across a group of campers or a hunter I didnt have a clue (they sound like a pack of elephants crashing through the forest so not hard to avoid or stalk them though).

id like to join the military

We had a saying ... "hurry up and wait" - lol

I was in the Army Reserve (Infantry) in the mid 70's - mid 80's. While we were a bit more relaxed that the regulars (and I think Aussies have less respect for rank than most other people), I liked it a lot. IMO the focus of our training was 2 main areas:
1. Teamwork - team bonding (Our RSM continually reinforced on us that you life depends on someone else and they depend on you).
2. Team performance (see how much harship and discomfort you can take and still function as a team).

I have sometimes wondered whether aspies would suffer post traumatic stress the the same (or any?) degree as NT's.

I just finished reading a book "The men who stare at goats" about psych warefare. It said that only about 15% of soldiers would actually shoot to kill (the thought of killing someone was too abhorent to the other 85%) and of those 15%, 90% suffered nightmares or had mental problems, the other 10% had mental problems to start with.

I would be surprised if that statistic held true in the Australian Army. I never thought I would ever have any problem shooting to kill someone who was shooting at me, but never had to find out. Don't know what that makes me.

PS - re-read your post CanyonWind - you Aussie?
You say "in the bush". "West of the Great Divide" - Dubbo? Bathurst?

You would have called me a "choco" - Chocholate soldier - said to melt if we got too close to the heat

I am strongly considering joining the Navy as an officer. Ships have always had a certain appeal to me, and I think I would do fairly well.
My family has a pretty long standing military tradition, my great-to-the-somethingth grandfather won the CMoH in the Civil War, apparently he charged a Confederate cannon battery with nothing but knives and bayonettes.

Naw Bazza, I'm a Yank, even though I grew up in the American south, where "yankee" is an insult referring to people from the north, and a "rebel" is someone who conforms to the local conservative stereotype. Actually it was south florida, which used to be southern, but then became part of the north... It must get pretty confusing to people from other places.

Over here, the Great Divide is an obsolete word for what's now called the Continental Divide. East of the divide, water drains into the atlantic; west of the divide, it drains into the pacific. I like the old word better, it conjures up images of mountain men instead of cartographers, like the corny old song, " 'Cross the Great Divide, side by side we'll ride."

Where I am, the divide runs along the ridgeline of the Bitterroot Mountains - I love that name - just east of here. I can see it out my kitchen window.

Americans use the term "in the bush" all the time. It's universally understood here, but I suspect we originally stole it from you. I've heard the term used by people from Africa, too, so it may be a worldwide theft. You people gotta stop being so colorful.

Where's your Great Divide anyway?

The Great Dividing Range is a "mountain" range running down practically the whole length of the east coast. I say "mountains" because our highest is Mt Kosioisko at less than 7000 ft above sea level. While not very high, it was a real barrier to early pioneers trying to get from the coast to inland areas with wagons. Inland (west) are plains in a rain shadow. From central Queensland to Victoria (3000 miles) the scenery changes very little.

Nice to meet you.

DGNT

I think it was Camus, maybe Sarte, who said: "If I see a man armed only with a sword attack a position of machine guns, I call this act absurd."

Maybe he heard about your great great granddad. Maybe your family started existentialism.

Its a fine line between heroism and stupidity.. the difference usually being whether or not the person was successful and/or lived.