Military Service: To Join Or Not To Join
Sophomore Harry Hyun Woo Jo has some unconventional plans for his junior year. While his classmates envision their semesters cushioned in Saadiyat ...
Oct 19, 2013
Sophomore Harry Hyun Woo Jo has some unconventional plans for his junior year. While his classmates envision their semesters cushioned in Saadiyat luxury or dazzled by exotic study away plans, Jo looks towards the coming year knowing he may have to join the military.
Jo is Korean, male and over the age of 19 — three simple qualities that, in his home country, equate to mandatory military service of almost two years. This duty, said Jo, involves arduous training, strict discipline and isolation from the outside world for a full 21 months.
However, Jo plans to deviate from the traditional path that most Koreans choose when fulfilling this requirement — he has recently applied to join the United States Forces Korea, a division of the U.S. army that is stationed in South Korea in order to assist the country in its ongoing conflict with North Korea.
"There's the American military in [South] Korea and you can apply for that as long as you have [the necessary] TOEFL score," said Jo. "It's much better than the South Korean army [in that] you can use your phone there, you can actually come out during the weekend and the living conditions are better ... I would give up anything [to join]."
Applicants are chosen through a raffle, which Jo says he has 1:6 chance of winning. If accepted, Jo said he would not have to participate in wartime combat and would instead spend most of his time in training, so long as fighting does not erupt between North and South Korea.
The U.S. military presence has been viewed with increasing mistrust by North Korea, which has recently accused both U.S. and South Korean forces of preparing for nuclear war in its drills and naval exercises. North Korea has threatened retaliation in turn.
"[The service] seems necessary because technically South and North Korea are still at war," said Jo. "Although I don't like it, it makes sense that Korea does have mandatory military service."
While joining the USFK means more benefits, Jo also mentioned the downsides of deferring his schooling to return home.
"All men have to go, so I'm not complaining," said Jo. "But you guys are going to be graduating when I come back, so I'll be two years late in my social life."
However, in the grander scheme of graduation, job applications and career paths, Jo believes it makes more sense to serve sooner than later.
"People prefer going after their first or second year of college because [if] you go right after graduation, the whole graduate school or getting a job thing is going to get all messed up," said Jo.
Sophomore Aytunc Ronnie Guler faces a similar dilemma. In his home country of Turkey, the government requires 15 months of military service for males ages 18 and up. Those who are old or injured are exempt, as well as gay men who wish to go to court and prove their sexuality.
Another option is to live outside of Turkey for three years, pay a fine of 6,000 euros and then return to serve for an arbitrary 20 days.
"That 20 day's thing is literally nothing," said Guler. "Some basic, basic, very basic training ... All the people who do service for 20 days, they're all in one base because there's so few of them. They're not even spread across the country. They're in a safe base in the middle [of Turkey]."
According to Guler, the Turkish Armed Forces has a unique system of placement under which men born in the East are sent to perform their military duties in the West and vice versa. The same applies for those born in the North and the South.
This switch, however, creates a strange imbalance.
"Because [soldiers in the East] grow up in very harsh conditions, it's like a gift to them," said Guler. "There's [no violence] going on in the West."
Conversely, and perhaps counter-intuitively, men who were born in the West, like Guler, are sent to the more dangerous regions of the country.
"You're talking about city people," said Guler. "I was born and grew up in a big city, never really got into big conflicts my whole life — and then you're just sent to the mountains to fight."
There are other aspects of joining the military that give Guler pause.
"I see [joining] as service to the country. I want to do it for 15 months, but when I think about it ... it's not a logical thing to do," said Guler. "Because I love my country but I hate my government. If I die in war I'd be dying for my government. I think [service is] an honorable thing to do, but I don't think I'd do it."
While the Gezi Park protests negatively affected the government’s reputation, this change is only a fraction of a much bigger upheaval that has been shifting the country for the past decade.
"In Turkey, we're switching from compulsory service to professional army," said Guler. "Just like how they do in the [United States]. Like you get paid, your job is being a soldier, but you don't have to do it. That's what's going to happen in Turkey in about 5 to 10 years."
While this means that future male citizens will not be forced to join, Guler said there are conflicting views on the change, especially seeing as few people complain about the mandatory service in the first place.
"When you switch to professional army, that just becomes a job. It's kind of eroding that nationalistic side of being in the military," said Guler. "I've lived there for 20 years and I've never seen any protests about, oh, the military service is too long or why is there a military service. Everyone does it willingly."
"But I guess it's also a good thing that we're switching to a more liberal way," he added. "You can't force people to go to [the] military, at the end of the day."
Academic conflicts
As young men and women around the world look towards university and the future, they may find their academic plans colliding with their national duties at an uncomfortable intersection.
David Bassini, a senior from Mexico, had not factored the military into his future plans, despite knowing that he would eventually have to enter himself in a mandatory nationwide lottery. This lottery can yield either time in the army, time in the navy or no time at all. Upon submitting his name, every male citizen receives a document to certify that they have entered. Many opt not to participate, however, seeing the possibility of joining as either inconvenient or pointless.
"You can get away with so many things in Mexico," said Bassini. "I wouldn't have done it, personally, but in order to get my contract [for a summer job], I had to present this document ... I didn't know I would need it. I didn't have it in mind—I didn't even consider getting it until last summer."
Now, Bassini must see the process through while at school in Abu Dhabi.
"Someone has to do the lottery [for me]," he said. "So I'm sending a friend or my mom, even, to see if I have to [enlist]."
Being abroad also presents a problem. Senior Alf Lim, a citizen of Norway, has debated joining the army ever since it was proposed to him in a school-wide survey in the 11th grade. At the time, he had been playing in one of Norway's most prestigious marching bands and was interested in enlisting to join the King's music troop, His Royal Highness Guard.
"Based on the survey, they would call people into an interview where one undergoes reasoning tests and physical tests, both stamina and strength," said Lim. "This is normally done during grade 12 of high school. However, for grade 12, I left Norway to study in Singapore. They basically just deferred my interview for four years because every time I was called in I was abroad."
Lim finally completed the interview last summer, just before he left for his semester abroad.
"I am seriously considering to take a leadership degree with the Navy," said Lim. " That means I would be able to do my service while adding something to my career. I do not look at the army as a negative thing, but rather as an opportunity to truly go out and push my own limits."
Although the army's timing is at odds with his academic ambitions, Lim believes that joining can in fact further his career.
"Leadership experience from the army will give me valuable experiences that I am sure are transferable into business," he said. "I left the interview with an official draft, I am entering the army in fall 2015."
That said, the army may have to wait once more if Lim decides to defer for graduate school.
Evading duty
Ukrainian sophomore Andriy Naavhust deferred his country's mandatory service when he was accepted into NYUAD. Those who cannot leave the country and still do not wish to serve, however, may evade duty by bribing a doctor to declare them unfit for service.
"The bribe is up to 10,000 [USD]. [But the bribe] depends on the region; it depends on your city," he said. "Sometimes people get into the military because they don't know who to pay."
In addition to presenting a conflict with any future career plans, the Armed Forces of Ukraine is also notorious for its poor conditions and reports of misconduct.
"There's no point in joining the military because if you join the military that means you lose connections with all the world. It's very isolated, plus it's very hard," said Naavhust. "If you've already served for three months [in the Ukrainian army], that means you have priority over people who just joined, so you can kind of make fun of [and haze] them. So that's a very big problem because a lot of people end up committing suicide. At least 200 incidents per year. That's what happens."
Ilya Bozhenkov, a junior from Russia, expressed a similar sentiment.
"I have always seen the military as one of the best opportunities for growth and learning," said Bozhenkov. "Unfortunately, the reputation of the Russian army is very poor. Rapes, theft and general harassment seem to be everyday occurrences."
In Russia, Bozhenkov said, one is also able to evade duty by bribing the administrator of a medical test, which can cost up to 5,000 USD.
While some are looking to defer military duties, other students at NYUAD see the army as a viable career choice.
The benefits of joining
Freshmen Joseph Chu has considered taking on a noncombat role in the Royal Australian Air Force because of both his interest in aviation and alignment with the Force’s ideals.
"For Australia, being one of the most developed countries in the Asia Pacific region, we've got quite a big opportunity and, in my perspective responsibility as well, to help development," said Chu.
The Australian Army has been involved in peacekeeping opportunities in East Timor, Papua New Guinea and Afghanistan, though the latter has sparked controversy and protest back home.
"For me personally, if I were sent on an operation which I really didn't feel that Australia should be participating in, I feel like there would be a big tension within myself," said Chu.
For Junior Lan Duong, the U.S. Army is a prospect that has been deeply intertwined into her home community.
"I’ve always grown up around girls who serve in the military," said Duong, in online correspondence. "Many of my childhood friends are enlisted — most of them are the U.S.-born children of Vietnamese war refugees, and roughly half of them are girls under age 25."
Duong said that some choose to enlist because of a family tradition, while others see joining as an escape from poverty or broken homes.
"Military training is bone-breaking but in return they receive basic necessities free of charge [and] emancipation from their former lives," said Duong. "As a result, military enlistment is usually met with positive reactions in my community of teenagers and young adults, because at the very least, I know my friends won’t be hustling the streets illegally out of their financial need to pay for a typical U.S. college education."
Duong began to consider joining after the past summer, which she spent as an intern at the Department of Defense.
"There, I discovered that my current area of study, civil engineering, developed from the ancient discipline of military engineering (so ancient, in fact, that it predates all other types of engineering)," said Duong. "I already knew my passion [lay] in engineering the human system to be as safe and efficient as possible, and it was simply of matter of choosing whether I would serve the general urban populace of civilian families including my own, or serve the fighting force of my home country which includes my own friends."
"I know for a fact that the U.S. military needs more professional engineers, and it needs more female enlistment," said Duong.
Zoe Hu is features editor. Email her at editorial@thegazelle.org.
related
trending