What was the biggest misconception you heard on Y!A about the military?

Way to many to list.

Some of my favorites are how people assume a "deployment" means you are off to the middle east.

Or how deploying to the middle east means your life is in so much great danger and your living conditions are just miserable.

Or how deploying to the middle east means that you will see combat.

This is a great question. I'll add a few but with one caveat: I don't think anyone's stupid because they don't know these things. It's often just a matter of not having any military background and learning everything from their "great uncle, grandfather, etc." or the movies.

1. You're in the AF? What do you fly?

2. Oh...you're ENLISTED. Do you have a HS diploma or just a GED?

3. What time do you have to be "back on base" each night (even though I have 26 years in the AF)?

4. Do you have to wear your uniform all the time?

5. When you do something wrong, do you have to do push-ups?

So many good ones by previous contributors, too. I've heard most of them. I guess we do have kind of a "closed" culture. Those who have never served (or weren't raised in the service) probably have no other point of reference.

Actually number 1 is true, at least at the beginning of a career. Hubby took a huge pay-cut, going from being a shift leader at Burger King to being an E-1 in the AF. True, that was 24 years ago. But, it's still true today, if you don't count the benefits. Our local BK pays almost $10 an hour for starting wages. 40 hours a week, 50 weeks a year... that's $20,000. A brand new E-1 makes $18.000.

But, I have heard other wonderful misconceptions and questions on here, especially with the spouses and girlfriends! Can I go with him to basic? Can I deploy with him? They have to give you housing. Why are they making him work this weekend? He was supposed to be of 4:30, and it's already 5.

The list is endless! And as a key spouse.... I hear even more!

My pet peeves:

1. Enlisting is a death sentence (never mind that you'd have to do 200 year long tours in country to guarantee your death.)

2. All Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans have killed people. Usually defenseless people too.

3. Only people with no high school diploma or criminal records join the military, since it is the option of last resort (ironic since the military won't take you without a H.S. diploma or with a criminal record these days.)

4. You can somehow join the military and just go to college for free for four years right away, with no military training or obligations.

Enlisting is so easy you can do it accidentally, or your parents can do it for you. Or, you can be drafted, and a recruiter calling your house means you have been conscripted.

Close combat is so ubiquitous and fierce that everyone will be involved in it. Not just in a defensive sense, either, combat service support troops will be out there fighting house to house.

We actually care about and will put thought into unrealistic, poorly-defined scenarios like "What would happen if the UK and the Martians fought the US oh and Justin Bieber is a SEAL?"

I like the ones that start like this:

"I just started DEP and nobody believes that I'm a veteran!"

"So I just enlisted. Can I make General before I'm 25?"

"Promotions are guaranteed, right? I can just rank up every couple of months, right?"

"My daughter's baby-daddy is in the military - that means I can move into military housing, right?"

"More people die in Iraq/Afghanistan than die in the entire world - EVERY DAY!!!!!1!!eleventy-one!!"

And the ones that make my head explode are like these:

"I've been in for eleven years and want to know how to read my LES."

"I'm a new E-6 in the (insert service here) and get no respect. How can I make my crew respect me?"

That basic training/boot are hard and they will fail.

That they will be deployed right after basic

That support mos will be going on patrols

Thats they are gonna be a delta ranger recon sniper pararescue specialist

That most people in the Air Force sit behind a desk

the many, many statements about how they're going to be a navy seal or an army ranger, but have a question about it as if they'll make it and are just only curious about some side details. those are annoying and get old quick.

I see lots of them, Too many to list, in addition to all those listed above some of my favorites are:

People that think Dishonorable Discharges are handed out everyday like water!

Anybody that mentions a Medical Discharge, there is no such thing!

Etc, etc. etc.

That Marines are the first in and last out.