Autistic Teen Released From Military Contract
A couple of days ago I could not believe it when I read that a recruiter knowingly signed this young man up. I’m glad this has been righted. This would have likely been a disaster.
During one of my bouts of depression (I think I was 19) I decided to drop out of college and enlist in the military. It seemed like a good idea to me. Vietnam was over. There were no troops ‘in harms way.’ Sounded good to me. I would pick up some much needed structure and end up with the G.I. Bill for college after several years.
My father was much wiser. He was a couple of states away — they had moved the summer I graduated from High School. He got in the car after we had hung up (I had called to tell them of my intentions one night) and drove overnight to be there to knock on my door at 8am the next day.
See, I had thought this was a step towards taking responsibility for my self and ‘being a man.’ (Note: my Dad never used that term on me. That was coming from elsewhere.) He had a differing opinion and came up to prevent me from enlisting.
I couldn’t see it at the time, but he knew that I wouldn’t be able to keep my mouth shut during basic training and would end up in the brig, probably getting an ‘unsuitable’ discharge. I’m pretty sure my Dad knew what he was talking about, he was a member of the local American Legion and Veterans of Foreign Wars posts.
[Sorry, the only link I saw was a javascript video link off of CNN which won't work here]
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May 13th, 2006 at 6:12 am
Some autistics thrive on the structure and routine of military service. It depends very much on the individual. I once knew an autistic guy who had left the service after several years, after doing quite well there, and he was having a tough time getting used to the lack of structure in civilian life.
May 13th, 2006 at 1:50 pm
I could certainly see that, Bonnie. I only know that in my situtation, the arbitrary, confrontational ‘in your face’ style of discipline would have spelled my demise. I strongly suspect [eg., know ] I would have been overwhelmed and acted out in some way.
I do think that once you made it through basic training the structure would be great. You don’t even have to wonder about what to wear… But the transition? Ugh… I would still have to have been told to keep my head down. “But I want to see what they’re doing…”
May 13th, 2006 at 8:34 pm
A close friend of mine went through Marine boot camp (didn’t quite make it all the way through, suffered a career-ending injury in boot camp), and from the sound of it, boot camp would have been a very, very bad place for me.
If I could have made it through, I could have been an asset, I’m sure, but boot camp would have done me in first.