It's probably for the best. It wasn't exactly the optimal point in history to have enlisted.

Was there ever an optimal moment for that?

 

Of course, maybe the word "engineer" didn't exist at the time... I haven't really taken the time to look into that. What I do know, is that the word itself is derived from "ingenuity"
.

In the British dictionary Engineer used to be some one who tended to or maintained an 'Engine' as in ships engineer.
It is only just recently that the term has been dropped as a description of someone who operates a railway locomotive.
Max.

 

Was there ever an optimal moment for that?

Sure. The optimal time could be argued as one these two:
1. You join when your mother country is under attack from a vicious "other," you defend your country, your country drives off the enemy, and you celebrate triumphant victory and are welcomed home as a hero.
2. You join when there is no war and no real global conflict to become entangled in, you reap the benefits of all your training and military experience without ever having to put yourself in harm's way and without ever having to take on the psychological burden of taking another person's life.

I fall almost squarely into category 2.

The least optimal would be joining at a time like in Vietnam where you were forced against your will into a conflict you didn't agree with, forced to kill people you had no interest in killing, just to preserve your own life, had to see atrocities involving women and children that would haunt your dreams for eternity, and then when it's all over you're coldly greeted as a baby killer.

I count myself among the fortunate.

 

I enlisted within six months of graduation, and received my "lottery" number just before boot camp graduation in Dec 72. My number was 363 which they never would have gotten to in 1973. So off I went to ET "A" school, then Loran School then my first tour of duty at a transmitting station on the last Island in the Aleutian Chain. When I got off Reeves Aleutian Airways I was saw the sign I had just joked about "Welcome to Attu International Airport. Home to 36 Men, 0 Women, and 3 dogs."

I retired 22 years later in 1994 ... spending the majority of the time in the same program.

 

I was so lucky to miss going to Vietnam!
Every Veteran's day, I thank my brother-in-law for taking the hit instead of me.

 

Strantor said,
"I think drive and motivation are equally, and in many cases MORE important and applaud able than intelligence. But I still believe in intelligence. I see a trend, embodied by statements like the one you quoted, that seems to seek to water down the word until it means nothing any more. In my book, intelligence IS a score on an IQ test. But just getting a high score does not entitle you to any fanfare. You must DO something with that gift in order for it to mean anything."


I agree with that, wholeheartedly.

After training Machinists and Musicians, it all comes down to "Drive and Desire".