Why I Joined The Military For The Incredible Discount

My family are addicted to deals. Momma McCall taught me the importance of garage sale hunting and how even a good deal can be haggled down to be a little better. My 22-year old sister taught me how to run a business and side hustle from her online clothing resell shop. And my dad, an Army Chaplin of 15 years, introduced us to the Holy Grail of savings: The Military Discount.

Thriftiness isn’t a quality in the McCall family, it’s a gene. And nothing is more precious than our military discount.

Having a dad in the military meant we all received an ID that granted us access to over 800 bases and opened up an entirely new world of savings.

That military discount has taken us everywhere from Busch Gardens — which gives each military family one free day a year — to New York City via NJ Transit, which allows you to pay senior citizen prices with a valid military ID. My military ID rarely let me down, but on one occasion I got caught in hot water.

When visiting the Freedom Tower in downtown NYC, I was told, “Sorry, the military discount here only applies to the actual service members, not the family.”

“What gives,” I thought. “I can’t believe they wouldn’t actually accept my military discount — I thought this was America?”

A kind woman standing next to me overheard my ramblings and interjected, “They wouldn’t give you a military discount?” she questioned. “That’s just wrong — I thought this was America!”

In a slightly embarrassed, bashful tone of voice, I alerted her to the fact that I actually wasn’t in the military, just the child of someone who was.

Her response was “Oh.”

The End of an Era: Losing My Military Discount

This cycle of utilizing my military ID to its fullest went on until May 17, 2019, the day of my college graduation. While my contemporaries sat faces glowing, eager to start their next phase in life, I treated graduation like a funeral service. I was no longer a dependent, thus my military ID was no longer valid. No ID, no discount.

I threw up my graduation cap with a feeling of somberness in my heart. “What other deals had I missed out on,” I thought to myself. “What will I do in a post-military discount life?”

The next week I started my job as a reporter in North Jersey, but I knew something was off. The work paid the bills but I still felt unfulfilled.

Thankfully I had picked up meditation, so I began to search the deepest caverns of my mind. The only thing that kept coming back was “deals… discounts… military… military discount!”

I could no longer deny who I was — so I quit. One sunny Thursday morning I marched into my boss’s office, politely closed the door, and said “I’m joining the military!” He asked why — and it was at that moment I figured it was best not to tell him the whole truth — so I said: “to search my soul!”

“Hey, it’s no problem, you have a good head on you, you’ll be alright no matter what direction you decide to go in,” my boss said, reassuring me that I hadn’t broken things off on bad terms. “Good luck, and thanks for choosing to serve our country.”

Military Discount is Love, Military Discount is Life

Amateur hour was over, it was time for 10% off at Chick-fil-A; 20% off at Nike; 40% off at Adidas and Under Armour; 50% off at Dairy Queen and Reebok; and the big daddy deal, “the alpha package” at Chuck E. Cheese, which includes 45 tokens, one large pizza and four drinks for $26.99 (a $40 value).

It doesn’t just stop there: the military pays for college via the G.I. bill, and during training, you receive free work out programs and motivational coaches, or “drill sergeants,” as their more commonly known.

I was locked in, ready to ship out for Army Officer Candidate School at Fort Benning, Georgia on April 14, 2020. Then, Covid-19 happened, pushing my leave date back five more months.

No pay, but more importantly, no discount. Not even an apology coupon to make up for my hurt feelings; so I quit — again.

I learned an important lesson after quitting my second major job in one year: Discounts aren’t everything, and my college ID has no expiration date…