This is a question that has never been asked that I am aware of and I am prepared to form a hypothesis that is almost certainly incorrect. I did notice that a lot of our returnees here in Thailand tend to be from the armed forces and not just of the USA variety. There seems to be a very real connection between military life and the propensity to join a Hash.
This Venn Diagram sums it up perfectly. If you are an adult and your a hasher, you are drawn to beer. This get's magnified if you are Ex USMC (Marine Corps) because of what is in the center of this diagram: People in the military (of which I am one of) are drawn to booze whenever they are not in service: Why? Because when we are on active duty we are very frequently not allowed to have any sort of beer (or alcohol in general) for long periods of time. We are also not strangers to exercise.
I'm gonna go out on a limb here and also mention that because of our very high-calorie diet that we are exposed to when we are in the military we tend to deteriorate far more rapidly than the average person once we are no longer in active duty. Therefore, the desire for booze is still there, the high calorie diet is still there, but the exercise is not necessarily there. Therefore, we actually need the Hash far more than civilians do.
Plus if we were one of the fortunate ones who managed to survive active duty for the length of our contracts, we are entitled to a bunch of free money for the rest of our lives! This money is a pittance in our home countries (for me the USA) but in places like Thailand it is more than enough to live very well. It i just a bit unfortunate that the booze also happens to be very cheap there as well - well actually it might be a blessing.
The camaraderie is a big plus as well so that we don't get all PTSD on someone and since we can hang in an environment that allows us to socialize, exercise, AND drink - makes for a wonderful combination that we may actually need more than you think!
Believe it or not the ex military members of our kennel are NOT the fast ones in the group. Most of us have been through a lot more than just active duty and this slows us down for sure. I think I speak for almost all the ex-military (and you don't count A.B. (inside joke)) when I say that we actually tend to be the slower and fatter members of the group - in Chiang Mai this is immediately identifiable.
No matter what the reason is, we are happy to have the ex-military or ex-7-11-employee or ex-bargirl / ladyboy in our hashes at any time. Just bring the right attitude. I'm just making an observation here.
