joining the military

GIJane said:

I am thinking about joining the military. possibly army or navy reserves, depending on which MOS I can get, and who gives me the best deal. Any advice, suggestions? Anyone on here ever been in the military? What were your experiences?

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No suggestions, just my gratitude for your choice.

Even if it is just motivated by greed, but greed I can respect, greed is stating that you value yourself, and your labor, and will not sell yourself out.

So, thank you for choosing to enlist, may your deity keep you safe.

Actually, I do have a suggestion, get them to pay for your college courses first so you can join as an officer, either that or make sure you get stationed on a carrier (giant floating city) because they have accredited college courses available (at least that's what the Navy Recruite told me. Can any one verify?)

GIJane said:

how long after your service did you go to school? And how much did you make while in active service? do you get paid more in the air force than the navy or the army? which branch pays the most?

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Pay is based on rank/grade in any branch and is the same. except for those that require a specialized degree ie Doctor, lawyer ect... The only difference you will see is that some MOS's have a higher signing bonus and in some units/brigades you can climb the ladder faster than others. the treatment you recieve is different for all branches. The physically easiest service is probably Air force, but a lot of them would disagree.

I did four years, saw a little combat. I have no regrets. But in all honesty, if I were you, I'd think hard, as you're quite likely to end up in Afghanistan, or fighting Russians (or Iran, if McCain should win the election).

Picking a 'safe' MOS is no guarantee of anything. I had that same idea, pick a nice, safe-sounding MOS. I picked one called 'Fixed Station Radio Repair', since they told me that's the MOS that worked in radio stations. Sounded safe and stateside, and even sounded like it involved air conditioning.

Hah! The military definition of 'fixed station' is: it doesn't work while it's in the plane heading into a combat zone. I ended up working for 1st SOCOM (Special Forces) and fighting Cubans in Grenada, then erecting a 50,000 watt HF radio station next to a mosquito-infested swamp. Needless to say, there was no air conditioning.

Anyway, think hard. It's certainly an honorable choice, and chicks dig the uniform, but...in these times it seems like a less-than-safe choice. Not saying don't do it, but consider carefully first at the very least.

TheBrutalTruth said:

Actually, I do have a suggestion, get them to pay for your college courses first so you can join as an officer, either that or make sure you get stationed on a carrier (giant floating city) because they have accredited college courses available (at least that's what the Navy Recruite told me. Can any one verify?)

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I think that's just bachelors degree level education. I highly doubt that they'd offer graduate studies in the field I majored in in undergrad. I'll double check that. I was also told that the Air Force is the only military branch that offers tuition assistance for grad school, but that it doesn't offer reimbursement for your outstanding debt from undergrad. that's what the AF rep told me over the phone. I'm a bit paranoid about the Army because the guy seemed a bit to brainwashed...I asked him about my chances of being deployed in certain MOSs, and he said something like, "is deployment a bad thing?" Making a decision on which branch I should join is like playing a poker game with a bunch of cheaters, I'm assuming they are all lying to me from now on, and getting shit in writing before I sign ANYTHING. I did read though that you can drop out/resign before your contract is up, but you just forfeit respective percentages of your benefits and pay.

Having said that, I do want to serve my country. I think there's a lot of respect in that. I've always been into dissidence and questioning the motives of my leaders, but in the military, no one really knows what our government is up to and what our leaders are conspiring at any given moment-no more than civilians do. So it doesn't really matter. I don't have anything going for me anyway...no kids or husband...just some vague hope to go to grad school and land myself in a career I devoted years of study to. Hooyah!

GIJane said:

I think that's just bachelors degree level education. I highly doubt that they'd offer graduate studies in the field I majored in in undergrad. I'll double check that. I was also told that the Air Force is the only military branch that offers tuition assistance for grad school, but that it doesn't offer reimbursement for your outstanding debt from undergrad. that's what the AF rep told me over the phone. I'm a bit paranoid about the Army because the guy seemed a bit to brainwashed...I asked him about my chances of being deployed in certain MOSs, and he said something like, "is deployment a bad thing?" Making a decision on which branch I should join is like playing a poker game with a bunch of cheaters, I'm assuming they are all lying to me from now on, and getting shit in writing before I sign ANYTHING. I did read though that you can drop out/resign before your contract is up, but you just forfeit respective percentages of your benefits and pay.

Having said that, I do want to serve my country. I think there's a lot of respect in that. I've always been into dissidence and questioning the motives of my leaders, but in the military, no one really knows what our government is up to and what our leaders are conspiring at any given moment-no more than civilians do. So it doesn't really matter. I don't have anything going for me anyway...no kids or husband...just some vague hope to go to grad school and land myself in a career I devoted years of study to. Hooyah!

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You can get out b-4 your contract is up but you will find yourself paying back benifits that were given in expectations of you fullfilling your contract

And deployment isnt always a bad thing, depending on where you live now. Hell i'd rather spend a year in Iraq than Detroit!!, unless your spec. ops or kicking in doors in the field, and if your doing that it was probably ur choice to do so.

is everyone really that pussy? I feel like such a pussy for joining the airforce considering how much easier it is than the marines. But the fact of the matter is, the airforce is the bext branch out there. If you can make it in the airforce do it. They don't losers like the marines and army do. They dont need them. You get better education, more respect, and more opourtunity to educate and climb rank because they arent rushing you out of the country.

rd, which branch would you recommend? between Army and Navy? based on tuition assistance and job opportunities? I'm pretty sure I could get a good job. the army recruiter even gave me a code: 68X (Mental Health Services). Navy would be less training, supposedly, and closer to home, but i'd have to drive out of town to be a 'weekend warrior' while the army weekend job would be where i live and army bct and ait training would be in fucking texas. that would suck-not seeing anyone i know for months in another part of the country. If they pay the same, I think I'd be better off with the one that'll offer me the better deal on location and financial incentives. I'm thinking the Navy is my best bet of the two?

do some exciting shit go into marine special forces or navy seals ( and btw im sure you can all tell how much of an expert i am )

anyway i always thought if i was to join the military it would only be to get the biggest thrills of my life. and people tell me basic infantry is your fastest ticket to death.

just my thoughts

rd116 said:

What? This makes zero sense.... So much for better education.

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The AirForce has their own community college which is the largest military college in the country. Their Jobs, technology and training is the most advanced and sophisticated. People in the airforce have potential to go on to NASA, area 51 and other top of the line technological research.

If your looking for a branch to apply yourself in instead of simply being a grunt for 4 years, I say go for the airforce. If they take you than you will be in Texas, but its just as much if not more freedom than the navy Where you will be in Virginia most likely. You get your weekends and as you improve your benefits and permissions and freetime also improve.

Go walk into an airforce recruiter, they wont be fucking drooling over you, promising you candy and guns like the other Branch recruiters. They tell you straight up everything you want to know. They dont NEED you as desperately as the rest.

gscanaba said:

do some exciting shit go into marine special forces or navy seals ( and btw im sure you can all tell how much of an expert i am )

anyway i always thought if i was to join the military it would only be to get the biggest thrills of my life. and people tell me basic infantry is your fastest ticket to death.

just my thoughts

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This is why im disapointed Im not joining the marines.

if u really are going to join the airforce it's the beverly hills of the army but i'd rather u avoid it all together

I don't pretend to have the competence to make decisions for others...but...if you join any branch of the military other than the Air Force you will have made a mistake. I would love to enumerate my reasons and objectify this conclusion for you but it is based on years of empiric observations. I do remember walking to work at 0700 while stationed in Korea. It was winter and I would stroll past the army platoons laying on the cold ground doing sit-ups, flutter kicks, etc. and then I would walk past their ghetto fucking barracks and I would think to myself, "I made a really good fucking choice". Then I would relax with my warm cup of coffee.

I actually had no choice, only the Army or the Marines would take me. I scored a 142 on the (1982) ASVAB, but I didn't have a high school diploma or even a GED at the time. I was 17 years old, and Reagan had taken my age 18-21 social security that my mom worked her whole life for and had given it to the rich folks, so college was suddenly not feasible for me, leaving me to choose between the army and a life of crime.

As it turns out, the Army wasn't bad at all. You have to work the system. I did 6 months on the Arizona State Honor Guard, where we got off work by 10 AM (and if we didn't, we were pissed), unless there was a funeral. If there was a funeral, then they paid us about $260/day extra. My AIT was eight months, and it was about as mellow as could be. Basic training was 2 months. So, there was 16 of the 48 months.

Grenada was eight more months. And while the mosquitoes sucked, and the Cubans sucked the first month, the rest of the time, the other seven months, was just hitting the beach, smoking fatties, and parties. *Very* little supervision. I grew my hair to shoulder length while I was in Grenada, and didn't get caught being a hippy until the very day I was leaving. (The lieutenant colonel in charge of the island caught me at the airport, but I was leaving, not much he could do really.)

Turkey was 14 months, and that was awesome. My work shift was 1 day on, 3 days off, so almost two 3-day weekends per week. That was the best work schedule I've had in my life on a consistent basis. Now we're up to 38 months out of the 48 that were either pretty cool or were simply educational. Cost of living in Turkey was amazing. I could buy a sack of groceries for $5, a shoeshine with a kid on each foot for a dime, a mansion (with a gardener and a maid who'd screw me three times a week) was $200/month. I accidentally bought 100 pounds of hamburger at the PX. I handed a worker a $20 bill and said I wanted all hamburger. I had done the math incorrectly, thinking that'd be 10 pounds. Nope, 100 pounds, 20 cents a pound. I put it all in a cart and gave away 80 or 90 pounds to random Turks on the way home.

Oh, the black markets in both Grenada and Turkey were extremely helpful to my wallet too. I made more money off that than the Army paid me. And I was bringing back about a pound a month of decent weed from Grenada (in resealed MRE bags). It cost me $120/pound to buy it in Grenada, and I sold it for $1280/pound at Fort Bragg. Cha ching! Army paychecks helped, but most of my income came from other activities.

During the transition time between Arizona Honor Guard and Turkey, I managed to trick my superiors into giving me about 4 consecutive months off work, like a gigantic paid vacation. What happened was, I broke my wrist when I took a 3-wheeler off a small cliff while drunk one night. I couldn't carry the caskets or be part of the 21 gun salute at the funerals, so they put me on six weeks of phone duty to finish off my Honor Guard stint. But when they released me, I didn't tell my superiors, and just lounged around in bed all day, telling people I was still part of Honor Guard.

Eventually, my sarge caught on, but by then I was within 30 days of leaving for leave before leaving for Turkey, so they gave me that month to outprocess. Then I took leave, but forgot to sign out. When I tried to sign in, the dude said, hmm, you never signed out on leave, so you can't sign in, so how about we just forget you took leave at all? Hah, yeah, couldn't argue with that, because that meant I got to take all that leave time *again*, later.

And that leaves, out of a 4-year duty, about 6 months of actual gritty work. The rest was just school, adventures in far off places, temporary duty, Honor Guard, or simply slack time that I squeezed out of them without them knowing what was going on.

The Army *can* suck, but if you're smarter than your 'superiors', you can really work the system and slack off and party most of the time, if that's what you want to do, and I did. I mean, 6 months of hard work out of 48 months is...12.5 percent. So, 87.5 percent of my Army time was more on my terms than theirs. Not bad!

Hell yeah, man. That sounds awesome. Sounds like you did active duty though. How many years did you end up serving total?

4 active, then two in the 'ready reserve' or whatever they call it. I actually would have stayed in the normal Army Reserve, but I wanted to go to the school in Sacramento to learn Turkish. Why? Because I already knew Turkish, from living in Turkey, so I thought that'd be mellow, maybe get some kind of intelligence gig later. But they kept postponing my school, month after month after month, so I told em never mind, and that was that.

Yeah, I'm actually hoping my reserve duty will help me get a similarly qualified civilian job, thereby improving my resume and chances of being accepted by a grad program. I'm just not sure if I really want to commit to the next 6-8 years of my life in the reserves. I'll be over 30 when it's over! Hopefully I'll at least get my master's/PhD by then. Also I keep hearing in the news lately shit about the possibility of another terrorist attack, and barack Obama talking about keeping the troops overseas for 5 more years. God help us if McCain is elected...