Join the Military?
 

Hey all,

Recently I was down at my Marine recruiters, and though i thot he was going to just give me a run down on what the corps has to offer, it turns out that he wanted me to enlist as a reservist. Though i have always wanted to join the military, i am hesitant to do this. With the situation in this world, it is likely that i will be shipped out, and that my studies in college may be disrupted (I a currently a senior in high school).

Some distinct advantages are that i will have a much better character coming out of the corp, and that it may aid me in the future (i actually plan on studying law). Furthermore, i will be much more physically fit than i am now (though i was on Cross country..) I got above 90's on all subjects in the ASVAB, so being accepted in to the corp should not be a problem.

However it is also the fear of the unknown that makes me not want to joing. I really don't know...

Does anyone have any feedback of their experiences or advice for me?

Thanks

Nothing can get you over fear quicker then having someone kick your ass straight into it. Do it for the chicks if nothing else.

If you are seriously interested make sure you look at all the available options. Recruiters have quotas to make so dont always tell the full truths, nor are they legally responsible for anything they say (or dont).

If you want to go to college look into ROTC. If you get the scholarship you go to college with books/tuition/fees paid as well as $350/month stipend. You choose a college that has the ROTC of whichever branch you choose (if you want Marine it's under Navy). You missed out on the 4 year scholarship (deadline in december), but you can join what is called a College Program, in which you pay your own way through college, and apply for the scholarship.

ROTC is basically you graduate from a major university with a degree (can be in anything). After you graduate you get commissioned as an officer, and require 4 years of service, or 8 as reserve. I am currently in this program for flight school, which because of the extended and expensive training the service is 10 years.

There is also in the Marines a program called MECEP program, in which you enlist and go through the normal elisted life. You sign up for the program as a Cpl. to get in, and if accepted you are pormoted to Sgt., and then attend the university. You get standard Sgt pay, but you have to pay your own schooling. Every branch has a program like this, Navy has OCS (Officer Training School), Air Force and Army have the same equivilants.

If you are serious about joining in any of the programs ask to talk to the recruiters Commander. He is responsible for anything and everything, and because the commander does not have to physically fill the quotas he will give you no BS answers. There are dozens of different ways to get your degree in the military, figure out which one tailors to your life the best before you sign any papers.

Oh yeah, and the chicks do dig the uniform.

You're in for the best four years of your life, you'll meet new people, go to new places, and do things you didn't think you were capable of doing.

/recruiter

If you are doing *at all* well in high school, I recommend following Seaver's advice and become an officer. Go to one of your state's public schools, get yourself a couple of grants and a ROTC scholarship your second year, and spend four years as an officer when you're done. The difference in pay and respect is significant between the enlisted ranks and the officer ranks.

If you have your heart set on being enlisted, I'd personally stay away from the reserves and Guard - if you pay attention to world events lately, these are the guys getting deployed and bumped out of school/work/whatever all the time these days.

I would have to agree with all of the above...however, as someone that spent eight years of his life in the U.S. Air Force, I offer to you the following axiom; "The Marine Cops takes it, the Army secures it, the Navy cleans it up, and the Air Force lives in it."

A little over simplified, and certainly no disrespect intended to any of the Marines, soldiers or sailors within our ranks, but it's actually fairly accurate. I found that the Air Force always had the better facilities and the better quality food. And yes, the Air Force officers always had the best of the best.

The militray is a whole lot like marriage - damned easy to get into and all but impossible to get out of with out paying a price. Look at the military as if it were marriage . Make damned sure that you are damned sure and if it appears to be your thing then, as others have advised, make sure of all your options before you start. A poor choice of job classification etc. can haunt you throughout your military career regardless of length. There is absolutely nothing wrong with the military - but, like many other choices one makes in life it is one that can prove very rewarding -or four years in hell. Consider location, money, living conditions, chance for advancement - Just don't jump into it without a lot of planning and do your homework before you do anything else.

Proud to be a veteran of the USN

Probably the best advice out here. If you want to do college and the military, make the military pay for it. Dont take what the recruiters say too seriously--as was said, they have a quota to fill, and will say damn near anything to get you to enlist.

To piggyback on this - ANYTHING the recruiters promise you, you HAVE to get it in writing. I think this bears repeating - ANYTHING the recruiters promise you, you HAVE to get it in writing. I know too many kids promised money when they signed on the dotted line, but because they didn't read their contract, or actually believed their recruiter, were bilked out of some serious cash.

One more time - Get it in writing!

This is a subject that has been on my mind for a while now. I am currently in college and really want to join the airforce as an officer. But I'm not in any kind of ROTC program, because my college doens't offer it. Is this going to be a problem? Or what can I do about it?

You have three options:

1) Find out if your school has a "cross-town agreement" with another school providing AFROTC classes. An example of this is a student at George Mason University in Fairfax, VA taking their AFROTC classes at UMD, College Park. You can find these colleges through http://www.afrotc.com/

2) Transfer to a school that offers AFROTC courses, or has a cross-town agreement with a school that does. See the above link for details there.

3) When you are within one year of completing your degree, you may apply to Officer Training School, which is basically the 4 years of AFROTC classes compressed into 3 months. Info is here: http://ots.afoats.af.mil/24TRSFiles/BOT.html

USAF
Nobody Comes Close

If you do sign up, read your sign on contract very carefully.

Sparhawk beat me to it. He is 100% correct. We have a number of Marines who are in the cross-town program here. They couldnt get into the main university here so they are in a smaller 4 year. As long as they still graduate on time they have no penalties for doing it that way. The military is only concered about your diploma and your GPA.

True.. but then you have to wear those ugly ass baby-blue uniforms. I'll take the MRE's as long as I look good in formals.

Good a place as any to ask. I need to wear glasses or contacts, but I am extremely intelligent and co-ordinated. Is there a future for me in an Apache/Blackhawk?

Tiger,

All the above advice is good. But you have to ask yourself, what do you want out of it. Want a challenge? An experience? Leadership skills? Then you're looking in the right direction.

I'm Army OCS, and know a lot about the process and such, so if you have any specific questions, feel free to email or PM me.

Just remember, go Army Combat arms if you want to fight. Go Marines if you want to fight with a bunch of maniacs :lol:

Air Force.... much better for married people.

Stay off the flightline. Don't be a cop or a cook.

Paralegal? Then OTS....

Base contracting?

High bonus may = crap job.

21 year retiree.

Not as a pilot.... You need a 1 (perfect vision, non corrected) on your PULHES profile for your eyes to fly.

You have no idea how that breaks my heart :-( Understandable though.

He's correct, 85% of dropouts in the flight program are during the physical when they get their eyes checked. You can have your eyes corrected by laser, but you CANT have Lasic surgery (under G-forces the flap that is cut tends to flip back and leaves you temporarily blind), AND you have to get it pre-approved. The good thing? the military usually pays for it if you've already signed up.

Wait a tick...
The Apache's and Blackhawks are in the army, not in the airforce right? Do these stringencies apply there also? Because a helicopter doesn't pull the same G levels.

There is no way in hell I'd join the service right now. We're fighting a war that we shouldn't be in. It's no longer a defense army - it's an invasion army. I would refuse to be a part of it.

and the last time I checked, the air force and navy were the only ones who were anal about glasses.

Tiger, its up to you if you want to join or not. Joining the Marine Corps is one of the best things i've ever done in my life. The experience you get and the friends you meet are well worth it.

Now if you want to goto college while your in you can, and if you are active duty, its 100% tuition assistance, (all you pay for are the books and school supplies) And yes, there are online classes you can take if you get deployed.

oh yeah, and Seaver, there are 4 ways to become an Officer in the Marine Corps. Those are MECEP(Marine Enlisted Commissioning Program), OCS(Officer Canidates School), OCC(Officer Canidates Class) and PLC(Platoon Leaders Class)

Ok... dont join then. What you dont understand is most soldiers in combat care much more about the man standing next to them than anything else. I'm sorry you feel the need to take your political troubles out on the military, it is the voter who decides.

Kel, they are in the Army that is correct, but I'm pretty sure they are just as anal (could be incorrect). The big deal about glasses is you dont have the full 180degree vision with glasses as you do without, you're negated to a smaller in-focus field of vision. Added to this with glasses the NVG's helo's fly with now would not fit correctly.

Zero thank you for the correction, I'm Navy and you apparently have much more seniority than I so if I say anything else only half-correct feel free to correct me.

Speaking as someone who was in the navy for 4 years, 2 months and 3 days, I thikn the military is a great opportunity for those wanting to either get money for college or go to college under obligation to serve on completion. I blew all my tuition money the first year I was in college on pertying and drinking, so being broke and nowhere to go, I joined the Navy for the G.I. Bill alone. After a wonderful (but exhausting) enlistment, I got out and went to school. I just graduated from college back in mid-December and the Navy paid for it all.

Here are some things that I looked at before joining.

Army - front lines - read the news

Marine Corps - even closer to the enemy than the army...we used to have these guys go out and spot rounds for us when we fired five-inch guns, they were a couple hundred feet away from where the rounds landed...not my kind of job, but some might be interested

Air Force - great for married life and they usually stay at nice bases, food, etc., but opportunity for advancement when I was thinking about joining was almost ZERO. I had a high school friendd that went into the AF and the highest he got rankwise while there was E-4 (and he had just gotten that). I was a E-5 for a year before I got out.

Navy - AWAY FROM THE FIGHTING WITH ALL THE BENEFITS. Not great for married, but I was single at the time. LOOOONNNGGG cruises away from family, but you get to see some great places that most dont get to see except during wartime. My ship did LEOPS, which means we looked for drugrunners in Central and South America. I've been to Panama City, Panama 27 times, Mazatlan, Alcapulco, Manta Ecuador, Galapagos Islands, Puerto Vallarta x2, Curacao, Puerto Rico, Cartagena, Guatamala, etc. and got to spend at least 3 days at each place doing anything I wanted to (ie. tourist time)


Now back to the school part. I signed up with the VA office at my University, and they ran checks on my Navy paperwork (discharge papers, etc.) and filed with the regional VA office to cut me a check every month I was in school. At the end, I was receiving $900/month for going to school full time. The college I attended defined full time as 12 semester hours and that ran about $1500/semester. So, 2 months paid for the tutioon and the rest went to books (~$500/semester), supplies, and my bills. They could care less what you do with the money, as long as you are in school for those hours and you pass the classes. For this reason, I graduated with NO OUTSTANDING SCHOOL LOANS. This may not sound like a big deal, but I know people that are 35-40 years old that are still paying on their loans and interest from those loans.

Now, on staying in, I would only advise to do that if you are really happy with the job you do in the military. The retirement for military service these days is horrible. Again, budies of mine that retired from the Navy when I was onboard had to find new jobs/careers after they retired (26+ years) becasue the retirement checks weren't enough to live on.

Just thought you could use some insight into the military and school related issues. I am biased towards the Navy though, because that's the branch I chose. But then again, you might be inclined towards a different branch.

Hope this helps some.

It is a risk factor, but not a "tendency". It also causes blackouts and loss of consciousness, which are slightly worse than temporary blindness.

You can get PRK, paid by the military or not. The laser just impacts on the surface of the eye, and there is a longer healing period, but there is no black-out danger during high Gs.



Thanks for that great post, d4ip. I plan on doing exactly that. :)

But for those considering the navy, my friends in white tell me it's important to consider which job and resultant *area* you want to go into: subs, ships, planes - because they are each they're own seperate worlds within the Navy and some are better than others (subs - NO WOMEN!!! For 6-12 months!!!!!).

The Air Force, on the other hand, is fairly drama free (even if he hit the nail on the head about promotions...).

If you're really interested in going to college and joining the military, the Marine Corps has an OCS (Officer's Candidate School) program. There's no such thing as a USMC ROTC program so, if you wanted to go the ROTC route for the Corps, you need to do the Navy ROTC course. Basically, with OCS, you spend either two six week sessions (aka PLC--Platoon Leaders Class) during the summers (six weeks one year, six the next or the year after) or one ten week session (OCC-Officers Candidate Class) if you're nearer to graduation and don't have two summers to spend.

Upon completion of OCS you are commissioned a 2nd Lt and sent to attend TBS (the Basic School) for about six months. You then move on to your specialty school for the MOS you choose. If you further want to be a lawyer they have programs to allow you to go to school for it but they are very competitive and you can usually only do them after a couple of years in service.

Check with your nearest Officer Selection Office for details.

Still one of the top three decisions I have ever made. I spent four years and never saw a day of battle but it was still one of the greatest adventures of my life and a defining time for the rest of it.

Veteran USN

Correct. The Army and the Air Force have some sort of agreement when they separated that Army would focus on rotary (helicopters) and the Air Force would focus on fixed wing (airplanes). I think both the Marines and Navy use helicopters however.

I'm quite certain the Air Force (and Naval Air) are as stringent if not more about corrective surgery. I once heard they wouldn't even give waivers for surgery. Not sure if that's still the case.

The Air Force has choppers!!! (actually, I think *everybody* has choppers - they just all call them something different)

Check out my earlier post about PRK. It's still the *only* surgery you can get that keeps you eligible.

I never said the Air Force didn't have choppers, I just implied that they don't have a whole lot :p

Their agreement isn't exclusive. The Army has at least one fixed wing aircraft, which I cannot recall the model off the top of my head. That might be their only fixed wing craft.

How about after graduation? Any hope of officer training *after* completion of a 4-year degree?

After graduation you have OCS as your main option. You can receive a direct commission but that requires a special degree (law, medical, dental, etc). OCS is an extremely competitive process that requires a significant amount of paperwork, culminating with a board interview.... and that's just to be selected. Afterwards, you will attend basic training and then the OCS class. I don't know how the USMC does it after OCS, but I know with Army you will attend OBC (officer basic course) after OCS. So basically you're in school/training/class for nearly a year before you report to your first assignment. Basically it's ROTC in a year - although ROTC has to go to OBC as well (USMA too).

Go here to find some more information on OCS:

http://www.ocsfoundation.org/

You should seriously think about it, the Air Force did wonders for me and the GI Bill nade going to school so much easier. My advise is shop around at the recruiters, if your scores are that high they will work to get you. If serving your country and wanting to get an education at the same time is important to you, you might wan to look into the Air Force. They have a emphasize a great quality of life and there are less deployments ( I never got deployed in five years). I not saying other branchs aren't great because in the end of the jokes against each other we are still on the same team.

Would it be possible to be a Air Force Reservist?

I asked my friend who's enlisted...and *he* said that it was only reserved for people on active duty?

BTW i would like to thank everyone for their input...keep it coming! :)

Not true. Anybody eligible to join the active duty Air Force can join the Reserve. The catchphrase is "one weekend a month, two weeks a year."