Daughter considering military - input please

[U.S. Patriot]

Well I served in the Coast Guard, and miss it dearly. They treat you very well. You get to serve, while remaining close to the states. Men, and Women can do all of the same jobs. Just something to look into.

[EUROTRASH]

ive had no problems in the national guard. i dont have one complaint about it. i get paid every month for sure, i get college paid for, and get life and health insurance.im not gonna try to persuade anybody to join, but just make sure she does her research on benefits and stuff like that. and i did recruiting for a little bit and can tell you that if you request a ridiculous bonus, more than likely they will give it to you.

[Hiram Abiff]

My son is in the air force. He really seems to enjoy it. He is married, he and his wife are stationed in England (by their choice). He has recently been deployed to Qatar for 4 months. Their quality of life in the air force is more stable than most non-military families have these days. He is a maintainer for the C130 Herclues and the KC135 Stratotankers. He works 8 hour shifts sometimes 12 hour shifts. He has several co workers that are female. It won't cost her anything to speak with a recruiter. Basic traning takes place at Lackland AFB "The gateway to the Air Force" which is located in San Antonio TX.

[jeremy]

Originally Posted by JNT0421

Air Force is the one to join, IMO. Though Jeremy states they get paid better, they
do not. All branches of the Armed Forces use the same Pay Table, by rank and time in service. They do get treated better, they do live better. I spent 16 years in the Marine Corps and spent the last 18 months of that time, teaching for the Air Force. it's much closer to civilian life than the others.

Same pay table. Some allowances are just paid out under different qualifiers. TDY pay, Perdium, SSHA, etc.

[agentl074]

Originally Posted by JNT0421

Air Force is the one to join, IMO. Though Jeremy states they get paid better, they
do not. All branches of the Armed Forces use the same Pay Table, by rank and time in service. They do get treated better, they do live better. I spent 16 years in the Marine Corps and spent the last 18 months of that time, teaching for the Air Force. it's much closer to civilian life than the others.

Well as far as remaining in grade, the Air Force may pay better. I know of a lot of people who are unable to retain their grade and are dropped to Corporal etc. Whereas, the Air Force uses educational advancement and EPR format for promotion. I Put E-3 on right after technical school and I put E-4 on before my three year mark. I tested for E-5 a couple months after that. Air Force is the way to go The Guard and Reserve get promoted much faster from E-1 to E-5 though.

[hornadylnl]

Originally Posted by agentl074

Well as far as remaining in grade, the Air Force may pay better. I know of a lot of people who are unable to retain their grade and are dropped to Corporal etc. Whereas, the Air Force uses educational advancement and EPR format for promotion. I Put E-3 on right after technical school and I put E-4 on before my three year mark. I tested for E-5 a couple months after that. Air Force is the way to go The Guard and Reserve get promoted much faster from E-1 to E-5 though.

I made
E-2 in 6 months
E-3 in 9 months
E-4 in 14 months

[Joe Williams]

The military was very good to me. It delivered everything it promised, but that's largely because even at 17 I was smart enough to heed the advice (just about the only advice I was smart enough to listen to) not to let them promise me much!!! READ THE CONTRACT!!! Read how long the term of enlistment actually is for Remember the folks who were suddenly not allowed out? They signed their name to that.

Tell her to pick her job, don't let the recruiter talk her into going open general. Use the recruiter to find out what jobs are available, find out what they are, and get a "guaranteed" job. Remember the read the contract part? "Guaranteed" really isn't, they still get to change it if they want or need to, but I don't know many folks that happened to. Actually I can't remember any off the top of my head, but it has been a while.

Tell her the benefits can indeed be very good. The training is topnotch, the opportunity for responsibility and authority can be unequaled in the civilian world for an 18 year old with a high school education (the Air Force is particularly good in this regard for enlisted folks), the opportunities for college are very real. You really can "see the world," and experience things that most folks can only dream of.

Perhaps the biggest perk is the people. For whatever reason, the caliber of people you will deal with simply aren't matched in the civilian world. They are just kids. When I got out at 28, I was an "old man." But, they are mission driven, on the ball, high quality people for the most part. They are only people, and they are only kids, so there are mistakes made, but she'll never work and live with better people in all her life. I've been out for almost 14 years, and still miss the people and the life.

There is a drawback, though. She CAN be sent to war, be captured, be raped, and/or be killed. She may have to kill someone personally. If she doesn't, she'll be helping to do so. She may load a bomb that kills kids, and have to do it again the next day. The military is about force, power, and killing, and she cannot go into the committment blind to that. It's not a welfare ride to see the world and go to college, those are simply the fringe benefits to a job that is hard, sometimes lonely, sometimes fatal.

If she joins, though, no matter what else she does for the rest of her life, she'll have mattered. She'll have counted. She'll have helped make history of one sort or another. I loved the military and I love that I went to war and played a tiny part in helping free Kuwait. In that, I did a good thing. I saw the evil the Iraqis did in Kuwait, and I helped stop that. I helped destroy Communism, an evil that enslaved and killed. A microscopic part, you'll never read about me or my friends in history books, but when the Berlin Wall came down, I helped that happen. If she joins, she'll face different enemies and challenges, but she'll count.

[IndyGunworks]

Originally Posted by Joe Williams

The military was very good to me. It delivered everything it promised, but that's largely because even at 17 I was smart enough to heed the advice (just about the only advice I was smart enough to listen to) not to let them promise me much!!! READ THE CONTRACT!!! Read how long the term of enlistment actually is for Remember the folks who were suddenly not allowed out? They signed their name to that.

Tell her to pick her job, don't let the recruiter talk her into going open general. Use the recruiter to find out what jobs are available, find out what they are, and get a "guaranteed" job. Remember the read the contract part? "Guaranteed" really isn't, they still get to change it if they want or need to, but I don't know many folks that happened to. Actually I can't remember any off the top of my head, but it has been a while.

Tell her the benefits can indeed be very good. The training is topnotch, the opportunity for responsibility and authority can be unequaled in the civilian world for an 18 year old with a high school education (the Air Force is particularly good in this regard for enlisted folks), the opportunities for college are very real. You really can "see the world," and experience things that most folks can only dream of.

Perhaps the biggest perk is the people. For whatever reason, the caliber of people you will deal with simply aren't matched in the civilian world. They are just kids. When I got out at 28, I was an "old man." But, they are mission driven, on the ball, high quality people for the most part. They are only people, and they are only kids, so there are mistakes made, but she'll never work and live with better people in all her life. I've been out for almost 14 years, and still miss the people and the life.

There is a drawback, though. She CAN be sent to war, be captured, be raped, and/or be killed. She may have to kill someone personally. If she doesn't, she'll be helping to do so. She may load a bomb that kills kids, and have to do it again the next day. The military is about force, power, and killing, and she cannot go into the committment blind to that. It's not a welfare ride to see the world and go to college, those are simply the fringe benefits to a job that is hard, sometimes lonely, sometimes fatal.

If she joins, though, no matter what else she does for the rest of her life, she'll have mattered. She'll have counted. She'll have helped make history of one sort or another. I loved the military and I love that I went to war and played a tiny part in helping free Kuwait. In that, I did a good thing. I saw the evil the Iraqis did in Kuwait, and I helped stop that. I helped destroy Communism, an evil that enslaved and killed. A microscopic part, you'll never read about me or my friends in history books, but when the Berlin Wall came down, I helped that happen. If she joins, she'll face different enemies and challenges, but she'll count.

This... i have not read all the other posts.. their are so many, but i as well reccomend the airforce or the navy.... and try to get a job that will equate to something at home as well for when she gets out... ie nursing computer programing military police ecetera....

i as well have done my small part to end genocide prevent the social colapse of new orleans and free the iraqi people... i have done my part and my accomplishments will stick with me for the rest of my life... but so will the baggage that i carry around everyday because of my service... this baggage cannot be seen by even the closest people to me but its there and its very real... and sometimes is hard to deal with.

[JNT0421]

Agree with Jeremy, you ultimately have to let her make the decision, but you need to be armed with the information that she will seek.

United States Air Force - AirForce.com might be a good site to get info from

AF.mil - Home is another site you can try, though this one is geared more towards active duty members

[jeremy]

One thing I have noticed in my time in the service is that in the Army and the Corps is that you just don't see a lot of people who smile...

Every time you get on an Air Force base everyone seems happy...

Seriously the Corps and the Army take a special kind of person to deal with the suck.