Armed Forces (Joining? We'll see)
Penguin_Otaku
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
Despite my anti-war sentiments of the past, I've always felt respect for the men and women in the armed forces. Needless to say, I've always wondered if it'd be right for me. Initially it was a resounding, "No." Not it's becoming a softer "no" and more of a possibility, but I don't know how to interpret these feelings or whether or not I should legitimately consider them in any capacity.
I just feel like I'm spinning my feels and feel unsecure with my current situation. With the tension rising with the North Korea situation and such I feel like there will be a need for people in the army soon for a bit. Hell, if we're going to die in 2012, may as well start pumping the adrenaline anyway right?
I don't know. It's all a big thought at this point. I met with an army recruiter in highschool and I've always really wondered since then. I really have no direction with my life and it kinda scares me. But I'm not sure if making THIS drastic of a decision is right for me...
Any thoughts and advice appreciated. THanks.
I just feel like I'm spinning my feels and feel unsecure with my current situation. With the tension rising with the North Korea situation and such I feel like there will be a need for people in the army soon for a bit. Hell, if we're going to die in 2012, may as well start pumping the adrenaline anyway right?
I don't know. It's all a big thought at this point. I met with an army recruiter in highschool and I've always really wondered since then. I really have no direction with my life and it kinda scares me. But I'm not sure if making THIS drastic of a decision is right for me...
Any thoughts and advice appreciated. THanks.
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Are you not positive? Then DON'T.
Direction is over rated. Just live your life. Get a job and have fun. Don't sweat it. I'm assuming you're still pretty young?
You're a baby. I'm 32 and I just figured out what I want to do. Don't worry about it. Finish your degree, get a job, enjoy yourself. My father didn't figure it out till he was 36 and went to college, graduating Summa Cum Laude. He spent his 20s working at a theatre company in Denmark.
No?
Finish your degree.
You're already there, and the Army (or branch of your choice) will still take you after you're done (and pay off some of your student loans to boot). Don't worry. Plus you'll have a shot at either OCS or a bigass bump in starting enlisted pay grade. I see no reason to drop out of school now to join, rather than just join later.
Alternately, you might consider the reserve component. But know that you'll almost certainly miss a semester for training and that there's a damn good chance you'll wind up deployed before you graduate. Plus the reserve component sucks. I won't write a wall of text here right now, maybe you can browse through my posts in earlier military threads if you're curious as to why. Though I wills say the benefits given to reservists have finally started improving significantly.
I'll also say this is the kind of thing you need to think long and hard about. It's a job that you cannot legally quit where people may or may not shoot at you and where you will be treated like dogshit on a regular basis. Personally I've found it incredibly fulfilling, but if you don't then it just plain fucking sucks.
Try spending your days in a tent with no air conditioning in a foreign country hoping some crazy asshole doesn’t drop a bomb on your head.
With the tension rising with the North Korea situation and such I feel like there will be a need for people in the army soon for a bit.
Apply some critical thinking skills here. North Korea can kill every last person in Seoul at the push of a button right before the entire nation crawls into a gigantic network of underground bunkers. We ain’t going to war with them.
Almost 20, Junior at OU in Broadcast Journalism with no idea what I really want to do.
You’re a typical 20-year-old guy. You’re not supposed to have a clue. That’s really not a good reason to quit school and go into the military. Finish school and if you’re lucky there might actually be some jobs by the time you get out.
They treat thier people better, have more relevant jobs to the outside world and the benefits are more or less the same. Yeah you dont get to be "Hard-core" but I served my country for 9 years in air-conditioning and my service to the country was no less than that of any other servicemember (Im an air traffic controller).
We train Army guys (along with guys from our air force guard unit), and EVERY SINGLE ONE of the army guys have said "I should have gone air force".
Just don't rule out all the other branches.
Best of luck to ya
You join the Army or Marines and you're going to war. It's (pretty much) certain. Can you accept that?
edit: also where did our military thread go i miss that
Its entirely normal to feel like that at your age, speaking as someone 12 years older. Yes, there are going to be people in your peer group who have known for ages what they want to do with their life and where its going, but there are just as many, if not far more, who don't have that clarity or narrow focus.
I can't really help with whether or not the Armed Forces is right for you, but I would expect its something you should only really do if you've got a strong positive feeling towards it.
Have you worked, at all? If you stay in college, you should look into doing internships/co-op positions in the summer if at all possible in order to give you exposure to the world outside the academic bubble and give you a taste of the different career paths available to you.
I left for Basic and it died.
i miss it dearly, and i'm not even in the army anymore.
I, and another forumer here are currently applying for Air Force OTS. We will find out if we are selected in September. He has been waiting and considering for over a year, and I have considered it for the last 7 months. Every day I get up and want it more and more. It's very competitive. You need to want it.
There are a some officers on the boards. You could ask them some questions. At this point, that's really what you need to do. Ask questions, consider them, ask some more questions, then consider them.
Let 'em eat fucking pineapples!
My deployment to Iraq left a sour taste in my mouth for the active army.
Get this, my company of 45 guys is attached to an active army unit of some 500-600 people, along with a reserve unit of about 200 some. Now we were National Guard guys and we were expecting the active army to be on the ball and make us look like shit. This was not the cause. The active army was so ate up from top to bottom that, to this day, we still can not believe it. They sucked at their jobs, shooting, convoys, combat, you name it. God fucking awful.
Then, this is the part that got us pissed, like I mentioned before we had only 45 guys. 20 of them were actually available for work. 20 guys compared to 500-600 the active army had. Yet we did 64% of of all the missions and every convoy that left, 3 of the 4 gunners were ours.
Still, we treated them like shit even their officers. Our Commander told us that if any of them tried to smoke us that we were to politely decline and tell them that if they had a problem with us they were to talk with our Commander. Heh, the look on their faces was priceless.
I know this particular unit is not an example of the rest of the active army, but man it was unbelieveable.
It feels good to vent.
edit- One piece of advice I wish someone told me: It all pays the same, whether your kicking in doors or sitting behind a desk.
Unless your the fucking Air Force, then you get paid extra because army food isn't up to their standard. :P
Secondly, I'd suggest watching a documentary or somesuch describing what life is like for soldiers in the middle of a war. There's a reason instances of post-traumatic stress disorder are so high in veterans.
Third, you're a junior. You've got plenty of time. And besides, I had no freaking clue what I'd do with my life when I finished grad school, yet I've turned out okay with a good career.
Its the samy way with the Air Force, Active duty have become quite "scrub-like". Air Guard is GREAT though, good benefits, hardest work we ever did was play with chem gear and set up tents. Let all the running and screaming up to the army.
Serving your country is not a prerequisite to joining the military.
There are PLENTY of other reasons to join the military.
@ the OP...finish college. You will have more options open to you if you decide to join after you have a degree.
Also, Air Force.
Edit: Do not be swayed by the Active Duty vs Guard/Reserve rhetoric. Its a no win argument. My wife is guard and I am active duty.
Also, the Air Force ARE running and screaming. You'll be doing PT and thinking "wtf! I didn't join the Army!"
Anyways it is not the same with the Air Force everywhere. 12 hour days are not uncommon, mostly 10 hour days but yesterday was a 16 hour day. That is in the Air Force the "easiest" of the branches so take that into account.
what happened!
Also whoever said there are multiple reasons for joining the military is absolutely correct, the desire to serve is nice though
Also no matter what branch you join you're going to be doing a lot of physical shit, there's no real "easy" branch
(See how respectful I am about the other branches? you'd have no way to tell I was a part of the Army)
No one who expresses this much uncertainty in a three paragraph post should sign any binding documents that committ him to a decision for three years or more. Ideally he shouldn't even be allowed to own a pen, lest he accidentally wanders into the same room as a stack of enlistment papers.
I have a broader observation that needs to be made for you, Penguin Otaku. I'm going to quote the same three paragraphs again, and I'm going to underline all the statements that deal with feelings and embolden the statements that deal with thinking or knowledge:
Here's the thing that keeps jumping out at me in your posts, dude. You write in the affirmative about what you feel but you can never decisively pin down what it is that you think or know. I would suggest that this is a large part of why your decision making process is so fucking flawed -- you think entirely with your gut without engaging your brain. Don't get me wrong, it's important to be in touch with your feelings and all, but you can't expect yourself to be able to make rational decisions if you don't take the time to be just as much in touch with your thoughts.
Uh, I'm going to really hope that's sarcasm there.
Anyway, I'm one of "those" officers that Veritas mentioned. If you have questions about the Air Force, Officership, ROTC, etc, drop me a PM. I'm terrible about checking back in on threads but I DO respond to PM's!
Someone mentioned the military would pay back your student loans...
I wouldn't bank on that. I don't think it works that way. They'll give you money if you get a scholarship, but I dont think they'll pay back loans they initially had nothing to do with.
They do. At least, the National Guard is for mine. Up to $20,000.
The USAA has a pre-commissioning loan for up to $25k at 2.0 to 2.9% interest. This is the only thing I know of that you're eligible for as a line officer on active duty in the Air Force. Of course, if you fail to commission then the loan jumps to 18% interest. However, I believe Medical, JAG, and Chaplain do get some direct repayment.
Edit: Iceman is right, though. They don't repay student loans they had nothing to do with, unless you get a direct commission for the above jobs. If you go ROTC, it might be different (since I believe that's a type of scholarship).
Let 'em eat fucking pineapples!
Also there is a program similar to the GI bill that would instead pay student loans, except it is not nearly as good.
Do you know what it is you want to do exactly? Which branch is good to know too. There are journalism and PR jobs along with language and intel jobs that might fall under your interests, but they can all vary drastically depending on which branch you're in. Once I finish my Chinese course I go to Hawaii wheras my buddies in the National Guard go to the desert when we finish.
Also, to consider no matter what part of the forces you join: Are you ready to kill another human being and can you accept that death is a very real job hazard?
Granted in many jobs you will not have to worry about that as much, but it is possible.