military

[cj7xjmj]

I did 4 yrs in the early 90's 91-95 to be exact. I had waht I thought was a decent military job. I was a Multichannel Satallite sytem operator/repairman. Really big title for an equipment monitor. Anyways when I got out, I had a hard time finding a job in the field I was in, but having military experience and a good work ethic opened doors for me.


If you join now expect to go to the sand box. Expect the recruiters to promise you the world too. Pic a job that might be able to land a civillian job. Also keep in mind that after doing 2/3/4 yrs in the military you will have grown up bills and wont be able to use the GI bill to its full potential.

I personally think all young ppl need to do at leat a 2 yr tour in the mlitary. Just so they can grow up and learn about responsibility.

 

[cserou]

I normally don't get involved in this type of opinionated discussion, but I have a different experience to contribute. I have been in the Marines now for over 3 years. I started out doing a year in the Marine officer program at Purdue, but the tuition gap that they left me made it impossible to afford. In 2006 I went to boot camp and enlisted as a reservist. I did the reserve/college kid thing for another year, but had to work another job to make ends meet, and I just couldn't keep up. It's funny how "all that college money" they promise is not quite enough. In 2007 I signed an active duty contract because I was broke, and I wouldn't do it again. The military takes over every aspect of your life, even your personal and private business. That being said, it is a good way to build up a stockpile of savings. Only do it if it directly leads to where you want to be in 5 years, not for any kind of idealogical reasons. It's got some upsides, but you are signing a 4 year contract that gives them unlimited control over your life. If you do decide to join, try to get a job in aviation maintenance.

 

[wolfpackjeeper]

Only do it if it directly leads to where you want to be in 5 years, not for any kind of idealogical reasons. It's got some upsides, but you are signing a 4 year contract that gives them unlimited control over your life.

1) Don't sign up unless you do have some sort of Ideological motivation for doing so. No one wants to serve with the guy who is just doing it to fulfill his college obligation and getting out as soon as possible. There will be plenty of times where the money is not enough for what they are asking you to do, and the ideological desire to serve your country will help to fill that gap.

2) Re-read your contract, I am not saying you are wrong, but I have not heard of a 4 year contract. Especially if your job required any sort of special technical training. It may say 4 active, but it usually carries 4 in the Inactive reserve as well, which can be switched to active in the interest of the Branch involved. You may be different from your prior time in the reserves though.

 

[cj7xjmj]

I do have to agree with the above post about the military totally controlling your life. If you do something wrong on base military takes care of it.. most of the time harshly. Also if you get in trouble off post.. the military gets involved as well. The military is the only place I know of where double jeporady is allowed.

 

[Dozer11B]

I normally don't get involved in this type of opinionated discussion, but I have a different experience to contribute. I have been in the Marines now for over 3 years. I started out doing a year in the Marine officer program at Purdue, but the tuition gap that they left me made it impossible to afford. In 2006 I went to boot camp and enlisted as a reservist. I did the reserve/college kid thing for another year, but had to work another job to make ends meet, and I just couldn't keep up. It's funny how "all that college money" they promise is not quite enough. In 2007 I signed an active duty contract because I was broke, and I wouldn't do it again. The military takes over every aspect of your life, even your personal and private business. That being said, it is a good way to build up a stockpile of savings. Only do it if it directly leads to where you want to be in 5 years, not for any kind of idealogical reasons. It's got some upsides, but you are signing a 4 year contract that gives them unlimited control over your life. If you do decide to join, try to get a job in aviation maintenance.

"War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things. The decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks that nothing is worth war is much worse. The person who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature and has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself." -John Stuart Mill
You might wanna check into some more of his qoutes. He is a pretty ideological man.

wolfpackjeeper it is nice to know that this country still has folks such as yourself around who can maybe influence the men andwmn serving these days......

 

[thechief86]

well thank you, dozer. please don't feel like you're not appreciated. i was talking from what i know of the people i care about who have not had good military experiences. you might feel a little better about me if you read the other post i have put on this thread. i don't think you are dumb to join, i only said that it isn't the thing for me right now. by the way, i'm not as influenced by the chitty groups on the radio, in fact i hate politics for the very reason that if you don't believe the same thing as the person you're talking to, you're an asshole, no matter who you're talking to. i just have some very close friends that got chewed up and spit out, and although this doesn't happen to many people, i can't help but think that the ones that had a bad experience should have thought a little harder about whether or not the military was good for them before they joined. that's all. not looking to disrespect soldiers, bush, obama, or anyone. i do know how much of a commitment the military is, and what i'd have to give up for it to work for me, so i didn't join. sorry if this is a bad thing.

 

[rugbyxj53]

Hey man feel free to ask me anything about my experience so far during my 3+ years. I am a line medic and I love it. Everyone loves their doc lol.

Before their God, before their mother...they call on me!!!!

Sua Sponte

 

[Dozer11B]

Hey Doc, you know the Medics always have a special place in the heart of a grimy dusty grunt. I have loads of respect for you guys, and it is a fine thing to see a switched on Combat Medic at work.

Got you lima charlie on the sig. RLTW

 

[ladywolf]

that is true, it ends up being an 8 year contract, 4 years active, 4 years inactive reserve. there have been folks get called back up, but that, from what i've seen, has typically been combat MOS's like infantry and combat engineers.

i enlisted for 6 years. i got the GI bill plus the army college fund for 50k. so its there if/when i decide to use it. while i'm serving active duty i'm milking the army out of their 4500 dollars TA (tuition assistance) free a year, which means i can take 6 free classes a year. each class is roughly 750 bucks, dependent upon which college you decide to enroll in. and hey, as long as you pass, you dont have to pay it back.

yes, aviation maintenance has its perks, but it has its downsides too. our job doesnt stop whether we are garrison or deployed. we work long hours to keep up our OR rate (operation readiness), which doesnt really always work when you have major maintenance come around on a friday afternoon. i've been on teams where i worked every weekend for 3 months straight with no days off, in garrison. if you are lucky, you get slotted for a flight company, where life is typically better. you don't generally get stuck with a lot of stupid details like cutting grass or staff duty unless you are an NCO, you get the extra perk of flight pay (which starts out at 165 bucks a month thru e-4) and goes up an extra 25 bucks for every rank you achieve, unless you are a pilot and a w3 where your flight pay a month is over 800 dollars. however that comes with added responsibility because you have an aircraft you are responsible for.

yes, the military will take over your life. you will realize that military stuff will carry over to when you are off duty. you develop accents that are unfamiliar to your family, you will use acronyms that nobody but other military folk will understand, and you will gain friendships that will last a lifetime (plus stuff like using 24 hr time no matter what, you end up walking in step with other people, etc. . .)

would i change anything? yea. do i regret joining? definitely not. at 18 i was too young and did not have the determination to go to college and succeed. the military has enabled me to find the self motivation and determination and the drive to succeed and focus and concentrate on what matters most.

 

[bigalpha]

I've started using acronyms and military writing style in my everyday life.

Some things the Army didn't do very well. Other things, they've done amazingly well.

 

[wolfpackjeeper]

I had to memorize that John Stewart Mill quote during training.

 

[kf_chris]

would i change anything? yea. do i regret joining? definitely not. at 18 i was too young and did not have the determination to go to college and succeed. the military has enabled me to find the self motivation and determination and the drive to succeed and focus and concentrate on what matters most.

I felt the exact same way when I seperated.

And now that I'm on the outside. There are A LOT of prior service people out there in the 'real world'. It's nice. We all have a mutual respect for each other...and sort of a taint for the non-military people. But that's to be expected. Non of the inter-service BS really, we all know we came generally from the same place. It's nice to know that someone you work with can get the job done, once you know where they came from.
Something everyone (that I've seen) who's prior service working around me and everywhere I've seen them is the self discipline. I think we all could agree that many of the younger folks don't have near enough of that, nor respect for many people. You WILL get both of those in the service.

 

[bigalpha]

and sort of a taint for the non-military people.

A taint?

 

[kf_chris]

Not like the body part.
Some of the people who didn't do service time are a bit snobby about it. Like the idea of boot camp was too hard for them, or taking orders is something that's beneath them. I'm not a huge fan of unquestioned order acceptance, but it's part of the deal.

There's a noticeable difference in about 60% of the people who didn't do military time, but the other 40 are usually just cool people and they work hard like everyone else.
Of course, if you keep your head down and mouth shut and do your job then everyone gets along, no matter where you came from.

 

[rugbyxj53]

Hey Doc, you know the Medics always have a special place in the heart of a grimy dusty grunt. I have loads of respect for you guys, and it is a fine thing to see a switched on Combat Medic at work.

Got you lima charlie on the sig. RLTW

I appreciate those rounds you ground pounders put down range over my head. Keep on keepin' on.

All the way!!!

Witch Doctor OUT.