Want advice from GMTC's GI Joes:

[SnakeEyeSS]

I've already talked to the Marines a bunch, now I'm going tuesday to talk to the Army National Guard. I realize that chances are it'll go like this:

sign up

basic training

"college? HAH! we're sending you to Iraq!"

 

multiple people in my family have been lied to who are in the military(a cousin tested high enough to be in Navy intellengence, they told her she would be. Also, she was supposed to be in college free by now. Last I heard no college at all yet (3 years service), and she does guard duty.

 

My dad went to 'Nam (and is proud to have served) and is persistent in telling me almost everything a recruiter will tell you is a lie.

 

So I'm not sure of the advantages of sign up in the [edit]NATIONAL GUARD over full-time/active duty right now. only diff I know of now is a fatter sign on bonus for the active duty guys. I'd prefer to get a degree first so I could progress through a military carrer faster if I liked it, but so far, that looks like it won't happen until I've been in a looooooong time.

[SnakeEyeSS]

P.S. I'm thinking of Army mainly, no navy or marines, I HATE water and am a terrible swimmer.

 

Air force? my vision is bad, so they wouldn't let me fly a paper airplane. It's also to bad to be in the LZ clearing squad.

[The SPEEDY]

My brother is in the Marine corps reserves and he says he likes it. He says not to go active until you have gotten a taste of it. You can go from reserves to active, but you can't go from active to reserves.

[MountaineerTom]

Are you specificly wanting to fly? If not, depending on how bad your eyes are, you might still be able to get in. I did and had 20/100 vision.

 

My advice, regardless of which branch you choose, ask the recruiter what specific jobs are available. He should be able to give you a list with descriptions. Find one you like and tell him you want a garunteed job in that career field. I don't know what the other services call it, but in the AF you can join with a open career field. That means they will stick you where they need people. It might be Aircraft maintenence, a cook, hospital, ditch digger, or anything else may be short on manning. They can tell you verbaly that you can get job "X", but make sure you get it garunteed before you leave. That's what I did. I knew what I was going into months before I even left for basic training.

 

Also, in my experiences with my career field, we don't let new troops start college classes until after they complete and pass their Career Development Course (CDC's), which is a course that deals with their job. They have to finish the CDC's and have a certain amount of OJT before they can obtain their next skill level. We do that so they only have to concentrate on teir CDC's. To many of them fail the cource, and it does not help us at all when they do, unless they make a good recovery from it and do well on the retest. As for your cousin, at 3 years in service, I would think she should be done with all that, but it depends on her career field. Some take longer and have more stuff involved in obtaining the next skill level.

Plus, she's Navy, and it may be different that what we do in the AF.

 

Another point, and this happens with a lot of people I see coming in. Remember that your job comes first. Anything else after that is a bonus. I see too many complaining that they have to work more than 8 hours, can't swap shifts to accomadate school or other activities. Some even say the AF owes them this or that because of whatever reason. As a supervisor, it gets kind of aggrevating hearing it and we have to bring them back to reality every now and then.

 

Serve your country proud, but by all means do what you can to take scool or whatever you want to do for yourselve when you and your work schedule can accomodate it.

 

Good luck with your choice.

[Wingnut]

The education benefits are there for just about anyone to take advantage of. Problem is finding time to do it. And being a junior airman/seaman/soldier/Marine you will have pretty much zero time for school for at least the first four years.

 

Navy... you will spend many, many moons cutting slots through the oceans.

Marines... you will ride around with them...Depending on your MOS.

Army...Coulnd't tell you anything about that.

Air Force...Nice golf courses, crappy promotion potential.

Nat'l Guard...Don't know much about them either.

 

But you had it dead on about getting your degree first. Be a donut (officer) instead of an enlisted. You will live a better military life as a "zero".

 

Most recruiters don't really "lie". They just don't tell you everything. I will tell you this...If it isn't in writing, it isn't happening.

 

I'm not trying to discourage you from the military, as they can be a great time (and career) for a lot of people. I certainly had my share of good times all over the planet, and don't regret a second of the 10 years I did. But it took me 5 years of active duty before I even had enough time to take my first college class.

 

BTW...There are a TON of guys in the Navy that can't swim.

 

I'll shut up now.

[SnakeEyeSS]

hmm, if I went to college first, would they reinburse college funds? Because in the OK Police Corps do that"(if your chosen), and that's what I'm thinking of doing out of college. Looks like going to college first is my best bet.

[Greg]

My son early selected the Marines reserve when he was in high school. He decided to change to active duty before enlistment. The reserve unit he would have gone into was deployed to Iraq. On active duty for about two years, he hasn't left the USA.

[Black02Silverado]

Mountaineer Tom said it all. The other thing is that in I think all the services, not sure but at least in the Air Force 100% of your tuition is paid for now. So that leaves just the books at your cost and depends on where you are you can get grants to pay some if not all of that.

 

If you did join up just make sure you get a guaranteed job. Civil Engineering is a great job to have depending on the job, HVAC, Electrician, Plumbing, structural repair, and so on. The biggest problem is that you can be sent anywhere in the world, you work all kinds of hours at all days of the week. Imagine if your in HVAC and the AC goes down in the base exchange over the weekend. Well you get to go in and fix it. Now the plus side is that after your 4 years are done you have a great trade to fall on in the civilian sector. My one friend is a certified electrician and has a killer job now that he is out and the AF paid for his license.

 

I thought the same when I came in being a jet engine mechanic. I got my power plant license and working on my Airframe but the job market after 9-11 has crashed in my field.

 

It all depends on what you want to due as jobs go. Research what you can, if you have any questions, ask them here, I'm sure there are others besides Mountaneer Tom and myself that can help.

 

Hear at Seymour Johnson AFB in NC you can get a 4 year degree in no time. We are lucky to have 8 week semesters. I keep telling my guys to get what they can here because it isn't like this everywhere.

 

Again depending on what job you go for depends on where you go. I can't go to those great places that don't have aircraft to work on. But if your in security forces then you can go to any base. I might add that they are in short supply, that is a good thing for enlistment bonuses but bad due to being sent all over the world often, filling those gaps and helping out other bases.

 

Depends on the supervisor, but in our shop and work load, I let my guys take lunch hour classes, I even let them work around their class so as to if they have to come in late two days out of the week no problem, just make up the time. Now this is all on the supervisor. My guys bust a$$ at work so I work with them as well.