re: Thinking about joining the military UPDATE: joined Army

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I was given 20,000 to join the Army and it wasn’t infantry

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18k for the Navy in June of 2001...The higher the ASVAB, the more they're willing to put into you

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“non combat jobs” in the Army and Marines see a lot more combat than their AF or Navy counterparts

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While normally true, places like Bahrain rotate through quite a bit of Navy persons..I've probably seen as much brown as blue and know several people in all four branches that have only seen green..Years ago, you could assume that certain branches would never see combat, but the last 15 years certainly changed that..I'm also of the opinion that the more a person tells you about what they saw/did, the more the person didn't do

Military is a great option for a lot of people. Most folks in our family served in one capacity or another. My wife and I both served, and my son is active duty Army now...he got $20K bonus and is basically a health inspector.

As long as your aren’t a moron, the army is pretty damn easy and pretty damn fun. Here is my advice.

1) don’t be late.
2) Wear the right clothes.
3) don’t be fat.
4) pass your PT test.

That right there virtually guarantees you E5.

Find a job that is current. What I mean by that is artillary is cool, but it doesn’t really translate into the civilian world. IT/COMMs, MI, Medical. Those three will give you skills to make money outside of the Military.

If you aren’t going to do 20, have a legit exit strategy. If by year 3 you aren’t feeling it, start pounding classes. You can knock out a bunch for free so do it. I’m not saying to not take classes if you want to stay in (helps with promotion), but if you know you are getting out, you need to have an exit plan. This will allow you to save your GI for post graduate education.

Don’t stay enlisted. If you love enlisted, get your E6 and consider WOC. If you want to go officer, do it the first chance you get.

Have fun, bro. I have great memories and greater friends from my time in the military.

Army....street to seat for aviation or boat warrant. You can thank me later.

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.street to seat for aviation or boat warrant.

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I wish I would have looked at more programs like this before I turned 35..If you want to have a cool job in the army, CWO seems to be the way to do it

Join the SEALs don't be a pussy

Air assault is better. No one was jumping behind enemy lines in Iraq and Afghanistan unless you were HALO

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You don't have to do stupid drills and bullshite inspections

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I stopped caring about inspections after ACU's and suede boots came out. Class a inspections are a PITA but much more rare. And what do you mean by drills? Marching around and doing facing movements and shite? Only time we did that after IET was change of commands or something. It's not like we just spent days marching up and down the square.

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I stopped caring about inspections after ACU's and suede boots came out. Class a inspections are a PITA but much more rare. And what do you mean by drills? Marching around and doing facing movements and shite? Only time we did that after IET was change of commands or something. It's not like we just spent days marching up and down the square.

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I was in Riyadh (Eskan Village) in '96 working on a wideband comm link. There were only 4 of us on my team and they put us up in a villa where we each had our own bedroom. I rode a bicycle to work and I clearly remember seeing the Army dudes there marching around in formation at like 6am. It always stuck in my head because I was sooo close to joining the Army and seeing them forever convinced me I made the right choice.