Thinking about joining the military..

[gsarchie]

A lot of your questions has answered already but I'll throw my $0.02 in as well.

1) You say that the military is a back up. My honest assessment based on this comment and the rest of your post is that you wouldn't like the military, but I could be wrong.

2) I don't believe that the Marines can guarantee you a specific job, but I could be wrong. I do know that Army can guarantee you any job that you qualify for. If you want a job and you go to MEPS to enlist and they say that they don't have that MOS available then tell them thanks and that you'll come back when they have it. I will say that it is exceptionally important to be in the job you want or you will be far more likely to hate your job.

3) Don't expect to make more than $2K a month for your first few years. This might not seem like much but keep in mind that you will not be buying groceries (you will eat at the DFAC), paying for rent (you will live in the barracks) or paying for health insurance. You also won't have to pay for utilities. It will essentially all be disposable income.

4) You can be stationed anywhere in the world. All over the US, Afghanistan, Kuwait, Korea, Germany. Aside from that some very hard places to get are Italy and Japan. You can also deploy to Africa, I was supposed to be going there after I got home from here but now it looks like I'll be going to somewhere in Europe.

5) You can really hate some of the people that you work with but in my experience, the friends that I've made in the Army are closer than any friends that I've made in the civilian world.

6) Whoever told you that Marines don't deploy and that you can go to college while at boot camp is lying to your face. Either that or they are incredibly mis-informed. You will eat, sleep and breathe the Amry or Marine Corps every second of every day that you spend in Basic/Boot and AIT.

7) I was a reservist for 8 years before going active duty upon graduating from KU (Kansas) and finishing ROTC, and I have now been active duty for over 2 years. I was in supply, a 92A, and am now a field artillery officer, or a 13A, and am a 1LT. I love what I do, although I still have moments where I wish that I had gone pilot or infantry. I can chock pretty much every aspect of my present adult life up to being brought about as a result of my time in the Army, to include both good and bad experiences. That said, I have no true regrets, even if I would do some things differently.

I hope that helps and good luck with whatever you do. Go ARMY! And to the individual who in a round-about way talked a little smack on the Army, iPanda, check yourself. 15 months a year? Not quite. Also, the active duty side of the house (Army-wise) has moved to 9 month tours with no R&R, and my 9 month tour is only going to end up being a total of 8. Yes, I'll deploy again in a year, but your comment was a bit off. What do you do that as an airman you are deployed for more than 3 months at a time? You must be guard or reserves, yes? Otherwise you'd have to be a JTAC assigned to an Army unit doing a yearlong deployment.