Thinking about the military. Advice?

[Indalecia]

...and stay in the middle of Nebraska or wherever the fuck for your enlistment.

Fuck that

2 cruises and I completed all my song trophies:


ACHIEVEMENT UNLOCKED!

http://i118.photobucket.com/albums/o...a/Image052.jpg

Post 8-ton cocaine bust celebration. God bless Panama
(Before the active guys get snarky, we were in the middle of a midcruise facial hair contest. I decided to just stick with what worked.)

[Iku]

-For those in the military or former military, what was your job? Did you enjoy what you did?

I am in the Army as a 25Q ( some retarded communications shit ). It is like a radio signal specialist. You set up the system and then maintenance the system. It is boring but at least you get alot of time to play your PSP, NDS

-Silly question; but how were the people you were deployed with? Were any of them unbearable or was this looked past due to your situation? I don't want to be stuck on a ship or in buttfuck Afghanistan with someone I can't stand.

I stationed in CA and got attached into some company in FL for my deployment. We had a slut that went around and fucked everyone. One white dude that got sent back because he wanted to suicide. One dude that took shower once a month. A black dude that carried a bible and preached about God as soon as we had some downtime. But i also met some great people. You are not the only one that got horny during your deployment. Alot of bitches will fuck you if you do it right, and yeah, even if they are married. Just play your card right.

-I have asthma. It's sports triggered. I can handle it fine in most situations but I've heard that the marines will not allow you an inhaler on deployment. Also, how bad does this hurt my chances for joining.

Can you run 2miles? If you can, then yeah, you can join.

-How was basic?

My basic was in Fort Jackson. It was not that hardest but i did it during December to March, so it was cold and wet. It was rough but it was fun at the same time. Also get used to taking shower with a bunch of butt-naked guy standing behind you. I went for my MOS training at Fort Gordon. It was alright but they got alot of more freedom than basic.

-What's the chow like?

On the field, dont expect fancy foods. You are most likely to eat these alot

http://cgi.ebay.com/MRE-INDIVIDUAL-P...item1c1971e0f3

If you are in barrack, the dining facility is decent. I was a college student eating ramen for weeks so cant really complain about foods here. They have mcdonal, subway, etc... at the base if you feel like eating out.


Advices:

Air Force is the easiest branch with better barrack and dining facility and alot of great pussies.

When you pick your MOS, use your common sense and picked the one that can be transferred into civilian world.

If you feel like going oversea, ask for it.

Go for OFFICER.

Ultimately, finish your degree and do whatever you want.

[heartslaught]

Questions:
-For those in the military or former military, what was your job? Did you enjoy what you did?

USAF atm, E-3. I'm a weather forecaster here on Scott AFB. I like what I do, some see writing TAFs so many days a week as torture. Then, these people are also the types who don't realize, imo, how much worse it can be. Some just don't enjoy the job period as it's not their thing. Plan on spring boarding into meteorology anyhow with three years of physics under my belt... just need to finish the blasted BA <.<.

-Silly question; but how were the people you were deployed with? Were any of them unbearable or was this looked past due to your situation? I don't want to be stuck on a ship or in buttfuck Afghanistan with someone I can't stand.

Personally I haven't deployed. Those who have that I work with... most actually enjoyed it. Then again, we have a saying, "If a weather forecaster gets a SAW, shit's gone down." Most of the people I know, or in weather in general, want to go to or have gone to South Korea. That seems to be the field hotspot.

-I have asthma. It's sports triggered. I can handle it fine in most situations but I've heard that the marines will not allow you an inhaler on deployment. Also, how bad does this hurt my chances for joining.

Be careful with that. I've seen one person recently temporarily retired because of it already. Most go on "broke" profiles for running at least. You wanna deploy? Any medical profile will ground your ass immediately.

-How was basic?

Fucking blew ass. I saw absolutely zero point to it outside a slight amount of learning about how the military functions. Outside of that, it's 8.5 weeks of useless busy work. Throw on top of the fact that my basic flight was a bunch of douchebags? Yeah, unpleasant to say the least. Experience will vary from person to person!

-What's the chow like?

I don't why people go on and on about how good USAF chow hall's are. They are jokes in both quality and taste, and are for people who can't cook. My advice, get on BAS as fast as you can (it's a requirement for weather forecasters, once we get onto the hub floor here at scott, that due to our shift work we all go on BAS) as $300 a month is banking it, and you'll get a better meal in my strong opinion.

All in all, especially as I'm in the process of doing this myself, FINISH THAT FUCKING DEGREE!

[Reuniont]

-For those in the military or former military, what was your job? Did you enjoy what you did?

Former navy, got out in 2007. I left as an E-4 AS (Aviation Support Equip Technician). The first half of my enlistment, my job was to work on most anything involved in aviation besides the aircrafts themselves. It was a lot of fun, learned plenty of skills that could have been applied to the outside if I wanted, and got greasy.

The second half was in dry dock though, which means that the ship itself was going through repairs and was non-operational. During that time, we had no gear to work on, so my job was to clean ship spaces 8-10 hours a day. Even got to clean up piss, shit, and/or vomit on a daily basis (Did anyone mention to go officer?). That part, I did not enjoy so much lol.

-Silly question; but how were the people you were deployed with? Were any of them unbearable or was this looked past due to your situation? I don't want to be stuck on a ship or in buttfuck Afghanistan with someone I can't stand.

Everyone has their cliches that they like to hang out with. The same people that I worked with were the same people that I drank and went to bars with. People in my rate tended to stick together.

Of course there are going to be people that you cannot stand, but that's pretty much goes with anywhere you work. Tough it out and if said person is in your chain of command, then don't do anything to make yourself stand out in a bad way.




-I have asthma. It's sports triggered. I can handle it fine in most situations but I've heard that the marines will not allow you an inhaler on deployment. Also, how bad does this hurt my chances for joining.

http://usmilitary.about.com/od/joini...y/a/asthma.htm

Didn't read, did a quick google search.

PRT became a huge focus at the time I was leaving, so I'm gonna probably say getting a waiver might be difficult. Best bet would be to talk to a recruiter about that.

-How was basic?

Wasn't really hard, wasn't really easy. It was more like a blur for me. Majority of time my brain was shut off because everyday is mindless.


-What's the chow like?

I actually like it! During deployment, we had steak and lobster tail every now and then, along with ice cream sundae nights and pizza nights. Depends on who's running the galley I suppose.

[jakedke87]

Currently serving in Kandahar, Afghanistan. US Army

-For those in the military or former military, what was your job? Did you enjoy what you did?

25B- Information Technology Specialist: Operations Analyst (Fix my computer noooooow!) I love my job, what I do. It helps that I am actually good at it as well.

Mostly help desk. Adding printer capabilities, fixing software issues, helping with Microsoft programs. Easy stuff.

Deployment gave me more to learn: I got to learn about army radios & equipment, got to configure routers & switches (which I hadn't done since AIT.) And some other stuff.

My MOS has difficulties getting promoted to E5/E6. Initial enlistment was 6 years, don't know if this has changed any.

-How were the people you were deployed with?
Most of them are decent. Only have a couple bad apples, but that's easy to live with.

-How was basic?
Like most people will tell you, it's more mental than it is physical. I went to Fort Jackson, SC. We do the requirement (certain amount of ruck marches, obstacle courses, PT event, M16 range, grenade throw) Did that for 10 weeks (I was on a test cycle.)

Got up at 5 in the morning, done about 8-9 PM. I beleive they are more lax about this now though.
Sundays were our down days.

AIT was at Fort Gordon, GA, this is where all Signal MOS's go for training. Got more priveleges the longer I was there. Was able to wear civilian clothes on the weekends.

-What's the chow like?
Institutionalized, for the most part (basic & AIT, or Advanced Individual Training)

When I was in South Korea, the food there was decent, as well as Fort Lewis (my home station.) Fort Lewis we actually had army cooks cook the food. Army Cooks (by MOS) are usually forced on other jobs, not related to their actual MOS.

At my FOB, the food is actually better than the main HQ, Kandahar Air Field.

Also, unless you like to deploy for a solid year at a time, go with some other branch: Army deploys for 12 months. 15 months for infantry.
Air Force, Marine, Navy: 6 months (typically, sometimes they do more.)

[Minnich]

As I write this I'm sitting in Mannas AB, Kyrjikstan, waiting to get on my flight into Afghan...

It was an experience, but i'd give it all back, because in April of 2009...
...We carried his casket in the pooring rain into a C-130 at 0200 in the morning.

First off, Manas is the coldest place I've ever been to. Fuck that place on New Year's day. Went back through in May, and it was fucking amazing though.

The other thing is, I was in Afghanistan during April 2009 and chances are, if you were in Bagram, I was saluting you and your friends as you went by. I was an F-15E crew chief there, and I remember hearing about an EOD member (didn't specify what branch) getting killed from some of our pilots that were flying support overhead around there. My buddy from HS was EOD in the Army at the same time, so I was shitting bricks for a while there. Sorry to hear it was your friend.

As to the OP:
Wen I was 20, I was wasting away in college, much like you seem to be, and taking classes just because I had nothing better to do. I had no passion and no direction. I knew I needed something to do with my life, and needed it ASAP. I pretty much made up my mind to join the Air Force in one day, to the surprise of my parents. I walked in, and he asked if I had any questions. I had none; I had already made up my mind and two days later I was at MEPS.

It's been four years now, and I have a nice place to live, good friends, a nice car, and plenty of money saved up for the future. I'll also be finishing up a degree by the end of the year. I don't regret a single thing about joining the Air Force, although I may complain about my job on occasion (but, who doesn't?). I can get out in two years and possibly make six digits a year, or stay in 16 more and retire at the age of 41.

Honestly, there are so many good memories and proud moments that I've had already that I could write for hours. In fact, I've already rewritten this twice because I was afraid I was starting to ramble. Honestly though, man, some times you just have to make a damned decision and live with it. If you think about this too much, you're going to get nowhere.

Edit: You wanted travel? In the last 2 years I've been to England (lived there two years), Germany, Spain, Iraq, Afghanistan, Qatar, Turkey, Romania, Kyrgystan, Italy, and of course the US. In fact, I'm in Las Vegas for a few weeks right now.