Not necessarily. I'm saying that if I could go back I would have listened to my dad. We all know that 19 years old is near the peak of rebellion against the parents. Sadly, almost weekly now, I find I am more and more like my dad than I ever expected and my life will probably end up on the same track his did until he was about 40-45 where he lost his business to an ex-wife and things went south. But I have learned a lot, if not directly from him, from his experiences. Fact is what he recommended I do in the military is now exactly want I want to do and am on track to doing as a civilian. But like the OP here I wouldn't be able to afford it if I hadn't joined the military. I just wish I had chosen a different path because I would have had the education I needed while I was active and I would be working a good job now instead of being 8 years behind the power curve. I did see and do a lot of crazy stuff that nobody else besides the 25-30 guys in my platoon at any given time has seen/done or will ever. Some of that stuff has had a long-term effect on my body and mind though.

If they even give it to you...

Yep. Which is one more reason I think they are nowhere as bad as the Army when it comes to leadership. Their promotion system actually makes sense (even though it takes longer) and they are much better at controlling their personnel and weeding out the bad ones. Kicking out the people who don't belong and making sure the ones in charge have been there and know what they're doing is a better way of ensuring the success of the whole branch.

That's been me for about 75% of the past 6.5 years. I went to basic as a reservist and switched to active after I graduated. I had awesome recruiters and they told me I could do what I want because of my score on the GT section of the ASVAB. I was still in brainwashed mode after basic and had the mentality of "we just started a war, there is no point in me being in the military if I don't fight." I wasn't one of these guys that comes in thinking he's a hardass, but I wanted to do my part in the war and I did it, 3 times. So I guess like I said, I don't regret it all, but I would definitely be in better shape, physically, mentally, and financially if I had listened to pops.

Main point here is listen to those who you're close to and think about how it will affect them. Not only yourself. For example, in the Army there is no taking vacation for a week because your sister is getting married or your brother is having a kid. You go when they tell you and for how long they tell you unless it is an emergency. I'm just one out of the many on here that have been in the military, but you can learn a lot from my experience.

 

I am glad to see you in here. This gives forddzlman a good idea of how things are in the military. its a double edged sword. Theres good and theres bad in the military. all branches. I will not knock any job in the military, but i will say that there are soldiers here that hate me and my team strictly because of how we operate. Different folks, different strokes.

 

Thanks guys, for all your help. I'm going to talk to an Air Force recruiter next Tuesday. He thinks that if the doc released me that I should be good to go. I'm going to try to get a note from the doctor saying that I'm good to go, to take with me and show him. We called and talked to another Army recruiter about the 6 month wait after surgery and he said absolutely no way around it. So for Army, the soonest I can ship to basic looks like May next year. That wouldn't be so bad. Anything I need to know about the AF that anyone on here can tell me?

 

Good luck and let us know how it plays out.

 

Thanks and will do.

 

What would you like to know?

 

From what I have seen working next to the AF in Germany is
1. it is like working for a company that wears a uniform
2. The food is the best of all services
3. everyone calls each other by their first name; even enlisted to officer and vice versa
4. the bast looking girls join the AF (on average)
5. thats all i can think of right now

 

i havent been in too long just over 3 years and i see very few people doing the first name thing and if anything its mostly civilian contractors to military or high ranking to lower rank and not the opposite but thats crazy you see it quite a bit. 4 month deployments are no longer they will be upping that soon per a letter that came out.

 

Anything since I pretty much know nothing.

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So are you saying that deployments will be longer then?

 

yes 6 month for most of the AF. and it should be starting soon.