Should I join the Air Force or Navy?

In My Humble Opinion
21

Hey, I thought I was the only 'Bee on the boards. I’m a retired CE Chief.

Raguleader: As a Seabee, I spent 23 years and never set foot on one of those floating petri dishes. The Seabees are the construction arm of the Navy and are almost exclusively shore-based. You still deploy for months on end, but it’s in places where you can change into civvies and go out for a beer after work. The downside is that in a war situation, you’re in the thick of it.

Re your question about commissioning: the possibility is nearly zero. While there are “mustang” programs for enlisted persons, such as the LDO (Limited Duty Officer) program, the competition is very tough. You would be better off getting your degree first, then trying for OCS before signing up.

I would rank the services thusly:

Navy: pros - better promotion, interesting duty assignments, good schooling; cons - deployment cycles can by hell if you have a family, but sea duty is followed by lengthy shore duty assignments.

Air Force: pros - better food, better quarters, more informal; cons - poor promotion, crappy assignments, surrounded by pussies.

Army: pros - easier to become commissioned officer; cons - as easy to be demoted as it is promoted, crappy food, people shooting at you, and (and I’m sure I’ll get basted for this) a generally worse quality of people to work with (the Army is not all that choosy about who they recruit).

Marines: pros - extremely high esprit de corps; cons (maybe) - hard-core physical requirements, very strong military discipline and regimen, the worst food and living conditions in the military, people shooting at you, AND you can end up serving on board ship anyway. I’ve known a lot of Marines over the years, and while I respect what they do and called many of them friends, they’re some of the dumbest motherfuckers I’ve ever run across. No offense. While you may not be the first ones to assault a position, the Seabees who greet you when you arrive will let you claim the honor.

22

I spent my 23 in the “Bees”, retired as UTC. Tried to send you an email, but it was blocked.

23

Here’s a sea story (“no shit, this really happened”)

I was a navy journalist onboard an amphibious assault ship. For whatever reason, we had an USAF guy onboard, working and living with our aviation boatswain’s mates for the trip back from Okinawa to Pearl Harbor.

I interviewed him for the ships newspaper, to see how the novelty of navy life struck him:

“You guys are a bunch of fucking pigs! I don’t know how human beings can live like this.”

This being military journalism, the quote read as “I sure gotta take my hat off to you Navy guys! You do a heck of a job under some serious conditions!”

24

S.T., let me add, for the uninitiated: A fairy tale begins “Once upon a time…” and a sea story begins " Now this ain’t no shit…". :wink:

25

Sorry about that. I just sent you one.

26

Coastie here. For some brief info, here’s a post I made earlier this year when someone else was looking to join.

If you’re looking at aviation, here’s a page with some info on CG aircraft, as well as the boats and cutters. I’m not sure about the other services, but all of our enlisted aviation rates fly in the airframes that they work on. That may help with quality control; I don’t know, I’m a surface guy.

I’ll also take this opportunity to shamelessly plug the new movie coming out about CG Aviation Survival Technicians, called The Guardian. (In theaters Sept 29th)

If you have any specific questions, feel free to ask here, or shoot me an e-mail.

27

Almost everything I’ve read here is true as far as what I’ve seen in my 12 years in the Navy. Hands down, the AF has the best quality of life. Hands down, the AF is regarded by everyone I know in the Navy, USMC, and Army as the biggest bunch of pussies in the service. So it really depends on what you’re after. If it’s the military lifestyle and experiences, go with the Navy. If it’s job training and an easy desk job or tech job somewhere, then go with the AF.

Also, one thing I respect about the Navy: they’re very goal-oriented. We tend to focus on getting the job done even if it means bending the rules, whereas I’ve seen AF folks over and over again cite some regulation as a reason why they can’t get something done.

The flip side to that is how many times I’ve silently thanked my lucky stars for the AF when they start putting coffee shops and Burger King trailers on brand-new bases in the middle of the desert.

28

That’s actually not so much the Air Force as it is AAFES. Army Air Force Exchange Service, a DOD-owned company. My dad has been working for them in various management roles for the last 15 years or so. Basically, if the Army or Air Force go anywhere for any extended period of time, AAFES shows up, sets up stores, resteraunts, etc., imports the managerial staff, and hires locals to work in them.

Cause, yaknow, if the Air Force guys can’t get their burgers and mocha frau lattes, it’s IMPOSSIBLE to get them to do anything meaningful :smiley:

29

In this post, I mostly ramble my sleep-deprived caffeine-addled thoughts on the matter out:

Actually, the more I think about it, the more I realize that I’m not actually ALL that concerned about promotions. As it is, an E3 (what I’d go in as, thanks to my being an Eagle Scout) makes a magnitude more money than I have ever made at any job I’ve had. And I can use the GI bill benefits from any of the services to pay for the rest of my school, at which point I can go get a “real” job if I don’t stay in the military or if I get RoF’d.

Still, I would very much like to get a commission, but I guess if I join either the AF or Navy, and don’t make it into one of their commissioning programs, if I REALLY feel I need a set of gold bars, I can always just join the Army. Anybody know what kind of backgrounds enlisted guys who go into OTS/OCS for the Air Force and Navy tend to have? ie: college degrees, MOS’s, etc.? I’m going for a BA in History, but if it’ll make a big difference, I suppose I can always take some more lab sciences and make it a BS.

In any case, to make things more difficult for me, I’ve got a friend doing Air Battle Management in the Air Force saying “Go Air Force, it rocks.” and a friend enlisted in the Navy doing Crypto (I think) saying “Go Navy, Singapore is fun.” Also, it was mentioned that it’s hard to get a choice assignment in the AF after my first tour, so would that mean if I want to go to Japan or Korea, I should do it in the first go-round instead of aiming for Randolph? (I like Randolph cause I have family and friends in the SA area, and it’s a weekend trip away from College Station and Dallas, two locations of various sci-fi and anime conventions I like to go to).

As for the not-so-choice locations in the AF, where are they? I’ve heard of such garden spots as Iraq, Afghanistan, and Minot AFB, North Dakota. What are some of the other places you get sent to for staying out late with a general’s daughter?

Same question for the Navy, I figure there’s got to be postings there that suck (this isn’t a deciding factor, I’m just curious now).

30

You need to know right off that you don’t have a choice as to where you are assigned. It’s “needs of the service” and your personal desires have little to do with it. So get the notion of going to Japan “in the first go-round” right out of your pointy head. You’ll more likely end up in Iraq or nearby. When I joined the Navy, I asked to be assigned in Alaska. I ended up in Viet Nam. Then I asked for California and ended up in the Aleutians (technically Alaska). Then I asked for the east coast and got California. I went to precisely two places I asked for in 23 years.

31

Raguleader, how are you doing in college so far?
If you are willing to go Army, look into ROTC at least. Trying for OCS in any service, even the Army is quite hard. Plan on staying enlisted if you go in enlisted.

Remember Army is the most likely to put you in harms way. I do not say do not do this, I only say to be fully aware of the added dangers of Army or Marines.

Jim

32

I understand not wanting to fight. It is quite common. But I do not understand the desire not to fight combined with the desire to join the military.

Lots of Air Force enlisted guys die in Iraq (and elsewhere). Who do you think drives those trucks on the supply routes? Just flying in and out of the country is dangerous.

While many jobs are less hazardous, few are without risk. I would suggest that is you are unwilling to fight you stay out of uniform.

33

That just does not make sense Paul, I served 4 years in the Navy and I was never at any great risk. I had no great desire to fight, but I did desire to serve my country and better myself. The Navy and Air Force both extend a great opportunity to do both. The nation needs volunteers to support the ground troops by Sea and Air.

I have never fired a gun, but I did act as 1/5000th of the crew of one of the most powerful projections of power in the history of mankind. Translated I served on board an Aircraft Carrier. I served well and honorably.

**We should all support any young person that wishes to serve his country, be they a Soldier, Sailor, Marine or Airman. These are all honorable trades and our country needs good, smart volunteers to continue to keep us safe and continue our traditions excellence and duty. **

Jim

34

Air Force is probably the best if you’re mainly looking at living and working conditions.

If you are interested in aviation and not in flying a commercial airliner, Navy has more interesting equipment… and you can still go the big bird path in the Navy, too.

If you want to become an officer and you have the ASVAB scores for it… you could try enlisting as a Nuke and putting in a package. Seems like most of the people I know that put in a package eventually made it. I wouldn’t necessarily recommend it.

35

Perhaps not great risk, but even in peacetime, military life is more dangerous than most. It is muddy thinking to think that signing up nowadays is perfectly safe.

(Of course some jobs are very dangerous indeed. Others are much safer, but few are without danger.)

36

Excluding CBs and SEALS, I would not be surprised if even over the last 4 years, it has been no more dangerous to be in the Navy than as a civilian back home. There are risks and then there are great risks. I do not have enough data to guess about the Air Force, but Shipboard duty has been extremely safe since WWII. Occasional fires and explosions but not much more dangerous than being 20 anywhere else in the US.

Jim

37

Had an Air Force ROTC contract for Electrical Engineering at Texas A&M, but I give that up when I dropped out of the Corps of Cadets and decided I wasn’t going to be able to handle all the math involved in majoring in double-E. After that, my four years at A&M were fairly poor since I never developed study skills, though I did better at community colleges during the summers. Right now I’m doing a full-time semester at a community college in Arizona, and I seem to be doing fairly well so far.

The ROTC option for me seems to contain lots of “Maybes” and “Ifs” from the ROTC admissions officer at UofA, since what I have been told is that to try to get into the POC course, I have to first go to a university that has an Air Force ROTC, take the lead labs for the first two years of ROTC (I already took the first two years of Aerospace Science), and then complete Field Training before they decide if they’ll let me do POC. The big problem here is that I still have to pay for the university where I will be doing this, and my $2500 Stafford loan isn’t going to cut it at UofA or ASU, the two relatively affordable options in Arizona (the others are a private college and the DeVry Institute).

The big problem I’m having with talking to military recruiters about commissioning options is I don’t get the impression any of them know anything about them.

Oh, and Paul in Saudi , it’s worth noting that I haven’t said anything about particularly wanting to avoid combat (at least, not that I remember; it has been a long day for me today), just that my family has very strong objections to me joining the Army or Marines.

38

You know, I hate to push another site, but there’s a lot of good info at the airwarriors.com mb. Most of the guys there are no-shit Naval Officers and Enlisted who are more than willing to answer your questions, although they do expect you to do a little digging first. I think all of the questions you’ve asked here have been addressed there at some point or another, although from a decidedly Navy pov.

[soapbox]Here’s a piece of advice for you, which will apply if you want to be successful either as a Junior Enlisted or an Officer candidate: Be proactive and confident. It’s nice that you’re gathering information here about which path to follow, but at some point you’re going to have to make a decision: either Navy, AF, or neither. Whatever you do, don’t wallow in indecisiveness. Make a decision and move on with your life, and whatever you decide, don’t look back. Generally speaking, there are no successful but bitter Petty Officers, Officers, or Seargents. You’re either one or the other, and no one respects a bitter shipmate. A positive mental attitude and a willingness to step out and aggressively tackle a situation will take you far.[/soapbox]

39

The Air Force can post you to Spain too. Dunnow about the other places.

40

Some other poster said it. They were not my words. I would still push for the Army. In order to meet its recruiting goals, Congress has given them educational sweeteners the other services do not have.