what is your experience?
what branch should i join?
how much $$$ would i make?
i have no preference except a desire to see the world. even Iraq 
I loved my time in the Air Force. MEPS (Intake facility where they do all the tests) and Basic were a little overwhelming and frightening, but once you are off to your duty station, it’s much better.
Each branch has definite differences. They all pay the same, but the Air Force promotes the slowest.
In my experience:
Air Force is the least military of the branches (not necessarily a good thing). Air Force promotes the slowest but has the best standard of living for its people. Even junior enlisted folk. The other branches promote much more quickly, but that is because people leave them sooner. Congress mandates the percentages of personnel in each rank. For quick promotion, people have to be leaving to make room for you in the percentage cap. It will take you three to four years to make E-4 in the Air Force. It can be reduced to months in the other branches. Check out the pay chart for the difference between E-2, E-3 and E-4.
The Navy promotes quickly and has (some) snappy uniforms. Air Force uniforms kind of suck. More importantly, the Navy trains you for wider responsibility in your position. In the Air Force, you might focus on one aspect of the career field. The Navy people I knew were trained in several aspects. Of course, several Navy people I knew got reassigned to jobs they had no interest in. Only one actually chipped paint for a job, though. To be fair, all branches of the military can reassign you at will and over your objections.
The Marines are the most military. After thinking back on the Marines I had met over the years, I was forced to retract most of the jokes I ever made about them. They are obnoxiously macho and overly proud, but they aren’t stupid or bumbling. They promote on pace with the Navy but, and I didn’t think this was possible, they get housed worse. Marines are sharp. They are also overworked. Don’t go Marines unless you are serious. You can get away with biding time in the Air Force, Navy or Army.
Army kind of sucks. Uniforms are worse than the Air Force. The people, for the most part, are not sharp. In fact, I’ve had to reassign all the Marine jokes to Army. Not all Army personnel are dull as safety scissors, but you can make the generalization without being wrong too often. They promote quickly, though.
Pay chart No branch will make you rich. If you stick to a wife and no more than two children, you should be comfortable, though. If you are single, you get paid enough.
Whichever branch you go with, enjoy your time. It really can be fun. It can also drive you mad.
6 years in the navy
You’ll never get rich… You’ll make a living as a single but you’ll be very poor if you try to support a family on junior enlisted pay. I made adequate money as an E-5 but I was on an accelerated advancement program and made that grade in two years. That is not the norm even for the navy.
Your question tells me that you probably shouldn’t join the military, at least until you’ve done a lot of investigation. IMO joining the military with no guaranteed education or anything else is a bad move. The military has changed but I doubt if any branch has a shortage of shit jobs for E-1,2,3 grunts. You should have a specialty so you can do that rather than scrub shitters and peel potatoes.
Each branch treats specialties a little different with the navy probably one one extreme end. Your specialty is called a rating and in effect becomes part of your rankd. As an E-5 I wasn’t just a second class petty officer but an aviation fire control tech, second class. You cannot advance without having a specialty beyond pay grade E-3.
What do you want to do? Do you want a specialty that is useful in the civilian world?
Interesting comments about the navy leenmi and I can’t dispute them. I don’t know about housing though. We stayed in some real shitholes at NAS Fallon and NAF El Centro. When we went to red flag at Nellis AFB we stayed in barracks we were informed were not suitable for air force personnel. Stuck us as odd as we never stayed anywhere so nice.
Ships are another matter. Semi-private quarters mean only 200 men to a room. At least I wasn’t on a sub or a small boy with hot bunks, I had my own.
It is possible to join the Navy and see the world. Or at least, a healthy portion of it.
I was in for five years. In that time, I visited fourteen different countries.
This included a two-year overseas posting in Sicily and a six-month cruise around South America.
It’s safe to say I’d have never had the chance to see so many places as a civilian. However, not all sailors get to see so much. I got lucky, and also made some good choices.
Also, keep in mind, it’s not always fun. Most of my time in Sicily was occupied with the war in the former Yugoslavia, which was a grim and nasty business. I also spent most of my last year in testing Tomahawk equipment, for very long hours.
**what is your experience? **
4 years Army, Arabic Linguist/Electronic Warfare Specialist
what branch should i join?
Take your pick. All are unique and have something different to offer. I’d bet that the branch you select will have everything to do with your recruiter. Whatever you do, DON’T SIGN UP TO BE A COOK! As offensive as I found leenmi’s statements about the Army, I must sadly agree for the most part. I can’t explain what makes some individuals enter a particular branch or why stereotypes are so easily created. Could be that the Marines can take nearly anyone and turn them into a Marine which is a small branch with specialized needs and functions. Air Force & Navy possibly have a greater proportion of high tech jobs and so tend to recruit sharper individuals. Army, God bless 'em, is huge, has a huge variety jobs ranging from way cool (mine) to real shitty, and they need people who will do these jobs for next to no pay and limited freedom of lifestyle. I had a great time, personally, and learned a lot. Even as an Army dude I wouldn’t trade those 4 years for anything else.
how much $$$ would i make?
Enough–if you stay single and don’t drink it all. Invest half of your salary. Just do it. Or you’ll spend your monthly pittance.
**i have no preference except a desire to see the world. even Iraq **
and meet new and interesting people… 
General Questions is for questions with factual answers. IMHO is for opinions and polls. Please read the forum descriptions.
Off to IMHO.
DrMatrix - GQ Moderator
Do you have skills going in? This can make a difference.
When my brother enlisted in the Army, they tried to use the GI BIll as an incentive. That’s okay, he answered, I already have a degree. Well, the recruiter came back, we can help you pay off your loans then. That’s okay, sez bro, I don’t have any student loans to pay off.
Stumpted recruiter gives him a look that says, then what the effin’ hell are ya doin’ here, boy?
He went into the Rangers, which meant a hellish trip through basic training, airborne training and RIP, followed shortly thereafter by Ranger School. Having to volunteer so many times tended to weed out the dumbasses.
No big money, not the greatest fashion sense in the world, good insurance as long as you aren’t in a hurry for anything.
But if you don’t have a big yearning for the military life, it would probably be a mistake.
i’m not sure what constitutes a skill. i have no education beyond high school. i have knowledge of computers and electronics. i’ve been programming for 8 or 9 years - mostly x86 assembly and C.
i need time to decide what i am going to do with my life as far as a college degree and a subsequent career is concerned. at this juncture, i’m thinking some sort of structure is necessary; otherwise i’ll end of depressed, drug-addicted and eventually confined to a psychiatric ward(again). my tenuous grasp on sanity and motivation is forcing me to make a serious decision. the last thing i expected to get out of military service is fun. doing grunt work is not contrary to my wants and needs(i have little).
as far as what i want to do… nothing that involves computers, as strange as that seems, being the only viable specialty i can think of.
i’m gonna revise my preference… seeing the world is not necessary; avoiding anything cerebral is.
i have a black-belt in tae kwon do and spent a few years in hap kido… any use? i want to do something physically taxing at least. obviously i’m naive - blame hollywood. looks like i’ll have to do some research…
The depression, drug issues and mental illness you’ve admitted to worry me here, whoisreadingthis. The military is selective, and doesn’t want someone in a combat environment who might crack up.
I’m not saying you will, mind. However, the military is mentally taxing. There can be long stretches of boring duty, separated from loved ones. People prone already to depression can’t cope well with this.
Also, the military has cleaned up its act considerably since the “bad old days” in regards to drugs. However, since it is a youth culture, that temptation cannot be totally eliminated. Expecting to go to the military and totally avoid drugs is unrealistic. I’ve seen too many good sailors fail their “whiz-quiz” and get kicked out, so I urge you to be clear eyed about this.
Alcohol abuse can also be a serious problem. It also is tolerated far less than in the old days, especially in younger sailors. You won’t be given too many chances before you’re kicked out. Getting kicked out, too, usually leaves you ineligible for veteran’s benefits, so your service would have counted for nothing.
In short, please don’t join to avoid the world for a few years. If you join, engage the world and the military. Use your mind - you’ll be far more at risk for problems if you don’t.
Your computer skills and martial arts training are both assets to a point. Mention them to your recruiter, and use them and your test scores to find a job. Please try to have one on paper heading in. This won’t be a guarantee, either, but it will be a bargaining tool. If you have a guaranteed slot in a computer school, and the old “needs of the service” pop up, and that school fills up, you at least have a slot at a school to bargain with. Maybe you can now get into electronics school. At least you won’t be chipping paint.
I’ve been in the Air Force for 19 years. I agree with everything leenmi said.
My first job was Aircraft Radio Maintenance. You might like that. There’s a little bit of mental stimulation in troubleshooting a system or radio, but nothing that’s really mentally taxing. Besides, all the troubleshooting is broken down step-by-step in the technical manuals. Plus, you get the tedious aspects like walking the flightline picking up FOD (foreign objects that can damage jet engines) or sitting on an alert truck waiting for a plane to break.
Radio Maintenance has since been merged with the other Avionic Maintenance fields, so you’d be working on radar and instrument systems also. It makes for a long tech school, so that might be a minus. Also, it’s not physically taxing and there’s no chance to apply your martial arts.
On the plus side, if you re-enlist, you’d probably get a bonus in that field.
If you’ve been committed to a psychiatric ward, that might limit your ability to get a security clearance, which would in turn limit your career options in any branch of the military.
If you want a job that’s not too technical, you could always go with Security Forces (military police) or Services (chow hall work, gym work, some mortuary services). As a bonus, those careers have relatively short technical training. Or you could go with Transportation, which has a tech school of all of a week (IIRC).
I’d suggest these 2 points are somewhat … different from my experience.
Drugs, in the sense of “drugz” not including alcohol & tobacco, are not necessarily something you’ll come into contact with, especially if you do get a security clearance–because those folks maybe have more on the ball, feel they have more to lose, are more personally diciplined which kept them out of trouble and in the running to begin with, lots of things. I only knew one guy to get booted for failing the golden flow. Several others lost rank for alcohol abuse/misuse. Many for lying to their security interviewer and then having those lies come to light–bad things, man. Bad things!
I joked about it at the time, but in retrospect I really did join the Army as an alternative to suicide. It was the best thing I could have done. I had never received any medical treatment for depression prior to or during my enlistment, so I was not barred from any security posititions. I ended up with a top-secret clearance handling some very sensitive information and I did it well. If you’ve been hospitalized for it, I wish you the best of luck, and second the teachings of the Tentacle Monster, but with more emphasis on MP. The job translates rather well into the real world, and they see plenty of the world and have a variety of duties to keep them interested in their job. The variety is what helped me with depression–I felt like I was always learning something and that I was useful. Handing out towels will have you dancing with trains in a week.
USAF for coming up on 19 years, first enlisted, then dependent wife, now officer.
In the AF, a documented history of drug abuse/mental illness will disqualify you from enlistment. I believe that may be the case for the other services, though I don’t know for sure. In any case, they will certianly affect your ability to get any sort of high level clearance, which will eliminate many jobs.
You should go talk to recruiters from each service to see if elistment is an option for you, and if so, what sort of jobs are available to you.
Navy. 18 months. Naval Nuclear Power Program.
Recruiters lie. That is all.
There is a question on the intake questionaire you’ll be taking at MEPS. It goes something like this:
“Have you seen a psychologist/psychiatrist within the last 7 years”.
If you have, don’t go to MEPS. You will be permanently disqualified from all services. The circumstances surrounding your visit to the pshrink are not even really relevant to the decision makers at MEPS. They get more than enough qualified candidates that they will DQ anyone with even a hint of trouble in their history, whether that is merited or not. Answering “No” is NOT an option. They will find out, you will be discharged, and it will cause you nothing but pain and heartache. If it’s drug related you may even get a dishonorable discharge, and that’s the job seeking equivalent of leprosy.
Please take my word for this. If you really must know, e-mail me. But believe me, I know of what I speak.
Definitely go to a recruiter. He/she will be able to tell you whether you’re wasting your time or not. Be absolutely upfront with them, though. In the long run it will help you. They hate surprises just as much as you do.
Going into the military with a history of psychological problems sucks. If you’re predisposed to this, the stresses of military life will make any existing problems worse, and the military generally isn’t inclined to fix them.
Robin
thanks all for the advice…