What's the disadvantage of going into the military?

[Minjin]

I've seen both sides because I went into the Navy as enlisted and got picked up on an officer program. If you have the ability to, I always recommend that you go officer. Your experience and the way you are treated is monumentally different. When you are enlisted, you are treated much of the time like you are a child. You have no rights, no freedom, and no say. The good side about enlisted is that you don't have to be as good with people or with responsibility. If you want to just go in, do your job, and if you are good get promoted, enlisted is fine. When you are an officer, you need those same soft skills that you need in the civilian world to rise up the ranks. Some people just aren't good at that. Sort of like how some people just can't be managers.

What I always say when people ask me about the military is that I'm glad I went in and I'm glad I got out. You can learn a lot of stuff and see a lot of neat things but while you are in, your life is not yours. If you are fine with that, go for it.

[blackflgst]

All this. That said, some people thrive, and after 20 yrs, you will indeed have retirement pay every month for the rest of your life.

I always LOL'd hard at the fresh privates who just got to our unit and were already talking about staying in for 20 years and retiring. Those same privates were talking about ways to get out of the Army about 4 months later. Never fails. Saw it happen time and time again.

Probably much different in the AF though

[KRANE]

You could die

You could die anywhere. In fact, if you're African American male your mortality is greater on your neighborhood streets than it is in the military.

[ecs33]

Didnt like 60k die in Detroit during the time that 6k died in 'war'

Also, your odds of dying in these conflict wars arent even that high.. Almost as many military personel died under Bill Clinton as under George W. Bush. Any time you take 2 million people, thousands will inevitably die regardless of circumstances.

You know I guess you are right. Probably depends on what military you join. If you are in the U.S forces or some other superpower you have a comparative advantage and may be safer than being in some chit neighborhood.

[TMaC828]

I was stationed in Germany for 3 years and Japan for a year. I was in the Air Force as an air traffic controller.... after a couple years I HATED the job and basically had panic attacks going into work everyday.

I think a person's view of the military depends on: 1)what branch you join, 2)where you're located, 3) what job you have, and 4) how good your immediate chain of command/ coworkers are.

If any of those are bad, your time in the service is most likely going to be terrible

ATC that bad brah?

I know their re-enlistment bonuses were insane. That was my #1 pick before I failed the depth perception test at MEPS lol. Still ended up in a ****ty job. More mind numbing than stressful though. Stressful at times.

[hotsaucebrah]

Is it? Ive seen a lot of other veterans claiming this, and Im still on the fence. I wouldnt be surprised either way. There are a lot of firms that love to say they want to hire veterans, and there is that supposed "Veterans Preference" for Gov't jobs that a lot insist really doesnt count. I dont know if those firms that insist they are veteran friendly are just doing it for PR purposes and are full of shyt or what. I managed after getting my Masters in Accounting and 5-6 months of unemployment after that to get a low paying job at a financial firm. Seems to be good advancement/growth potential down the road though. Part of me feels like I actually kind of got lucky even for this opportunity. Such is life I guess.

The job market is just hard in general, so its hard to say.

Damn brah, bachelor's in business, graduate degree in accounting, plus having military experience and just a low paying finance job?

[leest8]

Air Force isn't too bad I guess. I have 13 years in now.

I'm an instructor and work 0700-1630 with 1.5 hour lunch to go lift and I just answer dumb questions and read from a PowerPoint. Can do this another 7 years, get retirement pay, teach in civilian world, and make terrible pay until death. AF paid for my Bachelors too, and working on my Masters now but I have to pay some of it.

Military sucks when you first join. Low man on the totem pole.

Shaving everyday sucks too.

[Sanguivorant]

Most civilian trades and professions can be done in the military.

So if you've graduated and can't find a job in what you've graduated, you can likely find one at the military. Serve for a few years, gain experience, then enter civilian life once you're done.

[SinaloaPaisa]

Do military brahs get 3 free meals everyday or just lunch and breakfast?

[Kev1972]

Do military brahs get 3 free meals everyday or just lunch and breakfast?

If u r permanent duty station and live on post you get 3 meals a day. But, they pay off post people or tdy people separate rations pay. Which is much more money than it would cost you to eat in the mess hall. So lower enlisted get screwed over.

[lockdev]

Both of my parents were in, so I think a huge drawback you should consider is:

Time away from family
and
The military basically controls your life

Not saying the military is a terrible lifestyle. My dad ended up retiring and has been on easy street since he was 44. He's not had to work much over the past 20 years.

He also enjoyed his experience. He didn't try to discourage me from joining at all back when I was 19.

If you plan on having a family, join the Air Force.

If you don't, and can't get into the Air Force, join the Navy.

There definitely are risks though. I had a friend that joined the Army. He spent 4 of his 5 years of service in Afghanistan. He was also stop-lossed and sent back(hence the 5 years). While there, he was part of an escort that was ambushed. He survived, but hasn't been the same since.

[FOSteven]

Showing up four hours early to everything because everyone down the chain wants to be an hour earlier than they were told

[sclimb]

After you're done serving, you can board military flights going anywhere in the world for free.

If you have a pension or something, you can just live off your pension flying around the world for free retired forever. Hnnnnnnnnnnng

My uncle gets free flights everywhere in the world and served for 20 years, so he gets great retirement benefits. BUT he's such a shut-in he just stays in his little house in a small town. Blows my mind!

[tank2003]

LOL @ fat mother fukkers and COD players that think they know chit about the military

-You'll make chit pay if you go in as an E1, E2, or E3. E4 isnt terrible, but its certainly better than the others.
-It sucks going from being an actual adult (as opposed to a kid going in straight from high school) to having a DS controlling everything. But that is the military. If you want a combat MOS, you will go in a child and come out a man. Unless you have to train with women. No disrespect ladies, but you guys just slow EVERYTHING down
-Constantly having to stand at ease when an NCO walks in or salute an officer (I was a 1lt so it wasnt a big deal for me)
-Deployments blow donkey balls
-Deployment training blows balls
-For the army, the NTC blows giant diseased whale balls
-Getting out of INDOC blows (kindergarten phase until then. everythign you do is wrong. Some are cool about it and will just correct you, but some will fuk your soul)
-Cant walk on the grass, but you are sure as chit expected to get out there and trim the sidewalks with a pair of scissors. If you live on post, then remember one thing: Sergeant Major is everywhere. If you even THINK about cutting across the grass without doing some area beautification, he will have you vacuuming the parking lot or mopping up the lot in the rain
-UCMJ and SHARP. Can't even THINK about a female or SHARP pops up out of nowhere
-The all too real reality of possibly dying (if you are a combat MOS) blows, but if you are like me, as scared as i was on that bird over the atlantic, after our first engagement by hadjis, I never felt so alive. Its a feeling you'll never forget and never want to forget. In fact, it becomes nearly impossible to get that rush ever again

All in all, if you are even a quarter of a man, you can adapt and learn and take some god damned pride in knowing that you walked a path under your own actions like we all did.

[Polaris]

Damn brah, bachelor's in business, graduate degree in accounting, plus having military experience and just a low paying finance job?

Yeah, kind of sucks butthatslifeson.jpeg. Like I said though, there is a lot of potential upward mobility and this job is very good on work life balance. If down the road I managed to get a VP type job or whatever....I could be making 6 figures while still only working an 8 hour day. That's nothing to sneeze at. No clue if that will happen of course though, but there is potential and a path to get some FINRA licenses and the like. A foot in the door.

Anyhow, if you can get into one of the IT or CT (espeically CTN) rates in the Navy then that is not a bad decision to make. Especially if you get some certs while in (which the Navy would help you with) and/or a degree on top of it. If you are going to do it, get everything you can out of it to benefit yourself moving forward.

[crupiea]

Was in the navy for 20 years.

It sucked.

Dont get me wrong, I had some great times but those had nothing to do with the bosses or work, they were all related to drinking beer off duty.

for starters, you will have duty every 4 days. that means every 4 days you ar on call and they will call you in the middle of the night to go walk around the hanger watching nothing go on. Like midnight to 4am, then you can go home but be back at work for your 7-4 shift. Never ends either. the best you can hope for is some places have like 6 duty sections instead of 4. Its just free overtime that you are forced to do and hate it.

i would be sitting around watching the clock waiting to go home at 4. shop all cleaned up everything put away but I dont see anyone else getting ready to go home. you go ask the chief whats going on and of course you get told that you will go home when they tell you you can go home. The bosses are mostly *******s so you are used to it. Now explain that to the babysitter and you wife. Just comes out of the blue like that so you cant plan on it.

The political correctness is on 100% overload. Any woman who doesnt like you or doesnt want to help in the shop will come down with some reason for a sexual harassment complaint and they will always be sided with, they guy is always guilty and you can forget trying to prove yourself innocent. Especially one you gets some stripes, it is just a matter of time until the hammer swings your way. You could be th best boss in the world but its doesnt matter, they have no honor.

What used to kill me was christmas time. We usually had a day shift and a night shift so at chrstmas they would let half the people go on leave to spend time with their familys. when they did this the people who didnt go would just work one shift. I know what you are thinking, and you are wrong. they dont change the op tempo so your holiday is spent working day and night shift while wishing you were spending time with your family. You still have duty every 4 days but now there are half the guys so you stand double watches in the middle of the night then you normally do. Merry christmas.

keep in mind now, all this stuff is when you are stateside at your base. this doesnt count the endless deployments 2 weeks here, 4 weeks there, back and forth until your 6 month deployment comes.

I was at a naval air station and my workcenter only had 3 guys in it, When you go on deployment you have to load all your parts tools, books, you name it onto the ship. Well, we had one guy working nights, they needed one guy in the shop as they were flying so i was the lucky one who got to load out the entire shop by myself onto the carrier every time.

I would pack all the stuff up in these big metal folding boxes and load the duty truck. then drive over to the ship if they were at our base and park by this giant conveyor belt that goes from the dock to the hanger bay. i would put the giant metal boxes on there one at a time until it was full. Then i would run up the stair to the ship, show id, salute, al that and go to the top f the conveyer and turn it on and take all the boxes off. Once they were all off I had to carry them by myself up 3 flights of tiny shipboard ladders to the shop. Back and forth, i was the only one that I every saw carry these by themselves, never got offered any help no matter how much i complained about it.

Spend a few weeks at sea and repeat the process off the ship. at least then I usually had a helper but not always.

Got to go to alot of ports which was great and I do miss the shipmates but other then that. Not the funnest thing in the world.

[FOSteven]

-For the army, the NTC blows giant diseased whale balls

/thread

One month at NTC in June is more than enough to make you reconsider your decision to enlist

[Kev1972]

/thread

One month at NTC in June is more than enough to make you reconsider your decision to enlist

Fuk the dustbowl and those damned dust boogers. At least I never went to the real desert.

[plsaddmecass40]

-you could die
-no sloots unless you bang a female soldier
-ptsd
-depression
-chit pay
-not in the us away from family

[Kev1972]

-you could die
-no sloots unless you bang a female soldier
-ptsd
-depression
-chit pay
-not in the us away from family

Actually there are plenty of sloots. Offpost civilians all want to marry military guys for the bennies. Back home girls will want to hookup. Plenty of vacation sloots. Most military spouses are huge whores. Rows and rows of massage parlors and strip clubs outside every base. The guy girl ratio isn't too good on base but getting ass every night isn't particularly difficult.

[hotsaucebrah]

Was in the navy for 20 years.

It sucked.

Dont get me wrong, I had some great times but those had nothing to do with the bosses or work, they were all related to drinking beer off duty.

for starters, you will have duty every 4 days. that means every 4 days you ar on call and they will call you in the middle of the night to go walk around the hanger watching nothing go on. Like midnight to 4am, then you can go home but be back at work for your 7-4 shift. Never ends either. the best you can hope for is some places have like 6 duty sections instead of 4. Its just free overtime that you are forced to do and hate it.

i would be sitting around watching the clock waiting to go home at 4. shop all cleaned up everything put away but I dont see anyone else getting ready to go home. you go ask the chief whats going on and of course you get told that you will go home when they tell you you can go home. The bosses are mostly *******s so you are used to it. Now explain that to the babysitter and you wife. Just comes out of the blue like that so you cant plan on it.

The political correctness is on 100% overload. Any woman who doesnt like you or doesnt want to help in the shop will come down with some reason for a sexual harassment complaint and they will always be sided with, they guy is always guilty and you can forget trying to prove yourself innocent. Especially one you gets some stripes, it is just a matter of time until the hammer swings your way. You could be th best boss in the world but its doesnt matter, they have no honor.

What used to kill me was christmas time. We usually had a day shift and a night shift so at chrstmas they would let half the people go on leave to spend time with their familys. when they did this the people who didnt go would just work one shift. I know what you are thinking, and you are wrong. they dont change the op tempo so your holiday is spent working day and night shift while wishing you were spending time with your family. You still have duty every 4 days but now there are half the guys so you stand double watches in the middle of the night then you normally do. Merry christmas.

keep in mind now, all this stuff is when you are stateside at your base. this doesnt count the endless deployments 2 weeks here, 4 weeks there, back and forth until your 6 month deployment comes.

I was at a naval air station and my workcenter only had 3 guys in it, When you go on deployment you have to load all your parts tools, books, you name it onto the ship. Well, we had one guy working nights, they needed one guy in the shop as they were flying so i was the lucky one who got to load out the entire shop by myself onto the carrier every time.

I would pack all the stuff up in these big metal folding boxes and load the duty truck. then drive over to the ship if they were at our base and park by this giant conveyor belt that goes from the dock to the hanger bay. i would put the giant metal boxes on there one at a time until it was full. Then i would run up the stair to the ship, show id, salute, al that and go to the top f the conveyer and turn it on and take all the boxes off. Once they were all off I had to carry them by myself up 3 flights of tiny shipboard ladders to the shop. Back and forth, i was the only one that I every saw carry these by themselves, never got offered any help no matter how much i complained about it.

Spend a few weeks at sea and repeat the process off the ship. at least then I usually had a helper but not always.

Got to go to alot of ports which was great and I do miss the shipmates but other then that. Not the funnest thing in the world.

What was your official 'job' title?

[tank2003]

/thread

One month at NTC in June is more than enough to make you reconsider your decision to enlist

When NTC rotation shows up on the circ board

[thundermass]

I've been in the Navy for 5 years, got 3 to go then I'm out.

Pros:
Job security.
Some free tuition while in/GI Bill when you get out.
Travel, if you're into that.
Some degree of patriotism, if you're into that.
30 days of paid leave each year.

Cons:
Lots of bosses, but few real leaders.
Pay starts out kinda poor, gets better after a while.
Living on base really blows. Like bad.
Food varies, but overall I'd say the only stuff that tastes decent, is unhealthy. Go figure.
Can't quit/change locations easily.
Commitment.
Little control over diet and workouts; just my experience.
No paid overtime. Sometimes I've worked 4 hours a day for a week. Sometimes a few months of 7 day work weeks, 10-18 hours of work each day, interrupted sleep, little contact with the outside world.
Just general BS that you deal with on a daily basis.
Lots of backstabbing and brown nosing going on.

That's just my perspective, from being on a submarine, for a few years. Not getting shot at, not stationed overseas. But if I had to do it all over again, I can honestly say I wouldn't.

[Maxamanius]

-Higher chance you'll come out with some kind of health issues, i.e..sleep issues, hearing problems, ptsd, etc.

-Sacrificing the good years of your life for boring work (unless you have an enjoyable military job) little room for working on whatever your passion is.

-Being told what to do and bossed by power hungry higher ranks

-High stress compared to civilian life

-Can't do certain chit that a normal civilian can do

[KBurn]

Rush to wait, wait to rush
Boredom
Extreme micro-management

[Maxamanius]

I was stationed in Germany for 3 years and Japan for a year. I was in the Air Force as an air traffic controller.... after a couple years I HATED the job and basically had panic attacks going into work everyday.

I think a person's view of the military depends on: 1)what branch you join, 2)where you're located, 3) what job you have, and 4) how good your immediate chain of command/ coworkers are.

If any of those are bad, your time in the service is most likely going to be terrible

that actually sounds like fun man besides the job..but getting to live in Germany + Japan..did you ever leave the base and live it up?

[Prose Edda]

Dying and bum sex.

[JrM703]

there are no downsides you should join

ask a recruiter for the most accurate depiction of military life

they'll give you a good feel of what it's like

I see what you did there, you cheeky kent.

Thank you for your service, Marine.

[tank2003]

Rush to wait, wait to rush
Boredom
Extreme micro-management

literally made me dead inside

that actually sounds like fun man besides the job..but getting to live in Germany + Japan..did you ever leave the base and live it up?

lol. that is like asking if flapjacko is a fat fuk

[ggMoe]

This guy gets to be your top boss