Delete comment from: Captain Capitalism
It was a good change-up for me. After squandering time getting a Data Processing BS that I shopped around until the job offer people got to telling me my degree was too old, I said f it all, I did it your way parents, and now I'm doing what I intended, and went to the Army recruiter. Of course I aced the ASFAB. They wanted me to go in for the full 8 (all enlistments were for 8 years; just your active time was shorter) and after having just had a long term commitment fail me, I told them what's your shortest enlistment, and can I have it with a side order of overseas duty? Be firm w/o being a dick. So I had a 2 year stint in Germany which I could've lengthened if it wasn't for the end of the Cold War.
There's nothing like looking at the institution from the inside. Only then can you see what the other MOS (job class) actually does, what advancement really is, and what army life is. Me telling you what to expect is like describing being in a tornado, which is a thin shadow of the actual experience. My time was from the late 80's, so not applicable to today's experience.
Ask what the shortest active duty enlistment is, choose the MOS furthest from grunt (11B or 13B) since the people there will crush your brain with their stupidity. When it's time to re-up, then see what the chance is to re-train for another MOS, if you can be slotted far enough ahead of time so you GET the spot. The guys inside can give you more reliable info than the used car salesman doubling as the civilian recruiter. There's a reason that one of the Basic Training cadences begins "my recruiter, he told me a lie..." I was in a missile unit with mostly junior college types who likewise were just pissed and wanted away from old home for a bit, so it was great for socializing and actually expanding my mind, along with the foreign country experience.
Sure you can get sucked into fighting on the front of a war. And the .gov is doing its darnedest to try to light things up in-country, with all the hyperbole exciting the left and the real tyranny exciting the right, and the hard leftists dying to make the whole thing burn, so even not being in the military doesn't guarantee dying peacefully in bed in Pleasantville anymore. You can be a chemical engineer at the refinery the minute it decides to splodey-dope. What do you want to do, live forever? Even if you just fell off the back of the 5 ton, if you do die, you did it in a way honored by 15K years of society - in the uniform of your country.
And yes, do not get married, do not go in married, do not marry the local frau who serviced the whole battalion before you came to town, but acted like a virgin with you and now you got one-itis for little Claudia. There is a reason Lawton OK (by Fort Sill) is loaded with Korean and German EX-wives by the dozens. I have hours of stories, none good, except mine since I never allowed myself to fall over anyone while in.
May 20, 2013, 6:58:35 AM
Posted to Some Very Practical Advice for Young Men