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Kraftwerk
Aug 13, 2011
i do not have 10,000 bircoins, please stop asking

I’m here mostly out of curiosity and am happy where I am.
What happens if you decide to join the Marines as an officer? Do you get to pick your job? Would Army be somehow better than marines? Also I noticed the US army offers tons of bonuses for anti-air artillery related jobs like Patriot missiles and avengers. Is this a really lovely job for the US? My father had to serve as a conscript in the eastern bloc and AAA and SAM related jobs were the cushy ones they sent the more capable/smart people in while the less capable people were trained as infantry.

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UP THE BUM NO BABY
Sep 1, 2011

by Hand Knit
Enlist 18 X-ray in the army

DaNerd
Sep 15, 2009

u br?
I don't know much about the Army process the Marine officer process works like this: You sign a contract that puts you in one of three areas; Air, Ground, or Law. You go through your basic training and at the end you list the jobs you want from your area (air, ground, or law) in the order you desire. Depending on the number of slots open, where you rank in the class, etc you are then assigned a job.

Example: You contract as a Ground officer and come 5/100 in your class. There's one opening for intel, three for comms, and two for infantry. You rank your choices as Intel, Comms, with Infantry last. Places 1-4 take the intel and comms spots so you get your third choice, infantry. You can't choose to be a pilot or a JAG (lawyer) because you signed a ground contract.

There's more to it than that and I oversimplified some stuff, but that's the jist of it. You are guaranteed an area, you make a wishlist within it, and depending on how well you do you are more or less likely to get what you want assuming that it is available.

Kraftwerk
Aug 13, 2011
i do not have 10,000 bircoins, please stop asking

What are the best and worst jobs you could have as an officer in the marines? Like where do the ones who didnt do well get sent? And where would you rather be if you can choose the job? What would you be doing if you were commissioned as a marine infantry officer?

Also I noticed a lot of enlisted members seem to look down on OCS and ROTC officers as “butter bars”. Is there anything a junior officer can do to not be a complete rear end in a top hat? I’m assuming it involves letting the NCOs ease you into things before you start pulling rank on everyone without knowing wtf?

piL
Sep 20, 2007
(__|\\\\)
Taco Defender

Kraftwerk posted:

What are the best and worst jobs you could have as an officer in the marines? Like where do the ones who didnt do well get sent? And where would you rather be if you can choose the job? What would you be doing if you were commissioned as a marine infantry officer?


Not a Marine, but the vast majority of initially commissioned officers (academy, ROTC, OCS, Platoon Leaders Course), in the Marine Corps, except for JAG (and maybe some other rare direct commission I dont know about) will all start as 2nd Lieutenants, who are called butter bars because their rank insignia looks like a bar of butter.

The only way to avoid that is to enlist and stick around long enough (8+ years)/do well enough to go warrant officer or limited duty officers, who, if they work like Navy LDOs, are not destined for command of a combat unit without a change of MOS (designator).


quote:

Also I noticed a lot of enlisted members seem to look down on OCS and ROTC officers as “butter bars”. Is there anything a junior officer can do to not be a complete rear end in a top hat? I’m assuming it involves letting the NCOs ease you into things before you start pulling rank on everyone without knowing wtf?

Every officer will answer this differently, but luck, grit, practice, and humility are key factors.

Luck, because the nature of being a commissioned officer is being placed in situations you weren't necessarily prepared for your entire career. The goal is to make a person to preempts and responds to adversity, so you will consistently be moved as soon as you get good at your job (or sooner). The wrong challenge at the wrong time and there's nothing you really could have done to save face. You can't control luck, but you can make your own.

Grit, because you are responsible for people and they will sense your weakness and its impact on their chances of survival or going home at a reasonable hour. Many officers confuse this and instead exude bravado.

Practice, because 2ndLts are new to their job and the enlisted under your cognizance will have more experience. Even if a 2ndLt is great at one thing, the breadth of skills means they'll suck somewhere. An officer motivated to improve and demonstrate that improvement consistently will move away from being the leader their Marines and Sailors think will get them killed. Some officers try to fake this I think, because most of the systems that a traditional HS-straight-to-college pipeline educated individual reward bragging. Your college application/frat/short-term-job/class performance all benefit or are neutral to you signaling more competence than you have. You're not getting fact checked daily for two years by experts in most of those roles, but you will as an officer.

Humility, because a junior officers' subordinates have generally seen somewhere between 2 and 30 JOs before you on a nearly daily basis for years at a time, and will observe any commissioned officer. Basically, they're trained to spot bullshit, have been doing it longer than most new officers can fathom, and if you're suave enough to get away with it, you probably joined the National Guard in some MOS that never activates. So know that enlisted Sailors and Marines are Subject Matter Experts and know more than you, that your time isn't inherently more valuable, and respect them even if they're being shits.

Mustang
Jun 18, 2006

“We don’t really know where this goes — and I’m not sure we really care.”
Every newly commissioned officer in the US military is a butter bar regardless of commissioning source. (Except for direct commission)

How not to be an rear end in a top hat? Don't be a dick to other people, it's really easy. If you have to pull rank on someone, you're probably an rear end in a top hat.

Why do you want to be a Marine infantry officer?

Crab Dad
Dec 28, 2002

behold i have tempered and refined thee, but not as silver; as CRAB


piL posted:


So know that enlisted Sailors and Marines are Subject Matter Experts and know more than you, that your time isn't inherently more valuable, and respect them even if they're being shits.


*shuffles around, kicks the ground*

Yeah.... what he said.

*stares off into space serenely*

UP THE BUM NO BABY
Sep 1, 2011

by Hand Knit

Mustang posted:

Why do you want to be a Marine infantry officer?

This.

You get the same benefits whether you're combat arms or logistics. One of those has you far less likely to die for some bullshit.

Kraftwerk
Aug 13, 2011
i do not have 10,000 bircoins, please stop asking

UP THE BUM NO BABY posted:

This.

You get the same benefits whether you're combat arms or logistics. One of those has you far less likely to die for some bullshit.

Mostly I just wanted to educate myself on the details from people who have been in to get an idea of what it’s like. Is there any job where you feel like you did something important and can feel good about it when you look back on your life or is that a lot of wishful thinking and marketing from the recruiters?

UP THE BUM NO BABY
Sep 1, 2011

by Hand Knit

Kraftwerk posted:

Mostly I just wanted to educate myself on the details from people who have been in to get an idea of what it’s like. Is there any job where you feel like you did something important and can feel good about it when you look back on your life or is that a lot of wishful thinking and marketing from the recruiters?

ya, it's called not joining the mil

Kraftwerk
Aug 13, 2011
i do not have 10,000 bircoins, please stop asking

UP THE BUM NO BABY posted:

ya, it's called not joining the mil

Fair enough. Thanks.

Godholio
Aug 28, 2002

Does a bear split in the woods near Zheleznogorsk?
Jobs that actually provide useful training that can be applied on the outside. There aren't a ton of those, but they exist. If you can get something useful out of it AND the GI Bill, it might sometimes maybe be worth 4 years.

As a former backseat flyer guy, I don't think infantry falls into that category beyond vague "I was in charge of people" experience, which you can also get at 7-11 or Walmart.

mlmp08
Jul 11, 2004

Prepare for my priapic projectile's exalted penetration
Nap Ghost

Kraftwerk posted:

Also I noticed the US army offers tons of bonuses for anti-air artillery related jobs like Patriot missiles and avengers. Is this a really lovely job for the US?

There are a couple of reasons the Army offers a huge bonus for going air defense artillery.

Here are the basic ones that don't immediately point to your soul being crushed:
-Most all of these jobs require a minimum of SECRET clearance, so that's a discriminator
-High GT score required (not so much for Avenger or Patriot launcher operators, but very much so for the people doing datalinks, radars, engagement control).
-When you have a news cycle about how Iran and Korea are going to nuke everyone with missiles, people don't want to sign up. Never mind that such stories are often pretty bullshit.

Those three alone mean that people applying need to have decent intelligence and a clean(ish) background, and people who have that can probably go to college etc if they have the money or loans. Hence the big bonuses.

Here are some of the other reasons that air defense artillery is handing out big bonuses:

-Shift work forever. Doing 24-hour shifts (really more like 28+ hour shifts with commute and handover) is completely normal
-Patriot certification is not so much hard as it is very easy to fail. You make one data entry wrong out of 10,000 keystrokes and miss it? You failed, stay at site, see you in 3 days to do it again.
-Patriot certification gets sidelined by frequent maintenance issues. Radar broke? Sucks to be you, now sit in the field until it's fixed and then try to certify again.
-Patriot should expect to certify roughly every 3-4 months (certification takes a couple weeks unless you're super on top of your poo poo despite the drill itself taking maybe 10-16 hours start to finish).
-AIT is kind of long for Patriot engagement controllers (14E). About 6 months of AIT. So to collect on that bonus you've gotta commit to BCT plus ~6 months of trainee status before you get to a unit. 14T/G/H/P/S (14S is national guard only) T is Patriot launchers, G is data links and Sentinel radars and most often assigned to short-ranged air defense or your typical brigade combat teams, H is either space or Patriot early warning and datalinks or both, P is Avenger / C-RAM. 14S is national guard Avengers.
-Patriot deployment to the Middle East has soared in the last 19 months or so. Outside of Desert Storm or OIF 1, we are at an all-time high for Patriot deployment to the Middle East. Units are approaching a 1:1 ratio of deployment to dwell. And when I say unit, I mean the unit designation. It's entirely possible that you could deploy with one unit, then move units, only to find you're in a unit about to deploy again. There will be pressure for such people to sign a waiver allowing them to go overseas again. This pressure increases exponentially if you're an officer, and it's a very big deal still if you're an NCO, especially if you've proven yourself capable. A Specialist saying "gently caress that" is pretty normal. But the day your dwell is up, which is 1:1, expect to go to the middle east as a late deployer and join your unit. Patriot deployments are longer than regular Army deployments at the moment, though there is desire to change this (12 months vs 6 or 9 months).
-Patriot outside of FORSCOM and the middle east? Well, you're either in Korea, Japan, or Germany. Germany typically owns for junior folks. It's kind of busy and a pain in the rear end the more senior you get as you get sucked up into planning a bunch of NATO stuff and so on. Korea and Japan: YMMV. I've not done those tours, but I've heard everything from how it was amazing and awesome to stories of "we got locked on sight until a kid killed himself" stories.
-As a defensive system, Patriot units are expected to maintain VERY high levels of readiness and maintenance and certification, but they will only ever actually fire a shot if things go hot. That is tedious for a lot of people
-This can change rapidly, but promotion rates to FGO are bad. It used to be like 88%, but lately it's been about 60-65% to O-4, so it can be rough trying to be air defense as a "do 20 and get that retirement" gig
-Air Defense has a reputation for being very technical, leadership flipping out over tiny little infractions and delinquencies, and micro-managing stuff. That reputation is not entirely unearned.
-Outside of basic soldier poo poo like "react to contact" or whatever, it's very difficult to do squad/platoon level training unless you're in SHORAD, and even then not so much. What does a Patriot Launcher platoon do for platoon-level training? Set up launchers that don't do poo poo without the fire control platoon attached? So training is highly collectivized in a way that's simply required, but can lead to a lot of hurry up and wait if one portion or the other of the collective apparatus is broken/late/whatever.
-Enlisted retention loving sucks. It's way below Army averages, so there's a constant churn of brand new first-termers showing up as the previous one-termer leaves, having fulfilled their obligation to get their bonus and GI Bill and being of intelligence and background such that they can get into a state school with no issue.

The good stuff:
-You mostly drive places rather than walk.
-Air conditioning is common
-If you're broke-brained, the technical aspects and constant tactics updates are interesting. poo poo's weird right now!
-It's an MOS that's been male/female for a long time, so less super-sexist bullshit
-You tend to be (but not always, especially in the last year or so) at a decent sized base or logistical center where there are some amenities and likely wifi/internet. (shortcut: Just join the air force)
-High cash bonuses for enlistment/reenlistment
-If you do have a really good tactics unit, you can get away with some small amount of murder. If you crush evaluations, readiness drills, etc, you'll get a lot of leeway to avoid all the lovely details.
-Depending on the track you take, you can get a ton of joint exercise or basing experience as an NCO or officer. I spent like half of a year TDY to do long-hours but interesting/cool missions with the Marines, Navy, and Air Force, mostly to good locations on the coast (all over the Gulf Coast and Eastern seaboard) or to bad locations with a very fun and cool mission (MCAS Yuma).

edit: That was a lot of words, but I forgot to add this ini: Unless you're like mega OOHRAH and really want to join the whitest, most male portion of the whole-rear end military, why would you call out USMC Infantry in particular?

Kraftwerk
Aug 13, 2011
i do not have 10,000 bircoins, please stop asking

mlmp08 posted:

edit: That was a lot of words, but I forgot to add this ini: Unless you're like mega OOHRAH and really want to join the whitest, most male portion of the whole-rear end military, why would you call out USMC Infantry in particular?
Thank you for this. I just wanted to educate myself. I asked about USMC 2LT because it seems marine infantry are what people stereotypically think of when joining the military so I was curious how that functioned.

The overall takeaway I'm getting is- avoid combat MOS, do your time, get GI Bill + Applicable civilian experience and GTFO.

Kraftwerk fucked around with this message at 05:20 on Sep 21, 2020

Mustang
Jun 18, 2006

“We don’t really know where this goes — and I’m not sure we really care.”
If you're going to join the military join the Air Force. They actually smile sometimes and can reliably expect to always have edible food.

I was an armor officer in a cavalry/reconnaissance squadron before spending my last year on the brigade staff. Life in a an Army brigade combat team (or its USMC equivalent) is a pressure cooker that squeezes every last drop out of you it can before you head somewhere else to repeat the process. I've never met anyone that isn't completely worn out after time in a BCT and that's including the careerist combat arms folks. Follow Army WTF Moments and 99% of that poo poo is from one of the Army's BCTs.

Stultus Maximus
Dec 21, 2009

USPOL May
Anyone better at insurance than I am?

I left an active duty mobilization in January, was covered by Tricare Select TAMP until the end of July.
I got some x-rays done (referral by primary care physician) in early July.
I just got a bill ("past due" even though I hadn't gotten a first one) for part of the cost.
I called Tricare last week and they said everything should have been 100% covered, but the computer system was down so call back.
I called this week and a different rep said that all Select beneficiaries have deductibles so it wasn't covered.

This is what the Tricare web site gives for costs. Am I being stupid when I think that "Active duty service members pay nothing out-of-pocket for any type of care" means that I personally have no deductible, only my dependents do?

Nick Soapdish
Apr 27, 2008


I can't find the specifics on TRICARE's site for you but I thought if you were mobilized for a contingency operation your deductible was waived.

ElMaligno
Dec 31, 2004

Be Gay!
Do Crime!

i am gonna use my tuition assistance and gi bill to get a teaching certificate and a Masters in teaching and education. gonna become a teacher after i retire, then tell my students to not join the military

Godholio
Aug 28, 2002

Does a bear split in the woods near Zheleznogorsk?

ElMaligno posted:

i am gonna use my tuition assistance and gi bill to get a teaching certificate and a Masters in teaching and education. gonna become a teacher after i retire, then tell my students to not join the military

If you know where you want to be, look up the local Troops to Teachers program. They may have surprising requirements that influence the path you take.

Stultus Maximus
Dec 21, 2009

USPOL May

ElMaligno posted:

i am gonna use my tuition assistance and gi bill to get a teaching certificate and a Masters in teaching and education. gonna become a teacher after i retire, then tell my students to not join the military

I am a teacher. Teaching degrees are the worst. Get a degree in what you want to teach and find out what alternate certificate methods your state offers.

ElMaligno
Dec 31, 2004

Be Gay!
Do Crime!

Godholio posted:

If you know where you want to be, look up the local Troops to Teachers program. They may have surprising requirements that influence the path you take.

I wish, Oregon is OK, i cant afford california and i still have 10 more years of i wanna retire.

Stultus Maximus posted:

I am a teacher. Teaching degrees are the worst. Get a degree in what you want to teach and find out what alternate certificate methods your state offers.

I already have a Bachelor of science degree in chemistry. Since i wanna use TA for my masters, gently caress if i know what online only masters i could get with that.

Godholio
Aug 28, 2002

Does a bear split in the woods near Zheleznogorsk?
I brought it up because my masters in history did not qualify me for poo poo because it wasn't from a local school. That's right: Only the universities in that state met the state requirement. So again: find out what the requirements are before committing irreplaceable resources (time and TA) to something.

Stultus Maximus
Dec 21, 2009

USPOL May

ElMaligno posted:

I wish, Oregon is OK, i cant afford california and i still have 10 more years of i wanna retire.


I already have a Bachelor of science degree in chemistry. Since i wanna use TA for my masters, gently caress if i know what online only masters i could get with that.

I don't know what Oregon requirements are for certification, but I bet they have cert only programs for people who already have degrees. A master's degree in education is only not a waste if it's in administration and you plan to be a principal. A graduate degree in science is going to look a lot better, especially in the better schools.

ElMaligno
Dec 31, 2004

Be Gay!
Do Crime!

So far it seems the way to go is to see what state I will retire to, then go to one of their programs and get certificated in them.
Edit: This seems to be the way to go, at least in Oregon.

ElMaligno fucked around with this message at 19:24 on Oct 14, 2020

right arm
Oct 30, 2011

greetings

my better half and I are looking for someone else to pay off her student debt lol while we do stupid things with our relative youth (29) such as serve in the military :D

she's a practicing DPT so I am guessing she would be an officer? I know absolutely jack poo poo about this other than my dad said thailand was fun when we served in the navy. she really wants to serve and likes the autonomy she says her friend who is also a physical therapist that serves (navy) enjoys compared to the restrictions stateside due to how it used to be a bachelors, not doctorate degree

I'm uhh trilingual? (basic conversational spanish / japanese) but my "career" is in medical billing and I am a type 1 diabetic which I'm pretty sure prevents me from doing anything with the military so I'd just be a military spouse doing whatever the hell a military spouse does if we're overseas (hopefully working) lol

anyways. someone tell me if this is a dumbass idea for her to have a "better" career while serving our country and getting us some healthcare :hellyeah:

Nick Soapdish
Apr 27, 2008


right arm posted:

greetings

my better half and I are looking for someone else to pay off her student debt lol while we do stupid things with our relative youth (29) such as serve in the military :D

she's a practicing DPT so I am guessing she would be an officer? I know absolutely jack poo poo about this other than my dad said thailand was fun when we served in the navy. she really wants to serve and likes the autonomy she says her friend who is also a physical therapist that serves (navy) enjoys compared to the restrictions stateside due to how it used to be a bachelors, not doctorate degree

I'm uhh trilingual? (basic conversational spanish / japanese) but my "career" is in medical billing and I am a type 1 diabetic which I'm pretty sure prevents me from doing anything with the military so I'd just be a military spouse doing whatever the hell a military spouse does if we're overseas (hopefully working) lol

anyways. someone tell me if this is a dumbass idea for her to have a "better" career while serving our country and getting us some healthcare :hellyeah:

Can't speak to how you and your spouses life would be as Navy Medical Service Corps officer and dependent. However, I can pass on the information that the pinned post on FB for Navy Medical Recruiting (https://www.facebook.com/navymedicalofficerrecruiter) FY21 accession numbers have 3 active duty quotas (open positions) and no reserve quotas available for Physical Therapy.

Vahakyla
May 3, 2013
The Army Medical Corps has a pretty decent amount of Physical Therapists, and getting in touch with an AMEDD recruiter is the easiest way to look into that. Not sure how it compares to Navy, but Army tends to try to scoop up a significant amount of officers to medical fields.

right arm
Oct 30, 2011

Nick Soapdish posted:

Can't speak to how you and your spouses life would be as Navy Medical Service Corps officer and dependent. However, I can pass on the information that the pinned post on FB for Navy Medical Recruiting (https://www.facebook.com/navymedicalofficerrecruiter) FY21 accession numbers have 3 active duty quotas (open positions) and no reserve quotas available for Physical Therapy.

:tipshat:

Vahakyla posted:

The Army Medical Corps has a pretty decent amount of Physical Therapists, and getting in touch with an AMEDD recruiter is the easiest way to look into that. Not sure how it compares to Navy, but Army tends to try to scoop up a significant amount of officers to medical fields.

from my understanding, the army typically draws from their graduate program at baylor, but that is only 15+ ppl a year I'd imagine. then again, I know nothing!

either way, thank you both for terms to google and people to contact. we'll probably start bugging the correct recruiters sooner than later :cheers:

Nick Soapdish
Apr 27, 2008


right arm posted:

either way, thank you both for terms to google and people to contact. we'll probably start bugging the correct recruiters sooner than later :cheers:

Don't forget about the US Public Health Commissioned Corps too (https://www.usphs.gov/professions/physical-therapist/)

BaseballPCHiker
Jan 16, 2006

EDITED.

BaseballPCHiker fucked around with this message at 21:10 on Feb 2, 2022

Meshka
Nov 27, 2016

BaseballPCHiker posted:

How dumb would it be to join the National Guard as a 34 year old, non-college grad, making $90K a year?

My career is in IT, and I want to join to get clearance to open up more lucrative jobs, to use the GI bill to pay for school, and also to serve and all that feel good stuff.

My biggest worry is that I simply wont be able to afford the paycut I would take while away on basic and advanced training.

You also have to consider a pay cut when you are deployed. It seems that you are doing well now, why not apply for a position with a defense contractor where they will help pay for school and possibly with clearance too.

DaNerd
Sep 15, 2009

u br?
The GI Bill for the Guards/Reserves is pretty crap unless you get 2-3 deployments in. You need 3 years of cumulative active duty time to get 100% GI Bill.

bird food bathtub
Aug 9, 2003

College Slice
It is also possible to get a clearance without joining. Easy? No. OPM is a cluster gently caress of titanic proportions right now. Still possible and if the choice is enlisting for four years to get a clearance or waiting years in your current job while a contracting company fights to get you one, I know which I would take. It is one hell of a nice benefit of joining but it's not the absolute only way.

You'll probably have to pay the piper in some form with a contracting company, I'd imagine a contract duration requirement or something maybe.

EBB
Feb 15, 2005

I've done the white collar/guard juggle and in the end both careers suffer along with your mental health.

UP THE BUM NO BABY
Sep 1, 2011

by Hand Knit
Gonna say that mil sucks and don't do it but also we need some new posters

BaseballPCHiker
Jan 16, 2006

Wow thats pretty universal negative feedback.

Meshka posted:

You also have to consider a pay cut when you are deployed. It seems that you are doing well now, why not apply for a position with a defense contractor where they will help pay for school and possibly with clearance too.

My current position will do some tuition reimbursement, but its only $6k a year.

DaNerd posted:

The GI Bill for the Guards/Reserves is pretty crap unless you get 2-3 deployments in. You need 3 years of cumulative active duty time to get 100% GI Bill.

On the other hand if this is true, than maybe $6k isnt to bad.


bird food bathtub posted:

It is also possible to get a clearance without joining. Easy? No. OPM is a cluster gently caress of titanic proportions right now. Still possible and if the choice is enlisting for four years to get a clearance or waiting years in your current job while a contracting company fights to get you one, I know which I would take. It is one hell of a nice benefit of joining but it's not the absolute only way.

You'll probably have to pay the piper in some form with a contracting company, I'd imagine a contract duration requirement or something maybe.

I was always told it was near impossible. But I suppose I could contract for a year or two if its beneficial in the long run.

EBB posted:

I've done the white collar/guard juggle and in the end both careers suffer along with your mental health.

I'd be really interested in hearing about your experiences. Maybe I'm WAY off but I was really thinking, 6 weeks for basic, 3 months for advanced training and then I'm more or less free. I didnt think I'd have much besides the weekend a month 2 weeks in the summer deal.

Did you just end up spending way more of your time working in the guard? Or was it just scheduling that was hard to juggle?

UP THE BUM NO BABY posted:

Gonna say that mil sucks and don't do it but also we need some new posters

not caring here
Feb 22, 2012

blazemastah 2 dry 4 u
I remember a few companies, Leidos being one of them, that have been sponsoring Secret clearances for non clearance havers. I don't know if it's still true.

UP THE BUM NO BABY
Sep 1, 2011

by Hand Knit
Buddy, I'm not an endorsement you want

MonkeyWash
Jan 14, 2005
Donkey Rinse



BaseballPCHiker posted:


I'd be really interested in hearing about your experiences. Maybe I'm WAY off but I was really thinking, 6 weeks for basic, 3 months for advanced training and then I'm more or less free. I didnt think I'd have much besides the weekend a month 2 weeks in the summer deal.


No, definitely not. One of the first obstacles is that you may need the clearance just for your AIT, so you could be a security holdover at your unit, not doing really anything but crap work for months. Your AIT may also be much longer than 3 weeks. The two weeks in the summer just isn't true either. You will regularly have 3 or 4 day weekend drills. That two weeks? More like three with a long drill weekend tacked on. You may not have a combat deployment but could easily deploy for natural disasters and be gone.

If you have a career that you are reasonably happy with I would not recommend the guard or reserves.

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not caring here
Feb 22, 2012

blazemastah 2 dry 4 u
Oh yeah, depending on your job choice, your training pipeline could be up to 2 years for some of them TS/SCI jobs (language school).

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