Lubbock, Texas | JohnW - 11/19/2012 14:07
As in most things enlisting in the military can be a good learning experience or a disaster depending on the attitude of the enlistee, the current national situation and just plan luck. I joined the Navy a year after I got out of high school and it turned out great. I learned a trade and eventually got a college degree, traveled the world, lived all over the country, met a lot of great people and now I get a retirement check every month.
But no guarantees. A lot depends on your scores on a aptitude and intelligence test you take when you join and the old " needs of the service". I recommend that you join the Navy or Air Force if you want to learn some valuable skills that cross over in to the civilian world. If you want to pack a rifle around join the Marines.
That said, if you have a chance to go to college jump at it. You should check out the service ROTC programs at some school which can help with expenses and make you a commissioned officer at when you graduate. Life as an officer is much nicer than that of a private or seaman.
I will two different stories about two different friends I had that went into the Navy specifically and how dramatically different their experiences were
one friend worked for his dad in the oil business in the 80s here in Texas and when that blew up so did his dads business and his relationship with his dad and working for his dad....he was sitting around watching OU football and the Navy commercial came on and that was that he enlisted.....one bad thing right off the bat that is no longer an issue is back then you had to specifically request to get the GI Bill for college tuition you did not automatically get it like you do today......the Sargents lined everyone up in their underwear after busting the hell out of them and soaking them in water with a hose....they made sure to put a few not too bright guys first that they knew had no plans for any type of future education much less college and then they went down the line screaming in everyones face asking if they wanted to be a "college P word" when the got out of the Navy......of course the first few guys said no and after that it was on all NOs including my friend and that was that that was your ONE chance to get signed up.....fortunately for my friend Texas has a tuition coverage plan for state universities
that friend went on to become a sonar tech on a very unique system that there was only two like it and the Navy has just sold one off to Australia......so my friend was one of the last to train for this system and this system was unique and still used at the time.....so my friend was on a very small ship, that burned oil, working on a very specialized system......because the ship was small and it burned oil the the Navy did not like it sailing all over the place and because the ship was small it was not a big deal for it to pull into some Euro port of a city of 5,000 people.....VS a carrier pulling into some Euro port of 5,000 people and it is like the USA has invaded because 5,000 Navy people are getting off this huge carrier
so my friend was able to stay on the same ship for 5 years and a few months and he was able to go to tons of very small ports all over Europe especially as his ship sailed around from place to place doing "meet and greet" type stuff.....he was the old man of the boat when he got out......and because of Desert Shield he was actually kept in for about 6-8 months past his end of enlistment
so he had a great experience overall and saw a TON of cool places, knew all kinds of stuff about his boat that the new captain would call him and ask him about when the boat rotated captains and knew all the "secrets" of hiding around the boat ect
my other friend pretty much went in right out of HS and he was also looking at the "see the world in the Navy aspect", but he was looking for a job for the future as well and for a "challenge" so the recruiters talked him into going on a nuclear sub (a boomer) and doing "power plant forward" as an electrician so he was working on everything power related past the nuclear reactor firewall
the ONLY major problem with this is......NUCLEAR SUBS DO NOT GO PULLING INTO PORTS......they go UNDER THE WATER AND STAY THERE.....so my friend saw Hawaii a couple of times and not a damn thing else except the inside of a submarine filled with other dudes.....the one time they were going to actually go somewhere cool.....some "emergency/security" type thing came up and they turned around half way there and back under the water they went
lucky for him b then the GI Bill was automatic and he had a good start on being an electrical engineer and that is what he went to school for when he got out....but when I told him about my other friend above staying on the same boat for 5+ years.......sailing around from place to place and pulling in and stopping......well he was still a bit "not happy" about the whole "see the world" aspect of when he signed up for the Navy
I am not sure these antidotes apply to the OP of this thread, but they show that your experience in ANY branch of the military can be dramatically different from what you expect and what you get based on job assignment and on pure luck as well for some and the military is not always looking to "give" you all the "benefits" that are not coming automatically and sometimes they will use tricks and even intimidation to try and dissuade you from getting all you may have coming to you
also my friend on the small boat nearly got in SERIOUS trouble when he grew tired of some of the waste he saw near the end of his tour and wrote his senator at the time about his ship getting some new copy machines (back when copy machines were like $20,000 each) and not having room for them.....so over the side of the ship they went....it was like 8 or 10 of them.....my friend was just trying to save the damn country some money.....but the senator "turned him in" and things were looking pretty serious for a bit and if Desert Shield had not started up and them getting busy with that and needing all hands on deck and having the ability to "punish" my friend already by extending his tour indefinitely it may have been worse for him.....so do what you are told PERIOD.....throw the crap in a hole, burn it, dump it, shoot it with a rocket.....just do it and move on
another guy I knew that was on an aircraft carrier and was in logistics (warehousing) said that it was extremely common for very expensive aircraft parts to come on the ship.....there was no specific bin location for them.....which meant that ship was not suppose to have it......and the part went right back off the ship into the ocean.....you could get in trouble for having parts and supplies on board and in inventory that you did not have a "location" or a "need" for.......so away it went like it never existed
again the military is NOT about "why are we standing around like fools making asses of ourselves jumping around like morons".......it is about how often and how high and for how long do you want me to jump....PERIOD
Edited by rodrod5 11/20/2012 06:49
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Enlisting in the military....
