To the veterans and soldiers...

[Titan6]

Timelines for Airforce and Army promotions are outlined below.
TIG = Time in Grade
TIS = Time in Service

...I wouldn't have joined the Army, I'd go with the Navy or Air Force. Faster promotion in the USAF & Navy.

Airforce

Promotion to Airman (Amn) {E-2}
Airmen Basic (AB) are eligible for promotion to Amn at 6 months' TIG and recommendation of immediate commander.

Promotion to Airman First Class (A1C) {E-3}
Amn are eligible for promotion to A1C with 10 months' TIG and recommendation of immediate commander.

Promotion to Senior Airman (SrA) {E-4}
Promotion to SrA occurs at 36 months' TIS and 20 months' TIG, or 28 months' TIG, whichever occurs first. Member must also meet skill level requirements and be recommended by immediate supervisor and commander

Army

PV2 Automatic promotion at 6 months Time-In-Service (TIS) {E-2}
Minimum TIS is 4 months with a waiver

PFC Automatic promotion at 12 months TIS / 4 months Time-In-Grade (TIG) {E-3}
Minimum TIS is 6 months / 2 months TIG with a waiver

SPC Automatic promotion at 24 months TIS / 6 months TIG {E-4}
Minimum TIS is 18 months / 3 months TIG with a waiver

SGT Must be recommended and PLDC must be completed {E-5}
Primary Zone: Board Promotion
TIS: 34 months 36 months
TIG: 6 months 8 months

Last I checked 24 months was a year faster than 36 months .

The electronics training is more saleable & highly sought after by private industry, and if you're bright enough to get into Naval nuclear power, or into aviation, you can just about write your own ticket after separating out... Gotta think about life after service, and though I was a well-trained mechanic, I found that training didn't cut much ice with prospective employers, but my cousin, who serviced & repaired electronic equipment in the navy was sought out and recruited by Ford Aerospace after he was discharged...

Don't know. I went to electronics school for the Army and got out in 1993 in the middle of a recession. It took me one day to find a well paying job till I started college.

 

[a43mranger]

You have 2 types of job options in the millitary, ones that you can do in the civ. world and ones you cant, but the ones you cant you still get great experiance in leading people, aka managment. If you go in and get out in 4, you have done something many lack the guts to do, the 4 years your in seams like a long time now, and when your there but in the timeline of the rest of life its just a very small time. If you are thinking about it now do it before you get to old and cant go and wish you did. There is no shame serving your enlistment and saying it is not what i want to do for the next 16 years. Just remeber many before you have joined up gone to war and died so you can ponder the choice and not be forced to go. The Air Force is a high tech force. The Navy is high tech and travel aboard ship. The Army has technology and ok bases. The Marines, well just ask one.

 

[Titan6]

You have 2 types of job options in the millitary, ones that you can do in the civ. world and ones you cant, but the ones you cant you still get great experiance in leading people, aka managment.

Having done both I can tell you this; If you think you want to make it a career or you want a "real Army " experience go with option #2. If you want to serve and learn a job skill go with option #1.

 

[goon]

I was in the army before as a combat engineer. Blowing stuff up was fun, cleaning mud off of everything I owned was not.
If I had to do it again I would go with the Air Force. More women.

And although this may bother some, I wouldn't join at all at this time.
My political views are such that I don't really want to be involved with what we are doing in the world right now.
And after talking to some vets who were in Iraq and one who was wounded in Afghanistan and is now in incredible debt for just trying to get by after being discharged, I wouldn't join again because of the way you get treated when you get out. The guy who was injured told me that they tried to bill him for his M-4 (it was damaged by shrapnel).
On what planet is that OK?

I won't try to talk anyone out of it though. Each of us has to make his or her own choices. But understand that you are basically going to be treated like a number while you are in and even after you get out. You will no longer be a person, you will be property.

 

[KINGMAX]

Yes - glad I did.

Bonds between brothers are made that only other VETS would understand. I consider ALL VETS as my brother. When I see guys out on street corners w/ their hand out, I ask if they are a VET, if so, I give what I can.

I have a great respest for VETS, Childern and Old Folks. If you want to anger me, let me catch you messing w/ one. You will catch hell.

 

[sacp81170a]

Funny, I musta picked the bad part of the Air Force. 10 years in nuclear security, SAC and USAFE. Learned to be colder'n he11 and shovel lotsa snow in the missile field, learned what real mud was in Belgium with GLCM. Never did get one of those cushy back office jobs 'cuz I never screwed up. That always seemed to be the way to get one, get disqualified under PRP and you wind up the Squadron APR Monitor or some such invented position. That's only if the commander likes you, otherwise you get booted out. (I was in line to be the Squadron PRP Monitor, an actual important job, when another guy got a DUI, got disqualified under PRP, and they gave it to him rather than kick him out.)

Loved it the whole time, even when NORAD burped and spit up occasionally and made us think we were headed for Armageddon.

Oh, it's what you make of it, for sure. Serve, be proud.

 

[Harry Paget Flashman]

The military life isn't for everyone but it's sure worth trying once. I dropped out of high school in '65, joined the Navy as an E-1 and retired in '91 as an O-3 via E-8/W-3 with two Bachelor's degrees and $36,000 a year retirement. The Navy lived up to it's hype for me, it was an adventure.

 

[browningguy]

6 years in the Navy taught me all the things I didn't want to do when I grew up, and taught me a little discipline along the way. Very worthwhile for me as I didn't have a clue what to do next in my life.

 

[bogie]

I may stand out here, but I've got two words of advice:

Marketable Skills.

Infantry is significantly less marketable in the civilian world than Computer Tech.

 

[rangerruck]

while you are young, do the most hardcore , infantry stuff you can do , and make rank fast. I made corporal in under 2 yrs, sgt. in under 3. Then , try for either a technical MOS, or maybe warrant officer school, or some other type officer schooling. But if you don't get either of these other options, after your first 4 year gig, and if you don't absolutely love the infantry, then get out, and do something else with your college money, as in , get your a@$s in school.
Stay buried in school, until you get your desired degree.

 

[mister_wilburn]

Join the service at 18, retire at 38...try getting that at your civilian job downtown. Full retirement benefits after 20 years, you would spend more that double that amount of time trying to retire and still come up short. Think long and hard about your decision, it can be great for you, it will instill discipline, all things every 18 year old needs

Just one soldiers opinion, btw im a 13-F (foward observer for field artillery) enlisted US Army.

 

[irishscott]

Air Force

yeh,i missed out on that cushy air force job.working 16 hour days on the flight line,either freezer your ***'s off or baking in the sun hot boxing fighters,love those jet fumes.base wide NATO excersises,full chem. gear any time you left the barracks.camel spiders in the boots in united arab imerates.i've been to almost all of europe,alaska,several different states,and the middle east(never want to go back).i would have never got to go to these places had it not been for the air force though.i will tell you this though,you gain rank slower in the air force than other branches.i didn't like it when i was in,but wouldn't trade it for the world now.it's tough on marry folks,especially with kids,but i think if your single go for it.no regrets here.

 

[Nomad101bc]

I know from ROTC PT is rigourous make sure you train hard. I thought I had trained hard enough only to find my luitenant rather frustrated and now i have the priveldge of getting up at 5 am several times a week running up hills, pushups, sit ups, to the point of light headed exhaustion etc. so really work on physical conditioning dont make my mistake.

 

[Aguila Blanca]

I don't know how my opinion fits with the poll choices, so I didn't vote.

As a Vietnam veteran, my feeling is (as it was then) that the military should be used to defend the UNited States of America, not to project our politics in places we have no right to be. In 1966 thru 1968 that meant Vietnam. Today, that means Afghanistan and Iraq. I'm old enough now that I haven't even been a statutory member of the unorganized militia for a good number of years but, if I were of enlistment age today, I would not sign up. If someone were to attack this country, you couldn't beat me to the recruiter's door but ask me to sign up to go play politics among people who hate us and just want us to go home?

Find another sucker.

 

[trueblue1776]

Maybe some of the guys who voted they loved it have been out too long and forgot. It's a necessary job, can be an honorable job, but it's a sh## job too. That's why servicemen get respect.

 

[MT GUNNY]

11M. 4 INF DIV FT Carson CO 94 to 97

 

[BADUNAME13]

Was it worth it:
Yes.

Would I do it again if I had it to do over:
Yes.

Do I advise you to do it:
No.

I've gone 9 weeks without a paycheck, and MONTHS of paychecks being small or late...

I've had medical conditions ignored, or not adequately taken care of, I've had paperwork 'lost' and dealt with alot of idiots and morons (Not to mention the @$$holes)
(I'm waiting right now for the medical board and my medical retirement... which I know they will try to screw me on.)
-You might of seen my reviews of the Tactical response classes... what you didn't see was the fact that I was swallowing Narcotics every day to be able to do so. I'll have a Narcotic presciption for the rest of my life.
Without them (I only take them when I HAVE TO do something) I can only be on my feet for 3-3.5 hours per day.

And I've served with some of the finest men on the face of the earth through an experence which many never see.

Do I regret it, no.

Do I wish it had turned out different: Yes.

 

[a43mranger]

paperwork

yeah if its for you they lose it, if its something you dont want its there every time all the time.

 

[phaed]

best decision i made in my life was to join the Army. did that back in 90, and i'm still in.

 

[Ala Dan]

Of course, I enjoyed helping and serving my homeland, the U.S. of A~!

 

[skinnyguy]

I joined the Navy at 18, and in the 3 1/2 years that followed, I did more growing up than at any other time in my life.

Though it was not a glorious time for me because of personal problems and injuries from 3 seperate accidents, it is a time I hold very dear to me. Serving my country, meeting people from different places, going to a foreign country and learning their culture, making friends, and always learning and growing.

It is an experience I would HIGHLY recommend to anyone who wishes to further themselves and gain life experiences. It's also something you will carry with pride for the rest of your life.

 

[scout26]

Another question, how do you benefit in knowledge. Like what do you learn over your time in the forces?

In 1983, I learned at age 17, (I turned 18 during basic at Ft Leonard Wood. My Drill Sergeants made sure it was my worst birthday ever, but that's another story) that I can do anything I set my mind to, climb a 100 ft tower, jump out of an airplane/helicopter, and how to make instant life or death decisions.
I learned Perserverance; we only graduated 96 out 130 enlistees in my BCT company. In college, both my roommates quit by the second semester. About 20-25% of the people I started with quit by end of the first year. My third roommate spent 10 years in 4 different schools before he finally graduated.
I learned Honor; yep, I turned in the group that "obtained" copies of the final exams during my junior year. I'm also the guy that narc'd to the FBI about the kickbacks I was offered (and declined) from a trucking company or two.

I learned lots of other life lessons. I grew-up. I do it again in heartbeat and I'd do it now, if they'd let me. (Too old, slow, out-of shape and with too many medical issues that they'd let me play.) My best friends are the people I served with. When I'm at the Legion Hall or VFW every person there is my brother/sister. There is a unspoken bond/commitment to each other, now and forever. Plus, in two days I get to march at the front of the 4th of July parade here in Wheaton, not sit on the curb and "hold my manhood cheap"* and live with doubt about whether or not I could have made it through basic.

*[from Shakespeare's Henry the V, or check out Renaissance Man with Danny DeVito, the whole movie is pretty much crap except for right before the end when one of the privates quotes Act four, Scene three of Henry the V while they're out in a training area, rolling around in the mud, in the pouring rain.]

As far as which service and what career field: DO WHAT YOUR HEART DESIRES. Remember when you were 9 or 10 years old and played Army, Fighter Pilot, or saw "Hunt for Red October", or "Sands of Iwo Jima" ??? Do that... Figure out what you want to do and then go see a recruiter.

 

[U.S.SFC_RET]

I am going to tick off some here. It is a gamble whenever you sign up to go in the U.S Military. You are saying to the government I want the bonuses, education, travel, whatever. The second you sign the paperwork the Government owns you, to include your life. When your gonads are squeezed in a vice you just sometimes don't really feel like serving your country but they make you do the mission. There are times when You don't feel patriotic doing the mission. There is a certain percentage of @@shole and inept leadership who will place your sons and daughters in harms way.
They hold out the carrot in front of the donkey and the donkey follows. If you follow long enough you get to retire from military service.
It isn't all about serving your country day in and day out. In the service you you get a boat hook run through your chin and led where you don't want to go. It isn't all glory.

 

[tbtrout]

I will tell you what I was told, the Air Force is your best opportunity. They have the best equipment and training, the best accomidations and the easiest boot camp. Then there is the Navy second for living conditions, even if you are on a boat it is still dry and you are not in the mud., The Army comes in third, and the Marines are worst for living conditions, equipment, always sleeping in the dirt and eating field rats.

So of course, Semper Fi O300 infantry. I would not trade the experience for anything.

 

[Bones11b]

I have quite a few friends and family members in the diffrent branches of the military. My view is join the airforce if you want to be treated better, join the Army if you want to see action. I personally went Army but by scoring high on the entry exam I was able to negotiate a two year contract. Two years goes by pretty quick especially being infantry. Once I got out I joined a national guard unit here in Florida. Did you know there are national guard special forces units that see more overseas time than regular SF units? Something you might want to look into.