I'm getting all these crazy offers lately from the US Army. I'm not kidding....30,000 dollars sign on bonus and so on.

I spent 6yrs in the army and I would say I enjoyed about 4 years out of it. After that, when i finally decided that I won't make a career out of it, it was more of a giant wait to be finish and be done with it.

Most of my experience comes from being in the army...and it is basically not much else but infantry stuff. I was 3 different MOS, that means 11B, 11C and 11M, I tried all 3 because I wasn't satisfied doing the same thing for so many years.

But anyway....after 6 years, I thought I'm done with it for life and lately I have became very anti-war, just knowing what is going on in these wars, I got some friends there right at this moment, fighting in the middle of nowhere.

So anyway, my financial situation isn't so great and the lookout to the future looks kinda bleak, since I have been trying to get hired for over a year now and all I got was temp jobs and whatever I did on my own as a self-employed.

I got an associate degree from science as well as was also majoring in mathematics and i was 1 year away from getting my bachelor degree from it, when i had to transfer due to the school raising the tuition to a price that I just couldn't afford anymore.
Anyway, it seems like nothing is enough today anymore to get hired, lol they won't even hire me as a security guard for 12 bucks/hr.

So after this quick summary of biography, I'm at the crossroads, deciding whether or not I should take the offer the military is offering me, and I'm clear about the plan that I would be most likely shipped off to either Iraq or Afghanistan.

So what do you think personally? Should I keep holding out after a whole year or trying to survive or should I just take the offer from the military, even though i'm not really favoring the wars anyhow, but due to the financial situation, I'm sort of pressured to make drastic changes?

I'm interested in various ideas and insights what I should do or if anyone else is facing or faces similar hard decisions in the past few months.

thanks!

What is your gut telling you?

think about it really what is you gut feeling then deiced what to do

yeah really no one can decide for you

you have to make the determination whether or not you are in a point in your life where it would be worth it or not

having already done it once, you already know that it would be a BIG change

but at the same time having been through it already you kinda know what to expect

its a balance of rewards versus risk and only you can appreciate and decide if its worth it


I was 30 when I enlisted so I can kinda relate to the decision point you are at now

you should move to Utah

sometimes people move to find better jobs, maybe you'll find something you LIKE to do in a different state.

I would say though, if you're considering it

go navy

they have better schools and technical training that can be applied after to a civilian life after service

I'm sure you'll not find anyone who will admit to telling you
what to do ... you'll have to decide what to do yourself.

I spent 4 years in the Navy. I sometimes question whether I
should have stayed in and retired (would have at 39 years old),
and could have continued on with other work afterwards.

I understand the issue with not being employed for a year and
to have a $30k signing bonus in front of you. Personally, I
would not want to be on the ground - I'd much rather be on
a ship or in the Air Force ... have you investigated those options?

The Air Force or the Navy is the way to go right now, both for the technical training and the fact that grunts are really being wasted over there.

The 26th my cousin is heading out for the air force. He was waitlisted a long time before starting... no one is wanting to go into the army... so they are really pushing for enlistment.

we call the Air Force the "country club"

its hard(er) to advance in the air force cause no one wants to get out

it's easier to advance in the Navy

I would have stayed for my twenty but during Bill Clinton's big drawdown all they would offer me to re-enlist was physical security (closed circuit camera maintenance) at Camp David. and there was no way I was gonna go live in DC. toooooo many people there for me

12 years air force

do it only if you can except the commitment.

Wow, that's a big decision and I don't envy you. Sounds like you are giving it a lot of thought though and weighing the pros and cons. I wish you the best in your decision making process.

Marines.


Semper Fi.



Weight the pros and cons very carefully.



and good luck.

I didnt read close enough

you're faced with the opportuntity to go back

I think I would try to hang on till the economy picks up. I think that sometime this summer the employment will pick up

re entering the military seems like a long term solution to a short term problem

Kill

This reminds me of the tests we used to run on air to air missles and air to ground missiles...it was a go or no go test. If the missle failed a no go light would come on and then we had to diagnose the problem and fix it.