POLL: Which branch of the military should I join (OCS/OTS)?

[Schadenfreude]

Alright, I'm about to graduate from college soon, with a BA in Philosophy and a minor in Psychology - and I felt that i should serve time(?) in the armed forces - now, I almost enlisted as a marine before I came to school, and I took all the prerequisite tests and passed without a problem - basically, physical health notwithstanding (I ahve bad eyesight), I can basically choose any field I want to get into, and they'd let me. But since I'm fluent (read, write, and converse) in Korean, and can instruct in two styles of martial arts, I figure I'll either be in intelligence or a self-defense instructor. And after my active duty time, i figure I'll try to get back to school and get a higher degree. From the info that is given, which branch would I best suited to join, or should I reconsider and find a job like everyone else? And why?

 

[aphex]

my dad was an army man but ive always been fond of the navy.

 

[Sketcher]

Depends on which rating (job field) you're interested in and what's available at the time you enlist -

but if you're interested in seeing the world and like being at sea... U.S. Navy.

Check out ALL the recruiting offices though and see what they have to offer. Some rates have incentives, Some branches might offer incentives others do not.

 

[Bignate603]

Air force tends to be slightly more cushy, you don't get stuck in a boiler room (navy) or have to rough it (army and marines).

 

[NikPreviousAcct]

Marines.

 

[Zugzwang152]

Army

 

[NikPreviousAcct]

Originally posted by: Bignate603
Air force tends to be slightly more cushy, you don't get stuck in a boiler room (navy) or have to rough it (army and marines).

lol - my best friend got perfect score on ASVAB (sp?) and went into Electronic Warfare in the Navy. The only boiler room he'll be seeing is pieces from other ships that he's destroyed from his cosey little darkroom.

 

[datalink7]

Army would be my vote... but then again my dad was in the army so I am a bit biased.

 

[Citation]

Go For it!!!! Sell your life and soul to the government, they own pretty much every other aspect of it anyways, but if thats what you want to do....well atleast if you guys keep joining I won't be drafted.


-Cit

 

[Cerebus451]

The Air Force has the best bases. They generally treat their people the best. The Navy is the opposite end of the spectrum (if you ever added up the cost of what it takes to build and outfit a carrier with planes, you understand why the Navy has no budget left to spend on its people). The Army and Marines are for the outdoorsy types.

If you want to see the world, you probably have the best chance in the Navy (though my brother had an OCS buddy that did his entire term sitting in Charleston, SC because the ship he got assigned to spent the whole time in drydock for a retrofit). With the AirForce, there is always the chance you won't see much outside the U.S.

 

[Bignate603]

Originally posted by: ffmcobalt

Originally posted by: Bignate603
Air force tends to be slightly more cushy, you don't get stuck in a boiler room (navy) or have to rough it (army and marines).

lol - my best friend got perfect score on ASVAB (sp?) and went into Electronic Warfare in the Navy. The only boiler room he'll be seeing is pieces from other ships that he's destroyed from his cosey little darkroom.

It all depends on where you end up. There are great jobs in them all, but in the airforce their's little chance you'll be crawling on your belly through the muck or stuck on a ship on a 6 month voyage.

 

[Atrail]

Air Force is pretty close to a business enviorment.
Good experience to start off with...

 

[GasX]

May I recommend the reserve? A year now (more or less) for OCS and specialty training and then a minimal obligation for X number of years. If you do 20, you get a full military pension - not too shabby.

 

[UltraQuiet]

1. You have a degree. Go talk to the officer recruiter. You do not want to enlist. You want a commission.

2. If you are fluent in Korean there is room for you in every service. They will ask you to take a test, etc. etc.

3. You have a degree. Go talk to the officer recruiter. You do not want to enlist. You want a commission.

4. Don't put too much weight on your martial arts skills. There really not anything the services are looking for.

5. You have a degree. Go talk to the officer recruiter. You do not want to enlist. You want a commission.

EDIT ---- I can't find link but I saw a story or message or something today that talked about a new program designed for people who wanted to serve for a short time before college or before grad school. It said it was like a 19 month active commitment followed by a reserve commitment followed by an Individual Ready Reserve commitment. It also described a bunch of different college money programs.

 

[NikPreviousAcct]

Originally posted by: Bignate603

Originally posted by: ffmcobalt

Originally posted by: Bignate603
Air force tends to be slightly more cushy, you don't get stuck in a boiler room (navy) or have to rough it (army and marines).

lol - my best friend got perfect score on ASVAB (sp?) and went into Electronic Warfare in the Navy. The only boiler room he'll be seeing is pieces from other ships that he's destroyed from his cosey little darkroom.

It all depends on where you end up. There are great jobs in them all, but in the airforce their's little chance you'll be crawling on your belly through the muck or stuck on a ship on a 6 month voyage.

What's wrong with that? Instead you'll be sitting in the lounge waiting for the president to say it's okay to waste more fuel in test dogfights.

 

[Zugzwang152]

Originally posted by: ffmcobalt

Originally posted by: Bignate603

Originally posted by: ffmcobalt

Originally posted by: Bignate603
Air force tends to be slightly more cushy, you don't get stuck in a boiler room (navy) or have to rough it (army and marines).

lol - my best friend got perfect score on ASVAB (sp?) and went into Electronic Warfare in the Navy. The only boiler room he'll be seeing is pieces from other ships that he's destroyed from his cosey little darkroom.

It all depends on where you end up. There are great jobs in them all, but in the airforce their's little chance you'll be crawling on your belly through the muck or stuck on a ship on a 6 month voyage.

What's wrong with that? Instead you'll be sitting in the lounge waiting for the president to say it's okay to waste more fuel in test dogfights.

that would be fine with me. too bad my eyes suck too much to be a pilot.

 

[Bignate603]

Originally posted by: ffmcobalt

Originally posted by: Bignate603

Originally posted by: ffmcobalt

Originally posted by: Bignate603
Air force tends to be slightly more cushy, you don't get stuck in a boiler room (navy) or have to rough it (army and marines).

lol - my best friend got perfect score on ASVAB (sp?) and went into Electronic Warfare in the Navy. The only boiler room he'll be seeing is pieces from other ships that he's destroyed from his cosey little darkroom.

It all depends on where you end up. There are great jobs in them all, but in the airforce their's little chance you'll be crawling on your belly through the muck or stuck on a ship on a 6 month voyage.

What's wrong with that? Instead you'll be sitting in the lounge waiting for the president to say it's okay to waste more fuel in test dogfights.

They aren't me, my father was an infantry officer and loved it but I'm not so gung ho as that. As for living on a boat... eh, it would get to me. I would choose airforce for me but if you know what you want, go for it.

 

[GasX]

David Sohmer speaks the truth. You want a commision!

 

[Schadenfreude]

Originally posted by: DaveSohmer
1. You have a degree. Go talk to the officer recruiter. You do not want to enlist. You want a commission.

2. If you are fluent in Korean there is room for you in every service. They will ask you to take a test, etc. etc.

3. You have a degree. Go talk to the officer recruiter. You do not want to enlist. You want a commission.

4. Don't put too much weight on your martial arts skills. There really not anything the services are looking for.

5. You have a degree. Go talk to the officer recruiter. You do not want to enlist. You want a commission.

Yep. I talked around to some enlisters, one of them was hellbent on trying to make me enlist - even to the point where he was saying I had to "enlist to become an officer" even though another captain I talked to (with the other guy I mentioned, who was a 1st Sargent in the reserves) told me explicitly that I need not enlist. Jackass :|. The captain, who was frank and honest about everything (which I admit, impressed me), told me that there are language schools in case that I would like to pick up some others as well.

And the reason that I put martial arts skills - I know that it's basically obsolete in a combat situation, but I heard that a job as an instructor is like a 9-to-5 job (like a lot of others, I know). Right now, I'm leaning towards the Air Force, but am considering the Army as well - it's suprising how they adhere to the strerotypes - the marines are so freaking gung-ho!

 

[jteef]

I just applied to air force ots. will find out in a month or so whether or not I was selected. I don't think your degree would qualify for a technical degree and the airforce has suspended all applications for those with non-technical degrees for a long time (at least oct 2003, maybe longer). But, you should still talk to a recruiter because the process takes a long time and he'll be able to give you better info than me.

you can try these webpages as they have good forums with people currently applying, in school, and recently graduated:
www.airforceots.com
www.armyocs.com

I assume the navy and marines have similar sites too, I just dont know them...

I talked to an army recruiter over the summer, went down and took the asvab, got a perfect score, told him what I wanted, but he was assholish and kept trying to push enlisted. So I stopped talking to him. A few months later I looked up an air force recruiter in the yellow pages and he put me in touch with a guy that specializes in recruiting officers. As far as I know, the army doesn't have these people. I don't know about the navy or marines. He definitely seems better at his job than the Army recruiter I talked to.

 

[glenn1]

Air Force would give you the best quality of life. Army would offer the fastest career advancement opportunities if you decide to go combat arms (infantry, armor, artillery, etc). If you don't want combat arms it's a tossup between the Army and Navy, with perhaps a slight edge to the Navy. Marines would offer primarily the pride of being able to say you're a Marine

 

[Schadenfreude]

Yeah. I'm not looking for a career in the military (won't know until I tried it at least), so I'm leaning more towards the Air Force still . . ..

 

[Kraeji]

quality of life is best in the air force.. they treat you like people.. have the best bases.. best service.. etc

that's where im going.

if you wanna kill ppl.. marines and army are the best

navy to see the world

i'm an air force brat so im biased too

 

[rawoutput]

Man, everyone wants to join the Air Force now. I mean thats cool and all but its making being a cadet a lot more competitive. AFROTC is a 4 year deal for the most part, inbetween your second and third year of school you go to a 4 week field training camp in Texas, Florida or Washington state. There are about 3500 spots and now but with the flux of ppl that want to join the AF there's about 6000 cadets who want a spot this year. Same goes for scholarships, theres about a billion people competing for them now which makes it a pain in the ass. I guess its good that its a selective process but I think that a lot of these cadets who apply are in it because of the crappy economy and guaranteed job after college instead of the whole commitment to duty ideal.

Having said that though, do what Mr. Sohmer said and go see an officer recruiter. Also consider an accellerated ROTC program in whatever branch you choose - you go back to college for a year, take about 6 credits of classes and do the ROTC thang and field training, then you get commissioned. Definitely a bit easier than OCS.

 

[Spikey217]

USMC