Thinking of joining Air Force, experience?

[AyashiKaibutsu]

you are a soldier first and one of the first things they do is train you to kill other people. I feel bad for bumping into people, so not a good fit? You do whatever the army needs you to do where it needs you.

That little exercise made me respect servicepeople more, but no thanks, not unless I get conscripted. If you can get over all of the above, go for it, and good for you.

Air Force doesn't train you to kill people unless it's your job. The grand total of my "killing" training over four and a half years has been about an hour and a half of firing weapons at targets. I think they might have showed us good places to stick a rifle butt at basic for a few minutes one time.

That said what other people are saying about it not mattering how cushy your job is is true. I'm a 3D0X4 (computer programmer) which is pretty much the cushiest and some of us still get deployed although it's very rare since they can't really deploy us for our jobs. I've personally never been deployed (not uncommon for my career field, but would be for most others). We end up going for shitty jobs like watching 3rd world workers do work and make sure they don't steal shit. That said 3D0X2s (cyber ops or something)(basic IT guys I think) get deployed quite a bit I believe, and yea once you're there you can end up on convoys augmenting army patrols and whatnot.

 

[Imp]

Air Force doesn't train you to kill people unless it's your job. The grand total of my "killing" training over four and a half years has been about an hour and a half of firing weapons at targets. I think they might have showed us good places to stick a rifle butt at basic for a few minutes one time.

That said what other people are saying about it not mattering how cushy your job is is true. I'm a 3D0X4 (computer programmer) which is pretty much the cushiest and some of us still get deployed although it's very rare since they can't really deploy us for our jobs. I've personally never been deployed (not uncommon for my career field, but would be for most others). We end up going for shitty jobs like watching 3rd world workers do work and make sure they don't steal shit. That said 3D0X2s (cyber ops or something)(basic IT guys I think) get deployed quite a bit I believe, and yea once you're there you can end up on convoys augmenting army patrols and whatnot.

I was just referring to basic and rifle training. Here, we're "combined forces" so every branch is supposedly more unified, and you do basic, then soldier's qualification (weapons), then your trade.

Edit: Woops, soldier's qualification is just Army. Air Force gets to go to their trade after basic according to wikipedia. I spent most of my time researching Army.

And I'll add that the majority of military members never discharge their weapon in combat (or see it), so take that into account.

 

[Craig234]

Continue to be a consumer whore and create the need for our empire while continually decrying said empire. :awe:

Continue to make assumptions without a clue.

Actually, you'd be better off if you didn't.

You do have a point, though - in general, all of us here benefit from a lot of things that we don't notice but are ugly. I doubt you meant to make the good point, though.

 

[Craig234]

In short, family threw a complete shit fit considering the danger concerning the job, which is understandable considering it was 2008 when Iraq and Afghanistan were on full blast. Friends weren't very supportive either - I'm in Canada where the military culture isn't that great and being ex-military isn't as respected as in the US probably. Also, I had a degree, and was planning on enlisting - I did not think I was competitive for direct officer entry.

Recruiter knew less about the job than I did, and honestly, it felt like he was doing his job, and was neither encouraging nor discouraging me. Nice guy though.

As for why I didn't join, lots of reasons. My reasons FOR joining were to serve my country, do something very few in the country has done, play with expensive toys, go to "exotic" places, and help people in shitty countries. I was going for rear-echelon trades, so I could get onto the Disaster Assistance and Relief Team (deployed to earthquake, natural disaster zones).

Honestly, I started losing my desire to join when I started learning about the politics (huge one, but I'll keep that shit to myself) involved in determining which wars are fought, the fact that you're government property and do/go where they tell you, you can't just quit when you feel like, you are a soldier first and one of the first things they do is train you to kill other people. I feel bad for bumping into people, so not a good fit? You do whatever the army needs you to do where it needs you.

That little exercise made me respect servicepeople more, but no thanks, not unless I get conscripted. If you can get over all of the above, go for it, and good for you.

Good for you, more thoughtful about the choice.

 

[ViviTheMage]

Good for you, more thoughtful about the choice.

exactly what I was curious to hear too, thanks.