Is military service a good choice for living in America?

[Anonymous]

[BCA6010]

For context, I served in the Army from early 2014 to late 2018, half in a testing unit, and the last year on deployment.

Broadly speaking, the opinions of other people shouldn't be the make or break for enlistment, because you need to be self-motivated in order to thrive; instead, such a candidate should be looking for information about the job itself, ideally from someone who had the same MOS/rate that you're interested in.

I haven't kept track of current offers, but at the time, the main advantage of joining the Army over the other branches was that you could get your exact job choice written into your contract (as well as some schools such as Airborne and RASP), and usually a wider range of options for when to actually leave for training, whereas other branches could only guarantee a job field at best, and a limited number of training cycles.

In regards to the lifestyle, the pay and hours suck, though almost everything except for your phone and car payments are covered for you, so most of the money you make can be saved or treated as spending money if you're living in the barracks. On the other hand, military pay has infamously trailed behind the national rate of inflation for years, with only a couple hiccups where it was actually proportionate. I expect that this along with some other internal cultural problems will be addressed under Trump and Hegseth, but it's impossible to predict how long that will last; it's not a coincidence that major internal shifts tend to happen within the military every 2-4 years, for better or worse, and it's largely driven by leadership at a much lower level than the president.

Anecdotally, I can also say that all but one of my close friends who stayed in longer than me got out or plan to get out as a direct result of how the military/government dealt with COVID, and no amount of compensation is changing their mind. I left mostly because it was always just a stepping stone for me, but I also saw the direction the Pentagon and West Point graduates were dragging the force, and feel like a dodged a bullet by missing the COVID era.

[Asker]

Did you get permission from the military to go abroad?

[BCA6010]

What do you mean by go abroad? I had to submit a leave packet with an itinerary of where I was going and how I was getting there during holiday block leave or weekend mileage passes if that's what you mean.

[lightbulb27]

Maybe. Some do well with it. You lose control of your life... where you will be. I don't like women being under control of other males due to the risk of abuse. That... I wonder about.

I've seen lots of retired military people and they do ok.

[Anonymous]

Depends on the individual. Republican candidates are notorious for starting and un finishing wars for the almighty dollar.

[AnonAndrew]

I haven't done it myself, but from what I've read and heard it seems like a pretty good option.

[exitseven]

It is not for ev erybody but you can get training a d the GI bill and if you make a career out of this rberr is a good pension and benefits

[Dargil]

With President Trump as Commander In Chief, yes. Enlistments are resuming.

[beefcakebradybatson]

Fighting to keep a flagging Empire going a while longer? I don't believe so though I may be wrong.

[ehatsham_hussain]

It's every where is a good choice

[Agape93]

Not really

[Pterodon]

I thought so