I know we have a few vets here. What are the pros and cons? Just the thought of rotting in a cube for the rest of my life is kind of…depressing.
you want action?
save up 100k (or more 
go to chicago, rent a seat and trade prop on the CBOE/CME…
sign up for the military - it’s fun
I briefly looked into it when I was freaking out last summer about not having any job offer.
Pro: potentially lower income taxes due to exclusions for certain types of military pay, free checked bags and priority boarding if wearing uniform on airlines, you get to shoot guns and stuff, women like military guys
Con: risk of dying kind of sucks
well what do you want to do in the military? intel ? pilot , spec ops , etc?
force recon sniper. That’s what I would do
You probably won’t die - US military deaths are pretty low. But if you get deployed to some desert country, it sounds like the experience is still pretty rough.
yeah, deaths are low… but if you include serious injuries/ amputations… its a significant percentage
I guess it depends on how you define a “significant percentage”. For instance, here’s a (possibly outdated) report about troop casualties in Iraq.
http://www.dtic.mil/cgi-bin/GetTRDoc?AD=ADA518921
Based on Table 1 on page 222 (data is in incidents per 100,000 per year), you have about 0.4% chance of dying, and 3.2% chance of being “wounded in action”. 1.75% are wounded but return to duty within 72 hours, and 1.4% are wounded but do not return to duty in 72 hours.
So, depending on initial assumptions, injury and death in the US army might be over dramaticized. However, these rates are still high enough that a risk averse person (like me) would avoid active military duty if possible.
The place where you are deployed and your specific duty probably also matter. Ground troops in Iraq are probably more likely to be killed or injured compared to some clerk or engineer based in the US.
I remember my dad telling me that in WWII, you were least likely to die if you were in the Navy. However, if you actually found yourself in action (i.e. shooting at someone), you were more likely to die in the Navy than anywhere else.
i.e. overall chance of dying in the Navy: very low; chance of dying per hour of Naval combat time: very high.
I am not 100% sure this is actually true, but I thought it was interesting.
jsoc has highest death rates , socom is next, marine infantry is a likely third … but jsoc would definitely be the most fun and badass people and missions if you’re into that kind of stuff…
It’e entirely dependent on your trade, if you in a combat arms, i.e. infantry, armour artillery your probabilty of death is quite significant. Keep in mind there are about 3-5 support staff for each frontline combatant so that skews the odds.
I long considered the military but I have flat feet which makes long runs and hikes very painfull and often injury prone. I think being a forward air controller would be pretty cool though.
The reason why I am considering this is the GI Bill, which now covers grad school. So I do my 4 years in the service, apply for a full-time MBA and see where I go from there.
Just wanted to bump this thread to anyone who’s interested. So I’ve been doing a lot of research and found that:
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In order to become an active duty Marine, you pretty much have to sign up before your 28th birthday or obtain an age exemption. The problem is that there is basically a 0% chance to obtain this exemption. I have roughly 7 months to decide whether or or not to sign on the dotted line or else that door is shut for good.
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Joining the military doesn’t require you to become a full time soldier. Programs such as the reserves basically let you become a “weekend warrior” so to speak. You can also join the military as a professional, meaning you take on a specific role whether that be a chaplain, lawyer or some financial management capacity.
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With a 4 year degree, you can pretty much bypass the E-3 rank and go directly to E-4. However, there is some political risk involved since you pretty much piss off everyone who started as an E-3, which are the majority of folks who enlist at the 18-20 age range.
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Another option is Officer Candidate School (OCS), which I’m not too familiar with but will be reading up on shortly.
No such thing as a “Force Recon Sniper”. Force Recon is Force Recon. Sniper is Sniper. And never the twain shall meet.
As for me, I spent 5 years in the Marine Corps as a signals intelligence analyst. I hated most of the 5 years, and got out as soon as I could. (I was enlisted…if that means anything.)
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While the military does offer service to professionals, these are limited to doctor and lawyer, as far as I know. There is no such thing as an officer in a “financial management capacity”, at least not in my experience.
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In the Marines, you can NOT bypass the E-3 rank. E-4 is considered a supervisory position, and you can’t (at least in Marine Corps theory) be a supervisor when you have not yet been supervised. (I don’t know if I agree with that personally, but I didn’t agree with a lot of Marine logic.)
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If you decide to go to OCS–good luck. You’re going to need it. If you’re not in tip-top physical shape (e.g. I knew an officer who was a starting free safety at an FBS school, and he said that OCS was tougher than any football practice he ever went to), and don’t mind getting 3-4 hours sleep a night, then don’t bother.
Like I just said, I spend 5 years as an enlisted Marine. And I can promise you, anybody who pulls up tables like this and quotes these kinds of statistics need never join any branch of the military–at least not as an enlisted person. You will not survive. I refer you to the quote by Hermain Wouk in the Caine Mutiny:
“The Navy is a master plan designed by geniuses for execution by idiots. If you are not an idiot, but find yourself in the Navy, you can only operate well by pretending to be one. All the shortcuts and economies and common-sense changes that your native intelligence suggests to you are mistakes. Learn to quash them. Constantly ask yourself, “How would I do this if I were a fool?” Throttle down your mind to a crawl. Then you will never go wrong.”
I would extend this to not only the Navy, but all enlisted military members everywhere.
Some of you might think that I’m being harsh, and that may be true–but I would remind you that I lived that life for five years, so I have firsthand experience of the inner workings of the military, and I have earned the right to speak my mind about the military.
That’s very surprising. I know people from my college/hs who’ve gone the OCS route and made it, and they weren’t in great shape nor great students…Army and Navy, not Marines though.
The Army has the Finance Corps — other forces have officers in finance.
Don’t worry about this.
The young 20 year olds coming in at O-1 are ranked higher than all of the enlisted ranks.