So, I'm joining the Army Reserves...

[mikepmcs]

Hey
It's Navy Mike
I'm sure this might have already been covered, but I work right next door to the Army Reserve and The Guard.  If you have any questions throw em up here after you see the recruiter and I'll try to get the lowdown for whatever you need so you know he/she isn't snowing you.  Remember they are under a lot of strain to make quotas, so they will fabricate and sometimes even lie to get you in.  I'm not proud to say that, but every recruiter is made to be that way eventually.  I really don't like the process sometimes and know I would never survive being a recruiter cause I'd tell you the truth.
Let me know if I can help.
v/r
Mike

[TheGhost]

What's keeping you from going active now? Go see the World !!!!   

Troy

A budding relationship, actually...

[Darkness]

I'm gonna be a little bit of the grim reaper here a little bit and just tell things from my perspective a bit more. First off, thank you for choosing to serve our country. First off, choose your service wisely. Please understand that while you're hearing great stories on here there is also bad stories. Some people have good experiences from the military and that's great. While others don't have it so great. Some people say it's what you make of it which is partially true. Having a good supervisor and good leadership makes a world difference as well. Having been in the Air Force nearly six years I'd say I've had two good supervisors who actually cared about their people and I applaud them for that. As for the other they were not so great to say the least.
The problem is if you get a bad supervisor or have a few bad apples in leadership they can jack things up for you. I've seen it happen.
Second off, if you're going for education I would say join Air Force. They have the best educational benefits IMO.

On the flip side, I guess if I had to do it all over again I would done school first and became an officer since I was joining. Officers usually make better pay then us enlisted folk do.  But, in all honesty my six years has been okay. It hasn't been great. I'll kind of miss it but, at the same time I won't. Also, expect a lot of critism from folks in the local community. A lot of the college students here coin the term "basers" for us and I've also heard us referred to the "a**holers" which I didn't appreciate very well but some people are that because they get satisfaction out of it. I've also had local girls ask me what I  do and I tell them what I do. I usually tell them I work for the government and then they ask so you in the military? I'm yeah and they're like "oh, so your one of them huh?" Anyways, that's what I've dealt with here and another base.

Additionally, if you don't plan on making a career and getting out here's what I suggest. Ideally, if you sign up for 4 years you need to decide at the second year mark what you're going to do because first off I would highly suggest saving up as much money as you can possible. Second try to get some college in so at least you do come out with something if you don't get a degree for whatever reason. Third off, make your decisions wisely and be careful of the people you hang around with especially locals. I've seen locals take advantage of military guys in different ways. More financial than anything. I fell into this trap myself because some of these women know you have a paycheck coming in every two weeks. Again, knowing what I know I would of stayed single at the time and saved all the money I could but, I fell her trap. Guess, what I couldn't do anything.

Well, like I said I was going to be the grim reaper of this post. Understand my military career has been medium to say the least. I wish my career could of been like AKCharger and hemi68chargers but, it hasn't. However, just because my career wasn't the greatest doesn't mean yours can't be. I wish you the best. Have a good evening.