Active Duty vs Guard

[Varg the wanderer]

Yes, it does.  '>   Thank you. '>  '>

[Lascivus_Lutra]

Varg, I currently am the manager of a Technical Support team for a company that supplies power systems to telephone and wireless companies.

My time in the Marines gave me invaluable leadership training that is hard to come by in the civilian world.  Of course I was also trained in electronics and have many years troubleshooting various types of electronics systems.

Working on aircraft would give you a view of aircraft that many aeronautical engineers never get.  Honestly many engineers never get the real 'turning wrenches' experience.  They are book smart but short in real experience.  If you wish to go into aeronautical engineering, any prior experience would give you an edge over other engineers.

The college probably would give you limited credit for experience but you should have opportunities during your time in the service to pick up some general credits. ie math, english, history

I had friends that took college courses while in and then got out and continued their education.  So yes it is possible.

I hope this helps.........

[Lascivus_Lutra]

Varg, sorry it took me so long to post.  I had distractions and today I remembered that I never responded to your post.

Ok, first off, you scored an 82 on the ASVAB, congrats.  Depending on how your sub scores split our you should not have any real limitations on any field that you want to get into.

Since we are on the topic of skills, with active duty most skills are available.  On the reserve side, well, you will have a certain number of reserve bases nearby.  Each of those reserve bases will have certain specialties that they need.  If you want to work on jets and there aren't jet bases nearby you can't do that in the reserves.  And they do put limitations on how far away from a base you can live and still be a reservist at that base.

Self control - very related to discipline, self discipline to be exact.  The Marines come to mind first, of course, I am biased.
Next would be the Army, then Navy, last Air Force.

You will have a greater opportunity to handle weapons on active duty than reserves.  More in the Marines and Army.  Quite a bit less in the Navy and Air Force.

You said your main motivation is defending this country.  You will be doing that equally on Active Duty or Reserves, any service.  It is a TEAM effort and everyone has a part to play to make things happen.

As an example, cooks.  When I was aboard ship I would be working on helicopters 12 hours a day 7 days a week.  Often up on the flight deck in the heat, cold and/or rain.  When it came time to eat you can bet I appreciated those cooks having some hot chow waiting for me.  MREs are ok but not 3 times a day, everyday.  If I was fed, I was happy, I fixed helicopters, the pilots got to fly they were happy.  They guys in the field got a flight out of the field instead of walking 10 miles, they were happy.  All because I got some hot chow.

I was a Recruiter about 10 years ago, so things may have changed but you had a better selection of jobs in the Army and Marines.  The Navy and Air Force categorized their offerings in broader groupings.

As far as whether to go to college now or later.  Its kind of up to you.  A lot of people (I was one) are not ready for college straight out of school.  They are not focused enough or they are living their parents dream.  I saw many of these when I was a recruiter.  I enlisted several after they dropped out after 1 or 2 semesters.

I am not trying to talk you out of college.  I am warning you, you must be focused.  There is a lot of fun to be had in college but if you get caught up in the fun and forget about school, wll you know thats not good.  Hve fun but take care of the important stuff first.

Finally if you start to seriously consider going into the service, "TAKE YOUR TIME!"  The recruiter wants to get you in and get on to the next candidate.  He/she may not have YOUR best intentions in mind.  Kinda like buying a car, BUYER BEWARE.  Do not sign up for something you do not want.  At anytime you can say NO.  And of course if you think they are jerking you around tuen the tables.  Tell them you are going to talk to the other services before you decide.

And of course, feel free to give a holler if you have questions or need help.  You can e-mail me, I check it nearly everyday.

[Varg the wanderer]

I'm very seriously considering going into the services, but I'm torn between the WI National Guard and the Air Force.  The guard will pay 100% up to madison tuition for any collage I want to go to, but the AF recruiter said I can go to collage on base for free.  Does anyone know; this true?  is active duty worth it?  How about the guard?  I realise this decision is mine alone, but I know some of you are or were enlisted and I'd like your input.

EDIT: damn, this was waaaaayy off topic, sorry bout that  

[Humbajoe]

I'm going into active duty for the Navy at the end of August.  All I know is that I'll be getting a regular paycheck, $35,000 from the Montgomery G.I. Bill, and supposively they pay for any secondary education I take while enlisted.

I don't know much about reserves.

[Kobuk]

Welcome back, Varg. Haven't seen you on the forums for awhile. Guess you've been a bit busy, eh?

Anyway, now for my reply.

I wish I knew what advice to give you but I'm not in the service and would never be able to join any of them anyway due to my bad eyesight. What I can tell you is that I've been hearing a lot on how the Reserves are getting called up for duty more and more, and how they're being used for longer deployments, especially in Iraq. It sounds like it's getting pretty tough over there being a Reservist in Iraq. I've also heard that a lot of leaves were cancelled too.

If it were me, I would not go into the Reserves. They're being used way too much for too long.

[KayLynn]

I was active duty army and now I'm in army reserves. Active Duty Army will pay for 100% of your tuition, and you get your GI bill. Army Reserves will pay 75% tuition, plus if you have the GI bill from being active duty for a while you can use it at the same time.

   BUT, they recently got rid of the Inactive Ready Reserves (IRR) and everyone who were in it are being told they have to either go back active duty or reserves. Everyone who enlists has had an 8 year IRR obligation from the date of their first enlistment. That means if you enlisted for 2 years and got out, they still have 6 years they can call you back into the service. Well, alot of people just got called.    '>

[Kamui]

I'll try to answer you questions but I may be a bit limited in my Air Force info. (Being Army, I ship out in oct. =P)
 But as far as college goes? You'll get the same G.I. bill no matter what you join for active duty I belive (I may be wrong but thats what I was told).
And yes you can take college classes on the base, they will get actual professors to teach you and you'll be able to get classes out of the way faster (though I'm told this is the same with all branches). But as far as variety of degrees, check this with your recruiter because when I joined I talked to an Air Force guy first and he said I could only get a degree that was related to my appointed job (I.E. MP=criminal justice only).
 Just a bit of food for thought, again being Army I wouldn't know quite so much about the Air Force

[Rushjunkie2112]

Hello Varg long time no see.   '>
Whatever you do make sure you learn a craft that you can use in the civilian world.

[cougar2k2]

I am currently in the army reserves.

There are many pros and cons of both going active and going reserve or national guard.  What I did when I joined was I made a list of what I wanted and then made a list for both active duty and reserve (pros/cons).  I then looked at which option allowed me the best option to obtain my goals.

Also if you go national guard or reserves and after basic and A.I.T. if you descide that you like being on active status then you can talk to you recruiter again and go active duty.  If you do this you also get the benifit of being "prior duty" meaning that you get a list of places to choose from of where you want to serve, being overseas in Germany or someplace or someplace closer to home so you can visit on the weekends you are busy.

Me personally I went reserves because you get tution assisance GI bill and the normal sign on bonuses also you can gain rank a lot faster in the reserves/national guard.  I was e-2(private) when I went in a year ago and now I am an e-4(specialist) but also on the negative side of things I will probably be getting deployed by the end of the year... actually I am excited about be deployed, gives me another chance to see if I like active duty  '>

But seriously whatever you choose to do, you should be proud that you are choosing to serve your country.  That in and of itself speaks volumes.

[Savaaha]

grandad was Career USAF, Dad was USAF, Younger bro is USAF and served in iraq and may go career, baby bro was USAF as well. Grandad retied well taken care of and my little bro will with his training.

[Lascivus_Lutra]

Varg, 20 year retired marine (retired in 2000), worked on helicopters.  

I hesitate to answer your question because I have a couple of questions that are very important.

What is it that YOU want from the military?

What is your ultimate goal?

[Varg the wanderer]

Thanks so far for your replies.
Lutra;       I want to learn some self controll, organisation, how to use a gun properly (more than aim and pull the trigger), and mabey pick up a few skills that I can take with me into the work force.  My main motivation is the opportunity to defend a country and people I love.  I'm tired of sitting on the side lines, watching others do the dirty work(or mabey I'm just blood thirsty '>, I dunno).   I do have a concern about after I get out though, and it's become a bit of the coin flip for.  I would eventually like to go into some kind of Mechanical or aeronaughtical engineering, and that requires a collage degree. 'Thinking how I might just  go guard now and then do some more in-depth research later if I want to go active in either the MC Army. or AF.

Varg, If you are planning on joining the air force, where you thinking of pilot?
Thats what i want to do and it would b great to speak to someone going through the training and all!

[Varg the wanderer]

I'd love to fly, but I don't think I can because of my not so hot high school grades.  I'm looking to be a jet mechanic or something of the like, as my screwing around in high school has shot my chances of flying (82 on the ASVAB though!!'>.   But it might be easier to become a pilot in the other branches.  I could be wrong though, and the best people to talk to would be the military personell here (who actually know what their talking about, unlike me) and your local recruiter.

[TigerWiccan]

I was active duty in the Navy for 4 years, and I wouldn't trade the life experience gained for ANYTHING.  Your mileage may vary, though, since I was pretty sheltered prior to me joining the Navy.  It changed me, though, for the better.  I'm not talking like making me a gung-ho yo joe type, either.  I just matured IMMENSELY while in the military.

[Sphenix]

I'm in the reserves and I absolutly love it, I'm actually getting sent off tommorw for a good chunk of the summer.  I don't know about the American system, but in Canada I'm entitled to get half of my tuition paid for on top of my regular pay.  I know exactly what your talking about though TigerWiccan.  The military has been an massivley positive influence on my entire life and its probably the best thing I've ever done with myself.

[Varg the wanderer]

Well, reading everyones posts has caused me to go out and do bit of poking into the other services.  I didn't care a lot for the navy, but after talking with me and seeing I was still interested the mareins guy invited me to come with them for one of their pool functions to prepare recruits for boot camp.  I was sore for the next two days, but I liked what I saw and got to talk to the recruits.   I'm still not sure on active duty or reserves/guard.  I guess I need to make up my mind on weatehr or not I want to go straight into collage or not.  Hell, I don't even know if I'm ready for collage. I have a hard enough time cracking down to buisness now, and that's with mom and dad hounding me and no parties to go to or a rowdy room mate or a regular job.  I don't even have a year to make up my mind either  

      Lascivus, what do you do now, and how has your time in the Marines contributed to that?  If I went into the marines and worked on aircraft, would that help me in getting a degree in aeronaughtical  engineering?  I know th eexperiance would be valuble, but would there be anything a collage could look at and give me credit for?  I dunno, perhaps I should forget trying to do collage and military at the same time.

[Sporty Fox]

Send Nikko a letter, he'll be glad to tell you what he's going thru in bootcamp with the Marines. As rough as it is, he's loving every minute of it! I know he'll be glad to discuss this with you, since he was in your shoes not long ago. If you need his addy give me a PM and I'll send it to you.