What's military life like?

[member1313]

The pay is bad.  But you always have a roof over your head (or a tent), and something to eat (even if its MRE's).
And there is only one uniform that will always get you laid. 

The other services aren't so lucky....
 

Marines are just compensating for something! 

[Jamisjockey]

http://www.marinecorpstimes.com/news/2007/03/marine_tattoo_changes_032007/
This article explains the why on the tattos pretty well.


Rob:
Compensating for what?  A warrior culture that wins battles?  Pride?  Courage?  Honor?
 

[MillCreek]

A couple dermatologists of my acquaintance volunteer their time and equipment at the local prison for tattoo removal.  It uses a laser to zap the ink, which then degrades and is absorbed by the body over time.  Different ink colors can be removed with varying degrees of success.  I am told that each 'zap' of the laser feels similar to snapping yourself with a rubber band.  Since the diameter of the light beam is small, it takes many repetitions to remove a tatoo of any size.

[The Viking]

http://www.marinecorpstimes.com/news/2007/03/marine_tattoo_changes_032007/
This article explains the why on the tattos pretty well.


Rob:
Compensating for what?  A warrior culture that wins battles?  Pride?  Courage?  Honor?
 

Seems like no two commanders interprets it the same way .

[Stetson]

The pay is bad.  But you always have a roof over your head (or a tent), and something to eat (even if its MRE's).
And there is only one uniform that will always get you laid. 

The other services aren't so lucky....
 

Look at the 2 women in that pic, they can't be too picky.
And I NEVER had a problem and it wasn't a Marine uniform

[Jamisjockey]

WM's arent usually very attractive.  Best looking milspec chicks I ever saw were actually Army.  It was a full on shock.  Wave's (female sailors) tend to be the absolute nastiest.  Women Marines tended to be quite butch.  Never ran into alot of AF chicks, but the ones I did see weren't exciting.  We spent 3 months operating off an Army installation and our liason was hhhooottttt....

[member1313]

http://www.marinecorpstimes.com/news/2007/03/marine_tattoo_changes_032007/
This article explains the why on the tattos pretty well.


Rob:
Compensating for what?  A warrior culture that wins battles?  Pride?  Courage?  Honor?
 

Did the smiley face not indicate the sarcasm? I was just joking around.

[Perd Hapley]

Marines are just compensating for something! 

That's the spirit!    

Compensating for what?   

Don't get me started. 

[Thor]

Interservice harassment is covered under the Interservice Rivalry Act of 1947...... 

 



BTW, there's a REASON the Marines are called, "Sea going Bellhops".........

[member1313]

Military Pay scales Bear in mind that this is just base pay. You could get additional allowances.

As for the uniforms, it kind of depends on where you are. Sometimes, yes, sometimes, no.

Is that monthly or yearly pay?

I really hope that's by the month. 

[Twycross]

It's monthly.

[member1313]

Thank God.

That's half-decent pay when pretty much all of it is pure profit considering the military covers most of your expenses (or so I'm told).

I actually found out my best friend has been considering joining, so the both of us might end up joining.

One thing I want to throw out there: he wants to become a firefighter, and I'd like to become either a police officer or do something with psychology (I can't decide). What could either of us do in the military that would help us if we decided to come back to the civilian world?

[ilbob]

Thank God.

That's half-decent pay when pretty much all of it is pure profit considering the military covers most of your expenses (or so I'm told).

I actually found out my best friend has been considering joining, so the both of us might end up joining.

One thing I want to throw out there: he wants to become a firefighter, and I'd like to become either a police officer or do something with psychology (I can't decide). What could either of us do in the military that would help us if we decided to come back to the civilian world?

Its pretty good pay for an entry level position where all the training is thrown in for free, you get paid for doing the training, your room and board is covered, and you get a pretty decent set of bennies.

OTOH, despite what the ads say, a lot of military jobs do not do much to directly prepare you for civillian jobs. Most military job skills don't directly correspond to civillian ones, although there are plenty of exceptions where they do. What they often do though, is help prepare you for life a lot quicker then someone who did not join the military.

[member1313]

I just found out something wonderful! Both of my parents will likely disown me if I choose to join.

:/

[Perd Hapley]

I just found out something wonderful! Both of my parents will likely disown me if I choose to join.

:/

What?  Why would they do that? 

[Balog]

I just found out something wonderful! Both of my parents will likely disown me if I choose to join.

:/

Why? Are they flaming anti-war hippy types or just uber-controlling "our way or else" people?

Either way your better off without em. If their love for you is so shallow they'll cut you off for this, screw em. Just because they gave birth to you doesn't mean they aren't bad people.

[member1313]

My mom is a bit of a control-freak. She's also paranoid. She doesn't agree with the Iraq war. My dad hated his father, a WWII veteran for various reasons. He'd get irate with my grandfather if he'd tell me old war stories. He never told me anything graphic; he just would share various stories that were either humorous, or had a good moral to them.

When my cousin joined (who's currently in Iraq), my father was pretty angry about it, despite that he could count the number of times they've spoken face-to-face on his hands.

I've never told anyone this, but I've always had a fascination with the military. I've always wanted to wear the uniform, carry the responsibility of a weapon, and be able to stand up straight knowing I can defend myself. I always just kept quiet because I knew my father would hate it.

On an unrelated topic: what do you do with your stuff if you join? I know you can't bring personal things with you, so what do you do if you have a computer, guitar, TV, various other odds and ends you'd like back if you decided to return to civilian life? Rent a storage thingy?

[RevDisk]

On an unrelated topic: what do you do with your stuff if you join? I know you can't bring personal things with you, so what do you do if you have a computer, guitar, TV, various other odds and ends you'd like back if you decided to return to civilian life? Rent a storage thingy?

Once you're definitely going active, ebay the majority and then invest in a certificate of deposit.  Anything relatively small with little resell value, put in storage and have someone trusted mail it to you once you're out of basic and AIT.  If you're just going reserves or NG, storage.

[Twycross]

On an unrelated topic: what do you do with your stuff if you join? I know you can't bring personal things with you, so what do you do if you have a computer, guitar, TV, various other odds and ends you'd like back if you decided to return to civilian life? Rent a storage thingy?

Huh? You can't bring much of any personal stuff with you when you leave for Basic, but after you graduate that, you can have all the personal crap you want (provided that you have room for it). Just leave your stuff with somebody or in storage when you go off to Basic, and then come back on leave and get it as soon as you have settled in to your unit and have some place to put it all. Or have someone you trust ship it to your new address.

[Thor]

I didn't have a lot of stuff when I left for boot camp, but I regret giving away what I did. It was almost all replaceable, but there were a few LPs that I miss. When I finally got to my permanent station, I could have used a lot of the stuff I gave away.

[Perd Hapley]

On an unrelated topic: what do you do with your stuff if you join? I know you can't bring personal things with you, so what do you do if you have a computer, guitar, TV, various other odds and ends you'd like back if you decided to return to civilian life? Rent a storage thingy?

Huh? You can't bring much of any personal stuff with you when you leave for Basic, but after you graduate that, you can have all the personal crap you want (provided that you have room for it). Just leave your stuff with somebody or in storage when you go off to Basic, and then come back on leave and get it as soon as you have settled in to your unit and have some place to put it all. Or have someone you trust ship it to your new address.

Precisely.  Most people just leave it with Mom/Dad/whoever, then get it later on.  You'll probably get some leave after Basic and/or AIT, so you can spend some time with the folks/friends, and get whatever personal belongings you need before going somewhere more permanent. 

In my unit, the barracks were two-man rooms, like dormitories.  Computers and guitars and such were perfectly welcome.  If you live off-post, you'll probably have even more room.  When we went on deployments, the unit would arrange for storage for us.  We moved our cars to a fenced-off parking lot, etc. 

If you have guns, and live on post, you will probably need to store them with someone off-post, or rent a storage unit.  BE DISCRETE.  Do NOT bother with keeping them in the company arms'-room.  Unless you have a very understanding chain of command that will arrange for you to get your guns out of storage whenever you want them, and make sure they don't get messed with while being stored.  Good luck.   

[Bogie]

Uh, yeah, and don't even THINK about severing family ties over a buncha war stories... Talk to the 'rents, and tell them what you're doing, and WHY. Helps to say things like "pay for college" and "good job experience."
 
LEAVE OUT THE WHOLE BIT ABOUT WANTING THE MATURITY THAT COMES WITH CARRYING AROUND A BOOMSTICK.
 
For one thing, wherever you got that idea from, that's bullbleep.

What military service WILL give you is experience at being responsible. PERIOD.

[member1313]

Bogie you make a good point. I didn't realize about the "responsibility of a firearm" thing sounded until you responded to it. It's not so much the firearm itself as the responsibility of it. Let's face it--people come out of the military a little different.

The first time I saw my cousin after he enlisted, he walked, talked, and looked different. When he shook my hand, there was a sense of pride and confidence, as opposed to the last time I talked to him before he enlisted, where he was (no offense to him) just a "normal" guy.

Unfortunately, my mom has never liked the idea of the military. I'm pretty sure she meant she would disown me if I joined before the Iraq war was over with. My dad might budge, but I don't know. I'll have to run it by him again without coming right out with it.

And you can have stuff with you after basic? I thought the military was very strict about what you could do.

Can someone give me a brief idea of what happens after you enlist? For example, how long is it until you leave for training, where do you go for training, how long is training, where do you go after that? What's daily life like on a military base? etc.

Really--I'm open to hearing anything. I really should finish reading my grandfather's war journal...

[Thor]

Rob, a lot of that depends on YOU. When I was recruiting, I've enlisted people one day and shipped them off to boot camp the next. One can generally choose up to a year, but I'd recommend against that, but that all depends on what YOU want. As for the Navy, typically, they'll give you a couple of weeks leave between boot camp and school. You CAN opt not to take that leave (it does charge against your annual leave). Then as for school, it'll have a class convening date. If you report early, you'll be doing crap details until the class starts. After school is usually another chance for leave before reporting to your duty station. I chose Naval Aviation Maintenance, so I got another school before my permanent duty station.

As for Officers, I have a clue, but not a very good one.

[Twycross]

The military has a program they call the Delayed Entry Program, or DEP. The basic idea is that you can get your physical, sign all he paperwork, swear the oath, etc, but then delay your report date for basic by up to a year, IIRC. You can set approximately what date you want for basic to start. Your recruiter, of course, will try to get it set as soon as possible, but you can leave in six days or six months is you want. I waited about a month to leave after signing my paperwork.

For the army, you will have 9 weeks of Basic Combat Training, and then you go to Advanced Individual Training (AIT) for you MOS-specific instruction. The length of your AIT will be dependent on your MOS (could be 5 weeks, could be six months). Locations for BCT/AIT vary as well. There are several posts that offer BCT, and the AITs are scattered all over. After that, assuming that you have no further options in your contract (Airborne, RIP, Special Forces), you should be given an opportunity to take 10 days leave. At the end of the ten days (if you decide to take them), you report to your unit (wherever that may be).

I can tell you how my infantry unit does day-to-day stuff right now, but it may not be of much use to you since you aren't looking at infantry. The day starts at 0630 for PT, which goes until around 0745. We get released for breakfast/shower, then come back at 0900 to start the duty day. I can't tell you what we really do on a normal day for actual 'work', since I really don't know firsthand. I went straight from my 'training' phase to Iraq, and just got back about a month ago, so I haven't seen any 'normal' days (we aren't doing anything productive right now  ) But it's off to lunch at 1130, back on at 1300 till 1700. Weekends are off. Not a bad gig, really.

Anyhow, that's how it is for the enlisted.

I thought the military was very strict about what you could do./quote]
As long as you aren't getting into trouble with the law, aren't making yourself or the unit look bad, follow unit rules of conduct/availability, and show general financial/personal responsibility, you're personal time/space is more or less your own.