I'd like to know several teen movie stars who have done this.

Still, even if your a rich teen, my argument still holds that everyone can enlist for the army, and NOT EVERYONE can go Ivy league.

I merely suggested this because it seemed like the OP was not satisfied in all of his accomplishment and was looking to add another accomplishment to his list.

 

Major of the Army here. One thing is for sure, military life is tough.

 

Right, be we are talking about joining the military, not THE DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION!


Seriously, I agree. The CG would be an excellent choice too - I looked into the Coast Guard Academy, but things just didn't go my way


edit... I see now that the CG is part of the Department of Homeland Security. But not too long ago it was part of the DOT.

 

I had my obligatory 1 year service in the Finnish army as a ranger. Lots of running around in forests, sweating your ass off in summer, and freezing your ba11s in winter.

As such, not a bad experience, but hardly worth it, seeing as the army in my native country is a little small and puny. They've managed to fend off larger enemies (i.e. Russia), but today, I think they wouldn't be able to do sh1t against anyone, so it's all just for show off (and wasting tax money).

You can make some cool friends in the army, and some of the experiences are unforgettable, but there's so many other things to do with your life.

It's your call. Seeing as some countries these days wage war, you might end up killed, but... it's the chance you take.

 

If you're not sure about the military, is there some other way you could fill that need to accomplish something more? Charity work, maybe? Maybe get involved with a sport that you maybe aren't already that requires lots of dedication, like a triathalon, etc.

 

Natalie Portman went to/goes to Harvard. She is pretty smart though and way hot.
I know a few Harvard grads, one guy is super smart the other two can't find their ass with both hands.


I kind of regret I never did any time in the service. I went to all the recruiters. I said "Can I fly an Apache" Army said "No". A-10? No. F-16. No. I have bad eyesight. No flying for me, so I did not enlist.

If you want to be dedicated and tough, Marines all the way. You want to avoid getting shot at join the Air Force or Navy. Marines and Army are the ones always getting shot at. You could end up stationed in a war zone, or seeing the world. Or you could end up like my friend fueling jets in the middles of nowhere in Kansas. If you luck out, four years in Honolulu. Its a crap shoot. But you have to make up your own mind.

If you ever get to see a three part TLC miniseries called "Making Marines" watch it. It is a great show. It follows several recruits through Marine basic up through "the Warriors Breakfast". It also just so happens that when they were filming and the recruits were halfway through, Sept. 11th happens. You can see on their faces which ones have the dedication and are the ones the marines want and which one might not be cut out for it.

 

havard?? pshhh

try getting into the military academy.. now thats a challenge


westpoint, naval, airforce, etc..

 

I would say the military is a good place to either a) setup your life or b) get your life back together... however if your just "toying around with the idea" i wouldn't enlist if I were you...

 

unless you like being a guinea pig and being exposed to depleted uranium not to mention what is in the supposed inoculations you have to get done prior to entering. Oh and the gas chamber is fun too.

 

If you're going to go in, I recommend going in as an officer. The pay as an airmen is pathetic and may suit the needs of an 18 year old high school graduate with absolutely no bills, but not someone with a 4 year degree, possibly married with children, etc... (compared to whats out there in the civilian world). I really didn't go in for the money or expect to get rich in the military, but for the most part, expect to be underpayed for what you'll be doing. That's just the way it is. I could be making almost 3x as much as a civilian doing what I'm doing minus the chance of being shot at, minus being deployed 200+ days a year to $hitty places (or some nice places). There are, however, plenty of benefits that you will never get as a civilian (like practically free health insurance for your family, tax free stuff on base, tax free pay when you deploy, etc...).

I was 26 and had been out of college 2+ years with a degree already when I joined. I applied to OTS (Air Force) for a pilot slot and when I was accepted, I knew that was what I would be doing before I went in. I could have dropped out of officer school up until the minute I got commissioned. If there is any way to go, I recommend OTS. 3 months, done. However, college will be coming out of your wallet compared to ROTC.

That said, if I had to do it all over again, I probably wouldn't have joined the military. It just seems like 90% bull$hit and 10% flying alot of times to me. I was a civilian commercial pilot before joining and actually started flying when I was 15 years old because I wanted to be an Air Force pilot, but after being in for only 2 years now, I'm losing my patience with it. I love the flying, but the life sucks. I think if someone offered me a civilian flying job with a $15k a year pay cut and a chance to walk out the front gate and never come back, I'd take it. Military life is a big run around and I've come to hate moving. I've moved 4 times in the past 2 years. That is a bit more than normal because I moved to different training bases (normally assignments are 3-4 years), but it gets old. I been through more improcessings/outprocessings and have filled out more forms and have attended more useless briefings than anyone could possibly imagine (unless you were in the militar). It seems as though every time you go to a new base, your paperwork gets screwed up, you don't get the money you deserve when you want it and you've got to go back and forth finding people to get things done, signatures, etc... Who lost your paperwork? Who's on leave? Who's TDY? There's a form for everything and by God, make copies of EVERYTHING because there is a good chance it'll get lost. Constant bull$hit like this and I sometimes ask myself, "Why exactly am I doing this?". We have a saying called, "Hurry up and wait." in the Air Force and this comes from everything always being a rush, but sometimes we really don't know why we're rushing because it seems as though nothing ever happens. If you're a person that likes to be in control over your life, then the military is not for you because you really have absolutely no control over your life. Uncle Sam does. I've spent 2+ years dealing with a long distance relationship with my fiance (now wife of 7 months) because she had her career and I had mine. This does not include the almost 2 years of long distance we had after we graduated college together and before I decided to go into the Air Force. We've neen married for 7 months and have lived 1000+ miles apart ever since just because I have been moving around and didn't want her leaving her job until I got somewhere more permanent. She will finally be moving in with me in less than a month (and then I get deployed for 60 days 3 weeks later )

When you're in the miltary, "the mission" comes before everything else, even your family. You're a number. Nothing is done for your convenience. Ask the people in Iraq that spent 6-12 months year in Bagdad, came back for a few months and got sent back for another 6-12 months (with husbands, wives, kids, etc...). Some have never even seen their kids since they've been born. That's the job. You have to ask yourself if you're willing to live that kind of life and if what you'll be doing will be worth living that kind of life. I never had anyone in my immediate family in the military, so I really didn't have a good idea of what it'd be like (and the recruiter is the last person you want to ask because they'll leave lots of little important tidbits out so as to not intimidate you and/or turn you off). Think about it. The military is not what it used to be years and years ago where you were home alot and/or just went TDY to nice places. We are sprawled out in every arm pit of the world.

That aside, the miltary is what you make of it. As much as something may suck at times, you bust your ass, do your best and most of the time, good things will come out of it and oh, by the way, you're serving your country. If it were easy, there'd be more people doing it.