GOOGLE IT FUCK

what a douche

i mean he has a point, find a recruitment office and ask them. probably one semi-close to you

why r u guys downfragging its not that hard rly google it go to basic training do ur years of service GI bill go to college enjoy life

This is a perfectly valid question. If you talk to someone who isn't a recruiter you can learn a lot of things about how to negotiate for the best salary, gain insight about their personal experiences and such. Tbh the recruiter would probably be one of the last people I talked to.

I come from a pretty mil-spec family and I can say that its is a very smart financial move and they will basically throw you through any school your motivated enough to get into. That being said wanting to go to school for free is not a good reason to enlist. You have to be very tolerant of bureaucracy and very willing to sacrifice larger than expected aspects of your life in terms of relationships/time/fun. Its more a personality type than anything else.

I'm pretty sure they pay tuition the first four years after you're done.

At least that's what it was in the 90's and I don't think the GI bill changed too much.

A little rant about Montgomery GI Bill below, it's been three years since I've talked to anyone about it so forgive some inconsistencies.

If I can provide a couple pieces of advice: don't trust recruiters. A lot of them are nice guys, but it's their job to get you to sign up. They can't make you do anything until you sign the final paper before you get on you bus to basic.You can actually walk away up until that point and they can't stop you.

I know it's the nerdy brother of the military, but if you're after education, the Air Force is your best bet. All my tech training classes counted for college credit and all my bosses really push going to college outside work.
If anyone has questions about the Air Force, I can probably answer a couple in this thread.

Don't fraud enlist is pretty good advice in your case because you've admitted to self harm on this forum. Your recruiter will tell you to not list any therapy you've had for this and to never admit it happened at meps, and that will get you all fine and dandy through the enlistment process since meps doesn't have the medical or insurance records you haven't provided. But once you've enlisted, it doesn't matter if you rat out your recruiter saying he told you to lie(lol never tell on your recruiter its always your fault "you forgot". Seriously.) you've already signed the contract saying that you assume all responsibility for what you've chosen to disclose. The background check for the security clearance will reveal that you've self harmed or have had therapy and you WILL be less than honorably discharged and they CAN revoke all benefits and every single dollar you've earned while in the military.

Although if you haven't had therapy and are all secretive and shit the only way they can disqualify you is if they see your scars or you start cutting yourself while in the service.
+the military is not for people predisposed to self harm but you prolly already know this bleh

relax child

Hi there, I've been in the US Army working as a combat medic for over 3 years now, currently deployed to Africa. I think I can answer any questions you might have.
All military branches offer the GI Bill as one of the main benefits for education. There are 2 different variants of the GI Bill, both of which will pay for 36 months of tuition and/or give you money for housing for that period of time.

One variant is the post 9/11 GI bill, which all service members automatically earn after serving for 36 months (and are discharged honorably). This variant is the best offer for traditional college goers, providing the most amount of tuition assistance (full coverage if in-state) and also paying a stipend for books and housing (that is calculated based on average housing rent in the area).
The other variant is the Montgomery GI bill, which is better for non-traditional colleges (certificate programs, vocational education, on-the-job training, etc). However, this variant is not free, and you will pay 1200 dollars total your first year (100 a month) in the military, should you decide to opt in this program. As far as I know, the MGIB does not offer a housing stipend, but is rather a lump sum paid to you a month that you can spend according to your needs.
Keep in mind that the GI bills are best used after you are finished with your service. You may only use one of these programs.

If you have any other questions, feel free to ask and I'll do my best to provide you any information based on my experiences.

edit: There are also other opportunities for furthering your higher education while you are still active in the service in the form of Tuition Assistance, a command-sponsored program that covers a certain amount of schooling. It's a good program to take advantage of, but is largely dependent on how much free time you can dedicate to school (you may be interrupted by deployments or field exercises, or just because you are working late and can't make it to class). Online classes are very popular in the military as well.

Ask Lantak, he just came back from spending 5 months in the Somalian desert with a dog

My hero

I don't have any army experience, but I do know this.

Remember that even though the army's salary is low, you get unbelievable benefits. You essentially get free food, water, electricity, housing, medical care, and a free membership to a gym. However, be sure you're willing to be away from your friends and possibly be put at risk of injury or death

That entirely depends on what you do in the army

im also considering whether to work electrical engineering in a trade union or in the army

dunno which one ill go with

if you have a degree id suggest getting a civilian job for the DoD so you can get all of the army benefits without the physical requirements.

i worked a year as an engineer for the dept of defense on a multi billion $ comms project and then when i left there i literally had companies fighting a salary war to hire me.

if you don't have a degree yet joining the national guard is probably the best bet, as theyre more CONUS and will pay for school, but the DoD itself if youve finished undergrad will pay for your grad school as long as you maintain a B or higher at the cost of having to work for them the equivalent amount of years you went to school for which isn't a bad deal.

You dont get paid much working for the DoD or army in general but you get ridiculous benefits and discounts everywhere (flights, cars, credit cards, gas, food, etc)

that's my two cents anyway.

idk if i would serve in the army i would make sure i'm not from one of the most aids countries in the western world. i get that u wanna leave usa but i dont see why you gotta kill civilians to do it uknow

wonderful representation of what being an army engineer is like

Okay, so there is a lot of misinformation in this thread. Sorry for wall of text and bear in mind that my experiences are as an active duty soldier.

You can't really negotiate your salary, all jobs are based off the military pay scale which is based on rank. With that being said ,there are things you can do while you are waiting to get shipped to basic training to get promoted even before your contract starts. For example, I had 60 college credits when I shipped so I was an automatic E-3 instead of an E-1.
You are right about recruiters though, some are decent but a large portion of them will not fight for your best interests. If you want something, get it in writing/in your contract.

I'm not sure what you mean by 'throw you through any school you're motivated enough to get into.' If you're talking about college, it largely depends on your unit. If your unit is high speed and does a lot of training, then obviously you would be obligated to work and not go to class. If you're talking about occupational training, then yes, so long as you score high enough on your ASVAB you can get a contract for pretty much any enlisted job granted their are openings.

Yeah, don't lie about past medical conditions or any type of criminal infractions. You either end up screwing yourself physically because your condition gets worse with the added stress of PT, or occupationally because your security clearance gets denied/revoked because they found out you shoplifted and failed to mention it in your enlistment documents. Contrary to popular belief, the military is pretty sensitive to mental health issues. Don't get me wrong, you will most definitely not get babied by drill sergeants in basic; their job is to break you and build you up again. But should you develop any type of mental disorder we have fine medics and mental health specialists/providers.

Yeah, cool story bros.

As a final note, I would not recommend staying on the enlisted side of things if you intend to make the military a career; for any motivated individual, it will become apparent enough that enlistment should be used as a stepping stone for either payment of college or transitioning to the officer/warrant officer side of the military (which requires a degree in most cases). For example, being an enlisted combat medic has it's perks, but generally my career progression would stagnate to simply training/supervising new combat medics after the rank of sergeant. However, should I decide to progress to officer, I could become a hospital/medical platoon administrator, physicians assistant, nurse, doctor, the list goes on. The military has programs for this type of career progression.
Or, you can take the experience you gained, finish your enlistment, and get out and go to college essentially for free armed with your new confidence and experience to share your skills on the civilian side.

Funny story, my friend got his degree funded by the army, but while studying became less and less keen to join the army. Unfortunately, if you don't join upon graduating, you have to pay back all the money they invested in your education. Fortunately, the year he graduated was the year they moved all their records. They only discovered his recently and occasionally ring his mother who steadfastly insists that he no longer lives with her (which he doesn't in fairness). Can't help but think this may eventually all catch up with him

so if i were to participate in active duty, what other types of jobs can i do other than being an actual soldier or combat medic? i know one of my cousins is an airplane engineer or something like that but i dont feel thats something id be good at/interested in either.

You can take a test which professions you are more interested in, they usually aren't free but since a large part of your future might be a lot more clear for you (and it's easier to get motivated for things you like doing obv) it's worth it imo

There are a plethora of other jobs besides combat arms. You could work in communications (25 series), intelligence (35 series), medical (68 series), the list goes on. The ASVAB is free, usually if you go to a recruiter's office they will make you take a practice one and then the real one at MEPS. Based on your score and availability of jobs, the recruiter will tell you which you qualify for. From there you will be sent to basic training (~10 wks), to AIT where you will learn your job, and then to your first duty station where you will do your job (hopefully).

If you're hell bent on the military as a career, running the full 20+ years, you're much better off looking at schools with an ROTC program and calling a recruiter to figure out how it will all work out, and then going the officer route. Being from the mid-west virtually 1/2 of all the people I went to high school either joined the guard or some branch of the military. Some folks even did boot camp at 17 so they could go into the guard their senior year lol. This was ~2006 when demand was still super high for people though. Most of the military is down-sizing now and entry requirements are more stringent.

Of the 30 or so people I knew who enlisted, only 3 of them are still semi-active in the military as a reserves mostly (one of my roommates in college is a 1st Lt. now in the Army, but he was wounded in Iraq and has a disability now (hearing is not so good), so they just keep him around to train the noobies lol). A few people also used the army for medical school - whereby the army would put you through med school, then you become an army doctor for x years after - they're still in.

I also have a nephew who was an MP in the air force who now works as a defense contractor, and a few other folks who were trained mechanics in the air force who now work as a contractors fixing planes for all sorts of folks. A cousin of mine was a weatherman for the Marines - now he's a weatherman on TV lol.

From my understanding, if you're not financially able to get to do whatever it is you really want to do, the military isn't an awful stepping stone, or if you've got leadership skills and go into being an officer, life can be pretty nice, but if you want to just enlist because you can't think of anything else to do, it's a really poor choice. Everybody I know who simply enlisted because they couldn't think of anything else to do are now out - and generally hated their experience, one (who served in the artillery in Korea) said that prison (he went on drug charges after he got out) was preferable to the army lol. Oh, also one girl I dated in high school is in the color guard now for fancy events lol, she seems to like her job.

I also had a group of friends join the navy who were convinced they could get through BUDs and be navy seals - the bravest one flunked out 3 times. He ended up doing chip and seal for years afterwords lol.

best answer for someone who could be defending our country.