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My son is planning on joining the Air Force. The issue is his longtime g/f is already in the Air Force, she has completed her basic training and is now in school for her particular field.
She is scheduled to be done with her schooling in Dec. and will be home for the holidays. Their plan is to get married while she is home. He will enter the Air Force after he graduates from college in the spring of 2011. Their thinking is if they are married before he goes in, they will be able to be stationed together.
I can just see it now. Barracks will have their own married couple rooms on one floor and the single guys or girls on another floor. Latrines will be an other problem. Sure glad my service time never had those situations to deal with.
There is a join spouse program. I would think it would be easier to be married before he goes in but I am not sure. Either way, they are going to have to wait for him to get through his training and then possibly wait for her next assignment unless he can get assigned to where she will go after her tech school graduation.
Its going to depend on their jobs as well. If one of them has a job that can be done at any base or most bases, and there are multiple slots for it, then it would work out better. I know someone who used this as one of the criteria for choosing which career field (out of the choices she had narrowed down) she wanted because her spouse had the more limited duty locations.
If he does a field that has only a few duty locations, and so does she, if there is no overlap then they cannot be together. If say one of them is in personnel or services, then chances are better. I would not pick something solely for that reason, just wanted to pass that on as a point to ponder.
Oh and join spouse is not a guarantee. At all. they could spend the next 20 yrs of their AF careers living apart (most people either divorce or one person separates from the military when this happens because obviously its not the best thing for a marriage to never live together.)
I can just see it now. Barracks will have their own married couple rooms on one floor and the single guys or girls on another floor. Latrines will be an other problem. Sure glad my service time never had those situations to deal with.
What?
Um, married people live off base in an apt or house or get base housing.
Hey thanks Lisadol, he will see a recruiter in December when she is here. She will be here to recruit as well. Will she get any special "brownie points" for enlisting my son?
I don't know about that but it is probably a good idea for them to go together, I have a feeling, if for nothing else except they will be married and its going to be a huge life change. dmarie who posts here regularly is a recruiter so she may be able to tell you more.
Hey thanks Lisadol, he will see a recruiter in December when she is here. She will be here to recruit as well. Will she get any special "brownie points" for enlisting my son?
No special points, other than a "Thank you" from the recruiter.
Has your son started working with a recruiter? He should not wait until December. It is probably already too late for him to leave in Spring of 2011. If he waits til December it will DEFINETLY be too late for him to leave in Spring of 2011.
Enlisting can take up to a year (a lot has changed and the wait has gotten a lot longer in just the last year).
You said he is about to graduated college? Is he thinking of going in as officer... this process is usually at least a year long. Also, they would need to be married before he joined to prevent them getting in trouble for "Fraternization" of she is enlisted and he joins as an officer.
If they don't get married before he is "ordered" to go to his assignment, they will be assigned separately for a minimum "Time on station" requirement and then 99% chance they would be stationed together.
If they are married first, they will nearly surely be stationed together. Unless they have two jobs that can't be done at the same base.
The Air Force doesn't give any sign on bonuses or referral bonuses because it's a priviledge to be even be considered to join the AF, that is the attitude for the most part from people in other branches. As far as I know, if they are married before he joins they will get stationed together. I have several friends that are married and are both in the AF and they are stationed together. They will get separate deployments, though. They can't work in the same area and one cannot be a higher rank than another in the same area. Dmarie 123 made some good points (of course she did,she's a recruiter! Just found that out). Depending on what his degree is in, he might have a hard time getting into OTS and it definitely does take at least a year. My husband has a college degree but he went in enslited and is trying for OTS later, you can also get higher pay if you do that, go from enslited to OTS and you will have more experience and probably more respect but not always. My husband started his enlistment process in September of 2008 and he started basic in Feburary of 2009, so not a year but also not a short time period either. He will also have to be married before he joins if he wants to be officer as that is considered fraternization if they aren't married and I think you can be discharged for that? Not entirely sure.
For the most part, if married before he joins, they will be together. They will more than likely not place both of them at different bases and will choose bases where both their jobs are offered.
Just to caviot on what etjaipleure said- there ARE SIGN ON BONUSES!
BUT...
BUT...
They are very limited. Most Special Operations have a $17,000 bonus for 6 years, Linguist and Crypto Linguist have a $14,000 bonus for 6 Year, EOD (Bomb Squad) has a bonus around $12,000, and Security Forces has a $3,000 bonus for 6 years.
Not much... they are elusive... but they do exist. They are not totally extinct.
Just to caviot on what etjaipleure said- there ARE SIGN ON BONUSES!
BUT...
BUT...
They are very limited. Most Special Operations have a $17,000 bonus for 6 years, Linguist and Crypto Linguist have a $14,000 bonus for 6 Year, EOD (Bomb Squad) has a bonus around $12,000, and Security Forces has a $3,000 bonus for 6 years.
Not much... they are elusive... but they do exist. They are not totally extinct.
To add, you first to have qualify at these jobs at MEPS. Linguist has a separate test you take at MEPS. If you pass all that, you still have to go through a tough tech school. I don't know how it is today, but Linguist recently had a 90% failure rate.
Guard and Reserves often offer more bonuses than active duty.
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