Considering Joining the Air Force (stationed, officers, enlisted, overseas)

[Ope522]

I am a female considering joining the Air Force. The educational benefits and career benefits all sound really good. My main concern is about being deployed. When i asked a AF Advisor about it, all he said was..."females aren't allowed to be in combat related careers." I wasn't really asking about combat related careers, but could use some more perspective from those who've been there. As a female, what is it like being deployed in the AF? Depending on your career choice/job, how close do you actually get to the "action" so to speak??? Any other advice/suggestions would be greatly appreciated, thanks!

Also...I am a college graduate and have a bachelor degree. So I've been looking more into the Officer option than the enlisted option. What are the different things I would be doing as an officer/enlisted? What option would be better for a female considering joining with no prior service experience? Thanks

[etjaipleure]

I am not in the Air Force but my husband is in the AF and I have female friends in the AF. It really depends on what you are wanting to do that will help you decide to go enlisted or officer. Officers get paid more and have more respect (supposedly). It seems like officers are more pilots and managers and office type jobs, at some bases anyway. At my base anyway, officers have the more 9-5 job, Mon-Fri and sometimes not even Friday. They do deploy but it also depends on your career field. My husband can only deploy to Guam. My friend's husband cannot voluntarily deploy anywhere. So it depends on the base and career field. It is widely thought that officers have better of everything. Better pay, better houses, better jobs, etc. This is not always the case but some of those things can be true. As for the AF, the chances of you being in front lines or seeing any battle at all...is going to be pretty slim. The AF is not really a "front lines" branch. I had a friend who just got back from deployment in Iraq and said it was boring and he didn't do anything at all. My brother is in Iraq and he goes on convoy missions about 3 times a week, very dangerous and usually gets shot at. He is in the Army. Chances are you will be deployed. That does not mean you will be deployed to a combat zone likes other branches. You could be deployed to Korea, Guam, etc but it probably will happen. Also, if there is a certain job you want to do I would suggest waiting for that job to open up. My husband went enlisted open and I really wish he had picked a job and gone officer but too late. If you go in open, they can give you whatever job needs to be filled at the time and that doesn't necessarily mean you will like it but then you have to wait I think about 3 years if you are enlisted to cross train into another job. Also, do not let the recruiters tell you that most people like to stay stateside so if you put on your dream sheet you want to go overseas you will most likely get it. That's what the recruiter told my husband and I thought it was crap and it was! You can get stationed anywhere, any time and some bases are going to suck. Some bases will be great. It's really all kind of up to you, personally.