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I am (almost) 27 year old female, decent shape, no college degree (h.s. gpa was 3.87) and working a dead end job in a warehouse in the town I have lived in my entire life. I'm extremely naive when it comes to military life. No offense intended but I had no idea that military people actually live a fairly normal life until I recently had a brief relationship with a man in the Army. He was so proud to be serving his country 10 years and counting, and his stories weren't what the movies make them out to be. I had tremendous respect for him and his fellow men.
I definately want a family someday, but not while I'm still serving my country. I'll be honest, I want to earn education money, travel, and do something that I can be proud of. My biggest fears revolve around my age, gender, and which branch to serve. I have the drive to get myself in shape to do the pushups,situps, etc. I've already started the 2mile runs. I have the obedience and determination to survive boot camp. I do not feel I am above any job they have to offer me.
Please, any thoughts, experiences or information you have to offer would be great. As I said, the military is a whole new world to me. Also, please feel free to send me direct messages too. I need all the info I can get to make an educated decision.
I have a friend in who is a married mother of two. She had her second child just this past October. prior to joining the Marines she was a model. At the age of 27 she is in the process of trying to rejoin the Marines.
You sound like you already have the proper mindset, and our open to all possibilities. My suggestion would be to figure out what you want from the military (which seems like you already have, for the most part) and figure out what service can best give you that. Talk to a recruiter from every service, keeping your goals in mind. Whatever service you join will get what they want out of you, just make sure you get what you want out of it.
Focusing on the travel aspect and the fact that you said you would forgo a family while in the service. I'd look into the Navy. Financial support, and transferability of courses are the same throughout all the services. The Naval services (Navy, Marines, Coast Guard) have the USMAP Military Apprenticeship And Education | USMilitary.com where you can get journeyman certification in your field by simply reporting the hours you already work to the Department of Labor. AF has their own community college, but all services/bases have education centers on their installations with accredited universities and their always online classes at the school of your choice.
Pride is a personal thing. You can be proud of being a truck driver. That said the service members with the most overall pride percentage wise in my experience are Marines, Coast Guard, Navy, Army, and Air Force. Caveat to say I think there are actually more proud Army guys overall, but it's so large, that there are also alot of soldiers for who it's just a job. With the USAF, they have some very proud individuals, and all of them should be proud, but the problem their is the high number of people who join it because they look at as a job with great benefits. As far as the coast guard, though they are proud individuals, they tend to not get the respect they deserve. Once again, though, you should be proud no matter what service you join. Each respective service is the best at what they do.
You need to speak to a recruiter to make sure you meet all the qualifications first. In this economy the services are swamped with applicants and it's not as easy as you might think to join.
Your ASVAB (aptitude) test will be the biggest factor in determining if you get in and what position you qualify for. After that you have medical screening, moral screening (law violations & credit check), past illegal drug history, height and weight screening, etc.
So my recommendation is see if you qualify first and then you can research/decide what branch, position or other options.
Gee, what a shock, Hollywood movies don't accurately reflect the military. I suggest you talk with recruiters for the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, and Coast Guard. Many people forget to check with Coast Guard as an option. Find out what each has to offer for your skills. Don't automatically accept the recruiter's BS as fact and don't sign anything until you're sure. Follow up on their promises. Sometimes the recruiter is telling you what he/she truly believes is the truth but things may change during or after bootcamp. If you get a job classification and go to school for that job, you could get kicked out either through failure or screwing up and end up without the job you signed up for. There's no guarantee in the military for a job. Don't like going out to sea? Don't sign up for Navy, Coast Guard, or Marines. Some Marines spend nearly half their time in service sailing the oceans. Each branch has some high tech job fields that you can get into without a college degree. It is possible to begin your college education while in the service depending on where you get stationed and your job rating. Many people on ships take classes while at sea. Some stationed in the states take night classes at universities near their base.
26 or 27 is the cut off to join the Air Force (not exactly sure). But it's one of those two.
Go to any Armed Forces recruiting center, and walk in and talk to them all. I am 28, Female, been in the Air Force for ten years. I can answer specific questions, but could write a book so I'm not going to try to tell you all of my experiences. I have posted a lot on this forum. You might even be able to search this topic area for my posts and read from a perspective of a female your age.
Sailordave-I have to take your advice and not sign up for any "sea" jobs. I think I'm more of a land woman. I've been to army.com and looked at some the jobs available...some of which I was going to pay a local institute 15000 to train at even though you're not certified after the program is over. As far as your movie comment, when I watched "Brothers" it scared the s#*t outta me! I'm sure there are extreme circumstances but I hope they're far and few between! Maybe I'm wrong...
dmarie, I'll definately try to check out some of your posts. The cut off is 28 according to military.com. I don't personally know any females in the military so I'm definately looking for perspective. I'm so excited and terrified of making this decision. I've heard the good, bad and ugly about experiences on blogs which I think is important.
The vast majority of Marines don't serve on ships and never serve on ships during their entire career. The only ones that do are on the MEUs which are only 15,000 Marines out of over 200,000 Marines in the Corps. People who are with the MEUs cyle is 6 months doing nothing, six months doing "work-ups" where they travel around the US doing exercises to prepare for "Float", and six months on "Float". Where you cruise around your MEU respective area of responsibility, stopping into ports in that area for a week at a time every couple of weeks. I personally hope to get attached to an east coast MEU so I can float around the Mediterranean and visit Europe on the Gov't dime. MEUs also work as the USs humanitarian arm. Most recently in Haiti, and the tsunamis. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marine_Expeditionary_Unit
As far as jobs in the Marine Corps, we have just about every job you can imagine with the exception of medical and clergy, which are provided by the Navy. Women can serve any occupation with the exception of infantry or any combat related job, including being a mechanic on combat vehicles. That said there is a volunteer program for females where they go out on cordon and knock, and check point type operations to interact with any local women in Muslim countries due to cultural taboos.
The majority of females in the Marines work in personnel administration, supply and accounting, electronics, and aviation. Though like I said all jobs are open to women.
Another option, in order to stay off of ship, is to see if you can join the navy as a Marine Corpsman. You can enlist in the navy up to the age of 35
I'm a Marine recruiter, my mom was in the Marine Corps (aviation electrician -AV8B Harrier), and my job (Supply administration and operations technician) has highest number of women percentage wise and is 2nd only to admin in raw numbers. There were times i was the only guy in my shop. I tell you that to tell you this. I've viewed females in the Marine Corps from every perspective possible without being one myself and being a recruiter I can answer any questions you have. Ones I can't I'll someone who does. I've conducted interviews with ladies where I called my mom or one of my female friends in the Marines and have them speak to the applicant directly. I can even tell you what jobs are available at whatever station is close to you (different recruiting stations are given different blocks of jobs to fill and jobs are often filled at different rates depending on location)
Feel free to ask me any questions. Either on this thread or via DM. Anything I don't know for sure, I'll ask someone who does.
Quote:
Originally Posted by nanners6019
Sailordave-I have to take your advice and not sign up for any "sea" jobs. I think I'm more of a land woman. I've been to army.com and looked at some the jobs available...some of which I was going to pay a local institute 15000 to train at even though you're not certified after the program is over. As far as your movie comment, when I watched "Brothers" it scared the s#*t outta me! I'm sure there are extreme circumstances but I hope they're far and few between! Maybe I'm wrong...
dmarie, I'll definately try to check out some of your posts. The cut off is 28 according to military.com. I don't personally know any females in the military so I'm definately looking for perspective. I'm so excited and terrified of making this decision. I've heard the good, bad and ugly about experiences on blogs which I think is important.
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