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Don't sign anything unless its what you want. If you get told join first, worry about the details later, walk away. Once you enlist you belong to the military. There is no glamour. There is fear, sweat, tears, anger, frustration, joy, pride, honor. A tiny check, a lot of rules. Great medical care, food, housing, school. Write down what you want, research everywhere, make a plan. What are you willing to do or give up? Will college be better?
At first - but once you get a stripe or 3 it aint bad, really, esp considering the free bennies.
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Great medical care, food, housing,
You're kidding I hope. With rare exception I wouldn't trust military medical for more than giving me aspirin and the food and housing are not exactly what I would call "great" (although when you're first starting out not too bad).
At first - but once you get a stripe or 3 it aint bad, really, esp considering the free bennies.
You're kidding I hope. With rare exception I wouldn't trust military medical for more than giving me aspirin and the food and housing are not exactly what I would call "great" (although when you're first starting out not too bad).
Can't speak for the food.
I think the medical insurance is satisfactory. Its free, which is great because the GSs that work with my husband pay $400/mo family rate for a very similar plan. The quality of care varies. My kids see a civilian pediatrician now, but at our last base the military ped was wonderful. My husband and I get to go to flight med. My only beef with flight med is if you are not on flying status, its harder to get an appt. At our last base, it was darn near impossible. Family Practice/Internal Med seems to handle the highest patient loads and, from what I have seen, the care is not as good because of the volume. You may end up getting the old jumbo bottle of Motrin 800 and the bum's rush.
Housing - oftentimes, what you can get on the market with your BAH is nicer than what you can get on base. Depends. A lot of AF housing is getting torn down and rebuilt so you can end up with something built in the 50s all the way to something built last month. We looked at a 1600sq ft townhome, brand new, on base a few years back.
The medical care is a joke at our base. It consists of 20 minute appointments per complaint and you can only bring up one complaint at a time, mentioning things like migraines and persistent cough are met with . You can make the appointment for one or the other and you can make 2 appointments in a row . More often than not, you are told to just go to the ER for any and everything. Really, it's a gate-keeper operation here. It takes at least three or four appointments over the course of month(s) before you even get the first referral to the outside specialist who half the time isn't even the right specialist for the complaint
and then you just stop going for anything, because you know it's useless.
Typical. I remember going into ER years ago with a migraine - never had one before (in fact rarely headaches of any kind) and aspirin wasn't working, so was worried it might be something more. Sat there nearly 30 mins (one other person in the waiting room) before getting shuffled off to a back room where I sat another 10-15 mins and heard some med techs carrying on in another room - disgusted nearly to the point of outrage, I left - told no one - got some motrin, gradually felt better and went back to work. The OIC called about a half hour later and had the nerve to act miffed. I explained what happened and she backed down. Smart move.
I've experienced, seen and/or heard about a billion examples like this or worse. Military med on the whole is a joke and I don't think it's exactly a secret.
Typical. I remember going into ER years ago with a migraine - never had one before (in fact rarely headaches of any kind) and aspirin wasn't working, so was worried it might be something more. Sat there nearly 30 mins (one other person in the waiting room) before getting shuffled off to a back room where I sat another 10-15 mins and heard some med techs carrying on in another room - disgusted nearly to the point of outrage, I left - told no one - got some motrin, gradually felt better and went back to work. The OIC called about a half hour later and had the nerve to act miffed. I explained what happened and she backed down. Smart move.
I've experienced, seen and/or heard about a billion examples like this or worse. Military med on the whole is a joke and I don't think it's exactly a secret.
45 minutes in the ER is child's play. Not to downplay your experience, but that is a really short time to wait.
most ERs (not military) put migraine sufferers on the bottom of the triage list. I've heard of 5 hour waits before. Wait times in ERs are all about triage and how busy they are at that particular time.
totally different than a non-emergency scheduled appointment.
Getting back to one of the OP's original questions...if you want to get into linguistics and crypto, you'll probably need a Top Secret clearance. With the legal issue you are dealing with...you probably will not get one. The granting authorities are turning folks down for having one delinquency on a credit card bill. Its very tight for clearances right now.
I would highly suggest getting that cleared up before placing all your eggs in a basket that requires a TS.
Best wishes!!!
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. You can make the appointment for one or the other and you can make 2 appointments in a row 
. More often than not, you are told to just go to the ER for any and everything. Really, it's a gate-keeper operation here. It takes at least three or four appointments over the course of month(s) before you even get the first referral to the outside specialist who half the time isn't even the right specialist for the complaint 
