Hes been talking about it for a long time and he sounds serious that he wants to join now. He quit smoking and im helping him get back into shape. I know a lot of you guys have military experience. Any words of wisdom for him? Right now hes not sure which branch to join. Apparently he wants to be either an Army Ranger or a (from what his bro told me) sniper for the marines i think he said.

 

id join the air force if i had to do it all over again!

 

Air Force all the way! Baby!!!

 

aw come on the chair force! hahaha! well lets see if i had to make a recommendation based on my own experience..... well i never do because only about 15% of the trainees make it through Seal training to an operational billet in a team. you see plenty of boys get there hopes and dreams crushed. on the other hand the fleet will give you a chance to see parts of the world most normal people will ever see. I only see other parts of the world while flying through them, the rest i saw through sights of an M4.
seriously noen of his choices will hurt him, they will all mature him beyond his years, and give him something to start the rest of his life from. of course there is nothing wrong with a basic infantry man. Dan

 

I was in the Army National Guard.

If I could go back, I would have gone active-duty Coast Guard. The reason is that I'd rather be doing real-world missions every day than simply training for battles you're probably never going to fight.

When the CG catches a drug smuggler, it's real. When they rescue somebody on the water, it's real. And they do that stuff every day. In the National Guard, I spent about seven years training versus just one year in a combat zone. And I found that most of the training did a pretty poor job of simulating combat.

I'd also advise anyone to avoid the reserve component, regardless of branch.

 

go Navy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

2 of my close freinds went through the same thing in 96.

1 was hardcore military. the other sort of a couch potatoe, we nick named him pork chop, back in the day.

when the day came for both to leave, the hardcore one, almost couldnt get in the car fast enough. pork chop on the other hand wasnt ready to leave, matter of fact missed his day, and had mp's waiting in the drive way for almost 3 hours. finally he left.


fast forward 1.5 years. hardcore left the marines base in his over priced rx-7 doing about 140 back to mass, and never returned. mp's caught him a year later at a job and he spent 3 months in the brig. dishonerable discharge.

pork chop went on to spend 8 years in the airforce. today neither have done much with themselves, both overweight and have multiple kids and arnt happy.

 

Me too. The Air Force gets to sleep in a bed every night. I spent many of night freezing on the ground.

 

if i had a chance to do it all over, i would have done my 4 years and had the gov pay for my education.

 

A friend of mine was an Army Ranger. He said that some days they ran so much he forgot where he was by the end of the day

 

The MOS for Marine Scout/Sniper is MOS 0317. If he selects this tell him to expect a lot of pain and odds are he won't make it. If he does make it, he will be among the best.

 

I'd recommend he talk to all the services and see what each offers. I am a little biased towards the Air Force having spent some time there, but encourage him to really dig deep about what he wants to do and why. The military sure is a good way to go. The pay ain't bad, bennies are good, and if you retire from the service you still get paid and the health care benefits are still pretty good. More importantly it's the serving part that makes the difference...

 

Active duty Coast Guard Aviation
great duty

 

The need to look into what every branch has to offer. I am biased towards the Navy since I spent 10 years working on and flying in P-3C's. Great duty there. No boat time and you get to sleep in a warm bed everynight.....no complaints from me. If I had to do it all over again, I would stay Navy. But the AF has better looking chicks!

 

Is there a way to find out if he really wants to join the Rangers or whatever for the right reasons? Im trying to think of the nicest way to put it but i think his reasons are bad. What i mean is, hes very young, he plays a lot of video games that are combative simulations and hes obsessed with war movies.

You guys know what im getting at? At the same time i want the very best for him and id be proud if he did actually make it to be a ranger or seal or whatever. I have no military knowledge so i cant give him any advice.