Marine itch....

[Love Life]

Well...was he fulfilling the same stateside role during the Vietnam war as he has for my generation?

[DCP]

Well...was he fulfilling the same stateside role during the Vietnam war as he has for my generation?

Yes

But I don't know what generation or war your in

[Love Life]

The most current generation. Jody has been taking care my...ahem...family since 2004.

[DCP]

The most current generation. Jody has been taking care my...ahem...family since 2004.

In time I figured out it wasn't Jody fault anyway. It still sucks though

[Love Life]

There is always Susie to ease your pain.

[Love Life]

Just think BS Junior. If you join the service, you can kick back and talk about random stuff with people you have never met, and they know exactly what you are talking about.

[jumbeaux]

Jody was alive and well on the grinder during Vietnam (my time)...so was Susie...

rick

[bruce drake]

I left my Ms. Susie Rottencrotch in Maine in 1989 and after nearly 25 years, I'm glad Jody, Bob, Mike and Joe have been dealing with her whacked out head and the resulting 6 kids she's squirted out for those fellas...

Happily married for 20 years now to a gal who understood my life as a Marine and then the crazier life as an Army officer.

Bruce

[Love Life]

I'm sitting here with tears of laughter in my eyes!!

What's the dealio BS Junior? Did you talk to the man in the blue pants with a red stripe?

[DRNurse1]

Thankfully all y'all are proposing US military service. I know a couple of folks who chose French Foreign Legion and Israeli service when they did not make muster here....one is still around and I lost track of the other.

BSJ: have you chosen? Interesting story from a sailor posted with a marine battalion, since apparently they cannot put on their own band-aids: when I received my military issue duds and found a couple of pairs of 'panty hose' in them...thought they were jerking my chain but as it turns out the marines have NO sense of humor.

[Bullshop Junior]

Holy cow this thread took off. Havnt visited it in a couple days because I'm been dealing with work and my dying truck. I'll try to read through it.

I do know Amanda is still very much against the idea.

[Bad Water Bill]

One thing no one has mentioned.

You did not like Alaska so you just picked up and moved to Texas.

No paperwork needed,no permission requested or granted,you were free to go where ever when ever you wanted.

Try that in ANY branch of the military and you will be a guest in the grey bar hotel called Ft Leavenworth for a loooong time.

[NavyVet1959]

One thing no one has mentioned.

You did not like Alaska so you just picked up and moved to Texas.

No paperwork needed,no permission requested or granted,you were free to go where ever when ever you wanted.

Try that in ANY branch of the military and you will be a guest in the grey bar hotel called Ft Leavenworth for a loooong time.

I doubt that it would be that extreme. When I was doing MAA duty, I encountered a few guys that had gone on an "extended UA" and from what I gathered at that time, the person was usually just put in the brig for a couple of months and then released with a "lesser" discharge. The worst I heard of was someone who got a BCD. If you truly don't belong in the military, they are not going to keep you there, but they will definitely make your life miserable (while trying to "rehabilitate" you) until they finally kick you out. They have money invested in your training and they don't want to lose that money, so they are going to "give you every chance to see the error in your ways".

[starmac]

My suggestion and it is only a suggestion, is hang out where you are two or three years. , learn everything you can about the oilfield. Save your money and be ready to come back up here.
Things are finally coming together and the gas line is a go, when it starts come on back and you will be able to get well easy enough. If you could have somehow hung out until now, once the ice roads opened, everybody that wants a job has one.

[WRideout]

BSJ, I can only tell you about my experience. At the age of nineteen I woke up one morning having had a nightmare that I was a thirty-five year old bachelor living with my parents. The next day I went to see the army recruiter. He said, "Son, I can help you."

I spent three years on active duty during the period known as the "Hollow Army." Military discipline truly suffered during the 60's and 70's, and the ranks were shot through with alcohol and drug use. In 1981 I joined the CA Army National Guard, and subsequently finished out my twenty years with service in the TN and PA Army Guard.

I would ask you to consider reserve service as a viable alternative. It is one of the few part-time jobs that offers a retirement plan; at this point I am collecting from Uncle Sugar, and it is the only guaranteed retirement money I have. Also, you train to the same standards as the active duty forces, and get paid two days for each day of drill you attend. You miss out on some VA benefits if you don't have any active duty time, but you get to come home after you are done training. One weekend a month and two weeks a year isn't so bad.

I will admit that military life no matter which path you choose, is hard on families. When my kids were young, I spent a lot of time away from home on extra training events (my choice). Just think about it.

I started out in the army as an enlisted medic, then went to OCS in the National Guard and retired as the world's oldest living captain.

Wayne

[richhodg66]

The good news about reserve component status (both Reserve and National Guard) is they are a lot better now than say 15 years ago. The optempo pf the past 12 years or so has had many guard units deployinmg about as much as the active force. I worked in a role of training National Guard Field ARtillery units for several years and the guard if a whole different animal from what it once was. Generally very well trained ad professional people.

WHat wasn't mentioned is that Reserve status is only one weekend a month and two weeks a year in summer...if you're a private. NCOs and officers in the guard have a lot more expected of them and you'll more than likely be doing a lot of work in your guard or reserves capacity outside of drill weekends. The more senior you get in rank, the more this will be true.

Another bennie is many states National Guard will foot the college tuition for you at state schools, so that's a big plus if you see college in your future (which you should, even if it's a long term goal).

I think military service is a great thing. I also don't think it's as hard on families as many here tell you, I know a lot of people with stable, long term marriages. If you married someone who requires a baby sitter, chances are it won't survive whether you're military or not. If you're both reasonably tough and self reliant, commited to each other and smart about your priorities, you can be successful in the military and have a successful family. It does have some family challenges, but worrying where your next pay check is coming from, or whether you're gonna get layed off, or how you'll pay for it if your kid gets hospitalized, etc. isn't among those challenges.

Pick a branch of the service, any of them. The mentality of all of them is really more alike than different despite all the ribbing you hear. If it sounds like too much of a challenge, take a look at whatever you're doing now and ask yourself honestly what will you be doing in 20 years. I retired at 46, with a poayed off house and enough pension that the wife and I could have lived reasonably well just on that. I didn't want to do that, but most of the teachers I work with will never make working full time what I make in retirement alone and many of them had to have more education than I did and will have to work til there 65 to get what they can get. It isn't always easy, nothing worthwhile is, but the military is a good gig and I personally am glad I did something worthwhile with my youth instead of working some meaningless job that most likely I'd have hated and my wife and family would have come to resent as well because I hated it.

Go for it, you'll be glad you did even if you don't stay in past your initial hitch.

[Houndog]

Daniel,
All I'll say is how much do you value Amanda and being married to her? If she is totally against you joining the military and you go ahead and do it, the chances of you two staying together could get mighty slim! Being apart for basic training would be bad enough, but think about a 18 month deployment in a war zone and the stresses she would have to endure. You and Amanda have my best wishes and prayers no matter which path you take. All i'm sayin is give it LOTS of thought before you jump!

[backroad]

Obama would be your boss. Think about it.

[richhodg66]

There's basically two kinds of Army wives; the ones with good attitudes and make the most of it and the ones who are bound and determined to be miserable and do nothing but gripe about everything. If you have a high maintenance wife, I doubt you'll be happy in the Army, or anywhere else.

My wife and I went and spent the five months or so at Fort Sill for my initial training which wasn't a big culture shock for her as I was home most nights and Lawton Oklahoma isn't radically different from the small town/rural southern environments she'd grown up in. After that, Airborne school during which she went home and then off to our first real duty station at Fort Bliss. I was assigned to the third armored cavalry regiment there which did a ton of field time and was scheduled to go for a month to the National Training Center shortly after I got there.

Long story short, I dumped this 20 year old girl whose whole life had been in rural life in the deep south where she had lots of family support in El Paso, Texas (which if you've never been there is a different world, let me tell you) where she knew no one for a month. Basically I got her settled into an apartment and was gone.

Well, I got back, and you know what? She made friends, found a church and had gotten a job. Instead of sitting around crying about how hard the Army was, she pulled herself up by her own boot straps so to speak. She handled it well when I was gone for six months during Desert Storm, a six month tour gone in support of Bosnia, a four month trip to Kuwait a year after that, deployments to Baghdad for all of 2004 and 2009 and the many, many field problems and other short term TDYs, so as long as a couple of months. She just decided to do for herself and make the best of things and all was good. So you have to ask your self, can your wife get going when the going gets tough?

[richhodg66]

Obama would be your boss. Think about it.

This is definitely a consideration. I put up with the dark years of the Clinton administration and almost four years of Obama (personally, the Army was worse under Clinton). Yes, Obama is a ***, but, are you gonna let that dissuade you from serving your country? Are you only patriotic when the situation suits you? Me personally, I have a much harder time respecting a full grown, able bodied man who never served than one who has. I always wonder in the back of my mind how someone could NOT serve.