Thinking of joining the military

[Inimicus]

The single biggest regret I have in my 50+ years is NOT joining the armed services. (And that's on top of some monumentally bad choices)

Do it.  Regardless of the branch.

If serving is something you feel compelled to do I'm pretty sure that by the time you're my age the subtle differences between the branches will pale in comparison to the pride you'll feel in having served your country.

[UpstatePanther]

15 hours ago, Inimicus said:

The single biggest regret I have in my 50+ years is NOT joining the armed services. (And that's on top of some monumentally bad choices)

Do it.  Regardless of the branch.

If serving is something you feel compelled to do I'm pretty sure that by the time you're my age the subtle differences between the branches will pale in comparison to the pride you'll feel in having served your country.

Oh rest assured! At this point, it's only a matter of which branch. I've already decided to join

[Chimera]

Spanish, French, Tagalog, German, and several other languages have tons of speakers in the military. If you really want a career as a linguist, https://dlnseo.org/content/flpb has a list of languages considered "strategic."

@UpstatePanther mentioned National Guard like it is a separate branch. There is the Army National Guard and the Air National Guard. The National Guard is funded mostly by states rather than by the feds. If you join the SC National Guard, you probably won't be assigned anywhere outside of South Carolina.

The Reserve components are funded by the feds, but usually you're assigned close to home. There are exceptions to that, but there are very strict limits to travel reimbursement. It isn't wise to spend more going to work than you'll make at work.

I've never taken the DLAB, but I've heard it can be pretty difficult. It is designed to test your ability to learn a new language quickly, not to determine whether you actually speak another language.

In the Army, the process to become a linguist is very time consuming. Let's say you have a good ASVAB score and pass the DLAB with flying colors. A bachelor's degree means you can enter the service as an E4. That's about a $600 per month / $7200 per year pay jump over guys coming in as E1.

Basic Training is 10 weeks.

If you are not already fluent in a language, you will go to a language school after Basic Training. This can last up to 18 months, depending on the language.

Assuming you pass this course and pick up the new language, then you go to AIT to learn your job as a linguist. This course lasts another year. The list of languages differs from the previous list I linked to. Linguists specialize only in these languages:

Arabic Egyptian
Arabic Levantine
Chinese Mandarin
Persian Farsi
Arabic Modern Standard
Pashto

Now this is where things get tricky if you are dead set on commissioning as an officer. The Army does not have a "Linguist" officer branch. They are all considered MI Officers. http://www.goarmy.com/careers-and-jobs/browse-career-and-job-categories/intelligence-and-combat-support/military-intelligence-officer.html is a list of Military Intelligence Officer career fields.

However, all is not lost. If you REALLY want to have it made and not deal with the everyday bullshit of being a commissioned officer, there is a Warrant Officer career field for linguists. MOS 352P. Seriously, read that fuging description. http://www.usarec.army.mil/hq/warrant/prerequ/WO352P.shtml However, this is not a career field that you can jump in while you're young. You're required to have at least four years of experience and be a graduate of the second level of NCO development (Advanced Leaders Course) at a minimum.

[h0llywood]

1 hour ago, Chimera said:

Spanish, French, Tagalog, German, and several other languages have tons of speakers in the military. If you really want a career as a linguist, https://dlnseo.org/content/flpb has a list of languages considered "strategic.".......

With all that you posted, solid advice.

My only thing is becoming an officer trumps enlisted and will translate better on your future CV/Resume. A 4 Year Captain/Major commanding a company is a lot better than 4 year corporal/specialist in charge of a squad. 

OP has a degree and it should be utilized. In addition, the pay is a lot higher as an O1 than it is as an E3. Base pay for O-1 is 3,034.80 and base pay for E-3 is 1,885.80. 

You stated that you were looking into the Navy. How good is your swimming?

[Bama Panther]

On 3/5/2017 at 11:23 PM, UpstatePanther said:

I'm honestly torn between the AF and Navy at this point. Can you give me some reasons why I should choose the AF over the Navy? They both seem to have positions in my field of expertise.

UP, I don't know that I can really give you an reasons to choose the Air Force over the Navy. I've only ever known the Air Force, so I wouldn't have any basis for comparison. However, I have truly loved my time in the Air Force. 

As far as assignments go, I'd think you can't go wrong with either branch. The Air Force has some great locations, and the Navy bases are always around water (which I love). The biggest thing about the Air Force is you won't be spending months at sea. You may deploy, but it will be on land, not the water. Although I love the ocean, I don't know how I would do with being on a ship for months.

I'd echo some of the other sentiments. With your degree, do not, and I mean DO NOT, go enlisted. You worked hard for that degree, so you should reap the benefits of it. One such benefit in the military is being commissioned. Good luck in your journey. Thank you for raising your hand to serve this great nation of ours. 

[Chimera]

17 hours ago, h0llywood said:

With all that you posted, solid advice.

My only thing is becoming an officer trumps enlisted and will translate better on your future CV/Resume. A 4 Year Captain/Major commanding a company is a lot better than 4 year corporal/specialist in charge of a squad. 

OP has a degree and it should be utilized. In addition, the pay is a lot higher as an O1 than it is as an E3. Base pay for O-1 is 3,034.80 and base pay for E-3 is 1,885.80. 

You stated that you were looking into the Navy. How good is your swimming?

That's why I brought up the Warrant Officer field.

Being enlisted means you've been taught the basics.

Being an officer means you have a tolerance for sitting in endless meetings.

Being a Warrant Officer means you're the alpha and the omega of your field. You're so good that you can just disappear for three months, return whenever, and never get questioned about it. Your expertise is like tenfold over the enlisted folks while you never have to worry about taking command or having some drunk bastard kill your career by feeling someone up.

[h0llywood]

2 minutes ago, Chimera said:

That's why I brought up the Warrant Officer field.

Being enlisted means you've been taught the basics.

Being an officer means you have a tolerance for sitting in endless meetings.

Being a Warrant Officer means you're the alpha and the omega of your field. You're so good that you can just disappear for three months, return whenever, and never get questioned about it. Your expertise is like tenfold over the enlisted folks while you never have to worry about taking command or having some drunk bastard kill your career by feeling someone up.

I do not believe he qualifies as a WO in the branches as most require enlisted service up to 6-8 years minimum. 

[Chimera]

1 minute ago, h0llywood said:

I do not believe he qualifies as a WO in the branches as most require enlisted service up to 6-8 years minimum. 

I did mention that in my previous post.

[h0llywood]

1 minute ago, Chimera said:

I did mention that in my previous post.

Looking back, I realized I did read that, my bad.

 

[Anybodyhome]

When I was at the War College in Newport, RI, I met an Air Force E-8 who was a Mandarin linguist. He spent his days translating and, at some point, flew aboard large AWACS-type aircraft and monitored Chinese communications. When he sat in class, he took notes in Mandarin....

I'll be the first to tell you I had a great career, enjoyed it up to the end. Thing is, I would have stayed for another 10 and completed a 30-year career, but in the early days of the Clinton administration following the 92 election, we (the collective military) knew there were some major changes coming down the road regarding retirement, benefits, etc. Consequently, I decided to retire in 1993 after 20 years. I've been out and away for 24 years and maybe I'm not the best to tell you what it's like.

But I would hesitate to recommend the military as a career right now. I believe this country is going to be lured into yet another major conflict or war on foreign soil and I have a real issue with the cause for that being nothing more than ego. 

[cookinwithgas]

yeah my coworker joined the NC Guard for college money and ended up getting deployed to the middle of nowhere in Iraq for a year and it really changed his life a lot.

Another reason I liked the Navy; it wasn't very likely they would train me to work on a boat then send me to the desert or Germany (this was the 80s!) with a gun. And no one is really going to mess with the US Navy.

[h0llywood]

Who doesn't like combat!?

[Jimmy]

If you sign up, regardless of branch, let them know you want to be a linguist. After basic training you'll go to your MOS school. For linguists it is the Defense Language Institute/Foreign Language Center at the presidio in Monterrey, CA. Before basic you'll take the ASVAB and language test. Depending on how well you do on the language test it will give you your language category.  I scored very well so I qualified for CAT V languages and I chose Russian. CAT I languages are the easy ones (Spanish, French, German,etc). CAT V are the hard ones (Russian, Mandarin, Korean, etc). There are 5 categories. 

I was an intelligence analyst by MOS with a language identifier. 

Do it...Monterrey is awesome. It was my favorite base.

[h0llywood]

1 hour ago, Jimmy said:

If you sign up, regardless of branch, let them know you want to be a linguist. After basic training you'll go to your MOS school. For linguists it is the Defense Language Institute/Foreign Language Center at the presidio in Monterrey, CA. Before basic you'll take the ASVAB and language test. Depending on how well you do on the language test it will give you your language category.  I scored very well so I qualified for CAT V languages and I chose Russian. CAT I languages are the easy ones (Spanish, French, German,etc). CAT V are the hard ones (Russian, Mandarin, Korean, etc). There are 5 categories. 

I was an intelligence analyst by MOS with a language identifier. 

Do it...Monterrey is awesome. It was my favorite base.

Awesome what branch did you serve in?