Seriously considering joing the navy

[JayHawk]

I am in college, but cash flow problems have set in sadly. I will try student loans, but I will most likely need a cosigner and my only source of a cosigner (mother) has horrible credit.



The school I do go to offers a lot a lot of money for me to go there, but I still owe about $10,000 cause I kinda dropped the ball a little let myself stay in a high school mindset. If I were to be able to go back in August, that would change completely, and the scholarships would be able to cover everything essentially. I still wouldn't rule out the army though.

I would encourage you to go to any length to secure an BA or BS and work towards a commission. In the Navy positional authority is everything. Essentially if you know what your doing then your in charge in many cases. that said I have guided many operations as a E-5 while a O-5 listened in and then did what i said. Mind you it wasn't obligatory but He knew he was a fool if it went shitty and didnt heed my advice.

Long story short, if your going to make the command calls then get the respect and pay associated.

Officers are immediately deemed Middle and up to executive leadership. You will get better paying job offers after a stint as a Officer vs enlisted. And if you stay the pay is simply better and so is the promotion ramp.

That said, if finances don't work your way then enlisting can get you college money after the first 14 months if your not in a school command BUT only if you have time and some jobs don't afford that time or opportunity.

If you have a good deal of credit accumulated you can apply to officer programs from the enlisted ranks. YOU NEED THE RIGHT JOB TO DO THIS.......

For instance if your plotting the course on some tin can that is chasing pirates for a first tour then you aren't doing school. If your cruising around on a Aircraft Carrier then you can get a masters.

Again you can get certain guarantees that will give you a rating that serves on Carriers thereby ensuring you will have that opportunity. You could also be rated as a "Crypie" or Cryptographic tech. They have many specialties. Language, signals, jamming, techs for the gear....and so on. BTW a rate is a job in the navy.

Really my only reason for joining is to pay for college and to possibly work in the intelligence field. It is a field I have always loved, and it would kind of fulfil a small lifelong dream to be a spy in some form. It would be cool to do it.

All branches have some sort of intelligence branch. You should be able to get that direction in writing if you enlist.

I am studying graphic design, but I am still not sure if I was to land there for the rest of my life. Going into the army could possibly give me a wider variety of options should I go in. I'm not big on guns, but it wouldn't be a problem for me to use one in a sec. Reading all through the Navy site, I saw that they would have a place for graphic designers, but I don't think I would really want to end up there.

You don't have to end up there. Read this LINK and it will tell you about different ratings.

Gratuitous plug for the Navy

The Navy does everything the other branches do period. IMO we do it better. The Air Force lands on big giant runways, the Navy lands on a 1000" of steel.

Right now, my choices are Navy and Air Force. I can't actually swim or tread water which is rather embarrassing. But it is something I can quickly learn as I also train to get back in shape. Is it really imperative to know how to swim?

Yes and keep in mind while you decide that there are a whole lot of airplanes buried in the oceans. Swimming is a skill if it floods or if you drive off the highway into a lake in mid america. I suggest you learn to do so regardless of where life takes you. Plus Lifeguards teach it...

I found this answer site and someone was asking a question about the airforce. This guy answered in such beautiful detail that it really helped. I did learn that I should make sure everything is in writing. So I will definitely be reading through it all to make sure it is all in there.

I am willing to commit the time, that is not an issue.

I am pretty out of shape. Not obese, I can walk and run a good amount of distance, but I will be working on building some muscle up and loosing weight to meet the weight requirement. It'll take me a month to do it, especially in the Houston heat.

Any information you could give on life in the navy would be wonderful. I kind of don't know what type of questions to ask. And if you know anything about the air force, that would be wonderful too.

Well i would be more than willing to speak to you in a chat or something more conducive to feedback. The main thing I want you to take away about whatever job you do or whatever service you do is get some feedback from someone who does it. They will give ya the straight skinny.

The military is like any other endeavor. It has parts that absolutely suck and for apparently no reason. However it has rewards you can't imagine. I can't imagine me doing anything other in life than serving other folks....it makes ya feel good. However you also need to strongly take into account you may be ask to either directly harm or kill another person. I take a cavalier attitude towards it sometimes on these boards but choices like that change you.

 

[JayHawk]

I wander when i write so i forgot to add. I strongly encourage intelligent folks to hit the ground running in a leadership position as a Officer. However I served 17 years as enlisted prior to becoming an Officer. I respect both sides of the team equally, i am just a greedy whore.

 

[Apollo]

An officers position does seem like a much better deal than enlisted. But the whole deal is trying to get to an officer when I havent even finished college yet.

 

[SportsStud]

Since you're in college you may want to inquire about any reserve officer training corps (rotc) that is associated with your school. Rotc programs usually offer scholarships or loan repayment programs. Students in rotcs earn monthly stipends and money for books. It's also the easiest way to earn a commission compared to OCS/OTS or going to an academy.

If you're serious about enlisting make sure to get a good score on the asvab so you can have as many job choices available to you as possible and (as others have said) get everything in writing.

 

[arco]

You're getting pretty good advice here I think. From experience, I agree with mazda3boi about entering the navy as an officer. I got the same advice several years ago and didn't take it. I told myself at the time that it was money but in fact I just wanted to get away from the books and live a little. Classes were smothering me and I was too restless to be a student. I enlisted (Navy) made E5 in 2 and a half years, and have some great memories, mostly of friendship, romance, travel, and learning things about myself I couldn't have learned any other way. Most of the decisions I made at the time weren't very well thought out. The reason I went for the Navy is because if I had to wear a uniform for 4 years I wanted it to be as comfortable as possible. And after I got out I was settled enough to make the most of college and did 3 degrees in record time. But in terms of cost effectiveness and career, my decision didn't make a lot of sense.

There were guys in boot camp who couldn't swim. They learned how.

 

[Jayden]

I bet you look really hot in the uniform.

 

[Apollo]

I bet you look really hot in the uniform.

haha when I get in the uniform and everything, it will be all over the board.

 

[Apollo]

You're getting pretty good advice here I think. From experience, I agree with mazda3boi about entering the navy as an officer. I got the same advice several years ago and didn't take it. I told myself at the time that it was money but in fact I just wanted to get away from the books and live a little. Classes were smothering me and I was too restless to be a student. I enlisted (Navy) made E5 in 2 and a half years, and have some great memories, mostly of friendship, romance, travel, and learning things about myself I couldn't have learned any other way. Most of the decisions I made at the time weren't very well thought out. The reason I went for the Navy is because if I had to wear a uniform for 4 years I wanted it to be as comfortable as possible. And after I got out I was settled enough to make the most of college and did 3 degrees in record time. But in terms of cost effectiveness and career, my decision didn't make a lot of sense.

There were guys in boot camp who couldn't swim. They learned how.

Oh good, so they teach you to swim and such? I am planning to learn in my own time though as I get back into shape.

 

[Apollo]

Since you're in college you may want to inquire about any reserve officer training corps (rotc) that is associated with your school. Rotc programs usually offer scholarships or loan repayment programs. Students in rotcs earn monthly stipends and money for books. It's also the easiest way to earn a commission compared to OCS/OTS or going to an academy.

If you're serious about enlisting make sure to get a good score on the asvab so you can have as many job choices available to you as possible and (as others have said) get everything in writing.

The school I go to has Greystone which is prep school for Naval Academy. The people who didn't get in the first time but still have a chance go there first.

I don't really want to go to a Naval Academy so that wouldn't work for me and my school doesn't offer a NROTC or any other type sadly. I go to a really small university.

 

[Apollo]

Well I just took the ASVAB practice short test and did pretty good. I am surprised at how I actually know about math (self proclaimed math retard). The rest, not so surprising to me.

I plan to take the full 200 question practice ASVAB to get a better understanding of what I need to work on before the real test. To be honest, I know all I need to really work on is my math, but hey.

Section # Questions # Correct # Incorrect Correct %
Arithmetic Reasoning 10 6 4 60 see answers
Word Knowledge 10 10 0 100 see answers
Paragraph Comprehension 10 9 1 90 see answers
Mathematics Knowledge 10 6 4 60 see answers

 

[seven_sins]

I have decided that the air force would be more my place. I figured that if I start getting in shape tomorrow, I would be ready to join by the end of august. Possibly the middle of august. I am not that out of shape.

The Air Force would be my recommendation. I am positive that you will have to take a swim test during basic training. You had better make haste and learn to swim. If you have to, pay someone to teach you. I predict you will love the Air Force. I spent 3 years there and it was a class-A experience. Good luck, man.

 

[CGHJ]

You'll have to ask me specific questions, 5 years of my life and a whole branch of the military is too much for me to cover!

Best time of my life though. I was scared when I went in, but it was the best thing I ever did for myself.

It's also where I came out...and I got laid like you would not believe.

 

[thisisinteresting]

I have two things to say... but I'm not going to say them. Instead, I offer these two things:

1) Forget what you saw on the Navy's recruitment website and actually talk to people who are currently in the Navy, people who are not recruiters. Check out their blogs and their MySpace pages. You'll get a very different story.

Seriously. My dad joined the navy when he was younger and my boyfriend used to work for the navy... You can't honestly just go to recruiters and recruitment websites and just buy into everything like it's a basket of rainbows and it'll be great, try to get an unbiased opinion.

 

[Apollo]

Seriously. My dad joined the navy when he was younger and my boyfriend used to work for the navy... You can't honestly just go to recruiters and recruitment websites and just buy into everything like it's a basket of rainbows and it'll be great, try to get an unbiased opinion.

That's what I have been trying to do in this thread. I have gotten a lot of great info so far from mazda3boi and some other sources.

Any more of anything would help.

 

[Apollo]

You'll have to ask me specific questions, 5 years of my life and a whole branch of the military is too much for me to cover!

Best time of my life though. I was scared when I went in, but it was the best thing I ever did for myself.

It's also where I came out...and I got laid like you would not believe.

I don't really know what to ask, thats the problem.

But I guess what was the air force like for you? Your experiences, stories, stuff they would never tell you in a recruitment office.

Behind the mask of the air force so to say.

 

[Ram]

I don't have much to offer but I would say this (after 2 years in the army): navy/air force is better than the army.

 

[Apollo]

I don't have much to offer but I would say this (after 2 years in the army): navy/air force is better than the army.

oh i would never join the army. i would be dead in a year. no no no no no.

 

[Ram]

oh i would never join the army. i would be dead in a year. no no no no no.

In terms of gay sex, you will get a lot of arses and peen in the navy. Trust me on this one. I know it's not the most important reason to join but think about the arses and peen.

Think about it.

 

[Apollo]

In terms of gay sex, you will get a lot of arses and peen in the navy. Trust me on this one. I know it's not the most important reason to join but think about the arses and peen.

Think about it.

lol yeah that is a selling point def, but hardly a reason to join lol.

but if i get in, i will enjoy myself.

 

[Jayden]

lol yeah that is a selling point def, but hardly a reason to join lol.

but if i get in, i will enjoy myself.

Pictures please, lol.