I used up my early 20s on an Air Force security forces enlistment.  Got lucky enough to work outside the wire in Iraq, complete with IED strikes and EPW captures etc.   And then I was all but locked in a tower in Bagram with DM training and an M24 to stare at.

Been out 2.5 years, returned home and picked back up as a residential electrician in a family business.  I'm good at it, and enjoy it.  Bought a house that I'm paying off in record time, and got married to a great gal.  



Problem is I feel like I'm going to miss my opportunity to get back into the military in some capacity.  I'm now in my late 20s, and could still swing it....but it may require large changes.  I would probably take an income hit, even if I just did the Air Guard, due to time lost away from work.  Not even sure I am interested in doing that; definitely not as Security Forces.  

I guess I'm appealing to anyone who was in a similar situation.  I miss being in uniform but I'm not a penniless, anchor-less 21 year old anymore.  I don't need the small income or benefits.  It would be a sacrifice in some ways.

get into it part-time

Your rank?

4 year enlistment, E-4.  Hit BTZ, was up to test for E-5 shortly before ETS but didn't see the point in being a staff select who could never actually sew on.

Spotless record, no 15s.  Associates in Criminal Justice as well as several extra electrical course credits and an unfinished CCAF.  In better shape than I was when I got out physically.  

Still haven't called the recruiter but Im interested to hear what actual people have to say on the matter.

Leave it behind, the military, especially the Air Farce, is a social experiment class project for idiot politicians to endlessly tinker with.
Don't you remember the cremated remains of the deceased service members that were brought home and dumped in a landfill? The current state of the VA? The constant threat of taking benefits away? They don't give a shit about you. Do your life a favor and live it the right way with you at the helm.
If you REALLY love your wife, f*ck the military. This is coming from a 10-year navy veteran, I have earned the right to say it.

All of us, who didn't do 20, like to play "what if", but I tend to think that if you didn't stay in, you may not have the commitment to put up with all the horseshit.

All of the guys with broken service, that I talked to, said their reason for re-enlisting was "I got pissed off."

I'm not convinced that you will be any happier, and the military is hard to undo.

I appreciate the serious response.  I expected a lot of BS.  


I intend to talk to the air guard, but expect to find that even if I can get an AFSC I'd be interested in that I would have to give up months of my actual job to be trained for it.

Not very promising but I'd still like to know.

Bad timing.

I did it, after a 10 year break in service from the Marines, and having a $100K/yr career that I wasn't going to leave.  But I wanted to reconnect with that feeling of being part of a team, working to fulfill a mission.  Something I just can't get from civilian life.  But no way was I going active duty again.  Looked into the Guard.

Joined the ANG as an E-5.  Had to leave my .civ job, wife, and kids for just shy of one year for tech school.  It sucked.  It was hard on the family.  But now I have a great part-time .mil job that I find very fulfilling.

YMMV