Posted: 2/3/2025 1:18:29 PM EDT
[Last Edit: PewAddictAnonymous][Edited]
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Good morning, I am a resident of Tennessee and considering joining the Army National Guard. I am 35 years old in March, but physically fit / still working out 6x a week. I am posting because if I go for this, I will need to thread one hell of a needle: - wife pulls in about $85k/yr - I pull in between $110-120k/yr - have one kid - want another ASAP The “why” - I suppose firstly, IYKYK, I’ve just had an itch and considering doing this many times. Actually ASVAB’d a couple years back, fortunate to get an 92 after studying a bunch. Then had first kid and didn’t want to leave wife hanging. Interested in combat arms NCO. I do enough PowerPoints at my current job  All the stuff “on paper” is great too, education reimbursement, pension, etc.; but I honestly consider it a bonus vs. that core reason. My concern is during Basic / AIT, my wife being by herself with the one (potentially two!) kids, and my pay going bye bye during the duration. I would not want anything nagging at me regarding the home front in this time, so this is my biggest obstacle to overcome - I can’t worry about her missing mortgage payments or just not being able to make ends meet in general. My question is this: has anyone ever taken on a similar endeavor at a similar time in their life? Or perhaps know of someone who did and had some methodology that worked for the given scenario? Also, I am wondering if during deployments I would be better off financially bs during training while gone, so that would be less of a concern? Thank you as always ARF B ETA - actively working with recruiter. Thanks! ETA2: OP laid off at work, perhaps this is the time to hammer out training??? ETA3: ASVAB / physical scheduled for 4/7. Spoke to recruiters at length today about the possibility of OCS. I have a long ago criminal background (not a prohibited person!!! with expungements etc.), that I was told was likely to bar me from OCS candidacy initially at least. I have my letters of recommendation ready, will do my best on the ASVAB, and will see how my physical goes with fingers crossed. If OCS doesn’t work now after trying my best, I am content with enlistment and will go for OCS later on, after proving my worth. Additionally, my wife is pregnant again (  ), so I would like to ship out sooner rather than later, to return by her due date of 11/15. Thanks again everyone for your support and input! Brian ETA 4: Update 4/7: ASVAB complete, fortunately was able to hit that GT line score several if you mentioned to focus on for OCS consideration. Thanks again for this feedback. I am now waiting on some stuff to come back from medical regarding a rugby injury from 2017, and a background check related item. Will update accordingly. Much appreciated! V/R, Brian |
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You can’t join the army in any component and not think about home. You won’t magically be immune to that. You will be one of the old ones and you will be treated the exact same way as every private half your age. You will have NCOs 10 years younger than you. You will have to listen to them. That said if you want to serve because you always wanted to and you want to do that as a patriotic duty I say do it. But make sure your wife is good with it first and have family or a support network to help. Don’t get in trouble and pay attention. Get used to zero caffeine. For TN guard I would definitely look at the combat arms jobs but 31B is also good. Or go be a 68W. It gives you a great skill and doesn’t involve PowerPoint that is useful on the civ side too. You can plug into combat units and be partially shielded from some of their BS. PM if you have questions. I joined the Army at 33 with one kid after 5 years prior service in the navy. Joined the guard a year ago. |
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Originally Posted By jaqufrost: You're old I deployed with a newborn at home. Sucks to be gone, but you get through it. Just make sure your wife is on board before making the jump. This. Wife’s not on board it’s a non-starter. If you wife is a military brat that will help as she will have a far better understanding of what it entails. |
When your state is shaped like a huge, droopy penis, you have to expect there to be some huge nuts as well.
Mech 2007
Mech 2007
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Originally Posted By NotIssued: Why enlisted? Pretty sure your job can't fire you for going to bssic so at most you miss a few months of pay. I like the idea of trying to be an NCO and staying close to the enlisted men / learn to follow before I learn to lead. But I am absolutely open to feedback. |
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Originally Posted By NotIssued: Why enlisted? Pretty sure your job can't fire you for going to bssic so at most you miss a few months of pay. They can’t unless they want to create some real problems for themselves. USERRA is very clear on the matter and it’s taken very seriously at a lot of levels. Most employers are familiar with it. Those who are not and choose to violate it get a pretty quick education and the issues are almost always resolved in the serviceman’s favor. However, it can create a hostile work environment when you return. |
When your state is shaped like a huge, droopy penis, you have to expect there to be some huge nuts as well.
Mech 2007
Mech 2007
| Me and you are in a very similar boat. 33, married with a 3 year old. I'm in the process of commissioning as an Emergency Room Nurse since both my wife and I are ED nurses in the civilian world. Always wanted to join but it was never the right time - and I was told I couldn't with my non correctable vision. I've done part 1 of my commissioning physical and go back Thursday for part 2 - but I suspect I will have to get a few waivers (vision, tree nut allergy). So I'm hopefully, but not over excited. |
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I’ve been in for a long time and have yet to see someone your age come in w/o prior service who adjusted well or stayed long. I’m sure there are those exceptions, hopefully you are one of them but you need to have very realistic expectations. In combat arms, enlisted, you’ll be twice as old as your peers. Most, if not not all of them are not going to be interested in life lessons from the old private amongst them. If you bite your tongue and keep those opinions to yourself you’ll be okay. The other thing that I’ve seen older soldiers deal with is a lack of control over your own day to day activities. Easy to adjust to coming out of high school, but after being in complete control of your life, it can be tough. As mentioned in another post, your immediate leadership is going to be very young as well and as new leaders they are novices who will make a lot of management mistakes. Following good orders from a young person who knows what they are doing is easy, but when you have some dipshit 21 year old SP4 telling you what to do with vigor, it may be tough. These are all examples that I’ve personally witnessed. Had a 32 year old SP4 crying in my office because he wanted to have the same authority as my SFC’s and lost his shit when told to sweep out a hanger with other junior enlisted by a 22 year old SGT. SGT was a good leader, other soldiers had no issue with it, this guy couldn’t take it. He left at the end of his enlistment. If your wife is iffy about it, tread carefully. You absolutely need family support as you will be away from home more than expected. Normally young wives can connect with your peers wives, but if she is older than them it may be tough to connect. The above are the issues I’ve seen with 30+ enlisting. No doubt there are exceptions, I just haven’t seen it. HOWEVER; people your age who commission or have some special skill that lets them go Warrant seem to adjust w/o issues and do well. I applaud your desire to join and truly appreciate your patriotism, but think long and hard about being a combat arms soldier and then NCO. I have SFC, MSG your age, your definitely late to the combat arms game. —->34+ years, CW5 |
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Originally Posted By Michaelrm: I’ve been in for a long time and have yet to see someone your age come in w/o prior service who adjusted well or stayed long. I’m sure there are those exceptions, hopefully you are one of them but you need to have very realistic expectations. In combat arms, enlisted, you’ll be twice as old as your peers. Most, if not not all of them are not going to be interested in life lessons from the old private amongst them. If you bite your tongue and keep those opinions to yourself you’ll be okay. The other thing that I’ve seen older soldiers deal with is a lack of control over your own day to day activities. Easy to adjust to coming out of high school, but after being in complete control of your life, it can be tough. As mentioned in another post, your immediate leadership is going to be very young as well and as new leaders they are novices who will make a lot of management mistakes. Following good orders from a young person who knows what they are doing is easy, but when you have some dipshit 21 year old SP4 telling you what to do with vigor, it may be tough. These are all examples that I’ve personally witnessed. Had a 32 year old SP4 crying in my office because he wanted to have the same authority as my SFC’s and lost his shit when told to sweep out a hanger with other junior enlisted by a 22 year old SGT. SGT was a good leader, other soldiers had no issue with it, this guy couldn’t take it. He left at the end of his enlistment. If your wife is iffy about it, tread carefully. You absolutely need family support as you will be away from home more than expected. Normally young wives can connect with your peers wives, but if she is older than them it may be tough to connect. The above are the issues I’ve seen with 30+ enlisting. No doubt there are exceptions, I just haven’t seen it. HOWEVER; people your age who commission or have some special skill that lets them go Warrant seem to adjust w/o issues and do well. I applaud your desire to join and truly appreciate your patriotism, but think long and hard about being a combat arms soldier and then NCO. I have SFC, MSG your age, your definitely late to the combat arms game. —->34+ years, CW5 @Michaelrm , thank you for the detailed response and giving me something to think about. Your responses and others have checked how realistic this would be given my situation. I am working with recruiter to ASVAB and physical within the next few weeks. I will explore what options best fit with what I’m working with. I will end with this: heard loud and clear regarding wife and what she’d need to sacrifice for me. This is at the front of my mind certainly. Thanks again, very nice to have folks to speak to candidly. Thanks for your service; I admire you guys way more than any “celebrity” or athlete or any of that bullshit. Brian |
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Good luck Brian! I hope everything works out well for you and your family. In the event this doesn’t work out as planned, remember there are a lot of ways to serve the nation that do not require military service. Even if it is support to those who serve, your sacrifice will be greatly appreciated. God bless my friend, Mike |
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Good luck with whatever direction you end up in. Some thoughts though. -Basic training/Boot camp is designed to rewire you mentally. You are old enough to have the benefit of understanding that but also have the negative of being old enough that you may not react well to that attempt at rewiring. -Your age is going to make the physical portion rougher than someone who is 10-15yrs younger. You will not recover from it nearly as quickly, and depending on the injury you may never fully recover. -Your wife married a certain person. You are now actively choosing to do something that is almost guaranteed to change you in some form. Neither of you truly know if you will come out better or worse in the end that what she is used to. -Nobody knows what the world will be like in a year, 5yrs, 10yrs down the road. Be ready for the possibility ofyour current future plance being comepletely upended. I'm sure the people who joined the guard/reserves in early 2001 didn't expect to be on constant rotating deployments a couple years later. For all I know you and your family could be excited for all the above. However, you all should go in with as much understanding as possible of the risks involved in joining the military as an established adult with a family and career aleady. I'll end off with a personal observation. Getting ordered to deploy/go TDY/go on a trip away from the family is one thing when you are got married after joining the military. It's a whole other beast when you make a choice that takes you away from your family after you have established a family. None of you know how you will handle that until after you experience it first-hand. |
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I joined the Army NG a few years ago to scratch that itch I had while I was active duty. I wanted to fly so I joined an aviation unit. 3 years later realized it wasn’t not was I was expecting and got out. Expect any plans you ever make will fall on a drill weekend. I’d pick a job with the shortest AIT, IMO |
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I did enlisted because I just wanted the adventure and I had no intention of making it a career. I was already old at infantry osut at the ripe age of 22. What I didn't realize until years later was that i missed out on a lot of leadership training and experience that I could have gotten and used in my post military career. I've learned a lot about leading men over the last few years but jumping into the deep end and running a company in remote Africa but looking back I would have preferred to get the training and guidance from a system designed to produce strong leaders. At your age you can't afford not to think about how this can help your career. I also agree with the previous poster that you'll probably get along better with officers than enlisted. I was at a special training with officers and NCOs but no one had rank displayed. I could still tell who was an officer by the quality of the conversation. Enlisted guys are like blue collar workers. Everything is about girls, cars, getting drunk etc. When I would be talking to someone and the conversation steered to books, ideas, and deeper than surface level discussion, it was obviously an officer. I got along better with the officers. I also got high 90s on my asvab on my first time without studying, spoke multiple languages, had a degree, and had lived overseas on my own for a couple years. I was in basic with guys that literally needed a waiver because they didn't get high enough on the asvab. A dude got a 20. If I recall 31 was the minimum. And everyone but me and one other guy were at the very low end of the grading scale. I was literally surrounded by idiots in many cases. It wasn't much better when I got to my unit. Also as an older guy you'll be better off trying to get respect as an old lieutenant than an old private. If I could do it over, I'd have gone the officer route. |
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Originally Posted By Daggertt: I did enlisted because I just wanted the adventure and I had no intention of making it a career. I was already old at infantry osut at the ripe age of 22. What I didn't realize until years later was that i missed out on a lot of leadership training and experience that I could have gotten and used in my post military career. I've learned a lot about leading men over the last few years but jumping into the deep end and running a company in remote Africa but looking back I would have preferred to get the training and guidance from a system designed to produce strong leaders. At your age you can't afford not to think about how this can help your career. I also agree with the previous poster that you'll probably get along better with officers than enlisted. I was at a special training with officers and NCOs but no one had rank displayed. I could still tell who was an officer by the quality of the conversation. Enlisted guys are like blue collar workers. Everything is about girls, cars, getting drunk etc. When I would be talking to someone and the conversation steered to books, ideas, and deeper than surface level discussion, it was obviously an officer. I got along better with the officers. I also got high 90s on my asvab on my first time without studying, spoke multiple languages, had a degree, and had lived overseas on my own for a couple years. I was in basic with guys that literally needed a waiver because they didn't get high enough on the asvab. A dude got a 20. If I recall 31 was the minimum. And everyone but me and one other guy were at the very low end of the grading scale. I was literally surrounded by idiots in many cases. It wasn't much better when I got to my unit. Also as an older guy you'll be better off trying to get respect as an old lieutenant than an old private. If I could do it over, I'd have gone the officer route. @Daggertt thanks for posting this, read earlier and never replied. I like that perspective a lot and will pursue officer as much as realistically possible. Thank you |
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OP, enlisted at 31, shipped to Boot Camp at 32, and OCS 37-38. You can absolutely do this. National Guard only needs 90 college hours to commission, a Bachelor's to make Captain. OCS is the 18 worst weekends of your life over a year & a half. Godspeed. |
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Originally Posted By backbencher: OP, enlisted at 31, shipped to Boot Camp at 32, and OCS 37-38. You can absolutely do this. National Guard only needs 90 college hours to commission, a Bachelor's to make Captain. OCS is the 18 worst weekends of your life over a year & a half. Godspeed. Thank you sir. As you see I was laid off recently and therefore have time on my hands, so actually just left a recruiter where I scheduled my physical and ASVAB for 4/7. Due to the advice in this thread and my recruiters’ advice as well, I’m will pursue the officer route. But in the words of Billy Madison, Right now I gotta study
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Originally Posted By PewAddictAnonymous: Thank you sir. As you see I was laid off recently and therefore have time on my hands, so actually just left a recruiter where I scheduled my physical and ASVAB for 4/7. Due to the advice in this thread and my recruiters’ advice as well, I’m will pursue the officer route. But in the words of Billy Madison, Right now I gotta study Originally Posted By PewAddictAnonymous: Originally Posted By backbencher: OP, enlisted at 31, shipped to Boot Camp at 32, and OCS 37-38. You can absolutely do this. National Guard only needs 90 college hours to commission, a Bachelor's to make Captain. OCS is the 18 worst weekends of your life over a year & a half. Godspeed. Thank you sir. As you see I was laid off recently and therefore have time on my hands, so actually just left a recruiter where I scheduled my physical and ASVAB for 4/7. Due to the advice in this thread and my recruiters’ advice as well, I’m will pursue the officer route. But in the words of Billy Madison, Right now I gotta study Yeah, think you need a 110 GT to go to OCS. |
I sell firearms produced by the finest child labor in the world, be it Filipino, Muslim, Mormon, Arizonan, or Texan.
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Originally Posted By backbencher: Yeah, think you need a 110 GT to go to OCS. Thank you backbencher. I ran through ASVAB a couple years back and for stupid reasons backed out. Studied my ass off but I think I got at least a 120 on everything. No gloat no brag, I’m no genius just wanted it so worked hard. I have the 24-25 ASVAB for Dummies on my desk as we speak. Helped a lot last time. Thanks again! 
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Originally Posted By backbencher: Yeah, think you need a 110 GT to go to OCS. It was that when I was a recruiter from 2010-2012. However, just meeting the minimum, unless you were a doctor or some other high demand skill, meant you weren’t going in to OCS directly in my BN. Granted, I was active, but given the smaller budget of state guards, I can imagine it’s even more competitive. OP, how’s the process going? |
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| I had the itch until I had my first kid at 34. He obliterated that itch, I couldn’t imagine leaving my family of 4 now. You are making a tremendous sacrifice, and if you do go through with it, regardless of your mos, the country owes you a massive debt of gratitude. Good luck to you. |