I'm 30 years old, wife and three young kids.  I teach high school algebra and physics. Semi-athletic, wanted to be in the military all my life, but wouldn't under Clinton.  I like small arms!  I want to serve my country, earn some extra cash, pay off school loans, and get some military training/experience.

Those of you who can offer some advice, please chime in!

thanks!

I am thinking of doing the same thing, although I am prior service, so military life is not exactly new to me. I have never been reserve or guard before so I could also use some advice from those more knoweldgable than myself.

For me the time off for training will not be a problem, I was laid off last month, from WorldCom. I am getting ready to move to GA, and there is a NG Signal unit about fifteen minutes from where I will be living. I am prior service so I may not need to go to AIT again, but if I do I really don't mind that much, military pay sucks but it is better than unemployment, and as I remember the prior service guys got alot better treatment than IET troops. I just hope I don't lose any stripes, I don't think I would care forbeing a private again, although a spc4 does have it pretty good most of the time.

Edited to add: I do have a great carrer but at the moment it has hit a bump in the road and there aint many phone companies looking for central office techs, so I plan on doing something else for a while anyway.

Edited again: I just cruised by the [url=http://www.1800goguard.com/index.htm]1800gogaurd[/url] site and I may be mistaken but is the picture of the female on the turning warrant officer applet the same woman who gained mini gun fame around these parts?

For me I enjoyed serving somewhat, not so much that I want to do it full time, but in the six and a half years I have been out I have still not gotten used to the idea that I will never put on a uniform again. I like the idea of serving, and I feel I can contribute in a useful way, that I would not be able to do on a permenant basis. I don't mind doing drills to keep up with critical skills, and I am a very good technician, in a tactical or conventional enviorment. I am notlooking to relive my glory days in the airborne, I have had my fill of that stuff, I just want to do something other than watch. I am aware of the posibility of activation and deployment and that doesn't bother me. I am just wondering what a National Guard signal unit does for a living, I didn't deal much with weekend warrior signalers much while I was AD, but I did deal with a good deal of weekend grunts, aviation,arty etc... and I realize that they are a animal of a different stripe for the most part compared to most active units.

Your time of service is done. Shit I would do nothing that would take me away from my 3 babies. Your a family man now stay home and take care of the family. Time for playing soldier is over.

Hey watch it, I never "played" soldier, I have no intention of doing so at this time. My father was a career soldier, my Grandfather retired as a USMC Gunny, my great grandfather was a career soldier, my father in law is a retired career soldier. I see no reason to rule out a military career just because I have children, it is dificult at times to be the child of a soldier, it is dificult to be a soldier and a parent at the same time but the two are not mutually exclusive. My oldest son was born while I was active duty. My fathers dedication and sacrifice have always been an ispiration to me, my parents raised four children on army pay, my father was a pilot, he could have gotten out and made tons of money, and had more time to spend with us, but he didn't he stayed in, he kept driving an old raggedy Ford Fairmont when all he had to do was take off the uniform and trade in the wagon for a Mustang, and a Country Squire but he didn't, he felt compelled to serve. I understand that feeling more and more all of the time. I am not sentimental for the old days, there was a time when I was, a couple of years after I got out, but now it is different. I live near Fort Bragg, and I am constantly in contact with military personell, and lately I have had this feeling that I was shirking, that there was something that I was supposed to be doing, it took me months to figure out what it was. I have almost completely come to peace with this decision, but I figured this was a good discussion to join and hear what some folks who have been in the type of unit I would be joining have to say. I am not doing this to get to shoot big guns, like I said I had my fill of that before, once you have shot a jillion rounds from light and medium machine guns, and blew up some stuff with grenade and rocket launchers, and even fired a mortar you lose that burning deisre to paly with toys, I would enjoy doing those things again, but I am in no big hurry to do them either.

Do it.

When you are sitting around the fire, with your grandson on your knee, and he asks, "What did you do after Sept 11th?" You WONT have to say, well, I ate doughnuts around a conference table.
I spent 8 1/2 active and am in the guard now.  I hope to get called up.  I will take a big cut in pay but I don't care.  This country is presented with the greatest threat to its citizens in the past 100 years.  Even if you are never called up, you stood up and agreed to go if needed.  That is enough.
You won't regret doing it, you will regret not doing it.

My father joined the army as a private E1 in February 1969; he retired from the Army on Feb 02 1992. In the twenty three years he served he married, had four children, and served his country in so many police actions and peace keeping missions that I doubt he knows exactly how many. My older sister was Born in May 1969, while my father was in South Viet Nam, I am his oldest son, I was born in July 1973, in Augusta GA, while my father was at the US Army Special Forces School, my younger Brother was born In Savannah Gad, my father was there for his Birth, my younger sister was born in Mar 1977, while my father was in South Korea. I remember the night I lost my first baby tooth, my father was there, I well remember the night, he had just gotten back from a long field problem, he was tired, he smelled like a goat and I am sure he was hungry enough to eat shoe leather, but instead of hitting the shower or grabbing some chow, or even laying down and getting to sleep he spent an hour coaxing a tooth out of my head painlessly, he could have yanked it and it wouldn't have hurt much and would have been done in seconds, but he spent the time. He was a good father, he would have liked to be home more but he had a duty to do, and back then there were not many men who were willing to do it. Now that he is getting older and he is no longer the dashing figure in a flight suit that I remember so well from my youth, I see the damage that his service has done to him, but he has never complained about it, he is proud of his service, ans so am I. I hear so many people say that they would serve if they were needed, and generally I don't belive them, I often hear people my fathers age who say "I would have joined id they had been needed", but that is a lie as well. Of course there is a lot of discourse about the Viet Nam war, but what about the time afterwards, the late seventies, and eighties? Where were the armchair commandos who were waiting for the call? My father was there, thousands of men like him were there, and believe it or not they were doing an important job. The Soviet Union is gone now, but what would have happened if the soldiers who fought the Cold War had not believed in the misguided notion of serving their country by fighting wars started by men whose sons would not have to fight? How many lives in Western Europe would have been lost, if those guys had not felt the compulsion to sit in cold foxholes in Graefonvehr, and Fulda and how would the quality of life be in South Korea if they had not been willing to fly the DMZ during blizzards and monsoons. Serving in the military is not for everybody, and most people are not cut out for it, I could not do it full time, but for those who do want to do it, for those who do feel called to it, it is understood that there will not always be a heroes welcome when they get home, that there will not be a ticker tape parade when they return, nobody will care about there victories, nobody will care about the wounds they have suffered. My father understood this yet he kept doing it, I sent to who knows how many runways to meet C130
Or 141's to greet him after the same number of deployments, and the only time there was so much as a red, white and blue ribbon on the tarmac was when he came home after the Gulf War, which was his last deployment. I also remember that homecoming well, I had went to meet him like usual but this time when we went to the flight line, there was an Army band playing music, reporters taking pictures of the soldiers, bleachers with red white and blue bunting, and huge signs saying welcome home, I remember most of the younger GI's were very excited as they got off of the plane, my father and the other senior officers and NCOs looked very confused and a little shocked, to them they were getting back from something they had done a dozen times before, and nobody had ever as much as said good job to them, and more than one of them had been insulted and even spit on when they had gotten off the plane returning from other battlefields. They did not understand the celebrations or congratulations, they thought that they had just been doing their jobs.

If you are joining the military to get college money, that is fine, if you are joining to be a hero and shoot cool guns that is fine as well, do you time and get out. However for some people the opportunity to serve is truly a privilege, and a calling, that is no more understandable to some than the urge to ride bulls is to me. Soldiering and parenting are a lot alike in some ways, they both take sacrifice, they both take commitment, and dedication, and not every body is cut out to be either, just like any man can create a child, any man can join the Army, but just doing either does not mean that the man who does it will ever understand the satisfaction of doing either well. Another large similarity is in the selfless diligence that both take, you do not receive awards for being a good father just like you do not receive awards for being a good soldier, those are things you do because you want to. When my kids ask their grandpa’s what was the biggest enemy they defeated they will be able to say they beat the Red Army without firing a shot, because they volunteered to stand up and be counted even though there was no call for every able bodied man, and there was no active war, but by their vigilance and willingness to prepare for something that never happened. Yes I have done my "time" but I feel that there is more that I can do, I feel that not everyone is meant to be a soldier, and I was. The truth is that I can join and by my serving can prevent someone who is not meant to be a soldier, and does not want to be a soldier from going into harms way with a bad attitude and getting himself or his brothers in arms killed. One day I hope to be able to tell my grandchildren that I did what I had to do, that is all. I tell my children to do what there heart tells them, and I believe that if they do then there lives will be better in the end, but I think it is time for me to follow that same advice. Even if my kids don't understand today, they will in the future, they will know that I did what my heart told me to do, that I didn't always follow the almighty dollar, that I did think of more than myself and my own little world. I do believe that my family comes first, and in serving I can guarantee that they will be safe, when you serve you are not just serving those who love you but those who hate and despise you as well, you are protecting the children of those who are not willing to do it for themselves.

Armaliter gave you good advice. Don't believe that 2 wks a year and 1 weekend a month crap.

You should have seen all the high dollar doctors in my business who found out that weekend warrior stuff that put them through med school became very real with Desert Storm.

If your not willing to spend 1yr or 2 in Saudi then I would suggest you just stay home.