Hey guys, I ve been really considering joining, I almost did righto outta highschool but Im color blind (or so they tell me) and could only get a desk job. I really didnt want that. But now, Im a little older and kinda wish I went. So Im still young (23) and thinking about going again. Either USMC or USA. But a few questions if you guys could help me. Ill be married, so how will housing work? And is there a pay increase for being married.... I guess my real questions are about how my wife will be when Im gone or while Im there. I know on most saleries of a recrut, no one is making a living for 2. Any help would be great, and if anyone wants to add to there pref in branch, feel free.
Thanx

If your married, you will either get on post housing at no cost or if thats not available get extra $$$ for your housing allowance to live off post. You will get more $$ with a dependant. Not a second salary, but a bit more.

Being active on post your spouse will have a whole lot of support when your gone, from the units family support group and the numerous other activities on post. Thats one thing that reservists families really get the short end of the string on when they deploy.


What kind of stuff interests you? Perhaps we could steer you toward a MOS choice. Like working on mechanical things? Good at organising paperwork and such? Medical? Legal stuff of interest?

Thanx for the reply. Interests, mechanical thing interest me, guns of course, not too fond of paper work, in the civy world I would like to work in medical feild. One thing Im worried about is I am color blind, so when I almost signed up my MOS options were paper work, and thats the last thing I want to do. I dont know if being at war like we are now makes for leinencies, but when I went to the meps station last time, we were not at war. Once again, any help is great, thanx guys.

Looking around a bit it seems like most of the mechanical MOS's require color vision, but see what you can do at MEPS. Remember this, you don't have to take the first offer.

If you like mechanical stuff, the best MOS for a mechanic is 62B. You get a much broader range of equipment you can work on, and a wider variety of possible kinds of units you can be assigned to.... plus time running the equipment.

grrr, seems everything but paper needs color vision. I can see color, but I get brown and green, yellow and orange, stuff like that mixed up. Nothing major like blue and red. Aww well, I'll see what they say at the meps.

If you have any questions bagman let me know, I'm a mos 96U in a VERY messed up ait so I have some  
current perspective on the training envirnment and basic, I've been in 11 months so far, I am 26 and have a fiance so I can answer a few questions about housing etc. Basically when your in basic you won't see each other period, you'll get maybe one call in the first three weeks (red phase) to state that your alive. During the last few weeks we got a pretty good amount of phone time, esp if you shot expert which i did. My basic was at fort sill, ok last oct-dec. Ait for me is Fort Huachuca, AZ training as a uav operator. I have spent 6 out of  eight months here on a hold status waiting to be in a six month course, basically we sit in a room all day with our thumbs up our ass or pull weeds, clean up other peoples ftx site and other crap jobs, mopping floors etc.  96U is a sweet mos when you finally get through it. Make sure you note that the army cares less what you think or about your wife from what i have seen. If you have a long ait you may not see her at all depending on your command. Here they let you live off  base if your of phase. Basically right out of bt your phase 4 for a month or so , that consists of pt 6 days a week, bed time at 8 pm mandatory, your locked down after that, pt is 4am btw.  No electronics, no phones. Phase 5 comes next which is the same with electronics and weekend curfew of midnight. Moving on to the last phase 5+ which you move to a perm party barracks, you can't socialize with perm party, thats fraternization, we are IET soldiers so basically your like a bt private, you have drill sgts this whole time as well.  5+ is almost like reg soldier life, but at any time you can go back to phase 4, like dusty boots, messed up wall locker, closes bag more than half full, 30 seconds late to formation (which is 10 minutes early btw)., fail a pt test the list goes on. Make sure you think long and hard about if the military is for you or go air force, they have it made, haha. If you have any questions about any mi mos's let me know, I know other mos's  11x, etc are much shorter ait wise, like 1-2 months total, but in a harsher envirnment,

Hey man!!
I'm going to be doing OSUT at Sill in October, thanks for the outlook :)

ceedub im from maine as well.  As far as basic goes GET IN SHAPE now do what it takes to pass a pt test for real now. Do real pushups don't sham on them, it will help a ton.  I was E 1/19FA at sill for basic 2nd plt.  We were the last cycle to do the older basic cycle, now you do warrior ethos which means a LOT more field time, I think @ 20 someodd days, we had 7 in the field. If you go in the winter its kinda chilly even for mainers. The gas chamber is week three and it sucks.  Bring multi vitamins and hide them when you go, no one will catch you don't worry just use a little common sense, they don't search your stuff much. They will help you avoid the fort sill plague that you will probably get. I was coughing blood at week 4 from that, and it made everything worst. Basic is easy though for the most part.  If you have any questions about it let me know and i'll be glad to answer. I know OSUT is like a long basic training, your ait will be very strict but your perm party before you know it so that is a plus. A freind of mine was a field arty surveyor and was through ait FAST. Mine is turning out to be a year so that sucks, its just a long time to have drill sgt's yelling.  Let me know where your from and if you have any questions.

I  joined the Corps at 23. Your recruiter can tell you just how much your pay and allowances will be.  You're not gonna be living a lavish lifestyle, that's for sure, but it's liveable. I don't know that much about how the Army does things, but it may be a better choice than the Marine Corps for a young married guy (given the way the Marines do their deployments). You might be more stable in the Army. This is just my opinion based on what little I know, so do your research and ask as many knowledgeable people from both branches as you can. Don't go by what the recruiters alone tell you.  Good luck with whatever you decide!

air force treats you the best for sure if thats the route you want to go. I went army for the guarenteed mos, otherwise i would have gone air force. Life is much easier there.

Thanks for the continued BCT/AIT advice Target, every little bit helps, check your IM to chat further.

Thanx for the input guys. After a good amount of thought, I didnt know why I didnt think about it before, but I was gonna go to school to be a nurse, so medical area would probly be best. So I know that rules out the corps. I wonder if anyone has a link to the MOS's. I dont know all my choices, but what else is there besides combat medic, any thing that will help in the civy world when I get out. (Unless I can get in writing to go airborne then RIS.......prolly wont happen) From what I understand from a friend, living on base with housing doesnt happen till E4, but before that living allowances are given for off base(most of the time he said). Anyways, and help from there is great, thanx again guys.

You can look at different jobs @ goarmy.com, don't know if it's a complete listing or not though.

bag man, i enlisted with a friend of mine, his choice was 91W which is combat medic, he did get airborne in his contract and a shot at rip. He made it through both and is currently waiting on spec forces medic school to further that route, it is doable, you MUST want it though, meaning you won't stand a chance at rip if your not determined. His pt scores to get in had to be high as well, he put 110 pushups, 113 situps and 1130 on his run before he left and still said it kicked his ass, so be prepared if you go that route. Keep in mind pu and su are timed at 2 minutes and run min is a 1554 I think for 18-22 year olds.  I don't want to scare you, well i won't if your really serious about that route, but there are a lot of people who talk the talk about rangers and sf and can't even come close to meeting the standard, never mind the minimums to even go to try out.  Great bragging rights if you go that path and succeed.

Thanx again guys, I really think that is the route I would like to go. I wouldnt be going till this time next year when I do. So Ill be able to really kick it up in training to make it happen. The only 2 hurdles I must clear is color blind and I do wear glasses, but can be corrected with lasik if need be.  If you guys could let me know if thats a total no go, if you know or not. Other wise Ill thats what Ill shoot for, and bust my butt to get in shape.

thanx again

Bag_Man, I am in the Infantry and have been for the past 14/15 years I love it and would recommend it, but I can tell you this it is hard on the body, but promotions are faster and you do stay gone alot in the field that is, the only reason I am leaving it is that my body has been broke to many times and I am being medicaly reclassed but that comes from all of the high speed bad ass training that the infantry soldier's get to do we get more specail school's like Ranger, Sniper and you can get Airborne, AASLT school and if you go to a mech unit and become an NCO you can go to Master Gunner school, the infantry really doesn,t give you speacailized training to help you on the outside unless you are thinking about Law Enforcement when you get out, but hey it's one you might look at, sit down and really think about what you wol really like to do and take it from there.

i went though osut at fort sill also. a-1/40.
the winter there was cold. COLD. it's the wind that makes it so bad. being from the texas coast didnt help much. i worked a winter in wyoming in the oil field, and i was an eagle scout as a kid, so at least i had some cold weather experience. be sure you tell your recruiter about college, eagle scout, or jrotc, b/c that means some rank.
I'm a 13B-01.  thats airborne artillery. i got airborne school and the 82d in my contract. since i had three years of college i got rank and a nice bonus.
the warrior ethos program at sill will run your ass off. you run everywhere. if your not in shape you'll be one of the dozens pukeing on the way back from chow everyday, for the first few weeks.
we did alot of field time...it was supposed to be 20 days but we added it up and it was closer to 30 or more. it's good training. urban warfare and stuff like that. the gas chamber aint that bad. you'll think your in hell but it wears off fast. just dont rub your eyes or touch your nuts. we marched out there and marched back. if you sneak around wearing contact lenses, dont wear them in the chamber. i took them out before and did the march back w/out them. i went through airborne school with them too, but you should decide that for yourself. my glasses didnt get issued to me till week 7 of basic, so i got by. paper work snafu.

any one going in should take this advice: SAVE ALL YOUR PAPER WORK.you dont know whats important at first so keep it all, and keep it safe. you have to have your meps paper work to claim your bonus when you get to a unit.
carry at least five copys of your orders when you are on the move. if you go to airborne school, carry 10. you dont think you need them but you might. i keep copies of my med records and stuff at home.

my unit puts family high on the list. my 1st seargent regularly eats the ass of nco's who dont square their soldiers families away. alot of that may depend on the unit, but my wifes well taken care of. my nco takes care of us.

my e-4 pay and my wifes job net us about 50k anually. (wife has a good job-lucky there)our houseing(off post) is paid for by the army, and we live in a nice place, nice neighborhood. In the fort bragg area, BHA(basic housing allowance) for enlisted is around 630.00 a month, added to your base pay.
when you move your wife and belongings, you generally get 10-12 days to do so. when my furniture caught up with me, i got 2 more days to get settled.

as far as a mos, combat arms is great, but if you want to secure a future if you plan to do an enlistment or two and get out, look at legal, mechanic, computers, or aircraft maint. pretty hot in the civilian side. dont worry about not being on the front lines or being high speed. you can be high speed in any field if you do your job and follow orders. remember- it takes all kinds, and help is always needed.

Thanks for the continued good info and advice I've been recieving from you guys on OSUT at Sill 30cal...

Here's a link to figure out the BAH or what they pay you if you live off base.

http://www.dtic.mil/perdiem/bahform.html

Here's my .02. Granted I was also enlisted. Hubby out ranked me. We lived on the economy instead of base housing. Where we were had to be a E-4. Hubby was, but there was a waiting list. We both got BAH and extra pay for being married. We basically lived off one income hubbys and my income was for toys,eating out,etc. Even when we came stateside,I was civilian by then and there was still a waiting list for housing. We came up on the list for housing at the time hubby was ETS'ing. Also depending on what MOS you are going into will also depend on how fast you will be promoted. Points at the time for hubby being a 33's computer repair were extremely high to make E-5. Think about what you want to do even after you get out of the military,the training the military gives you can help out alot. As far as your wife it is all going to depend on the unit. Even living off post you will find there are other service members also living off post. At Devens a friend of mine her husband was a combat engineer,he spent most of his time in the field. When he was gone I would have her over for dinners etc. You kind of take care of each other. My husband taught at Devens so we had it easier. Your wife will make friends and there is support among the spouses when deployed. I have a friend now who her husband is full time Air guard. when he deployed she did not have that support of other wives. I made a point of being her support it is very important to the ones left behind to have someone that understands what they are going through. Unless someone has been military or spouse of military the average person has no clue. It is not a bad life,but make sure your wife fully understands what she will be putting up with. I have seen many a marriage break up because the spouse didn't know that hubby was gone so much. Or the spouse going to the company commander complaining because she doesn't like the miltary running their life. Good career ender. Also all the holidays you will most likely not be around for. I wish you luck in whatever you decide and as I told my son get everything in writing. Do not sign it if it is not all there. Also Airforce is more family friendly,but you may not get everything you want out of them. I originally looked into the AirForce, but they would not guarantee squat,so I moved on down to the Army recruiter. I got what I wanted,it was one of the best times of my life. It will definately be something you will look back on. Good luck.