Thread: All of you military members in here, chime in

As some of you might know, I speak 2 languages. I'm currently in the process of learning a 3rd language as well.
I've been getting a lot of reccomendations from people to join the reserves, as they all are aware of the skills that I posses. They have told me that my skills are greatly needed in the military right now. I've spoken to a guy from the national guard reserves so far, and he said I can get a 20,000 dollar sign on bonus, 670 a month, 4,500 for school, and a bunch of other money as well. I just have to go 1 weekend a month and 2 weeks in the summer for training. So far, I've heard a lot of benefits from joining the reserves. I spoke to one of my professors at school and he was in the Air Force. He was telling me that the Air Force reserves would be a better, laid back environment and that I am not at risk of going to Iraq or anything, as an interpreter/translator is a non-combative position.

I'm also in the process of starting my own business and I think I would gain some experience and a lot ot benefits from joining the reserves, and stay at home.

I DON'T want to get sent somewhere to kill people because someone else thinks I should go and do their dirty work for them.

If I do join the reserves, I want to be able to benefit from it as much as I can, not be a slave or a "hitman" for someone else.

I know that there are a bunch of people here in the military and you would be the best source of real life information I should get.

Please chime in with any information you can give me. If you dont have anything informative to say, just dont say it.

thanx.

what job is he saying you can get those enlistment bonuses for? what language are you learning?

active duty members who speak a different language in the active air force earn and additional $100 in their paycheque when they take the test for language skills as long as it is a language that is considered as needed.
as far as a linguist being a non combative position, that's not true. as a linguist you would have different things you can do. you can either sit in a room listening to people talk on the phone and HAM/CB/2 way radios or you can be on an airplane listening in on them. you may even be down on the ground in the desert speaking with local nationals or even in Korea with the locals.

ALL military members are subject to deployments. in the reserves it's not so bad. you have an option of deploying for only 30 days if you CHOOSE to go to the desert or are voluntold.
ALL military members are required to qualify with their primary weapons in basic training with the exception of a Chaplain. (Chaplains assistent must qualify incase the need to protect the chaplain arrises.)

Active Air Force is given 100% tuition assitance towards school and you have the option of the $250,000 Montgomery GI Bill for use in school when you get out of the Air Force.
Reserve and Guard members are also given the option to have the Reserve MGIB.
the MGIB also has the option of a kicker where you can get up to $350,000 if you pay for an extra 12 months (MGIB is not free, but it's only $50 a month)

if you have college credits, make sure you transfer those and if you have 45hours or more, you're eligable for E3 paygrade when you enlist.

If you go reserve, you will automatically receive E4 paygrade upon completion of tech school and Career Developement Courses as long as the unit has room for someone of that rank (they always do...)

Military members are not slaves, but we do earn our freedoms at a higher cost.

If you have any specific questions about training, school, or whatever, let me know.

3rd language........english........

haha... i speak German, English, Afrikaans, Dutch, and Ebonics

Sounds like you're getting the run around. If you don't want anything to do with war, don't join the military. If you think the military is there to benifit you, you're wrong. You're there to SERVE, not get taken care of. I could fluff it up a lot and say nice things here and there but it's a term of service to your country. The pay sucks, you won't get anywhere near $670 for going camping for 3 days, that's insane. My friends who have been in the guard for years get ~$380 after taxes. Unless you have a 4 year degree in hand, and get hand picked for OCS (good luck), you won't make much money.

Some realistic things to remember:

A lot of linguists are attached to infantry units in the Army reserve and Army National Guard. They need somone to translate for prisoners and locals. You'll be the FIRST to go to war.

The Guard deploys and the reserve deploys. Period. But, the Guard is harder to activate. You won't deploy as much, buy you'll still deploy if you stick around the Guard for a term or two. ALL guard units curently deploy to Iraq.

The signing bonus is taxed like all income and you only receive it after all of your training is complete. If you get hurt and can't finish or something changes and you're no longer eligible for your job, you get nothing from your original contract except the college stuff.

If you really want all of the benifits, you have to go active. Full pay, full benifits, full GI Bill, and the honor of putting prior service on your future resumes. You have no clue how much the professional world appriciates and praise service men and women.

Originally Posted by OldDirtyNoSeven

3rd language........english........

Yea seriously, does that kid work out in the back of M&S for you or something? You always gotta speak slowly and clearly and they still don't know what your are saying. They always plant the plants wrong, or put chicken in the burrito instead of pork.

The 3rd language that I'm learning is Farsi.

Well EuroEclipse and 98spydert, I really appreciate your information. That summed it up very well. The military is not for me. I can't stand taking orders from someone that isn't my mom or dad. I guess that national guard reserves guy just exaggerated on what was really going on. I never knew I was gunna have to go to basic training and shoot firearms. Thats the last thing I want to do, be someone else's "hitman."

I thought I would really benefit from being in the reserves but its apparent that I would be getting used. No thanx.

For me, I'ts not even about the money, I make more then enough for someone my age. I was interested in joining the reserves because I thought I would learn some new things, get a great hands on learning experience, and maybe travel some.

It's not that great now that I put some thought into it.

I rather do something else more productive with my spare time.

Thank you for the info

i have a friend who speaks Farsi. he's actually a Persian prince of Dendia and his government was overthrown. pretty interesting.

And Farsi is a needed language.

as far as being someone's hitman, that's kind of a stretch. we have laws such as LOAC that protect people in times of war. we can't shoot unless they shoot first. damn sure if someone is trying to kill me, i'm going to shoot back.

basic training in the air force isn't all that bad either. sure they will yell at you and tell you to do things... yea you have to shoot the m16... but all of that is just to break you down and teach you to grow up. you get a bunch of punk ass kids who don't shit from noone, not even their moms. they run in gangs back home and are just in the military to get their records cleared. so the instructors are there to "wake them up" to the real world. most people go back to being thugs and gangstas when they get out of training, but they find themselves in jail with a dishonorable discharge unable to even get a job at McDonalds.

If I were you, I'd sign up. They have a 2 year option in the active Air Force now. Go through your 8 weeks of BMT, get your job training and get to your base. You're going to meet people that you'll never forget and have experiences that you would never even dream of. Who knows, you may like it. Being in the military seriously woke me up to the real world and I see the bigger perspective on things.

Tomorrow when we go paintball, I'll give you a tour of the base and show you around. We can talk more about it if you want.

Thanx for the invite EuroEclipse but I have to go to a wedding in LA again, this fine asz chick that I've been planning to sack invited me to go to her cousin's wedding 2 days ago. She doesn't want to go alone and I don't usually turn down all expense paid trips like these, especially with a fine asz chick like this one.

Next time you go play paintball, I'll make sure to have that day cleared and nothing else pops up.

The Air Force reserves does sound a lot better then the rest of the reserve programs.

I'd like to get some more first hand info on that from you if possible.

Thanx

p.s. the National Guard reserves and Army reserves is definatelly out of the question.