First of all, I don't want to hear from anyone who is going to try and convince me how the military is a bad idea and that government is evil, I just want to hear opinions from those who have experience with the subject. So please, respect that.

I'm graduating this Christmas (early graduation, I have all my classes done) and am still trying to decide what I want to do after I graduate. I'll still probably wait until I'm 18 (next August) if I do decide to enlist.

I chose those two because they seem to be what I would be interested the most.
I've heard great things from my Mom's side of the family (I currently have 7 cousins currently in the air force) and I also took a glance on the Navy's website, but it doesn't seem to provide to much information.


I'm wondering if there are any benefits that one have over the other, they seem to offer similar jobs (albeit navy's nuclear focused ones and Aviation oriented airforce ones).


I just want your input on either branch or other parts of the military. If you have personal experience, even better.

Just do what my brother did, get a job in the military that requires you to nobly risk your life staring at a computer screen, its like running around shooting a gun, only less chance of a bullet making its way to your head.

My brother is a programmer in the Marines. Even with relatively inactive jobs, you still have to maintain high fitness standards.

I'm not scared of dying or being in a firefight. If you are, then I doubt the military would want you anyway.
I'm just talking about what would suit my tastes better.


I see this as an opportunity that has more pros than cons. My Dad is having trouble putting my sister through college as it is, this would help me in my career field (whether I decide to get a Computer Science degree or get into an electrician apprenticeship) while still getting to do something I enjoy and giving something back to the country.

Another plus is being able to start out on my own earlier, my parents are having trouble trying to support themselves, let alone me and my sister going through college at the same time.

I was in the Navy.

Join the Air Force.

That was a rather vague answer, care to elaborate?

Air Force is the only one of the two that treats their personnel like human beings, among other things.

I'd say the Air Force, there is still quite a bit of travel but you aren't stuck out on a boat for long periods of time. I think with the navy you see a lot more of the world but the air force you actually get based somewhere. Although all of my information on it is secondhand from mates.

EDIT: As Steampunk said, the airforce values it's men and women more than the navy, maybe because in general air force jobs require a longer training process.

Not really. You pull into a port every three months and stay for maybe two days if you're lucky. Sure, you've been to Singapore, but I wouldn't call it any more than if you had just flown in to change flights. And it's not as if you just get free run of the place, work still has to be done on the boat and in port.

Then there's the fact that you live with a couple hundred other guys in extremely close quarters for 6 months of the year, which means that if you don't like just one of them it's going to be hell. Air Force on the other hand means you get to go home and sleep in your own bed at the end of the day, even if it's quarters on base. It sounds like a copout, but it's a very big factor in general quality of life.

If you can, travel, then decide.

I was a nuke sub Electrician's Mate in the late 70's. When I got out after 6 years, I was already qualified to take the Master's test, all I needed was a code course. The time on the boat counted as 4 years working under a Master. I didn't go that way, so I can't tell you how it would work out.
I imagine things have changed in the past 30 years. That attitude may be true for general enlistees, but I doubt if it carries over to the technical fields. I went to school for 2 years before being sent to a boat, and continued attending advanced courses for the rest of my term. I never felt the way you describe.

Lets see, the navy took me to Oman, Bahrain, Emirates, Singapore, Austrailia, Maylasia, Indonesia, Thailand, China, Phillippines, Korea, California, Florida, and Washington St. in the first six years. Add Virginia, Perto Rico, Spain, Crete, Egypt, Japan for six years, and Hawaii for 3 years...

My neighbor, a recent air force vet, went to Texas, South Carolina, and Germany in six years.

I was never in military service, but I've worked with them extensively, including in my current job. US Military mostly, I'm referring to US military below.

I'm not sure what your interest is in. For example if you are interested n technology Air Force and Navy certainly have that. But Army Should not be overlooked either. In my current engineering job I'm working with all the services and Army seems to be pushing the edge of technology very aggressively in some areas.

Travel-wise it seems Navy and Air Force might be particularly good.

And the Marines are have a lot to go for them too. A relatively small service but very unique (some might say elite).

And if you really want to push the edge, regardless of the service there is the Special Ops Forces.

I'd say the air force if you're looking for a relatively cushy service time -good technical jobs, mostly geared to avionics and the like.

Navy.. less cushy, somewhat uncomfortable even, and a more diverse range of technical jobs. Perk being you get to go places..

Army.. even less cushy and rapidly moving into uncomfortable. Technical jobs abound, usually figuring out how the hell stuff works -like flashlights, and other high tech gear

Marines.. hurts like hell, but worth it if you can hack it. Technical jobs to be had as well, but if you're looking in this area you've probably already opted for one of the other branches.

Coast Guard -IT'S A BRANCH AS WELL!!!! -aka the mini-me Navy. For some reason when it's really, really bad weather, they wanna go out and sail around. Technical jobs center around radar applications and souping up their cutters to go faster.., which is why they're painted red

And Nukes get the added fun of being ostracised by the all non-nuclear people, who percieve them as getting special treatment. Which, to be fair, they do get special treatment.

It just seems like the Air Force is more geared towards general respect and humanity for all personnel, rather than just the super special ones. Much of this comes down to the Air Force being run far more like a business than a military force, and the Navy being run like it was still 1960.

I hear the ahhh... Navy gets more action

If you catch my drift

Always the professional, you are.

I haven't joined yet, but I plan on joining up with the Air Force out of college. Get a bachelors degree and do AFROTC then work on my Masters and Doctorate when I'm fully enlisted/signed on or whatever it's referred to, well that's my plan at least.

http://www.gamesas.com/topic/1371564-the-usaf-united-states-air-force/page__fromsearch__1 I started on the AF to see if it would be something I liked. There's some good info in it. Good luck man! Might be serving with you one day.

The only thing I ever noticed was [censored]ing about the accelerated advancement we got. I thought we deserved it for the school hell they put us through (2 years of collecge in 6 months), and it did come back to bite us in the ass. I was E5 for 4 years. I took the E6 test 3 times and never made it because advancement was weighted for time in service, not time in rate. I almost aced the tests, but only had 3.8 evals. Since I was under 6 years in service, it would have taken 3.95 evals to advance. That, and Jimmy Carter, are why I left after my original 6.

I didn't see any conflict on the boat, but all of us were stuck in the same environment (ocean going sewer pipe). Of course, there was the normal Bubblehead / skimmer puke rivalry. It may have been different in the skimmer fleet (targets ).

I'd say go Airforce. I just enlisted and swore in to Army as infantry a few weeks ago, but for the longest time I had my heart set on Airforce. I guess it really depends on the type of job you want to be working and how high of living standards do you want. I wanted combat and long ruck marches in the desert heat so I chose Army either branch you choose though, it won't be easy. Military life is a whole new lifestyle and it's not for everyone, do as much research as you can on all the branches before you decide.

Depends on what kind of person you are. I was in basic from June through August. Not in the navy due to medical discharge, but the Navy is HIGHLY ceremonial, and uses vastly different systems of operation than the other branches. In particular, their ranks. Even their officer set up is different. I enjoyed parts of my experience there as well. Just expect lots of yelling from Petty Officers and Chiefs.

Ah yes, the Navy! My step-dad wants me to join the Navy Seals after I go to bootcamp. Of course, BUD/S is hard as hell and there is an 80% drop out rate. Still considering to join while I am still young.

Yeah, technical workers are more valued, there are just more technical jobs than not in the air force.