You can join the Army as an E-3 as well if you have a few years of JROTC. I can tell you right now the Army doesn't have much for enlistment bonuses. Highest one I've seen in the last few months was like 1500. The biggest bonus is given to HS seniors who get 100$ for every month they are in the DEP program. But you have to take in account the 49,248 GI Bill, the 4500 Tuition Assistance every year and all the other benefits. Wife and I had a son about 6weeks ago. It cost me 0$ since the Army paid for it all. Dental is free. All my medical is free and pretty much all of there's as well. I'm an Army Recruiter on the Western slope and have Tricare prime remote insurance and my copay for all of us at a civilan doctor is 0$ as well. I get discounts everywhere I go (guns at cost, verizon wireless, liquor store, cabelas etc.) You don't get paid a lot when you first join but I was an E-6 when I was 21 or 22 taking home about 3400-3600 per month (married) after taxes. I bought a house when I was 21 and an Evo. I also had plenty of money to spare. If you come in as a private your housing is paid for (live in barracks) you eat at a chow hall (free). You only pay for stuff like cell phone, car, cable/internet if you choose to get it in your barracks. I also have taking about 4 college classes yet have 70+ semester hours of college credit towards a Batchelors in Businesss since all your military training will get transfered to civilian education. The benefits add up. Plus I still get my 49,248 for the GI Bill when I get out to do pretty much whatever I want with. You pretty much can't go wrong joining and the benefits are pretty damn good. But, the Army or military for that matter isn't for everyone. Go to goarmy.com and do some research.

 

A lot of good points that have been made by several years of experience in this thread. Something that I would like to add is this: If you are close by a base check it out. If you are near Fayetteville, NC drop me a PM. We at Spec Ops Motorsports have combined over 35 years of military service among the three of us. All of us still on active duty. I can take you on base and show you around, take you to a few different shops and show you what happens on a day to day basis. I personally work on helicopters and have been doing so for over 15 years. This may be something you hadn't considered but it helped get me to where I am today. I was that young dumb kid that didn't manage my finances as well as I could have. Fortunately I learned and now help many of my young soldiers and young NCO's do the right thing. SSG_Petty, tweaker and a few others made some excellent points but ultimately it's up to you and you seem to have made up your mind. Now go educate yourself on your options so you when you go see the recruiter (tweaker), you can be well informed about what YOU want to do, not what they want you to do. Feel free to PM or email me if you have any questions or concerns. If I don't know the answer, I can call someone who does.

Josh

 

[quote=nyquil2;8653242]I see everybody saying the term MILITARY but it seems only army guys are in here...[quote]

well i went army cuz the air force wasn't taking officers... j/k

hell yea, i've been lucky and had GREAT NCOs. learned a LOT from them, more so than warrants....when they come to work..ROFL!

to all of you NCOs in here, LTs may lead today's army, but you all run it!

 

[quote=ravnos04;8653342][quote=nyquil2;8653242]I see everybody saying the term MILITARY but it seems only army guys are in here...

 

Im not fat... just because i wrestle doesnt mean im fat... im 135lbs and strong! if you saw me you would think i was in ROTC... so im not going to "slim" down, im going for all the other reasons and all the right reasons... so yeh, but i think im going to join the army

 

I live near Luke Air Force Base in Arizona... like 5 miles; me' and two of my other friends will go and check it out when the third friend gets out of boot camp... maybe the two of us will... i have LOTs of friends dads that work at bases, so they can help me there, but overall EvoM has helped me the most

 

hehe...i lost like 25lbs when i went to basic

 

[quote=ssg_petty_210;8653353][quote=ravnos04;8653342]mm yessss, more beers, NCOs love beer. The good ones anyway()

He wasn't calling you fat, he was talking about how the USAF is "slimming down" in terms of the number of personnel in it

 

see my body fat % is %6.... sooo i cant really lose any more weight haha

 

I think you are going to love it man. Now that you have decided to enlist. Start thinking about an MOS which is your job. Think about what you really have a passion for. Definately try and choose a job that will offer you stuff on the outside. I recommend you start doing some PT. Start doing alot of push ups/sit ups, and start running. Set yourself a good goal that exceeds the bare minimum standard. Try and set a small goal of about 60 push ups/2 minutes, 60 sit ups/2 minutes, and try and get a good run time of about 14 and a half minutes for your two mile run. Let the recruiter know you want to take a PT test prior to enlisting, and you will be able to join as an E2/PV2. If you find a buddy to enlist with you under your name, you can also get a rank that way. But that is if they are still doing that. I joined 8 years ago, where they did. Try and get everything you want out of your enlistement. Take the practice ASVAB test so that you can get a good GT score. Try and get at least a 110 on your GT score. Higher the score, the more jobs you can choose from. If you need any advice, or anything, I have no problem with giving you my number and I will talk to you over the phone and answer any questions you may have.

 

Same here lol. Now I want the weight back, and cant gain weight if my life depended on it. I lost so much after my recent surgery gone bad.

 

Yeah, one of the guidelines for calling ppl is specifically to find out what the persons goals/passions are, why they want to do it, any other reason why, where, when, etc. I always ask ppl what they want to do and tailor the specifics of what the Army can offer them to help them achieve those goals specifically and go over the jobs available that are in that field. Ultimately it's your choice, unlike the Marines the Army will let you pick your specific job based on what's available and based on the fact you have qualifying scores. The higher the score the more jobs available usually. www.march2success.com is a free non-obligatory tool to help study for standarized tests like the ASVAB. It's a pretty good program as far as math/english goes. The Arithmetic reasoning and paragraph comprehension on the ASVAB tends to kick some peoples ***. Shoot me a PM as well if you have any questions.

 

the answer is, join a national/air guard or reserve and the will pay for you to be a full time student, and you cant be deployed as a full time student. do rotc in college and when you get out as a 0-1 you will be making more money than most people in the army soon.

And please go talk to a recruiter for info about not only the army choice, but going to college. they are good people from my experience.

 

Like i said... Varsity Wrestling since freshmen year.... LOL... 54 pushups in one min. and 86 in 2 mins. 100 crunches in a min. 140+ bicycle crunches in 1min. and i RUN not jog... SPRINT 1 mile everyday... and jog 3 miles home after practice... i can run 1 mile in a little over 6 and a half min... about 6min 45 sec.

and ok i will do i hope i can save up about $10,000 before i turn 18... well if i keep my job i can get about $20,000 in two years...

 

Good stuff. Glad to see you are on top of physical fitness. That is an important factor in the military. Now can you climb at mountain in afghanistan in 130+ degree weather wearing 70lbs of gear with a crew served weapon lol. I think you will do just fine. Like I said, if you would like to know more, ill pm you my number.