For those considering Military Service (x-post)

[dereksurfs]

I would like to hear from families whose children may be considering enlisting in the military 'at some point.' I would like to hear a bit about your/their strategy and rationale? Personally I am apprehensive with my oldest and 'only' son. But it may be something he wants to do or expresses interest in. So I am doing research on it now. There does seem to be a wide variety of options available in terms of types of service as well as educational and work experiences gained.

 

BTW, I also understand if you are apprehensive as there is potentially great risk involved.

 

Thanks,

[Unicorn.]

Ds (my oldest and one and only boy) is planning on joining the Marines. We, and several friends who are military have imparted on him to get his degree first. Right now he plans to go to a university w/ an ROTC program, or to a military academy. Possibly applying for a military scholarship that will pay for college, with immediate entrance upon graduation. We are still looking into the particulars of that. He's only a sophomore. He is currently involved in the MCJROTC program at our ps.

 

I understand your apprehension, and your ds is young. He may very well change his mind by the time he gets to high school. I think my ds was born to be military. He's always been "Mr. Red, White, and Blue". He literally didn't play w/ toys or have any kind of imaginative play until he was about 8 or 9. I got him military figures/toys (tanks, planes, poseable figures, etc) for Christmas that year. His imagination took off and wars and battles raged all over his room for years. He's also a huge history buff, and plans on majoring in History. Some specific military history or something- I forget exactly what. I'm telling you all this, because I don't think either of us had a choice in the matter. It's who he is, and he was born for it.

[Down_the_Rabbit_Hole]

My oldest 2 joined and my youngest son is planning on joining. I was apprehensive at first but the military today is not the "drop down and give me thirty" of long ago. Another thing that eased my mind was the oldest is one to investigate and check things out before committing. He did massive research on the military and the different branches before he made a decision. I feel if he felt it there was something wonky he would not have joined. Also the jobs they pick can be non combative jobs....my 2nd oldest is a mechanic with a non combative job description, the oldest chose to pursue a more exciting/active job and is put in more dangerous areas.

 

If your son is thinking about joining, even just toying with the idea, I would talk with a recruiter to see what is needed to join. My oldest just needed to get a minimum score on the ASVAB, but times changed because of the economy and the 2nd had to jump through hoops to get in. My youngest son will be talking to a recruiter soon to see when the best time for him to join is.

 

My oldest has given me some advice for my youngest, to do some sort of ROTC or cadet program before entering and wishes he did. So we will be looking into that soon too.

[threeturn]

My kids are really young so I don't have much advice other than this: my husband is National Guard. He has been in as both enlisted and as an officer. The officer's pay is much, much better. Go that route.

[dereksurfs]

I really appreciate the input. Some days I can't stand the thought of the military for ds11, and yes he is still very young. Then other days I think he may be interested in some of the options available. For example we live in a military town with the Naval Post Graduate School and Defense Language Institute not too far away. And we get to know quite a few military families. I had no idea of all the training and interesting opportunities available for them until moving here, especially at the officer, grad school level.

[swellmomma]

not going to answer the poll since we are in Canada so things are different. Ds14 is talking about joining the military after high school. He is currently in army cadets and loves it. By the time he graduates he will have 6 years of essentially basic training covered. He does need to improve his physical fitness before then, that is an area he is weak in, and rapidly gaining weight. IF he joins he will do direct entry into army as a grunt basically. While I would prefer to head to an ROTC college there is only 1 and it is very very hard to get into, he will not have the req academic scores nor could he maintian them there. He is better off going direct entry and working his way up through the ranks. We have talked about the options as far as air force and navy and he does not have the "right stuff" for air force imo, and navy he says he doesn't want to be stuck on a boat all the time. As well his father used to be armored with the army (aka drove the tanks), ds is considered trying to get into his dad's old unit. I would prefer him be armored than infintry but whatever he choses I will support him.

[mamajudy]

Unicorn, your son sounds like my son. He has wanted to be a military man ever since he was very young. We would go to the library, and he would take out books about the military. When he was in first grade, he joined Cub Scouts because he saw the pictures of boys in uniforms saluting the flag. Scouting was actually a great thing to get involved in. He spent cold nights sleeping on the ground, learned many skills, and developed his talent for leadership. This is when I learned to let go a little and not worry about him all the time. If he forgot to take something on a campout and suffered discomfort, well, he'd remember next time! He is now an Eagle Scout.

 

When he started ninth grade, he joined the United States Naval Sea Cadet Corps. He had so many fantastic opportunities in Sea Cadets! Two weeks of boot camp, summer trainings all over the country, training with the Coast Guard, flying in a Black Hawk, sailing on the USS Iwo Jima, and on and on. He is now the Leading Petty Officer of his division of over 100 cadets. I would definitely recommend your son get involved in Sea Cadets, Civil Air Patrol, or JROTC in high school, if possible. My ds is a natural-born leader, so we directed him toward becoming an officer. This year, he applied to the US Naval Academy, and was offered an appointment to the class of 2017!

[dereksurfs]

Mamajudy, thanks for sharing this. That's an inspirational story which sounded like a natural fit for your ds from very early on. Congrats to him on that appointment. I hear that it is very competitive to get into these academies.

[FairProspects]

Mine is too young, but he has expressed a ton of interest in going military. I'm not sure about meeting medical since he has a lot of food allergies, but he may outgrow them, and I don't know if the same rules apply to engineers and weapons designers anyway.

[ccolopy]

My son is still young, so we haven't encouraged him one way or the other yet, but he's shown a lot of interest over the last few years in international relations and intelligence. He's not sure whether he's more interested in the civilian or military side of things, but if he does decide to go military, he'll be applying to a service academy.