I was USMC went to cold weather survival school as a First Lt
My pay was reduced because I was in the field and didn’t need money for food or lodging some AF PJs I talked †o were getting paid extra because of the hardship
Consider the National Guard. Most states pay 100% tuition. My youngest joined out of high school. She also received a military scholarship after starting college. This last year she graduated and received her commission. No debt after school and he will be around to mow the yard.
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Former Marine Infantryman here… I had bed bugs and showered in standing water. But fucking loved it.
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They had steak and lobster on Sundays in the desert… we’d come in looking like extras from a movie about homeless tranvestites
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Several options here.
Ranked by difficulty:
- enlist as a medic/corpsman. You get a decent amount of medical training, essentially do the job of a nurse. He can either stay in the service, or get out afterwards and use the GI bill to pay for nursing school (he will have some credits already from his military training.)
- Go to nursing school while on a ROTC scholarship. Gets the school paid for, commission as a nurse. He would be a military officer whose actual job is to be a nurse. (This option is only available via OCS or ROTC, service academies don’t do this)
- If he wants to aim more difficult, he can do the same thing above, but apply for the medical service core. It’s very competitive, but if selected the military will pay for his entire medical school and he would commission as a military doctor. (You can also do this at service academies, but it’s about 1-2 a year and INSANELY competitive)
Yes, with Caveats.
There are 3 ways to become an officer.
- do ROTC in college
- Go to OCS after college
- Go to a service academy.
ROTC offers scholarship. The highest tier scholarship is essentially a full ride. They also stack on top of any other exiting scholarships, which can be a big help for some. You need to apply for the ROTC scholarship before you go to the school. Some programs exist for back pay, but it’s a sketchy process
OCS generally will not pay for any college
Service academies are completely free, and provide a (small) stipend to cadets/midshipman
- Does your son want to do this as a career advancement move, or as a career? If he is just looking for ways to pay for nursing school? He could probably enlist on a short contract and then use GI bill. Shortest route to his goals. Wants to go career? Maybe look at a service academy. But i would switch the two. Different options require different commitments, and offer different benefits, so I’d make sure the option he goes with matches his goals rather than just offer with most.
My wife is actually currently an ROTC instructor. Her two cents, they have A lot of nurse specific scholarships, and if his grades are decent then it’s very easy to get picked up for nurse. Honestly, being a military nurse is a pretty solid career move overall if he is at all interested longer term.
One thing to understand with ROTC, OCS, or the academies is that you aren’t guaranteed any particular job. You can be more likely to get some than others, and you use some influence on what job you get, but at the end of the day you sign a contract to enter a branch. Say you sign up wanting to be a pilot. But they have 70 pilots spots and 75 people who want to be pilots. 5 people just ain’t gonna be happy. It’s not common, I’d say most people get what they want, but it’s not rare either.
Meh. It’s not as bad as it used to be, and you can always use the internet to look up if they are BSing you. (Or ask almost any if us responding.) I’ve heard a few rough horror stories, but they are rare. I’d say the more realistic scenario is some rose lensed glasses as they describe careers. It’s not a lie, but they are salesman lol.
If he wants medical, stay away from the Marines. I love the marines, but they don’t do medical, they outsource all that to Navy.
Navy has you away from home more than any other. Navy has most of the nicer bases location wise. Navy deployments are longer, but often can be pretty interesting. On average you aren’t getting shot at in the Navy.
Army has you home middle. Army bases are everywhere so it’s a bit of a crapshoot location wise. Army deployments are shorter, but you’re also potentially sleeping in a tent and shitting in a whole, so there are trade offs. I’d say army has some cooler chances for being stationed overseas if that interests him.
Air Force has you home most. Bases tend to be in the middle of nowhere. Deployments less often and more relaxed than navy or army (this is a gross generalization I know but I’m chatting averages across the whole branch)
Ik a lot of Navy and Army folks who say they should have joined the Air Force, so there’s that.
Anything else pops in your head, hit me up anytime
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I’d say @atlas13 closed it down, from my memory (except I do remember at least one 16-month trip in the Army…). Very complete.
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Is the only branch that can be deployed against US citizens and they have the worst deployment rotation. My close friend is Nat Guard and he has been on 8 deployments while I’m currently on my 4th as active duty.
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Their deployments are generally 10-14 months though. I used to eat the Army recruiters alive on this.
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Ya know, just going off what my active duty army wife has said lol.
(She does concede it was longer during GWOT, but I guess they work to not do that now?)
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That wild. I used ot know guys that were gone forever. Glad they are changing that.
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Yeah - I am far removed and really don’t even know a lot of the MOS options even now!
The Corps has… and all that
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Oh this is actually an interesting topic. They made a bunch of new MOS’s, which makes sense. But these new people are… well, new. Butterbars. Because you aren’t gonna make cyber officers a thing and then make the first one a major, ya know?
But for some of the new communities, obviously you need SOMEONE in charge, but you don’t have the age yet to of actually produced anyone of rank simply because they haven’t been in long enough. So the answer has been like half the time to just go through an infantry guy at the problem lol.
My coworkers wife is army cyber, her boss is a O5 infantry dude who is NOT happy to be in charge of a bunch of computer geeks lol
Thank you for the response! Very helpful.
They never tell you stuff like that in the recruiting email. Just “one weekend a month and two weeks a year”.
Many thanks to you all for your responses. Lots to chew on and discuss.