2 answers
LaRissa
Student
Hopewell, Virginia
13
Questions
Asked
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What made you commit to the military (Air force in specific) ?
Im a junior in high school interested in the nursing field but I also want to go into the air Force. I'm just not all the way sure if its the right field for me.
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2 answers
Jesse Beltran
Special Operations Medic
11
Answers
Las Vegas, Nevada
Updated
Jesse’s Answer
Air Force vet here.
Father and uncle both were in 20+ years. I followed suit as well due to the following pros:
A. Better quality of life.
B. Treatment and respect vs how the Navy, Army, and Marines treat you.
C. Better dining and food
D. Values intellect, ingenuity, change, common sense (I.e. allow females to do braids or other hair styles instead of tight bun that cause headaches, hair loss etc.) There are many career fields (AFSCs) that focus on expanding on intelligence and problem solving.
E. Flying opportunities (obviously) more than other branches.
F. Business trips usually include a hotel and hot meal instead of the field in tents in the rain.
G. Many jobs translate to outside i.e cyber/IT, medical EMT/radiology, aircraft maintenance, air field management/air traffic control, logistics, security forces/police etc.
H. Army and marines have formation every morning. Air Force you just show up to work and work. There’s no unnecessary hand holding and you have individual freedoms that the Army, Navy and Marines make fun of but we know are secretly jealous.
Cons:
A. Made fun of by other branches how much “easier” life is.
B. Less opportunities for combat jobs unless assigned to Air Force special operations assignments (Ariel Gunner, load master). Whole purpose is to support ground combat units (Army, Marines) by cyber space, space or air space by readying aircraft and keeping the flyers and planes able to fly. Some members feel a sense of regret joining when they “should of” joined the Army to feel more like a “soldier” and combat vet.
C. Don’t really feel like you’re in the military sometimes. A lot of leaders try and mimic a culture of l a corporate environment that’s wears camouflage and forget we are the ARMED forces in the Air Force at times.
D. No warrant officers. A warrant officer is a promoted subject matter expert, treated like an officer but not commissioned. Pay increase, respect and customs and courtesies are increased. Air Force believes the strenuous jobs can be handled by a senior non commissioned officer (higher ranking enlisted) which can put a lot of pressure on the member who gets a lot of resistance from commissioned officers while trying to input their knowledge or promote change.
I was a special operations Independent Duty Medical Tech (4N0X1C), flight paramedic at Hurlburt Field. I was a lot of cool opportunities for training (Survival Evasion Resitance and Escape, underwater egress, long term survival, joint enroute care with the Army MEDEVAC unit, advanced my medical career, and some cool assignments (Nellis AFB Las Vegas/Fort Sam Houston Texas/ Eglin AFB FL/Hurlburt Field FL). Now I’m leveraging that for medical school soon and using my VA benefits to finish school debt free while also used my tuition assistance while active to finish classes here or there.
Hope that helps.
-JB
Father and uncle both were in 20+ years. I followed suit as well due to the following pros:
A. Better quality of life.
B. Treatment and respect vs how the Navy, Army, and Marines treat you.
C. Better dining and food
D. Values intellect, ingenuity, change, common sense (I.e. allow females to do braids or other hair styles instead of tight bun that cause headaches, hair loss etc.) There are many career fields (AFSCs) that focus on expanding on intelligence and problem solving.
E. Flying opportunities (obviously) more than other branches.
F. Business trips usually include a hotel and hot meal instead of the field in tents in the rain.
G. Many jobs translate to outside i.e cyber/IT, medical EMT/radiology, aircraft maintenance, air field management/air traffic control, logistics, security forces/police etc.
H. Army and marines have formation every morning. Air Force you just show up to work and work. There’s no unnecessary hand holding and you have individual freedoms that the Army, Navy and Marines make fun of but we know are secretly jealous.
Cons:
A. Made fun of by other branches how much “easier” life is.
B. Less opportunities for combat jobs unless assigned to Air Force special operations assignments (Ariel Gunner, load master). Whole purpose is to support ground combat units (Army, Marines) by cyber space, space or air space by readying aircraft and keeping the flyers and planes able to fly. Some members feel a sense of regret joining when they “should of” joined the Army to feel more like a “soldier” and combat vet.
C. Don’t really feel like you’re in the military sometimes. A lot of leaders try and mimic a culture of l a corporate environment that’s wears camouflage and forget we are the ARMED forces in the Air Force at times.
D. No warrant officers. A warrant officer is a promoted subject matter expert, treated like an officer but not commissioned. Pay increase, respect and customs and courtesies are increased. Air Force believes the strenuous jobs can be handled by a senior non commissioned officer (higher ranking enlisted) which can put a lot of pressure on the member who gets a lot of resistance from commissioned officers while trying to input their knowledge or promote change.
I was a special operations Independent Duty Medical Tech (4N0X1C), flight paramedic at Hurlburt Field. I was a lot of cool opportunities for training (Survival Evasion Resitance and Escape, underwater egress, long term survival, joint enroute care with the Army MEDEVAC unit, advanced my medical career, and some cool assignments (Nellis AFB Las Vegas/Fort Sam Houston Texas/ Eglin AFB FL/Hurlburt Field FL). Now I’m leveraging that for medical school soon and using my VA benefits to finish school debt free while also used my tuition assistance while active to finish classes here or there.
Hope that helps.
-JB
Ryan Pfeiffer, MA
Firefighter Lieutenant / EMT
104
Answers
Fort Collins, Colorado
Updated
Ryan’s Answer
Hello LaRissa. I'm not sure if you're saying that you're not sure if nursing is the right field for you, or the Air Force, or both.
The good news is that you're young, and while I'm sure you feel a lot of pressure to choose the "right" path after graduating (I remember feeling that way too), you do not need to have everything nailed down. Lots of people, including myself, make career changes after a few years. That's totally normal and okay!
That said, as an Air Force veteran myself, I'd encourage you to give the Air Force a shot. If you love it, you're all set! If not, you can get out after a few years. While you may be a few years "behind" where you could be in your nursing or other career, you will almost certainly be more mature, more experienced, and more disciplined by serving first. Many employers know this, and prefer to hire veterans because of your proven ability to work under stress, serve a cause bigger than yourself, follow instructions, have attention to detail, etc. Plus, even if you get out of the Air Force after one contract, you will be a member of the small, proud, tight knit, veteran community for the rest of your life. That comes with some tangible benefits too, like the GI Bill for funding your education, VA for healthcare needs, etc.
If you choose nursing first, you can always change your mind and go Air Force a few years later, but there are a few challenges here. 1) You won't get money towards your nursing degrees like you would with military tuition assistance and GI Bill benefits, 2) You might lose your nursing certifications if you go into the Air Force in a non-nursing field and cannot maintain them, 3). You might find military service to be more physically demanding when you're older - it's easiest to do your running and jumping while you're young and have fresh knees / back!
As I'm sure you're aware, the Air Force has nurses. That could be the best of both worlds for you! The downsides are that, to my knowledge, Air Force nurses are all officers, which means extra schooling is required and your service commitment may be longer (when I was in I think nurses had to do 6 or 8-years instead of 4 because their education and training costs the Air Force so much more.). An Air Force recruiter may be able to give you more information. If they don't have answers to your questions about nursing because its an officer career path, you might try reaching out to an ROTC recruiter at a university that interests you.
I hope that helps. Let me know if I can answer any more questions for you.
~Ryan (USAF Captain, 2014-2018)
The good news is that you're young, and while I'm sure you feel a lot of pressure to choose the "right" path after graduating (I remember feeling that way too), you do not need to have everything nailed down. Lots of people, including myself, make career changes after a few years. That's totally normal and okay!
That said, as an Air Force veteran myself, I'd encourage you to give the Air Force a shot. If you love it, you're all set! If not, you can get out after a few years. While you may be a few years "behind" where you could be in your nursing or other career, you will almost certainly be more mature, more experienced, and more disciplined by serving first. Many employers know this, and prefer to hire veterans because of your proven ability to work under stress, serve a cause bigger than yourself, follow instructions, have attention to detail, etc. Plus, even if you get out of the Air Force after one contract, you will be a member of the small, proud, tight knit, veteran community for the rest of your life. That comes with some tangible benefits too, like the GI Bill for funding your education, VA for healthcare needs, etc.
If you choose nursing first, you can always change your mind and go Air Force a few years later, but there are a few challenges here. 1) You won't get money towards your nursing degrees like you would with military tuition assistance and GI Bill benefits, 2) You might lose your nursing certifications if you go into the Air Force in a non-nursing field and cannot maintain them, 3). You might find military service to be more physically demanding when you're older - it's easiest to do your running and jumping while you're young and have fresh knees / back!
As I'm sure you're aware, the Air Force has nurses. That could be the best of both worlds for you! The downsides are that, to my knowledge, Air Force nurses are all officers, which means extra schooling is required and your service commitment may be longer (when I was in I think nurses had to do 6 or 8-years instead of 4 because their education and training costs the Air Force so much more.). An Air Force recruiter may be able to give you more information. If they don't have answers to your questions about nursing because its an officer career path, you might try reaching out to an ROTC recruiter at a university that interests you.
I hope that helps. Let me know if I can answer any more questions for you.
~Ryan (USAF Captain, 2014-2018)
https://www.airforce.com/careers/healthcare
Ryan Pfeiffer, MA