How to join the military

Hey PW G., thanks for your interest in joining the military and serving your country like your grandpa! My dad served in the Air Force, and I ended up going to the Air Force Academy before serving another 7 years in the Air Force as an Intelligence Officer. I am now working for a Tech Company, and I'll tell you that the military background provided a perfect opportunity to mature, learn, and have experiences that prepared me for ANYTHING that I wanted to do afterward.

I would recommend taking a look at Service Academies, ROTC programs, and Officer Candidate schools to determine if an officer path makes the most sense for you. As mentioned by Matt, you can also walk into any service recruiter's office and discuss the options for enlisting directly in.

I'd start researching some of the basic requirements at military . com. Here is a great resource that is generic to all services: https://www.military.com/join-armed-forces/army-recruiting-faqs.html

Good luck!

Good morning, Milwaukee. If you're over 17, you can walk into any recruiters office and join the military, but you'd be doing it blind. Figure out what it is that appeals to you about the services; it's not for everyone. If you want to receive outstanding training in a field, possess a strong constitution and commitment to serve your country and want a great start in life, then figure out what it is that you want to do. The services are all very different and have different time commitments after enlistment. The Army and Marine Corps (unsure, so check) offer two year enlistments. The min enlistment time for the Air Force is 4 years. Not sure about the Navy. You're going to want to see what you're qualified for by taking the ASVAB (Armed Services Uniform Aptitude Battery). There are study books for this test to help you score better. Higher scores equal more opportunities to choose from the hundreds of job categories available. I'd also suggest asking around or studying what each job does; some job titles are not exactly as they seem. If you're really smart about it, you'll seek out people in those fields to get the real-deal on the job. You may decide to take the test, find out how you did, then ask the services recruiters what you're qualified for. It's free to ask and any recruiter that won't tell you is not worth talking to. There may be no priority to hire the field you want in a particular service. Say you qualified for medical tech and thought you might want to be a dental hygienist in the Navy. Maybe the Navy's full of dental hygienists, so they would want you, but for another field. Maybe the Marines are in real need of dental hygienists and would offer you an enlistment bonus (there are those based on the needs of the service). Once you have settled on which service and what job field, make the mental commitment to do it and go. Be open minded and ready for responsibility - you're going to have to grow up pretty fast.

There is a similar process to enter as an officer, but there are higher requirements (bachelors degree) and different available jobs. Based on training, some come with rigorous selection processes and longer commitments based on the costly training. For example, if you want to be a rated aviator (Pilot, Navigator, Air Battle Manger, Weapons Systems Operator, etc), you're going to need a 4-year degree, score very high on the officers qualifying test, and commit to at least a 6 year term. I will tell you, I was very lucky; I did ROTC during a 4 year degree program and flew Special Operations aircraft for nearly 20 years and would do every bit of it again. Whatever you do, do it smartly and commit to it.