Thinking about joining the military

[Nightspore68]

So you didn't see the word "generally" either? Geez.

[Ghost of Vincent Price]

Originally Posted by Nightspore68

No, I didn't miss it. You misunderstood it.
What I said was the AF is the only service that exclusively sends its officers into combat. Enlisted airmen don't (generally) go to the fight.
Maybe it's time the Marines considered raising their reading standards.
Just kidding,
M

So theres no point to anything you posted there.

Again you can get anything the AF has to offer in the Corps, minus nurses.

[RobertHarriSS]

Join the US Coast Guard! I had a blast!

[Nightspore68]

My points were fairly obvious. I trust Epitaph and most readers will understand them.

You'd think a Marine recruiter would know that the AF has many career fields the Marines don't have, and likely vice-versa. (That's Latin for the other way around, Ghost.) Do the Marines have satellites now? How about F-22s? Do they man the White House Communication Agency? How about Predators? Or Cyber troops?

[Brokinarrow]

Originally Posted by Nightspore68

The Air Force is the only branch that only sends their officers to to do the fighting. Of course their fighting is way cooler than anything the Marines do.

I may be biased. I was an AF officer for a few years.

The Air Force is really emphasizing Space and Cyber positions these days. I do think, especially in CS, the AF is more likely to have positions applicable to private industry. They sure did for me. Once an AF satellite controller, the next day a contractor doing the same thing (for much more pay).

If you do decide to join, consider going through OTS (AF) or OCS (Marines, Army, Navy) since you apparently didn't do ROTC. If you've got a degree you might as well be paid as an officer rather than as enlisted.

One last push for the AF. Marines and soldiers like to mock the AF for being a more casual profession. As if that's a negative. The AF has better quarters and better odds that you won't be shot at, uncomfortable for long periods, or just plain scared. The Marines and soldiers may like playing Modern Warfare 2 for a living, but IMO it's smarter to take a safer, less arduous position. Unless you need the adrenaline of ground combat or a great desire to prove you're macho, I don't see a reason to go Army or Marine Corps. As for the Navy, do you really want to be stuck on a boat for months on end? With very few women around?

Before the Marines on this board frag me, let me say I have great respect for what they do. The Marines I knew were the greatest officers I met in the military in many respects. It even sounds like being a Marine is occasionally fun. But the AF was better for me.

Oh, one last thing: just because you join the Air Force or the Nay doesn't mean you'll wind up flying a fighter jet. Similarly, just because you join the Marines or Army doesn't mean you'll be crawling through trenches with an M-16. See if your recruiter will get your assignment in writing to make sure you get what you want. My brother was promised he would do architectural drawing by the AF and wound up a plumber. (Another reason to go officer corps!)

good luck deciding,
M

Originally Posted by Ghost of Vincent Price

Did you miss the part about Marines having combat aircraft since 1917? Before the Airforce existed. LOL

Oh and Marine ground officers fight too, so you are wrong on two counts.

Originally Posted by Nightspore68

My points were fairly obvious. I trust Epitaph and most readers will understand them.

You'd think a Marine recruiter would know that the AF has many career fields the Marines don't have, and likely vice-versa. (That's Latin for the other way around, Ghost.) Do the Marines have satellites now? How about F-22s? Do they man the White House Communication Agency? How about Predators? Or Cyber troops?

Nightspore, you really should know better than to antagonize a Marine (especially since there a LOT of them on thise site ) Drop it, cuz the Marines def. won't. And as for this whole 'our officers go into combat' business.. yeah, ok... how often do your officers get shot at? I know of several higher ranking Marine Corps officers (even a couple Generals) that have gone on convoy and patrols with their troops. You really want to open that can, we can start comparing the different branches Medal of Honor counts...

One last point on the item I put in bold: If you are going have a problem with getting shot at, don't join the Military PERIOD. I don't care how much of a 'desk job' you get, your job is to fight for and defend your country. Don't wanna fight? Find a nice civilian spot somewhere and let us do our jobs

[Ghost of Vincent Price]

Yes we have satellites, we have the f35 which is pretty much the same thing. I mean a combat jet pilot is a combat jet pilot. Do we man white house comm...no, do we have comm yes. Do we guard HMX yes, do we guard Camp David yes, do we guard all us embassies yes, Do we have predators, yes. WTF is a cyber troop? You mean IT nerds that fight off cyber attacks? Or like Cyrax from Mortal Kombat?

Any other fields you think we dont have yet besides nurses?

[Brokinarrow]

Originally Posted by Ghost of Vincent Price

Yes we have satellites, we have the f35 which is pretty much the same thing. I mean a combat jet pilot is a combat jet pilot. Do we man white house comm...no, do we have comm yes. Do we guard HMX yes, do we guard Camp David yes, do we guard all us embassies yes, Do we have predators, yes. WTF is a cyber troop? You mean IT nerds that fight off cyber attacks? Or like Cyrax from Mortal Kombat?

Any other fields you think we dont have yet besides nurses?

I'll be the first to admit that we need more of those though. China is outpacing us on that front, and who knows who they'll train in cyber warfare. If we can't protect our data networks from hacking, we'll be seriously crippled in our communication and coordination capabilities.

[Nightspore68]

Ghost, how is an F-35 like a satellite?
I'll give you we both have fighter jocks. We have the best jet though in the F-22.
I'm not sure what the cyber troops do, to be honest. Perhaps they do fend off cyber attacks. I doubt the Marines have such posts. As a computer guy, Epitaph might want to check it out.
Do you guys have satellite controllers (I don't know)? Do you have missileers? (You don't.)
There are plenty of jobs the AF has the Marines don't.
Broken, I defended the nation just fine by making sure the satellites were working and the jets were flying and the radars were working. So no one was firing at me personally. They sure as hell were firing at our jets during Desert Storm. Sure, some of the Marines were getting fired at personally. I'm sure some had desk jobs too.
Not everyone can or would want to be on the front lines. Without support troops the people at the front would lose. So I'd be careful deriding them, Broken. They outnumber you.
I do take your point, however, about not antagonizing a Marine...

[Brokinarrow]

Originally Posted by Nightspore68

Ghost, how is an F-35 like a satellite?
I'll give you we both have fighter jocks. We have the best jet though in the F-22.
I'm not sure what the cyber troops do, to be honest. Perhaps they do fend off cyber attacks. I doubt the Marines have such posts. As a computer guy, Epitaph might want to check it out.
Do you guys have satellite controllers (I don't know)? Do you have missileers? (You don't.)
There are plenty of jobs the AF has the Marines don't.
Broken, I defended the nation just fine by making sure the satellites were working and the jets were flying and the radars were working. So no one was firing at me personally. They sure as hell were firing at our jets during Desert Storm. Sure, some of the Marines were getting fired at personally. I'm sure some had desk jobs too.
Not everyone can or would want to be on the front lines. Without support troops the people at the front would lose. So I'd be careful deriding them, Broken. They outnumber you.
I do take your point, however, about not antagonizing a Marine...

I'm one of them However, my point is this: In the current war, even if you have a 'safe' desk job, you have to go on a convoy to get somewhere at some point. And anytime you go out on convoy, you run the risk of being engaged. So with today's war, you NEED to be prepared to fight if you go over, which anyone that joins the military has a chance that this will happen.

Perhaps they do fend off cyber attacks. I doubt the Marines have such posts.

Actually we do have these posts, i forget the exact name of the MOS, but I knew a couple Sergeants that were looking to get into this field.

And to be clear, I fully recognize the need for all the things the air force does, and having you boys available to drop bombs where we need them is always great

[Ghost of Vincent Price]

Originally Posted by Nightspore68

Ghost, how is an F-35 like a satellite?
I'll give you we both have fighter jocks. We have the best jet though in the F-22.
I'm not sure what the cyber troops do, to be honest. Perhaps they do fend off cyber attacks. I doubt the Marines have such posts. As a computer guy, Epitaph might want to check it out.
Do you guys have satellite controllers (I don't know)? Do you have missileers? (You don't.)
There are plenty of jobs the AF has the Marines don't.
Broken, I defended the nation just fine by making sure the satellites were working and the jets were flying and the radars were working. So no one was firing at me personally. They sure as hell were firing at our jets during Desert Storm. Sure, some of the Marines were getting fired at personally. I'm sure some had desk jobs too.
Not everyone can or would want to be on the front lines. Without support troops the people at the front would lose. So I'd be careful deriding them, Broken. They outnumber you.
I do take your point, however, about not antagonizing a Marine...

I edited my 1st sentence so it doesnt make sense. We have satellites, and we have f35s...the Corps version of the f22. Thats how I should of put it.

[cplhester]

As a combat veteran in Iraq I can tell you there is no one better at Close air support than the Marines. I had an airforce F-16 on station and he totally screwd the pooch. Dropped a 2k lb bomb within the kill radius of my recon platoon. Lol luckily there was an apartment building about 400 meters from us that saved our lives. Never had a problem with the Marine CAS. Secondly the Marines send all flight officers (pilots) to be FAC's (Forward Air Controllers) We had one attached to our platoon during the duration of our deployment. He was a Captain and very much liked being behind the .50 Cal. The airforce did manage to deliver our chow and mail though good job guys keep the mail comin lol.

[BEARS-SS]

I did 14 years AD AF. The one thing that kept coming up when I worked joint (8 years total) is..."I wish I would have joined the AF". We get treated better, period.

I was in Naval ROTC for two years and decided to go AF, and I would do it again...and again.

[mlee]

Originally Posted by Ghost of Vincent Price

I edited my 1st sentence so it doesnt make sense. We have satellites, and we have f35s...the Corps version of the f22. Thats how I should of put it.

Actually you have the Corps version of the F35 (STOVAL). The AF is the only one w/ F-22s AND the AF version of the F-35 Lightning II.

I've laughed at all the Chair Force stuff too, but as stated above most that get out of the Army and Marines usually say if they did it again they would go AF.

You do have to score higher on tests to get into the AF... Civiliain jobs tend to line up this way too. I'm sure the # of civilian jobs are the same but I'm betting you'll get a higher paid one with AF training. I never learned the useless things like combat training in the AF.

[BEARS-SS]

If you do joint the Navy, joint the mens department of the Navy (Marines). Whenever I worked with them, they were amazing. I did have a few tell me they would have rather been AF though...one even came over from the Marines. One day he was a SSgt in the Marines, the next a TSgt in the AF.

That should tell you a lot.