My brother signed Active Army for 3 years, but its an 8 year contract with 5 years inactive duty.

If you're not sure what you're signing...stop looking at the bonus check(which you won't get in 1 lump sum) and read your contract. Be sure on the MOS you sign up for, because if its "X" you'll be doing whatever they want you to do.

You get some money after basic training.

IIRC it is

20% after basic 20% at end of contract, the other 60 is spread out over the term of your contract.

I don't think you are quite thinking this through.

on the other hand, that place might not suck. in my 15 years in the af, i was stationed at albuquerque, madrid spain, colorado springs, san diego, and bitburg germany. went tdy to some not really desireable places, saudi arabia nd the lik, but that was temporary.

Nice math skills, Army boy. ROFL

Typo. ROFL ROFL ROFL

Former Air Forcer here. I would agree with everything frazod says except the not getting to move part. In four years, including basic and tech school, I went from Texas to Illinois to Okinawa to Witchita.

I have had close friends serve in all branches of the military, and the Air Force treats their people better by far. I was an E-2 straight out of tech school in Okinawa, and had my own room with my own fridge. There were marine sergeants living four to a room over there.

I guess it comes down to this - what are you willing to want to give your country? Any of the branches you go into will give you lifelong memories and friends. It just all depends on what your definition of serving your country is.

:clap: :clap: :clap:

Good point. My best friend ended up stationed in Germany for most of his enlistment and traveled all over Europe. He loved it, and is still in - just made major.

OTOH, my uncle's 4 year hitch was spent in Okinawa and some shithole on the plains of Montana. To this day he can't talk about the service without ranting and raving about how much he hated it, and he got out before I was born.

i know some ranters and ravers myself. i was fortunate.

I was pretty fortunate, too. I was stationed on a supply ship. The good thing about that is when you're deployed, you spend half the deployment in port restocking. The longest I was ever continuously out to sea was two weeks (definitely not the case if you get assigned to a combatant). Most of the places I visited were really cool (Rio de Janeiro, Bahamas, and various places in Spain, France and Italy), and I got to fulfill a childhood dream and see Rome. Later, when I was assigned to Great Lakes, it was little more than an 8 to 5 job, and I went home every night.

And I also got the job training from the Navy that I still utilize to this day.

Of course, the tradeoff was shit pay, brutal hours, asshole officers, oppressive loneliness and a failed marriage. But if I had it to do over again, I would.

I had an uncle who was Air Force for many years, worked on the A-10's. He advised me that if you don't want to be a pilot then don't join the Air Force or "you'll be scraping bird poop off a runway in Guam." That said, their physical requirements and danger to non-pilots are minimal. Add to that the fact that they generally have better barracks and it's a sweet deal.

My father was ~20 during the Vietnam war and got a draft notice from the Army. He immediately went to the nearest Marine recruiter and signed up for 4 years. Basically his theory was that he'd rather be on a base where everyone had qualified with a rifle. The Marines are the only branch were every person in it has qualified with their gun. Go figure. In short, if you want to get shot at and you aren't going to try and go Rangers or some specialized division, go Marines. At least everyone around you will be competent in war.

How many more years of college do you have left? I would suggest you also look at the ROTC programs at your school. I joined the National Guard, then joined Army ROTC and went on active duty when I graduated, and returned to the NG after three years.

A couple things to keep in mind:

1) Unlike any other branch of service, you can be called out for natural disasters in your community. Very gratifying to help and serve.

2) You can also be called to go other places, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, etc. Those places suck.

3) If you are an officer or senior NCO the "one weekend a month" thing is ancient history.

4) You get PX and commissary privledges and you can use the DOD resort system. I stayed at the Military hotel in Hawaii for my honeymoon for 1/3 the normal rate.

5) I had to delay getting married for over a year because I was deployed.

6) Basic and AIT suck. You will be a better person for it.

7) Don't do it for the money. Don't do it for some romantic notion or glory. War isn't glorious and doesn't pay all that well either.

8) Wearing a military uniform is one of the few cases were people are right to respect you for the clothes you wear. Wearing an American flag is cool.

9) Flying in a blacked out helicopter at night, then infiltrating the 'enemy' headquarters and 'killing' their scout platoon during the dead of night in training is a blast.

10) Having your helicopter shot at or having the engine quit while in flight is not fun at all.

11) Firing an M249 is awesome.

12) Carrying an M249 all day through the brush sucks.

Wow...this post is filled with some legitimate and intelligent criticism of our society, alongside some of the dumbest shit I've ever read. It's almost like two sides of your brain are fighting for complete control of your gray matter...that or you have MPD.

There's little question the AF treats their enlisted the best . . .

However, of all the services, when I was in (84-99), the AF promoted the slowest of the four services. I made E-7 in the Army at 9 years and was up for E-8 when I got out. I had a friend in the AF with more time in service than me who was still an E-5.

Better lifestyle, worse pay.

I'd take the smaller living quarters for the extra pay at the end of the month, but that's me.