For 5 months now I have been debating to join Army or Navy-any advice?

I am 32 with 2 children and a wife. I work tons of hours and I am fed up with my life in dead end Ohio. I love the culinary field and want to pursue becoming a chef. I want to atend a good culinary school down the road. I am somewhat intimidated by the thoughts of VERY long deployments with the wife and kids at home. Please offer some advice IF YOU HAVE experience or knowledge in theis field. I'm frustrated and at my wits end.For 5 months now I have been debating to join Army or Navy-any advice?
Hi! Im kind of dealing with the same thing only deciding between Army and Air Force (water/boats is not my thing!!) My father and both grandfathers, all my uncles and a lot of cousins have done either Army or Air Force (sorry, no Navy) and here is what I do know... Active duty, your family will be stationed with you unless you do an Iraq tour (Army tours are 1 year, Air Force are usually about 3-5 months, dont know about Navy) there are SO many military benefits, in my opinion it is worth it. They will definitely pay for your culinary school (yes you can do culinary in the Army, you would be under the Quartermaster branch) and people in the civilian world generally really like military stuff on resume's. you may decide that you like the military so much that you would like to make a career out of it and not return to the civilian world... :) The main thing is the military WILL take care of you and your family... it WILL provide a solid future with PURPOSE... you should never feel ';stuck'; in a dead end job that you hate! It will provide for you experiences that you cant even begin to imagine. I can tell you growing up as a ';military brat'; is something I wouldnt exchange for anything!! I learned so much from travel and different cultures, I have an immense RESPECT for the men in my family, pride for them and my country... so dont worry, your kids will be just fine!!!! Better than average I would say... there is no obligation to speaking with a recruiter and taking your ASVAB test... go do those two things and see what you even qualify for, you arent commited to any branch until you sign on the dotted line. I would say research as much as possible, be very clear with the recruiter about exactly what it is you are wanting, and go for it!!!For 5 months now I have been debating to join Army or Navy-any advice?
Although I'm 110% pro-service, think you should really


think out the options before going in that direction. Unless


things have changed considerably or there's programs


that I'm not aware of, your early years are gonna be pretty


finacially tight. The effects on family life could be financially,


and will as time together detrimental. The service was


great for me, but I enlisted when I was 20 and single. I


again, advise you to proceed with caution.
You want to become a chef so you are thinking of joining the armed forces?





I think you are very confused.
Well first off the word ';culinary'; and ';Army'; are not allowed on the same page unless it is a joke!!


The Navy is (I believe) a four year enlistment. There are some very good two year courses around the country. Le Cordon Blu has a program in Minnesota, and I've heard ';road kill and possum inners'; has a school in Alabama.
Two words: Air Force.





The Air Force is probably the best conditions for anyone in a food oriented job.





In my experience, what you would be doing in the Army would be similar to working at McDonalds. Long, hard hours and less than wonderful conditions. I can only imagine that the Navy is equal or worse with only the conditions of a Marine post being the absolute worst.





The air force has wonderful bases in very unique locations and they nearly always allow one to bring their family with them! The army is probably second, navy third, and marines last for having those kind of options. Of course, army deploys to Iraq more frequently.





I was in the army. I would NOT recommend a job in food preparation as it is one of the most difficult ones out there and it requires the least test scores...this means, you're going to be around some real ';winners'; (add sarcasm for last word).





18 year olds that dropped out of high school and got a GED and scored minimum type scores on the ASFAB get those positions. :( I wish it wasn't like this, but it is. Then you're going to be waking up at 2-3AM going to work for an extra-long day of hard, hard labor, and then going to every field exercise on MKT (mobile kitchen trailers). It is not a good gig.





If you want to join the army, do not sell yourself short. Look up some material at a library or bookstore on taking the ASFAB and get the best score you can. Next, talk to a recruiter and take this test. Make NO decisions about jobs at this point. They will try to rush you through... don't do it. Do not sign anything other than papers to take that test (I am not intoxicated, high, etc. I think they breath-test you still.)





You could investigate your options before or after you take the asfab. Find out what are good positions and where you want to be stationed. If you want to be stationed say, in Fort Leonard Wood Missouri, you'd have to find out that a CH-47 Chinook mechanic could never go there: They don't have helicopters there full-time!





There are all kinds of things you must take into account.





So let me do a checklist:





Decide what service: Air Force, Army, or Navy.





Next, read up on actual jobs. They are called ';MOS'; Military Occupation Specialty in the army and are designated with two numbers and a letter... Like 11B (infantry), 63B (small wheel vehicle mechanic), etc.





Find ones that you like. Note that the more ';intelligent'; the job is, the less likely you'll be shot at and be on the ground busting your *** for the same pay someone gets in an office somewhere. TALK TO PEOPLE IN THE SERVICE. See about joining a military discussion forum on the internet. military.com has one I think...and it is big. You'll probably find people willing to tell you what their job is like.





I wish I could go back in time and be in military intelligence as a linguistics person... they are trained for a year in a school to learn other languages! You're not only guaranteed a good position in the army, you can often get paid well on the outside for having that experience.





So decide what job you want for each particular service. AIR FORCE without a doubt is the best for comfort and having a family will be better in this service. Army? You're going to Iraq every other year (every 3rd year if you're lucky) for 12-18 months. You may get stuck in Korea as well...not good for families. Air force does have bases in Korea and I think they are more family-friendly, but still...not the best place.





If you are dead set on the culinary craft, I say choose the air force first and navy second.... But talk to a navy guy. The job is one of the worst in the army and you will regret it. Not only do you bust your ***, but you'll be treated like dirt by those you serve as well! Everybody seems to hate the DFAC (dining facility! Used to be mess. Oh, how things have changed!)





Then take your ASFAB. This will let you know what jobs you qualify for. You can sign up quickly after the results get back, depending on your scores. They need 11B's badly, so they will always hint ';be an 11B!'; first...and they have big bonuses to lure people to this. These are the guys wandering the streets of baghdad getting shot at. Infantry, Military police, truck drivers %26amp; fuel handlers, engineers, and supply clerks are jobs that will find you driving the streets and subject to potential IEDs the most.





After selecting a job, you may be offered a bonus, station of choice, etc. If you are from NY and want to be stationed close to home, you may want to go to fort drum. As a cook, you can go ANYWHERE. That's one of the perks to the jobs that every base has. Supply, cooks, truck drivers, fuel handlers, small wheel mechanics, etc. can often go everywhere. Do not hesitate to get up and leave if you don't like what you see. They will ';see what they can do'; always.





I was told ';You can only go back to your old MOS'; and I said ';No way.'; and started heading for the door. Amazingly enough, a ';new list'; of options 20 jobs long printed out after they ';checked'; to see what they can do.





So you can demand ';I want a station of choice in Fort Drum/Fort Bliss/Fort Hood/Fort Campbell (WHY CAMBELL?!?!)/Bragg and they can often give you the option. They can also give you options for airborne at this time as well, and they will send you directly to airborne school after basic training is completed! These are all incentives for folks to join and they have flexibility on what they offer and when they do it.





If you walked into the recruiter tomorrow and said ';I want to be a cook, station of choice Fort Bragg, and have airborne training after basic'; you will probably be a friend. They need cooks, and to offer you a large base assignment (lots of slots to fill) and airborne training...that's easy. If they say ';We can only give you X instead of X and Y.'; Tell them ';No thanks. I think I'll go with the navy as they seem better unless I can get those.'; and they will bend over backwards to see what they can do. Maybe they can't offer airborne training, but they'll come back with a ';bonus'; of some sort. They are tricky bastards those recruiters.





If you are on guard and realize that their goal is to get you in the military with the least possible offerings, you'll approach them better. They are not on your side...they are your enemy but as soon as you both have something to offer each other and are fine with that, make sure it is on a contract and you're golden.





Good luck. After you join and finish basic training, you'll be sent to a post where you can be assigned base housing, if available, and you will have your housing and electricty paid for (unless things have changed in the last 3 years) by the military. If housing isn't available, you can rent or buy off-post and they'll give you an allowance for housing and you'll get your food allowance as well. It isn't too bad of a gig, and the job security is great.





I can only speak really from the army side of things. I do know the air force is a bit harder to get into and I know cooks in the air force and they have it WAY better than our cooks had it. Navy? I can't say. But certainly being on a ship for months in the persian gulf would suck worse than a base in Korea.





GOOD LUCK.
go army. who wants to be stuck on a damn ship for 8 months at a time!? what i hear from my friend in the navy is its a lot more time away from your family. so go army
As far as being away from home, in the Navy you could be on a ship for 6 months or longer. In the Army, you could be gone for a year. Depending on where you go, will depend on how long you could be gone. Another option is the Air Force, again, there is a possibility of being gone for a year, but you have less of a chance than if you were in the other two services. Unfortunatly, I think 32 is pushing the age limit of the Air Force and maybe the Navy.


From experience, I went to school with a guy who was the personal chef for a general. He is in the Air Force, and he told me that he was sent to all the best culinary schools out there. I am sure it would be like that in the other services, but you would have to be selected for that job, plus, it wouldn't be for your entire career, but you would get to learn a lot about the culinary field.
Since no one else has mentioned it yet, I'm sticking my 2 cents in for the MARINES! Yes they give you money for school, most moves are accompanied if your orders are for over 1 year, I loved every base we've been at and you can't get better support for your families. They give out wonderful welcome aboard and resource packages. Even on deployments they have a key wives group that get together with the children to make the deployments go by quicker. They support the families tremendously and watch each others back so if you're concern is for your families welfare then I can assure you the Marine family will be there.





I love all the branches but just partial (and more familiar) with the Marine Corps!!





Good Luck with your decision and P.S. make sure your wife is in on all the details it will make her transition much easier too!!!