Air Force or Navy?

Question

Hi everyone,
I am currently a high school senior wanting to do something with my life. Last week an Army recruiter called me, and since I like to give any opportunity a chance, I accepted a talk with him. He showed me opportunities and what I can do. So he took me to the recruiting station and gave me a lot of information and I took the pretest scoring a 95, which made him very excited.
I found the Air Force and Navy offices next door and got their information and I like them better than the Army.
So here is the question:
I took the ASVAB (Armed Forces Vocational Aptitude Battery) and got a 97 on it. So I can have any job I want, so if I do choose to enlist I would like to go into intelligence with a specialty in Russian (I already speak the equivalent of Russian III if I took it as a class) and another language.
So would the Navy or Air Force be better for me and the field I would like to work in? And also, what is the best way for me to tell the Army guy no?

Answer 1

US Military Schools and training are among the best in the World.

The choice to join a Military Branch is a great idea.

However, be certain that you get assurances from either the Navy or the Air force, prior to enlistment as to what school you will be going to and what your complete Job description is.

Also, be careful when deciding on an enlistment duration. The Air force or Navy may want your enlistment for 6 years. The Normal enlistment is 4 years. Many of the training schools can be 52 weeks or longer in duration, depending on the specialty and the Branch.

While in the service you are preparing for combat and a possible war. Hence, the requirement to do a *Hard ship Tour*...Iraq, Korea...Greenland to name three.

My Nephew went into the Air force and retired after 21 years. During the twenty one years, he went to class for nearly 7 years and had Combat assignments in the gulf and the Middle east.

Today, my Nephew is the Director of MIS at a company. Most of his experience was transferable to the Private sector.

Talk to the Army recruiter and inform him that you need more time and you are exploring more options. If you definitely do not want to serve in the Army, Tell him that you are looking at other Branches.

I served in an Infantry Division and I was Trained as a Logistics Specialist.

Best of Luck to you.

Answer 2

I went Navy, so I would naturally tell you to go Navy. In reality though you may want to take a look at the types of Jobs you can get as a civilian translator. Everyone goes in thinking this is going to be a career and many of leave four year later. It's hard to put some of that training to use in the civilian world. I scored high on all the test myself and became a corpsman. If I knew then what I know now, I would have gone Nuke tech. There are lots of jobs as a civilian Nuke tech, not much for a medic even with battle experience.
Think about the long term, either service will give you the needed experience.
Today is Veterans day so thanks for carrying the torch of liberty for the rest of us.
Just tell the Army recruiter no. You don't need to be the nice guy. You don't have to tell him anything in reality. He is going to try to keep you. Remember recruiter is military for salesman.
And remember everyone can give you a guranteed job, and the college money is the same. Special E sounds like a recruiter. Make your decision.

Answer 3

Tell the Army guy a plain straight forward NO. You are mature enough to be looking at the military for a job - you should be able to say NO without getting rude or belligerent.

Personally i would say Navy but then I'm a Navy veteran. Due some research on the Internet. No recruiter pressure that way and you will be better prepared, write down the questions you have and " listen carefully " to the answers.If you get anything in writing keep it yourself - the recruiter's job is to get you in not keep the promises he feds you, like you can go to this station and stay there. You are at the government's command and you will go where they need you. You will in all likelihood never see the recruiter again so learn early to cover your own behind and take care of yourself. The military is a growing experience - starting before you sign any paperwork - how you handle that will set the pattern for your career in the service and afterwords.

Good Luck and God bless

Answer 4

I spent my career in the Air Force. Naturally I will tell you to join the Air Force. Stay away from the Army or Marines. Unless you want to be a soldier. It sounds like you want to be a translator, so I would suggest you find a good Air Force recruiter and tell him you want to be a linguist. If you already speak the language, this will be very helpful.

The Air Force focuses on Quality of Life for their troops more so than other services. Don't get me wrong, I love my sister Services and have the utmost respect for them and support their missions. I just think the Air Force does the best job at taking care of people.

I wish you the best of luck, but I do caution you to be very selective when speaking to recruiters, even the Air Force recruiters will stretch the truth a bit.

Good Luck to you!!!

Answer 5

Right now, the Air Force is downsizing. However, while they have too many ground-based linguists, they are usually in need of air-based linguists in certain difficult languages (that is, linguists who fly around in "spy" planes and listed to people speaking in other languages). However, these jobs consist of basically sitting at a terminal with headphones on and transcribing a foreign language all day...for years. I know a few Air Force linguists, and most of them can't speak or write the language because 100% of their time they listen to it and write it in English. It can be a very tedious occupation with limited assignment availability (maybe 3 or 4 places in the world to get stationed). It may not be what you expect. I can't vouch for the Navy. Also, if you REALLY want to do something interesting, check out the U.S. Coast Guard (www.gocoastguard.com). If you are dead-set on a linguist job, the Coast Guard probably won't do much for you--although your language capabilities will definitely give you an advantage! If you want to always have something interesting and challenging to do every day of your enlistment, check out the USCG. I am Air Force intelligence now, but served 4 years in the Coast Guard, so I have a bit of insight to both. As far as telling the Army recruiter "no", just be honest with him. Thank him for his time, tell him you are really not interested in the Army right now, and ask him for a couple of his card so you could give them out to other students who may be interested in enlisting--it's more about networking than you think! Good luck.

Answer 6

seems like u interest in translation field, navy and army are u best bet, both offer a job specialist in trasnalton which requre a year or 2 of school, wont send u anywhere till school is over, navy whise is much better in term of stay away from ship and combat in long term compare to army, army offer better range of translatoin but require alot of tour in iraq... last month one of army trasnlator got kidnap in iraq, however bad thing is now both navy and army is puttin focus to learn chinese and arabic 2 very tought language, well since russian is still critical probably number 3 most important use. if u afraid the army recrutier might get mad if u tell him streight face then u can do coward by ask navy or aifroce recruiter. as long u didn't sign the paper in meps shall be fine.

Answer 7

Either branch is good, personally I would select the Navy. Your expert skills may be more useful in the Navy. With your apparent IQ level and language skills, you stand a good chance of going into intelligence. It is my guess, the navy would make better use of your time than the air force.

Once you decide on a branch of service and have signed the papers to join, call the army recruiter and tell him that. You will take the wind out of his sails if he knows you already signed on the dotted line. Therefore, he will resign himself to the fact that he lost you to another branch.

Answer 8

I spent 22 years in the navy. I had a good friend who was a Russian linguist. He had to cross train into another language as they had too many of them.

Right now the navy is stressing languages like Arabic and Farsi. The school is over a year at the Defense Language Institute in Monterey, CA. You might even be able to get an assignment as a member of a flight crew. They navy gives huge reenlistment bonuses for these languages.

You must be eligible for a Top Secret SCI Security Clearance. They'll check EVERYTHING in your background and interview friends, neighbors, teachers and employers.

*****The navy will guarantee everything in writing.

Answer 9

In ADF generally it's possible after you finished your initial assignment with whatever branch you can then transfer. However, under special circumstances say special interest, experience or lack of existing quality or as above said can afford to release from current assignment without any major issues you can then apply for a transfer to another branch which will generally allow the retaining of any rank if any if you're enlisted it maybe different for commissioned officers, I'm not 100% sure on that.

Answer 10

special e is wrong, the army is NOT the only branch that can give you a guaranteed job, my husband got a high score like you did so he got to PICK his job, he absolutely loves it and is staying in! (he's in the Air Force)