joining the army?

Question

i'm thinking about going into the army this monday. i'm 38 with 5 kids. the only reason i'm doing it is because i don't make enough at work to support my family. can anyone let me know how is with the family and money. THANKS

Answer 1

If you are poor now then you are not going to get rich in the Army, however they will pay for your family's housing (typically small houses or apartments). The Army will also pay for most of your family’s medical care until your children turn 21 or leave home for good (not for college).

The big thing is if you have a college degree and how healthy you are. A college degree can give you a leg up for promotion, and it should make you an officer. But, you have to ask your recruiter about it and then you have to go through OCS (Officer Candidate School). If you don’t have that degree then you will be a grunt and have to go through Basic Training. Both are probably just as tough as each other. I know about Basic Training because I was in the Army for 8 years.

Basic Training and OCS are physically demanding tough courses that require you to be fit and not stupid. The hardest part for me was just staying awake in class, because we were always short on sleep, but then I had ROTC in high school so I knew a lot going in. You won’t have that advantage. You can expect half the day in physical exercises and half the day in class learning topics like who to assemble and disassemble the m16, First Aid, and how to be a soldier. There will be a lot of practical teaching like marching, doing exercises in union, and the drill and manual arms of the rifle. Toward the end you will be marching every day and firing your M16 for accuracy. The entire week will be spent doing this. Before that you will have events like a stay in the Gas Chamber with a lot of Tear Gas.

Most of Basic training is the same for every soldier. The Infantry combine theirs with the advanced training you need as an infantry soldier. The biggest thing to have in Basic Training is the will to compete the course. The Drill Instructors won’t hit you or beat you, but they will shout, yell and climb into you face. They will tear you down to the lowest point you have been in your entire life and then try to build you up in the Army’s image. If you can do the physical work, and if you can handle the classes then you have to face the mind games. The DI’s primary goal is to get rid of those who don’t have the commitment and the ability to be in the Army. To them you are all maggots and raw pieces of meat that have to prove you are worth having. The course is designed to break you down and build you up, but it is designed to let you pass if you do all that is asked of you.

You will have to kiss your family goodbye for all of basic and most of your Advanced Individual Training, but you will start getting paid in the first week. In basic you do have the chance for one overnight leave. This is a test to see if you can handle being an adult. The guy, in my unit, who went out got drunk and then threw up on a DI when he reported back did pass Basic Training, but for a few weeks he was the target for a lot of wraith. I did my job and tried to keep my mouth shut most of the time, but I did make a few mistakes and an enemy or two. You don’t want to come to the attention of the DI for they will then focus on you.

In the service itself you can expect long hours of work, and a lot of it will seem like something stupid to do. You can grouch about it, but you must do it, and do it well. You will get tired of being taken as a person who knows nothing, but you will have to prove yourself all over again to your unit until you can be trusted. The best way to do that is to work hard, do the job you have to do, don’t grouch about it and finish what you have to do. The saying is a private has to be told how to mop the floor; a specialist is just given a mop and bucket and told to mop the floor. Not until, and if, you make sergeant will you gain any responsibility. That requires Platoon Leadership Development Course; think of Basic Training all over again.

Army life is hard on the family, you WILL get deployed, you WILL spend at least 3 years overseas and you WILL have a lot of field exercises where you stay away for days, even weeks training in the field and camping out Army style.

The schools aren’t bad so you can expect your children to receive a good education. When you are assigned to a US Base it will be in the middle of nowhere near a small town. Your wife is going to get lonely, very lonely. She will not know anyone, speak the language overseas, and she will miss you a lot. Prepare her for that. The duty changes with the branch of the service you join, but even desk clerks go to the field, and when in the field you will be sleep deprived, it’s the nature of the exercise. The Army is a young man’s game and at 38 you will have to work hard to do it. Until you reach the rank of sergeant you will be needed more for your brawn than for your brain.

You can form some close ties and make friends in the Army, who you will have to see leave, it always happens. Single people get to spend at most 2 years at a post on their first tour of duty and then 3 years after that. All of this duty will be overseas. Your first assignment should be stateside and will last for a year before you are sent overseas, but since we are in a time of war you WILL be deployed to the Middle East. During that time you will not be with your family. They will be in a new and strange place, going to a new school, and living in a dinky house or apartment.

If the physical stress of Basic Training is something that you can barely handle then you won’t make it in the Army as a soldier. Officers do get better treatment, but they eat in a similar mess, they do Physical Training (exercises) with their unit, and they run with them. The big difference is that officers are given responsibility sometimes too much responsibility. They will be in a high pressure environment with few people to share that with and their superiors will hold them responsible for a lot of things, many having to do with their jobs, but most having to do with the unit. Jobs that they are NOT well trained for. Then you have the problem of the NCOs, who are lower rank, but they are smarter, wiser, and more experienced than a new officer, and the new officer has to look to them for advice and has to listen to them. If a sergeant major tells you the sky is green then I would believe him. As a newly minted second lieutenant expect treatment like a private, with little respect, and responsibility for a lot of things like the armory, the motor pool, the soldiers mess, morale officer and so on.

Personally, I don’t recommend the Army for someone your age; it is a young man’s game. If you join then expect to go to war. I would only recommend joining the Army if you are willing to and want to play the game. If you want to work hard for low pay, long hours, and with very few thank-yous then you do it. But, if you go into the Army because you have no other choice then you will be wasting your time.

If you make it through basic and your advanced training then it will be hard to get rid of you, but very easy for your NCOs and officers to make your life miserable.

Answer 2

I was in the military from 1979-1985, yeah looking at my social security statements from the years I was in the Army my income per year has pretty much stayed the same. Meaning with the wages and cost of living I was making more back then.

I didn't live in a palace with my family, but we lived comfortably. At some bases I was able to live on post, but when I couldn't a housing allowance was added to my pay. It never covered near all the rent, but it did make my rent affordable. I shopped at the Post exchange and that saved me money, I no longer had to pay out my nose for health insurance for my family.

Sure being a military spouse isn't the easiest thing in the world to do, because you do have to transfer your family from post to post quite often, but I don't know to many military brats who aren't well adjusted normal adults.

And to the person who said you are to old to join don't listen to him, age limit is 40 at this time it use to be 35 before Iraq and Afghanistan, and if you are a veteran they will subtract the amount of your years in service from your age and if that adjusted age makes you 40 they will accept you I have been researching this information for my self.

Good Luck let your heart make this choice.

Answer 3

What branch of the army? The reserve or what? Remember your making's big decision you might want to consult your family first. You're not going to be able to see them for a while if they send you to camp far away from your house. And speaking money wise you don't make much until you been in the army for until 10 years then the benefits start coming in

Answer 4

This is a REALLY bad idea if you are doing it for money to support a big family. You won't make much in the military and it will be difficult on your family moving from place to place.

Answer 5

gees. this is a huge decision. Think about all the other jobs you could possibly get. Think... you might be sent to Iraq within six months. Imagine what your kids and wife might think. If you truly cannot get another job and thats the last straw. (literaly, if you cannot get another job, something to support your family) idk you have a lot of thinking to do.

Answer 6

I think you may be over the age limit now. Not sure, you should call.

But the military is great and helps out financially a lot. Especially with dr bills and such.

Good luck and God bless!