Wanted to ask some veterans here. I am considering joining the Army as an officer, what are some potential important reasons I SHOULDN'T join.

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Because your job will always have to come before your life, your boss will have legal authority over you, and there is an immense amount of silliness and wasted time (less as an officer than enlisted, but still a lot) that words can’t do justice.

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Yeah you can’t quit a shitty boss or refuse an assignment (as long as it’s legal). You are giving control of your life away to an entity and people who don’t care what you have going on personally.

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Join the Air Force. You’ll thank yourself later.

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I’m a former Army officer. The great news, if you score high enough on your ASVAB, your GPA shouldn’t matter. But, here’s some reasons you shouldn’t join.

1. The Army is centered on combat arms. So, if you’re looking to advance quickly, by collecting above average OERs you’ll most likely struggle unless your willing to do hard stuff, I.E. Ranger school.
2. Combat arms. If you’re adverse to hard things. Don’t join the Army or Marine corp. There’s a reason it’s more competitive in the Air Force. Less hard things.

You enjoy your life

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Less suck than enlisted.

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You like autonomy and hate paternalism. You want to settle down in one location. You don’t want to live in the middle of nowhere. You don’t want to deal with periodically having horrible bosses (and not being able to quit, so you just have to embrace the suck for 2-3 years). Just a few reasons.

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Because you value your friendships and don’t want to spend time thinking about your dead friends.
I have a ritual on Memorial Day where I sit in the backyard, have a glass of bourbon, and sob. I started forgetting details of my friends, and can’t hear many of their voices in my head anymore. To combat that I started a file where I’d write down what I remembered and read it every year.
I cry for their lives being cut short, I cry because I miss them, and lately I cry because I’ve come to the conclusion (felt it then too) that it was all a fucking pointless waste of time, lives, and money.

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Cheers to your friends. Too many, too soon.

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1. Peace time military means babysitting 18 year olds who are constantly doing dumb shit that can land them on Jerry Springer. Lots of people join Special Forces because of the age cutoff is higher and peer quality is better.
2. Uncle Sam can send you to shitty duty stations for 3 years - ending up at Ft. Irwin by Death Valley is not off the table and a lot of bases are in the deep South
3. If you have a family, you’ll need to be away from them from time to time. It’s hard. The military is a lifestyle, not just a job.
4. There’s a lot of “rank makes right” and institutionalized stupidity. Keeping your wallet in your sock so it doesn’t mess up your trousers. Not walking on Sgt Major’s grass. People yelling at others for saying good afternoon instead of good morning. This gets old fast.

This being said, the unstated financial benefits are huge:
- I got my $200k M7 MBA 100% paid by the post 9/11 GI Bill. You’re 100% eligible for this after 36 months in service
- I own a $600k condo in San Diego that I bought in 2015 for 0% down with no PMI with my VA loan benefit - refinanced to conventional and then bought a $1m house that I put 0% down again. You’re eligible for this within 90 continuous days of service.

If you’re joining as an officer who already has a degree, you’ll leave with 100% eligibility for all that stuff by Year 3 and you can dip out with no regrets.

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If you want to live your life to its full potential. Like having a family and raising kids. Joining the military will make you miss moments like your wife's pregnancy to delivery, your child's birth, their first step, first word and all other firsts.

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My back is forever messed up. 3 herniated discs and degenerative discs on my lumbar

That’s what happens when you carry 100+ pounds of gear on your back

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Generally in the ground services, and especially in the combat arms, juniors officers are expected to lead from the front.

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I can't speak for you, but I can pretend I'm advising my kids. For context, I was a mediocre to decent infantry officer in the Army during OIF.

(1) what does the military stand for? Frankly, I'm not sure I can answer that question now.

(Notice, this is NOT the same question as what do our service members stand for. Though, I think you'd be surprised with the amount of folks who join or stay in for pretty banal reasons)

(2) how important is / will be my family obligations? The military ain't it if you want meaningful family time.

(3) do you like meaningless structure and bureaucracy? Because as an 'O', even at the lowest levels you get alot of that. Soldier gets a DUI on Friday night? You get to (1) go find his ass in jail and (2) explain why you didn't prevent it to the Battalion CSM in your dress uniform on Saturday at 0900. Shit like that. The amount of Army leaders who never have an intelligent / original thought is truly astounding.

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u gon die

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👀

The military is a young person’s game. If you’re joining late have a specific purpose and exit plan or you’re going to regret it.

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If you want to be a protector of everything but the constitution then join. If you don't have the constitution in your heart and mind then get it. This military has to pay for sex changes now. Let that sink in. Why do you think that is. It isn't for the constitution or national security. If your woke. Then don't join. So, no Until the military gets out its state of dementia I wouldn't go near it.

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Bro what even are these sentences? Lol how much booze have you had?

Are you thinking Reserve or Active ??

Why not Air force Reserve?

What do you do for work?

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To make sure you are making the right move i would go reserve first and if you like it then transition to active but if you hate it itll be hard to reverse the move. I am 8 years army myself but considering going airforce reserve because my civilian job pays well active wont be an option

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If you’re asking these questions, I’d advise reserve or national guard.

I appreciate the experiences I gained and my benefits, but the military is *generally* not a place where critical thinkers have a good time.

I was only in for six years but my body is pretty spent as a direct result of medical personnel giving zero f**ks. I had a close friend who was raped, they just told her congrats when she found out she was pregnant and honorably discharged her. There is a dark side to it.

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There are for sure similarities, but in that comparison, Walmart doesn’t ‘own’ you. You have federal legal and safety protections, you can’t be arrested for quitting. Walmart won’t make you stand in formation for hours (unpaid) on your days off because a coworker drove under the influence.

That said, for me the benefits have been worth it. But my family was broke, I had a high asvab, went Air National Guard, chose my job, and got a big cash bonus. YMMV

I would recommend in this order. Air Force, Navy, Army, Marines. If you are really gung-ho, then marines.

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This is right. I was happy to reach my EAS date in the Marines, but one of the things I always liked was the absolute insanity of the organization. Was it sometimes frustrating? Totally. Was it also always good laugh? Also yes.

The above reasons others have posted are why there are so many officers leaving (REFRAD/UQR) active duty around the time they make Captain/O-3 or finish command. Most of your high performers are in this pool and what’s left over is what is getting promoted to MAJ and beyond.

Even if you join now and just do 3 and leave, you’re easily going to invest 4 or more years of your life unless you get a medical separation.

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I second this coming out of the Marines. Most of my buddies left after their B—billet (supporting establishment - most careers flip you between operating forces AKA the Fleet and supporting via recruiting, training in 3 year increments. It’s rare to see folks to back-to-back Fleet tours)
You can make ~$130k as a O-3 with BAH but you become a staff officer at O-4 and that’s when you have long hours, lots of responsibilities, and crappy assignments with few command opportunities.
Generally, the coolest jobs are done by O-1 through O-3’s. The rest are subject to the DoD’s endless culture of meetings. I’d agree that maybe 1/3 staying were worth their salt - the rest were too scared or too institutionalized to function outside of the military. They’ll end their careers as terminal O-4 or O-5. Very rarely do you meet a bad O-6 or higher.

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Most people in the military, including officers are trying to get to where you are now. You giving that up to go the military is just backwards.

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I don't know what you mean. "Most people in the military" are enlisted. I say: you wanna join the Army as an officer? DO IT. If you aren't in the fatboy club and you can hit a ~60 on the ASVAB then you are precisely who they are looking for.

The mountain of benefits the modern officer (post-September 11th) is mind numbing compared to what Vietnam and Cold War era soldiers, sailors & airmen got.

And, nowadays your commanding officer (chief/gunny etc) aren't even allowed to raise their voices when you do something stupid.

Keys to success in the military:
1/ Place yourself into a "sovereign individual" or 'sovereign self" perspective as it relates to your own personal career.

/2 Recognize every NO you get (and the more you push, the more No's you'll get) is nothing more than a wall erected for you to personally learn how to CLIMB over it. Seriously. Burn. That. Into. Your. Brian. If you are the kind of person who stops the moment you're told NO... then you won't go far in the military.

* And that means EVERY *No* that hits you in the face you get when you ask for something or try to get into this school or that program.. j

* Get really good at doing shit you don't like.. or that you find ungodly boring or meaningless.. This truth is the historical glue that bonds you to every soldier or sailor in every army or navy going back five thousand years. Welcome to this exclusive club (with all the Hurry Up & Wait you can get your hands on!).

3/ Be authentic in your connection and camaraderie toward your crew/team with your local organization. Help your crew because they're YOUR crew.. not because you think it will get you higher up the totem-pole. People see right through that self-serving bullshit, so.. don't act like a Point (ref: galaxy's edge, re: galaxysedge.us) :-D

/4 Recognize that when you sign on, you just volunteered to sell your Freedom to Uncle Sam. Enjoy it; you may find, like many of us, that joining up was the single BEST thing you ever did...and when the time comes, getting out will be the SECOND best.

I see you majored in cybersecurity; a lot of the responses here are good perspectives on the army in general but not as much on army cyber specifically. There are considerations specific to cyber that don’t apply as much as the other basic branches within the army (eg career paths / opportunities, training pipelines, common exits, culture). Depending on your personal and career goals, as well as where you’re at right now, joining army active duty has the potential to be a great move, but it also has the potential to be a horrible move, or something in between.

I’m a cyber officer in the army with experience in active and reserve so feel free to DM

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The military isn't the way it used to be. You can transition now and my tax dollars will pay for it.

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Why do you want to join? What are the benefits you think you’ll receive from the service? That might help for context with potential down sides of the job

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