I'd like to ask you what you think of the different US military branches, and what your experinces were with them. I'm leaning more tword the Marines right now, and I was wondering what information you guys could give based on your own experiences.

 

Most of the Military based guys seem to be on zeroyon.com. I am not here with the services so I can't help much other than directing you to the zeroyon site!

 

i don't know about us military but generally the air force is the most laid back

but if you are leaning tword the marines that maybe isn't what you are wanting

eric e former avionics technician

 

Hey,

Im in the Marine Corps for now, stationed in Okinawa, Japan. If your thinking Marines it really depends on who you are, the Marines arent for everyone. But if you think you got what it takes then go for it man! Aint many things that make ya more proud than to say im a US Marine. What makes you want to join the Marines to start?

And for my opinion of the other branches I havent interacted with the other branches much, but from what i have seen the Army is not as squared away as us, or trained anywhere nearly as good as we are. The only sailors I know are corpsmen(medics) and they are good to go, just more laid back and not big on PT.

 

I'm Air Force doing my second tour in Japan. I don't really know what your intentions for joining the military are so i don't know which to recommend to you.

The Air Force has a high quality of life, but I think it is way over thought. Too many books and regulations. However, if you are looking to travel, aircrew or aircraft maintenance is a way to see the world.

PT used to be not important in the Air Force. Now we are still; pretty laid back but we still pt 3 times a week.

There are good things and bad things about every branch, but everyone of them will take you as far as you are willing to push yourself. You will get out of the military what you put into it.

What are your intentions? Learn a trade? See the world? Get in shape? Shoot people? Got to school?

 

Sorry I took so long to return post. I have a few intentions. The main reason I was looking into the Marines first was because I've never come accros a Marine that hated the Marine corps. They all seem to be proud of being Marines, and a feeling of family is always attractive. I don't mind doing PT every day, that's no problem for me, what I would worry about though is how hard I would or would not be watched in my off time. Would I be allowed off base in my off time? Things of that nature. I would love to be able to live in Japan, I would also like to go back to college (I would prefure to go to Japanese University like Kansai University or University of Kobe, but this is probobly not possible; most of the reason for this would be to live in the Kansai regeon, but I doubt that'd be possible). What branches of service would allow me to live off base?

I would also like to go see other parts of the world. If possible, I'd like to be stationed in Iraq for a time. The main reason I'm looking at the military now, is due to the fact that the career I trained for (which I didn't neccesarily want in the first place, I tried to use it as a means to an end for a different career that's very hard to get into without being born into wealth) has fallen through....miserably. I just got fired from my last job which I didn't make a dime at given the cost of just going to work. (and I was working on average about 10 hours a day 7 days a week...only to occationally get paid when I became broke and couldn't afford gasoline) I wasn't getting any better at my job either (last job was an apprenticeship, hence my not being paid), so now my life is in the ******* and I don't have much other choice of what to do with my life; I'm living in poverty.

 

WOW!!! OK scratch college off your list, unless you are ready to study super hard.
some examples why are
Thread title: "Most of your guys in Japan were statioed there in the service, right?"
title should read as: Most of YOU guys in Japan ARE STATIONED there BY the service, right?

"accros" = across
"prefure" = prefer
"probobly" = probably
"regeon" = region

I could read your second paragraph and find more examples. However the first paragraph seems to prove the point quite well.

Dont get upset at this because I just saved you a crap load of time and money. Joining the service is not a bad deal from what I hear but it is not something you do just because you dont have any money in your pocket. America is filled with jobs and opportunities but you have to work hard for them. Yes Yes I know you tried that but you need to choose something suitable for yourself that you will work hard at. You said yourself that you did not improve in your last job and that you got fired as a FREE apprentice!!! Obviously this was not the career path for you. I can tell that you like cars otherwise you would not be posting on this forum, I also see you like guns and a couple other things. You are still young so take some time to think about what you want to do because my guess is that joining the Military is not going to completely satisfy you.

 

OK...where to begin?

I've come across a ton of marines that didn't hate the Marine Corps that got out after their first enlistment. The Air Force has such a high rate of reenlistment that they have to force people out.

Pretty much nobody does pt everyday unless you are in a career field that requires extreme physical fitness. Most go 3 days a week but they do have an on base gym at every duty location.

Leaving base depends on your choice of service, your duty station, and in some cases your time in.

Forget going to a Japanese college. There is no way that even if the circumstances lined up that you would be able to afford it. There are plenty of free(for the Air Force)on base accredited colleges. Do you even speak Japanese?

The Air Force is the quickest to live off base. At most bases you are allowed to move off with around 2 years in or less.

Seeing the world is why I joined, and I've seen quite a bit of it. If you are serious about seeing it, join with an enlisted air crew job or a crew chief.

There are not any permanent stations in Iraq. You don't get stationed there, you deploy there.

If you are doing it for money, keep in mind that you won't be making **** for the first year or two. A lot of people complain that they made more before they joined. After that the pay starts to come around.

If you do join, sign for the least amount of time they will allow. Don't fall for the signing bonus trick. If you decide that you love the lifestyle, then reenlist.

I personally am using it for a life stepping stone. It pays for schooling. It showed me the world. It introduced me to my wife(indirectly). It taught me many trades. It introduced me to the best friends I've ever had. It allowed me to buy my first house when I was single and 20 years old. I am getting out after this enlistment which is my 12 year mark. I intend to finish my schooling and pop out a few kids. The military isn't a bad life; it's just not for me anymore.

 

Sorry about my spelling errors, I'm usually not this bad; most of the errors were typos that I didn't catch. I can study my *** off and succeed. Academics usually don't present a problem for me as long as I can find the right recources to understand what it is I'm studying, not just memorizing facts.

I'm looking at the military mostly because I've failed miserably at everything else I've tried to do in life. I spent seven years of my life working on that career, only to see nothing come of it. In the end I was ashamed to even face my family because of my failures. The apprenticeship was the last straw, and to be honest....I can't think of any decent-paying career that I can take up without schooling. Although, I did go the school route before and ended up with depts on top of my head that I can't pay off.

Only what I've managed to learn on my own, which isn't much, but I can often get the jist of what's being talked about as long as they're going slow enough. What I really need is to be around people who speak it in order to improve at a faster rate. I've taught myself how to read Hiragana, Katakana, and I'm still working on my Kanji (which will take considerably longer given the fact there is 2000 characters to commit to memory). Sore demo, Watashi-no Nihongo wo mada mada yowai da.

What would you say is the likelihood of getting deployed there with the different branches should I request it immediately comming out of basic training? I ask because I have a friend that was in the army who requested to go to Iraq and ended up spending most of his service in Virginia, he never set foot in Iraq.

Seeing as how I've lost money on nearly every job I've ever had, I'll still be making more then I'm used to.

I don't necessarily care as much as other people do about the bonuses, I'm mostly looking for new direction in my life, seeing as how I couldn't do what I've always wanted to; plus I'm tired of not getting paid to work my *** off seven days a week for ten hours a day. I'd much rather have a job putting bullets in other people rather then having one that makes me want to put one in my head every night. I need to find something I can do that won't leave me utterly miserable.

 

I would say, join for a short first enlistment and see how you like it. Try to travel and go to school as much as possible. While your in your first enlistment put your feelers out as much as you can for other job/business opportunities because there are a lot more things that you can do after the military helps get you on your feet. If you turn out to like the military lifestyle then you can always reenlist. I also have found that I feel like I could be out there doing more than what I'm currently doing and a lot of opportunities have come my way. The military could help you get there, you just have to apply yourself. The only way from where your currently at is "UP".
There is one major set back when it comes to serving your country. Now a days the miltary is not very "family friendly". With the trying times you see a lot less of your family than you'd like. But, if you don't ever plan on making a family then you have nothing to worry about. Once I had my daughter and I had to watch her grow from a computer monitor half way across the world, I knew I loved my family more than my career. That's when I myself started looking for other career paths. But I never would have gotten here if it was'nt for the military.

 

Well to start i am station in Iwakuni and love this area, I am a marine and some days i love it and some days I don't. The way to tell what branch you should join is by how smart/lazy/goodie goodie you are.

AF=goodie goodie/smart
Army=lazy
Navy=lazy/stupid/doesn't like PT (have worked with them on deployment and hated it)
Marines=You don't have to be smart, but you can't be lazy/fat because that will ruin you very quick.

If you want to live off base in any branch you have to be married. There isn't any branch that will let you live off base before you are an NCO

If you are in the Kansai area b/c if you do we should try to get a meet together out here, that would be cool

 

I'm an Air Force vet and have been to Japan both through the service and through school. I agree that going to a Japanese university outright is nearly impossible - you'd have to take the same entrance exams the kids there take and kill themselves over. These are kids who've been speaking Japanese since birth, and they don't all get high enough grades. Honto, gomen nasai.

THAT BEING SAID,

I was in a similar situation to you when I enlisted. I was actually living in a tent on the Blue Ridge Parkway when I first talked to the recruiter.

Air Force = not bad, potential for travel, HIGH level of BS rules & regs.
Army (from a close friend) about middling for everyone.
Navy = got to do sea duty if you want to advance in your career, from what I understand.
Marines = I've helped a lot of them jump out of my airplanes... not sure other than read the book "Jarhead" and see what you think. Not the movie. The book. Friends in/from the Corps say it's not far off mark.
Coasties = less travel, other than that they seem to be like the Navy.

Whichever route you like, do your research first. While recruiters aren't supposed to tell outright lies, they can have wrong information. A six-year enlistment is torture if you get in the wrong place. For example, my first job assignment was Space and Missile Systems Avionics. I thought I'd be working on cruise missiles or something; in reality there was only 1 base I could go to (Minot, ND) and no real crossover to civilian life. I switched to general aircraft avionics, and loved it. Do it still as a reservist.

IMHO, Army gives the best college benefits and you won't necessarily just be infantry. Save your money. Do the GI Bill participation (that's how I got my Bachelor's and am getting my MBA). Carefully consider any signing bonuses versus length of enlistment.

In order to go overseas, when you fill out your dreamsheet put worldwide open. You're almost guaranteed to travel.

To get to Japan, when you come back from your enlistment, go to an undergrad school with a foreign exchange program. Then you can try to go to Japan through that program - the contacts you make in that sort of setting, without the military commitment hanging over you, will help you if you decide you'd like to live there on a more permanent basis. Japan isn't for everyone - but if you like it, it's much easier to do with contacts rather than cold.

 

Before you enter university here, you do a 2 year course in Japanese language. I met an Aussie who did it and is now studying and he said he new no Japanese prior to his studies. Depending on the university, the is also many subjects in English

 

But you dont live in Kansai? You live in Chugoku region

 

Japanese Uni's are **** poor excuses for places to get an education. It's well known that you only go them for a degree, and you can get A's just from showing up. People get jobs because of their school's name, and everyone knows the stuff you learned in school almost never has anything you actually do in your job.

It's also not worth the effort to take classes in Japanese unless you're an ethnic speaker with at least some Japanese schooling.

I'm not a member of the military, but I've heard there's no such thing as a service member who has not or will not go to Iraq.

 

Yokota allows NCO's to live off base single. State side in the air force you can move off as an e-3.

 

That really depends on the job. I work with a girl who has never been deployed before at all and has been in 13 years.

 

I knew three people who retired after 20, 24, and 27 years who never deployed. I also knew E-4s who had deployed 5 times in 4 years. I was deployed 3 times in 5.5 years as an E-5.