Posted on Apr 6, 2021
Sgt Matt Medhat
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Sgt Field Radio Operator
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Sgt Matt Medhat Joining the military first provides the following potential advantages:
1. A break from school
2. Time to mature and gain needed discipline
3. A better idea on what major to choose, along with a tight focus on obtaining that degree
4. The G.I. Bill
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Sgt Matt Medhat
Sgt Matt Medhat
>1 y
Great points. Maturity is underrated. I am not sure college would have worked for me at 19 and 20.
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Sgt Matt Medhat
Sgt Matt Medhat
>1 y
We should do a whole topic on the advantage of perspective!
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SGT James Murphy
SGT James Murphy
>1 y
On the Nosey! Great Responses ALL!
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SFC Barbara Layman
SFC Barbara Layman
>1 y
Military after high school is well advised. Particularly for 'small-town' young folks who have had limited exposure to attitudes and ideals different from those of their 'isolated' community.
Granted, there is 'exposure' via television however watching is one thing, true life experience is another. One's horizons and perspectives change considerably when willing to expose themselves to the greater world.
I can tell you from personal observation there are ARNG states that send 'platoons' of HS graduates to BT & AIT essentially restricting their experience and exposure to what they know and take with them. Upon return, they are the same close-minded, inexperienced individuals they were when they left - the 'isolated' State NG platoons are not particularly advantages for their members or the organization as a whole.
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LTC Kevin B.
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While I fully intended to eventually go to college, I joined right out of high school to:
-Gain a marketable skill
-Mature
-Save money for college
-Travel
-Get a better idea of what I wanted to study in college
-Take a break from school

I have zero regrets for that decision.
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Sgt Matt Medhat
Sgt Matt Medhat
>1 y
Great list!
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SFC Retention Operations Nco
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I think it's better to get a few years of experience in the private sector before entering military service. It gives you a real sense of the value that the military offers. The majority of kids who join the military come straight out of their parents houses, trading one parent for another. They don't realize they are starting a career. In my experience, people with prior service or prior civilian experience treat military service more as a profession with solid benefits and high school kids approach it as an adventure they are quickly disillusioned with.

However joining straight out of high school puts you way above your peers once you are a civilian. I left the Army at 21 and within less than a year I was assistant manager at a restaurant, a year later I was the shift lead at another restaurant. In the four years I spent after the military, I was constantly moved into leadership positions shortly after starting work at a new job because of the habits I picked up in the Army. Be on time. Do the job completely the first time. Fix problems before someone tells you to. Always say yes to a challenge.

Having been the kid that joins at 18 I realize kids really aren't capable of making life decisions at 18. Working with other prior service, I see that they approach the military as a career and a way to feed their families for the long term.
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CPT Staff Officer
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While in TRADOC at age 39 I enjoyed just coasting along being fed, being clothed, being housed AND BEING PAID!!!!! surrounded by whiny brats crying over having to get up early, or make their bed again while being paid for it without the expectation of anything other than passing training milestones.

HELL!!!!!! In BOLC we got put in our places as 2LT by having to pick weeds out of the sidewalk. I was collecting top tier 2LT pay (Prior Service), Per Diem, and CALIFORNIA BAH. I was making nearly $9K a month while there. I was toying with the idea of being recycled at $9K a month.
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SFC Retention Operations Nco
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CPT (Join to see) that was exactly how I felt as a prior service reclass going through AIT at 25. WA state BAH rate was covering my mortgage and while I wasn't making as much as a 2LT I was still collecting E4 at 4 years pay for doing nothing more challenging than sitting at a desk for a few hours a day in class. Plus, free gym and free food! It was way easier than any civilian job I held in the previous four years
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CPT Staff Officer
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SFC (Join to see) - The best job I ever had in life was getting 2 years on orders, and then a deployment right after that as an Intel Analyst E4/E5. Nothing compares. I was 40yo with a skill level 1 expectation. 35F work is much like just doing college research papers and present them in a format of the intel community. I could work so fast, I could type so fast, I knew PowerPoint inside and out from Corporate days.

I will never have a better job than that.
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Sgt Matt Medhat
Sgt Matt Medhat
>1 y
This is great, I had not thought of it this way. Just as maturity and experience help when returning to the civilian world, it also helps when joining the military. Some of the better young leaders had at least 1 or 2 years of experience in work/college before joining.
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