| I just got out of the Navy as an enlisted Deck Seaman and my brother is an officer and my business partner. My younger brother is also enlisted in the Coast Guard right now. Let me say that it's possible to run a small, single person business while in the military, I did consulting/programming jobs while I was in and it was decent work. I would work while I was off duty and when I was out to sea and not on watch or during working hours. This took a lot out of me but I felt it to be worth it. Before I continue I must say that I'm proud of my service and what I did and the military is a good fit for some people. Let me give you my perspective about the Navy/Coast Guard. It's not fun, fun is rare and always involves a port. I like boats/ships/ocean and saw some cool things out there but it wasn't worth it for me. You spend your time split between watch, maintenance and other work. Coast Guard ships are particularly bad because most are so old, my younger brother's had holes in the starboard fuel tank, fires, parts breaking, terrible living space, etc. (One note about the fire on a ship, it will cause enormous damage and possibly kill crew members and is no joke.) I was one of 3 people on my ship with any higher education in a technical field, many officers outside the academies are majors that don't have good hiring prospects. Because of the lack of "engineers" (not meaning in the same way the Navy does), many officers are below par in terms of leadership, planning, logical abilities. That means the people you work with are dumb, unimaginative, and boring and could get you killed. (I came close a few times because of these type of officers) If you go enlisted your life will be run by your Chief which 90% of the time are not good leaders and not fun to work for. You would be under a 1st, 2nd and 3rd class petty officers who range in age of 19-40. These are hit and miss. My LPO/2nd class was great and will work with him any time. My former 1st class was an idiot and got fired from his job because he was so bad. My 3rd classes were 19-21 and acted as 19-21 years do, except they are your boss and you can't tell them to go fuck themselves. As for location, it's possible you stay in the Bay. If you go active then you'll be shipped anywhere including the gulf. (I just got back from there and don't let anyone tell you there are no ships there, there are some and they always get the short end of the stick.) When you join you'll go to boot camp or OCS depending on if you go enlisted or officer. Boot camp sucks, it's not what you think it is. OCS is 3x as hard as Boot Camp. Benefits are overrated, I do get the new GI Bill which is awesome but don't get to use it until Fall '09 when it starts. I'll be done with school by then and so it doesn't help me at all. I'm not sure the benefits you get in the reserve other then I know it's not worth it to join just for them, you need to have a real reason. My email is in my profile if you want to ask any other questions. |