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If he can buckle down and study I'd recommend looking into the Navy Nuclear Power Program. It's a six year enlistment, but a good part of that is school. I served aboard a fast attack sub and the food was excellent (at least it was back in the late 70's), but he will experience some extended deployments. After the Navy, the job market was/is excellent with a great salary. Good luck to him whichever path he takes.
I know the Army has guaranteed job (MOS) placement as long as you meet the ASVAB score requirement. I can't comment on the other branches. Make sure whatever branch writes it into their contract. Now, if you make it through basic training, but you fail out of AIT (your MOS school), you will be assigned to the needs of the service.
If he can buckle down and study I'd recommend looking into the Navy Nuclear Power Program. It's a six year enlistment, but a good part of that is school. I served aboard a fast attack sub and the food was excellent (at least it was back in the late 70's), but he will experience some extended deployments. After the Navy, the job market was/is excellent with a great salary. Good luck to him whichever path he takes.
All of this is very true, with one gigantic caveat. Should he fail out of nuke school, he still owes the Navy 6 years in a job of their choice. I'm sure sailor_lou could better explain the failure rate.
If he can buckle down and study I'd recommend looking into the Navy Nuclear Power Program. It's a six year enlistment, but a good part of that is school. I served aboard a fast attack sub and the food was excellent (at least it was back in the late 70's), but he will experience some extended deployments. After the Navy, the job market was/is excellent with a great salary. Good luck to him whichever path he takes.
OP, I recommend talking to Submariner about Navy/subs/etc.
My son received a nice scholarship from a college with a ROTC program. When he spoke to the ROTC recruiter, my son asked employment options after the army. The recruiter only responds was become a Walmart manager. It was disheartening. Was the recruiter or this school's ROTC bad or was his reply the truth? Go in with your eyes open and ask questions.
My son is colorblind which stopped his air force career.
My son received a nice scholarship from a college with a ROTC program. When he spoke to the ROTC recruiter, my son asked employment options after the army. The recruiter only responds was become a Walmart manager. It was disheartening. Was the recruiter or this school's ROTC bad or was his reply the truth?
There is SO much wrong with this, I don't even know where to start. OP, please pay no attention that reply.
If he can buckle down and study I'd recommend looking into the Navy Nuclear Power Program. It's a six year enlistment, but a good part of that is school. I served aboard a fast attack sub and the food was excellent (at least it was back in the late 70's), but he will experience some extended deployments. After the Navy, the job market was/is excellent with a great salary. Good luck to him whichever path he takes.
I went through Navy Nuke school as a civilian in Idaho. I got the officer version. I'm guessing this kid is looking at enlistment. You needed a STEM degree, good grades to get into this program.
I would highly recommend this career path, it does lead to good civilian job prospects. Well, if the kid has good academic chops. Dummies need not apply.
Have heard but not confirmed that graduation from Nuke school comes with a $100K bonus. That alone, if intelligently invested, would have the kid in very good shape when he gets out (or not) at the end of 6 years. Of course most will spend this windfall mostly on booze and women, then waste the rest of it. But what he does with the money is to be figured out once he gets it.
Don't forget about the ongoing medical benefits for veterans.
If he shows the aptitude, he might get an upgrade to officer corps, which would come with a bills-paid STEM college degree. Or at least that was how it worked in the past.
Sub vs. surface is a different discussion, but realize on a sub you will be subjected to a day shorter than 24 hours, a low oxygen atmosphere, and constant exposure to oil fumes. FBM subs try very hard to stay submerged constantly for the entire 6 month tour. As in, never seeing the sun, etc. On a carrier, not so much. I would think from a health point of view, the carrier is a better option.
No matter the branch or job, military training is designed to teach each skill in the most efficient manner possible. And there is a high probability of actually getting to do the job you were trained for.
There exists the possibility to change jobs after a while. There are a lot of ifs involved in going that route. I know of 1 soldier whose career went something like this. Truck driver on initial enlistment. Qualified for training as an Arabic interpreter. 2+ years of training. Then another switch later into aviation as a helicopter pilot. Another 1.5+ years of training.
Best part of military training? You get paid to learn. And I think military training at a young age helps sharpen life's focus for a lot of young people. Many people credit their military training with helping them make the transition from teen to young adult.
There is SO much wrong with this, I don't even know where to start. OP, please pay no attention that reply.
Really. I know a young woman who was in ROTC in college, joined the Air Force, and now she’s flying C-130s in the National Guard.
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