USAF Reserve

[Beldaran]

I might be joining the Air Force Reserve.

Why?

1) To help alleviate crushing student debt.
2) To "play soldier" every once and a while and wear a uniform
3) To play with neat aviation technology
4) To get something to put on my resume which will one day help me worm my way into the field of aerospace and space stuff.

It's 1 weekend a month, plus 2 weeks during the summer. Pays pretty good, looks interesting, and might be cool.

Anyone know of any really good reasons why this is a bad idea?

[jerome]

While you and I didn't exactly see eye to eye on some other matters, on career paths, I usually just say "If it's what you think is right for you, go for it." If it's what you really want to do, don't let anyone convince you differently. From personal experience, you won't please the people that tell you to "try something else first". That was a hard and disappointing lesson I had learned.

If it's mostly for money, then I'd say try a Lottery ticket. If you win big, don't go. If not, go for it! :)

It sounds like you have many reasons that work for you though. Very well thought out at least.

I have a younger step-brother that's in the Navy. He says he loves it. Of course, with his current rank, and where he's stationed, he has only one guy above him... Well, I mean at that location. The president is still a bit up the list overall. He says he basically "plays supervisor" where he is stationed. He's already served some time over in Iraq as well.
But with Reserves, I'm not sure how quickly they send them out over others that signed on full time. Then again, things seem to be quieting down over there, so you probably wouldn't have as much to worry about if something like that was to bother you, if at all.

I'm not sure what the Air Force's slogan is, so "Go Blue Team!!" Or whatever they say.

[slothman]

I wouldn't want to join the armed forces because I don't agree with what the current gov't is doing.
If they fight a war I like then that's a different story.

[Prrkitty]

Bel... my dad was in the air force... and loved it. I'm not sure how different the Reserves might be from active duty.

My best advice... if you WANT to do it - then go for it. Only you can know whether it was meant for you or not.

[Brasel]

Well if you are going to join a military branch, the Air Force reserve is probably the way to go. I haven't heard of any of them getting deployed...but then again, I don't pay attention to the Air Force reserve.

[Archibaldo]

My roommate in college was in the Canadian Arm Reserves. He made a shitton of money and he worked usually one day a week. Although sometimes he had to go in for special training.