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I  spoke via email to Navy Officer Bob, and he gave me a series of questions that I needed to ask myself to see if I felt that the Navy was really for me.  I encourage you to ask yourself these questions as well.

Mike,

The military needs task-oriented team players.  They also need men and woman who are willing to serve the needs of enlisted men and their superior officers.  That's what officers do.  I've never met an aviator, either a pilot or a NFO, that didn't like being an aviator. They all loved it. The most common complaint I heard about was that they spent a lot of time flying out in the middle of nowhere on CAP--Combat Air Patrol. CAP is typically 90 degrees off the main threat axis, about 90-100 miles from the carrier. And they sit there, flying circles in the sky, ready for anything, but really hoping nothing happens. But as I think about it, I don't believe I heard any aviators actually making the complaints. I think those complaints were what other people thought the main complaint would be. If I were you, here's what I would be concerned about--

1) The service commitment. How many years of service would you have to commit to? Six years? Eight years? Ten years? When does the commitment start? Does it start when you enter OCS, or does it start when you finish all of the flight schools?  Is that commitment all active duty, or can some of it be reserve duty?

Take my example--I had an 8 year commitment, but I only had to serve 5 of those years on active duty. I then spent 2 years in the ready reserves and 1 year in the inactive reserves. Technically, I'm still in the inactive reserves.  Anyway, during that commitment, you're committed. You can't quit. You're in. You need to find out how long that commitment is and ask yourself if you're really willing to serve your country for that amount of time.

2) The other big thing I would ask is "What is the tour of duty like?" What I mean is this--AFTER all of the flight schools, how many years of sea duty would I have? I'm guessing that you'd have a 3 year tour between 2 different squadrons. And you'd spend 30-60% of that time out at sea. After that, you'd have a 3 year tour of shore duty-- somewhere where you wouldn't be expected to go to sea that much. And then probably another 2-3 years at another squadron, where you're spending 30%-60% of the time at sea.The reason why I'd want to know the tour of duty is that it can put an incredible strain on your home life.

Right now your single, but that may not stay that way forever. You very well may have kids by the time you get to your first sea tour.

    Are you willing to spend 30%-60% of your time away from your wife and kids?
    Is your wife willing to have you away that much time?
    Do you have any other family, like your parents, that may need extra attention?
    Can those family members deal with prolonged absences?

Also note that during  the sea tours, there's a good chance you'll go on deployment, where you go overseas. You'll be gone for  6-8 months straight. Can your family deal with that?

Also, each duty station change probably entails a move.  So there's a good chance that you'll move every 18 months AFTER all the flight schools. You'll move about every 6 months during the flight schools. So you'll never get a real chance to develop any roots in any community, and you'll have to leave all of your friends and make new ones quite often. Can your family deal with that? Lastly, there's a different kind of stress.

At civilian jobs, if you get mad enough, you can always quit. That option does NOT exist in the military. If you quit, you can go to jail. And no, you can't yell back at your boss. You sit there and take it. That doesn't mean you never talk back, but there are times when he talks, and you listen. It's a sad fact. So if you've got a bad boss, too bad. There's a lot of management by being unreasonable in the military. Also, it's hard to FIRE someone in the military for non-performance. That's annoying too.

The rewards are worth it. Some of my best memories are from my days in the Navy. Some of my worst memories are from the Navy. I would say that if you can honestly address the issues I've stated above, then the military could be good for you.

Bob