Joining the military..

Question

k so im a 14 year old girl.im thinking about joining the military but i have a few questions.what kind of things do you do.what type of rules are there.what type of disiplince is there?what type of ranks are there.how do you get ranks.do you get treated different if your a girl

Answer 1

Why don't you ask these questions when you are closer to a joining age and then they may be easier to answer.  HOWEVER, you could join a Junior ROTC program to begin to see what military life is like.

NOW, to answer your questions if I can,

I do not treat women any different than I treat men.  I like to think I am equal in giving out orders to all my soldiers.  From my experience, women are actually better off in the military because there are usually no limits to what you can do (besides a few combat specific roles).

You can do just about anything you want to do.  There is a Military Specialty for just about every civilian job as well as military specific job you can imagine.  Also, most all jobs are duplicated within each branch so you can choose between all four branches for most jobs.

There are rules, rules, and more rules.  There are rules about rules.  And discipline is utmost.

There are enlisted ranks (technical jobs) and officer ranks (command/tactical jobs).  You gain rank by doing a good job, getting educated, and showing proficiency in what you do.

I would seriously suggest you look into joining Junior ROTC before you graduate high school or if you want to go to college first, join ROTC there.

In the Army, there is only one type of food, ARMY FOOD.  So if you are in the Army, you will appreciate it if you get to deploy and go to an Air Force or Navy base.  Army food is not bad, it is not real good either.  But it will keep you going.

Contact me later if you feel like it.  Best wishes.

Answer 2

join your school jrotc if your school doesn't have that look up the united states naval sea cadet corp

Answer 3

you still too young, 4 years is long to go, military keep changing, especially in today digital age, one thing for certain military is putting more funds and time for education and living condition, back in the day, you just do you jobs and not much else, now they expect you to get a degree, do you job and do all soft of extra actives even as young enlisted.

Food, well depend where u r, if you in iraq or combat area, is crappy; you mostly eat ration in combat zone, but you some day to rest to get some hot meal in the base, military food are general doesn't tasted good in most part, they add little or no salt or other spice, they wanted keeps simple,. either cause most can't cook.

Answer 4

A recruiter is a better person to ask than the YA community.

All I know is that as a woman you will not serve in a combat role.

Answer 5

food is the best but it is the training that you may not like

lots of discipline and you have to be in physical and mental shape

your  drill instructors will weed you out in five minutes.

The rules  you have to follow orders and not let your

emotions get the best of you when they are in your face 24/7

women are treated the same as men and there is no special

privileges in the military.  most people can pass the physical

training if they can do basic exercises that you have in gym

class.  Marching is done a lot and so is running everywhere you

go.  During basic is the hardest times as the military will make

sure you disciplining and they will make you do a lot of stuff

your mother did not make you do growing up..Good Luck

Answer 6

Julie,

These sites have pretty much all the information for which you ask.

http://www.navy.mil

http://www.usmc.mil

http://www.army.nil

http://www.af.mil

These are the official sites. The facts. Anything ending in .com, if it doesn't link to these sites, isn't official.

In fact, you have until you graduate from high school and you're 18 before you have to make a decision.

I joined the Navy. I enlisted with a college degree (BA, Math). You really don't need a degree, it just opens more options -- such as officer programs. When it became time to extend for my E-6, somebody dusted off my degree and recommended OCS (Officer Candidate School). I accepted and spent a total of 25 years in, retiring at age 45.

I can't speak for the other services, but the Navy has perfected the concept of the "mobile home." The food you get depends pretty much on your duty station. I ate pretty well. It's not McDonald's or mom's cooking, but it's usually pretty good.

Enlisted promotions in the Navy are based upon time in grade, evaluations, testing, and the needs of the service. Everything you do is evaluated. You are given a formal evaluation every six months, and whenever you are about to be transferred.

After you have been in your pay grade a while, you can be considered for advancement. Your Division Officer looks at your evaluations and decides if you're going to be allowed to take the advancement test. The test covers your rating (specialty) and leadership. Each specialty has its own test for ecah pay grade. Your score is compared to all those taking the test.

In the Navy each station has a specified number of billets (positions) for each rating and rating (enlisted rank).  Sometimes, to get the promotion for which you have passed the test, you may have to transfer. Also, if 2,000 people in the Navy take the test, and if there are only 50 such positions in the Navy, only about the top 50 can get promoted.

Officer promotions are based on time in grade, evaluations, the decisions of a Review Board, and the needs of the service. Advancement is expected. If you fail to advance in rank a couple of times, the Navy begins to question your value to the service.

There are a whold bunch of new rules you'll get to learn. But don't worry, most of them are pretty much common sense. Each brach has a set of regulations for those who can't figure out what to do or how to do it unless its written down for them.

Women have to do it better and cleaner than guys. A woman officer I knew used to say, "I realize I'm in what is traditionally a man's world, and that I have to do twice the job a man does to get same recognition." Then she'd add, "And I do it." She was an exceptional officer. I believe that most men don't take women in command as seriously as they do men in command. When I was in, women had to meet the same time and proficiency criteria as men except in the area of physical tests. It's got to be tough, but I suggest that you do your absolute best to meet the guy's PT requirements.

Discipline is there. As I suggested, there are a bunch of rules that govern your military life.

All in all, it's a pretty good life. Were it not, I would never have stayed in for 25 years. As I said, I retired at 45... not done often in the civilian world. I got two more degrees on the GI Bill. Purchased a house with a VA-insured loan, and paid it off in ten years  I parlayed my military command experience and security clearance, and my education into a second career. Retired again 12 years later. I recently moved into a Veterans Retirement Home. I can travel just about anywhere in the world for free. I have access to just about any military facility. My medical and dental are both free. In fact, just about everything is free. I've rented out my house to an officer and his family from a nearby Air Force Base. The rent more than pays for my stay here. So I'm making bout 60K a year for just getting up in the morning.