deciding which branch to join.

 

Joining the military can be a difficult process and one of the hardest parts is trying to decide which branch to join. It can be an overwhelming decision since which ever branch you choose can potentially have a major impact on the rest of your life. It’s a big decision for an 18-year-old to make and it can be hard to figure out where to even begin. So today I’d like to just discuss a few different approached you can take in order to help you make this decision.

1.      Full time or part time

Deciding whether to go into the Guard, Reserves or Active Duty can be the first decision. The only real question is whether the military is something you want to do full time or is there a civilian career you want to pursue right now. I personally wanted to get into civilian law enforcement so I joined the National Guard so that I could pursue a career in law enforcement while still being in the military, but if the military looks like an interesting job and something you want to do full time then active duty is the right move for you. Not every state has a reserve component for every branch and most state only offer a select number of jobs within the military so determining what your state has and if that interests you can be a big factor. Lastly you can switch from active duty to guard or reserves and vice versa, but this process isn’t always easy, and some people end up regretting this decision so think long and hard before you make the switch.

2.      What do you want out of the military

A common approach is to figure out what you want out of the military and then decide which branch best meets that need. For example, if you want to travel and see the world all of the branches can help you with that, but the Navy tends to travel more than every other branch. In branches such as the Army you’ll probably get station at a base and then stay there for a few years and then either deploy somewhere or get sent to another base. So, you still move around a lot, but in the Navy, you can get stationed on a ship and them travel the world for months on end. If you want to learn how to fight or be in a branch that deals with front line combat, then the Army or the Marine Corps is probably the right branch for you. All the branches have some sort of combat role, but the Army and the Marine Corps by far have the most combat jobs. Lastly if you’re interested in computers or engineering the Army or the Air force is probably the branch for you. Once again all of the branches have some kind of cyber component, but the Army and the Air Force have some of the biggest cyber programs, so you’ll have the most options

3.      Pick your job and then pick your branch

This is the approach that I used when I joined the military. Many of the branches offer the same or similar jobs within their branch so if you know what you want to do in the military then all you have do is figure out which branch you want to do it for. So, using myself as an example, I wanted a career in law enforcement, so I knew I wanted to join the military police. Now every branch has military police, and they all preform the same function, but not all in the same way. In the end I chose the Army because they have one of the biggest military police branches while also having some of the most jobs within the Military police. They perform a wide variety of tasks, more than many of the other branches military police. They also have a long history of serving in combat. More than many of the other branch’s military police. This really interest me and was one of the biggest reasons I joined the Army. The same goes for a lot of the other branches as well. If you want something in aviation all of the branches have some kind of flying component, but some branches fly more than others, and each uses different helicopter and planes. So, figuring out what you want to fly and how you want to fly can help you pick branch to join.