Thinking of joining the Military?

Now before I start, let me say that I am no way , shape, or form a recruiter, nor do I get any special benefits or anything from trying to help young people make a choice.

Hello, most of you know me as Hormel, or the Milk Man, but outside these forums, I go by a different name, I go by Private First Class Hartman, I am an enlisted solider of the United States Army, and I will be for the next 5 years. Currently I am stationed in Daegu Korea, and I love it out here.

Before I joined the Army, let me tell you a little bit about myself. In school I slept all day, I didn't have nice things in life, my dad was in the army but got kicked out, and he never paid child support, and my mom worked at Advance Auto Parts her whole life, the money was never there. Everything that i had , I had to work my ass off for, my xbox, my games, my car, my tv, my system, everything that I owned after 15 , I pretty much bought. I'm not mad at my mother, she did the best she could, with what she had, but I had to purchase everything.

Summer of 07, I graduate High School, with no plan what so ever, one week I wanted to play madden at the next level, one week I wanted to be a cop, one week i was going to be a truck driver, one week I was going to be the next Stone Cold Steve Austin, I had no clue what to do, I basically sat around doing nothing for the next 2 years, sure I had jobs, sure i had girl friends, sure I had a decent life, but I had no where to expand, there was no way that I was going to go up to the next level of life, doing what I was doing.

So I decided to join the Army, after waking up Jan 1st 09 with a hangover wondering what the **** am I doing with my life, I went and talked to a recruiter. Now something most people don't know is you can choose your job in the army. Not all of us are infantry over in the sand box killing people, the army has a very vast amount of jobs to choose from you can be a , Electrician, a Cook, a Air traffic control guide, work on computers, be a scuba diver, be a nurse, be a medic, be a truck driver, pretty much any job in the world, you can do in the army.

My job/mos (A mos is your job) is 25B, Systems Information Operator, what I do at my job is maintain the computer **** for all of South Korea, anything that goes in and or out of Korea, digitally, has to pass by me, basically I'm that guy you call when your internet goes out, I have a very important job, which I love to do

Here are few things that I get for joining the Army:
While I am active duty all of my college is free, all of it

When I get out of the Army i get 64 thousand dollars for college, which I can pocket most of that, lets say I go to a cheap community college, 1,500$ a semester, the Army will still be giving me 3,000$ a month to go to college, I can pocket all that money

Free apartment, I live in my own room, by myself. In my room i have a 48 Inch HD tv, surround sound, labtop, internet, cable, pretty much anything a 20 year old single male could ever ask for.

Army does free trips to go skiing, fishing, gambling, pretty much the Army takes you anywhere you want to go for free.

I live in fucking Korea, and it's awesome

Free house

Free Food

free dental

free insurance

Keeps me in shape

Best training

Job experience

I work Mon-Fri 9-5, I get at least 2 4 day weekends a month, and every holiday, I mean every holiday, presidents day, valentines, Halloween, Christmas, doesn't matter every holiday on the calender I get off

And lets be straight, if you talk to any person who manages a store, if you have someone with, 3 years experience and a 4 year degree, vs someone who has 3 years experience, a 4 year degree, and has been in the Army for 3 years, they are all going to take the person who has been in the Army, the Army name on your application, automatically sets you apart from anyone else.

The reason I am sharing this, is because when I was most of your ages, 16-18, I had the same view on the Army, I thought everyone in the Army shot people and lived in a dessert, i had no clue that they had it this good, that life could be this easy, and it really is that easy. I make a lot of money, which I have no bills to pay on, it's easy,

If any of you are out there and have ever thought about joining, and need someone to ask questions to , please feel free to ask me, I will give you a 100% honest answer, like I said, Im not here to recruit anyone, im just here to see if anyone has any questions, and I can help you decide if the Army is a good choice for you, because it isn't for everyone.

Thank you

Great post Hormel

Modrewgnu wrote:

Great post Hormel

Ty,

Forgot to add that I helped FelixDaCat, member of these forums, talked him through what he needed to do before basic, if I remember correctly he should be in Basic right now, and he is going to be a truck driver. Been wanting to make this post for a while but I've been a little bit busy, anyways if anyone has any questions I'm here to help

yo what up hormel. glad youre liking it out there. good post, keep enjoying yourself and gettin s*** done.

thats whats up Hormel, im glad that your liking the Army and wat your doing in it. Thanks for letting us know what else the Army has to offer

Eazy wrote:

yo what up hormel. glad youre liking it out there. good post, keep enjoying yourself and gettin s*** done.

Not much easy, thanks bro, I will try, we gotta catch up sometime and play some Monopoly, got a buddy that has a PS3 we need to set up a game sometime

PeytonMvPManning wrote:

thats whats up Hormel, im glad that your liking the Army and wat your doing in it. Thanks for letting us know what else the Army has to offer

No problem bro, just here to help

I've been contemplating on it. Mainly cause I wanna do something other than be a lazy **** who plays madden, and looks up pr0n on the Interwebs. haha.

Plus I need s*** off my record.

thats good you liking the army hormel...i really know nothing about the army, but i heard good and bad....i used to be in the navy myself...i did 8 years, got out, and now i go to college off the post 9/11 bill......i do miss the navy.....alot of good times.....been overseas twice.....been to spain, turkey, crete, as well as other places.....i would recommend the military to anybody...but make sure you know that is what you want to do before you join.

Genno wrote:

I've been contemplating on it. Mainly cause I wanna do something other than be a lazy **** who plays madden, and looks up pr0n on the Interwebs. haha.

Plus I need s*** off my record.

First step is to talk to a recruiter, there is no harm in talking to one, he may want you to take a practice test, but thats just making sure your not a fucking moron and they dont wanna waste time on you. What line of work have you been interested in doing?

TheDon270 wrote:

thats good you liking the army hormel...i really know nothing about the army, but i heard good and bad....i used to be in the navy myself...i did 8 years, got out, and now i go to college off the post 9/11 bill......i do miss the navy.....alot of good times.....been overseas twice.....been to spain, turkey, crete, as well as other places.....i would recommend the military to anybody...but make sure you know that is what you want to do before you join.

everyone misses it, I personally think after 3-5 years, you can get pretty much everything you need out the military, and unless you want to do 20, its almost always a better idea to get out

Well, I got this buddy that is going to help me thru this thing. I honestly could give a s*** less what my duty is as long as my record is absolved of all charges. They're not major offenses, let you know. Just enough to bar me from getting a job.

I'd honestly would have to look at what the Army has to offer. Computers have been my +1 up in my appitute.

man im gunna be honest, ive thought about it...alot actualy. i just dont know what to do when i get in, and on top of that im not sure if i want to leave my family behind here. ive always been told recruters are full of s***, and the ones who went to my high school ALWAYS tried to hustle us into joining or signing something. i always hear just walking by them, "hey you look like a strong kid, come over here and let me tell you about some things"


ive heard good, and i heard bad. just not sure what side to believe exactly

MiamiXCanes wrote:

man im gunna be honest, ive thought about it...alot actualy. i just dont know what to do when i get in, and on top of that im not sure if i want to leave my family behind here. ive always been told recruters are full of s***, and the ones who went to my high school ALWAYS tried to hustle us into joining or signing something. i always hear just walking by them, "hey you look like a strong kid, come over here and let me tell you about some things"


ive heard good, and i heard bad. just not sure what side to believe exactly

Glorified pedophile.

"Hey kids, want some popsicles?"

lol the funny part was they would always try and give us free s***
or they would make us do pushups for them...it was weird lol

Genno wrote:

Well, I got this buddy that is going to help me thru this thing. I honestly could give a s*** less what my duty is as long as my record is absolved of all charges. They're not major offenses, let you know. Just enough to bar me from getting a job.

I'd honestly would have to look at what the Army has to offer. Computers have been my +1 up in my appitute.

Computers are what I work in, their are different type of computer jobs, like my job deals more with networking, yet their are other jobs that have to do more about the cabling, or hardware

here is a site that has information on all the "signal" mos/jobs

http://usmilitary.about.com/od/enlistedjobs/a/25.-uJt.htm

I would advice you, if you could score high enough on the Asvab to take 25S, they work on Satellites, and there is a ton of money in the field , I personally know someone who was a 25S, who got out about 10 years ago, opened up a Satellite repair company and now is a multi-millionaire.

I love my job 25b, but I would switch to 25S if i had the option.


Also every 25P i've talked to got a 40 thousand dollar bonus and a 3 year contract, but thats just because the Army needed them badly at that time, Dont know if that is still the case

MiamiXCanes wrote:

man im gunna be honest, ive thought about it...alot actualy. i just dont know what to do when i get in, and on top of that im not sure if i want to leave my family behind here. ive always been told recruters are full of s***, and the ones who went to my high school ALWAYS tried to hustle us into joining or signing something. i always hear just walking by them, "hey you look like a strong kid, come over here and let me tell you about some things"


ive heard good, and i heard bad. just not sure what side to believe exactly

Recruiters are full of s***, because they have people over their head yelling at them to get numbers, joining is one of , if not the most important part of joining the military, let them know from early on you mean business, and you wont settle for anything less then you want. If you want a short contract, a big bonus, then tell them that, they will get whatever you want to get you in, ESP if they are behind on numbers. Don't let them fuckers lie to you after you take the asvab, score a high score, and they want to put you in bullshit jobs , if you score above a 50 you can have almost every job you want.

putting your family behind is hard at first, but really in the Army you get every holiday off , it's not like you wont get to visit them. I miss my family and friends every day, but one day you gotta cut that umbilical cord and move on. I look at everyone of my friends and they are all my age working part time jobs, and dont even have a 100th of my potential, I am set. With my job I will come out of the army making at least 75 thousand a year. The good thing about the Army is you will hang out with people you never thought you would, you meet so many diverse people it's hard not to have a million friends

MiamiXCanes wrote:

lol the funny part was they would always try and give us free s***
or they would make us do pushups for them...it was weird lol

Yea the pushups thing is kinda lame, i guess it looks cute or whatever.

So I've contemplated long and hard. I've decided that I have no other better action than to join the military. Plus I can help pay off some bills and stuff. I know as a kid I took the Asvab. I received a horrible score by the Army standards, and not even anywhere near a Marines standard. I've read up on it and have decided to retake it before I completly give myself away to Uncle Sam. Working on Sattelites would be an interesting job, at the least. Better than a hands-on Infantry job. I'm young, and still naive. But anything that could motivate me out of this s*** hole of my life, I'd be anxious and honored to take it.

I've thought about it before, and like, 4 or 5 of my relatives have been/are in/about to join the military...

But, I couldn't do it like that. The Military just isn't my style.

Just curious though, any of you navy guys know a guy by the name PJ Mulford? He's one of my teachers, about your age, and he said he was some of the same places in the navy that you guys were.

Genno wrote:

So I've contemplated long and hard. I've decided that I have no other better action than to join the military. Plus I can help pay off some bills and stuff. I know as a kid I took the Asvab. I received a horrible score by the Army standards, and not even anywhere near a Marines standard. I've read up on it and have decided to retake it before I completly give myself away to Uncle Sam. Working on Sattelites would be an interesting job, at the least. Better than a hands-on Infantry job. I'm young, and still naive. But anything that could motivate me out of this s*** hole of my life, I'd be anxious and honored to take it.

Thats about how I felt, the military can turn you around and give you a future, if you join the Military you have no reason to be making less then 50 thousand a year 5 years from now

Fudopi is That Dude wrote:

I've thought about it before, and like, 4 or 5 of my relatives have been/are in/about to join the military...

But, I couldn't do it like that. The Military just isn't my style.

Just curious though, any of you navy guys know a guy by the name PJ Mulford? He's one of my teachers, about your age, and he said he was some of the same places in the navy that you guys were.

never heard of him

Man. As long as the military fixes my insomnia and me tokin out late at night, I'm chill with joining. But right now, I'm high as a kite watching the clock tick on my computer. lol

Genno wrote:

Man. As long as the military fixes my insomnia and me tokin out late at night, I'm chill with joining. But right now, I'm high as a kite watching the clock tick on my computer. lol

Don't have to quit getting high in the army, look up Spice99, it's a legal version of bud, gets you just as high, its just a tad more expensive.

It costs companies to much money to drug test for, can order it in the mail

However I dont smoke it, just know people that do.

You're like a fuckin' saint, man! haha. I think I'm have to find you when I go into it lol.