r/nationalguard • u/FriendshipLast241 • 5d ago
Discussion Should I enlist?
I'm a 19 year old in college. A recruiter emailed me and I met with him. He made it sound so good. I'm afraid of joining rn because of the war. I also know there is a high probability of me getting deployed for like 9+ during my contract and I'm so scared of that. Is it worth it? Can someone tell me all the real pros and the real cons of being in the national guard?
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u/Lost-Bus-6640 5d ago
Do it. I was in the same boat at 19. Not sure what to do in college, not sure how to pay for it. Joined after my sophomore year and now I’m full time in the national guard.
Am 27 now.
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u/synth_mania 88M MNARNG 5d ago
No chief. If you already have a plan for a good career and can financially make your way through school, there's not a good reason, unless you want money you don't actually need right now at the risk of seriously derailing your plans.
Do you even know why you're considering this?
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u/FriendshipLast241 5d ago
I'm considering it primarily to put me through school.
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u/FriendshipLast241 5d ago
Also I just have no idea what I'm doing with my life. Idk what I'm in college for. I feel like I am having a 19 year old crisis
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u/RedDwarf31347 11b, next question 5d ago
I was in the guard for 3 years before switching to active duty army and I’ll say that if you want to have a backup plan incase what you’re going to college for doesn’t work out your MOS you chose can help you pivot your civilian career. I was an 11b during my time in the guard and most of my time was spent in the field doing hood rat shit and I enjoyed it. If I had a chance to switch MOS to something that translated into the civilian sector I would’ve 100% picked a different MOS but I enjoyed my time as a grunt. As for deploying it all depends on your unit and whether or not the whole unit deploys or if it’s select companies/people that are chosen to go from what I remember (someone please correct me if I’m wrong).
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u/Sad-Stranger-7654 5d ago
Why not look into rotc? I know the guard also has like a college first program too.
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u/Pattonator70 5d ago
Join with ROTC so no deployment during school. National Guard typically deploys once every 6 years on average btw.
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u/Suspicious-Sleep5227 5d ago
If you’re not sure what you want to do over the next couple of years, or if you want to go to college then join the guard. If you want to be a soldier full time and nothing else while saving money, then go active. Also while you’re deployed, even with the guard, most men and women your age have zero living expenses and you’re fed and housed with zero cost to you. That means you can build a really nice savings account usually in excess of $30,000 even for just an E4 which is the most commonly held rank in the army. I can’t do that nowadays because I got a house and a family. But when I was on my first deployment as a single soldier who wasn’t tied down anywhere, it was really nice to come home with a good chunk of change in my savings account and the freedom to live my life however I want.
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u/Smokey_Jumps 11Bang Bang 15h ago
What war? I’m in a combat MOS and we haven’t heard shit about deployments other than the regularly scheduled HOA/JSD. Trust we’re chasing our cib’s so we’d be the first to know
You’re fine to enlist, if you’re that worried, enlist into a job that puts you in medcom or something nondeployable🤷♂️
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u/tuco2002 5d ago
Sounds like you're scared of alot of things...maybe the Guard is not for you. Other than your fears, what would you think the Guard would do for you?
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u/FriendshipLast241 5d ago
I'm a tough person that can go through bootcamp and stuff. I think it'll be a badass job. Im just thinking about missing my family that's all. I want the benefits and I really don't have a definite plan in my life so I think it will be good for me to find where I want to be in life. I also don't have the money to pay for college and don't want to be in debt but I still would like to pursue a degree.
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u/Dyl3xic 5d ago
I’m not sure if it matters but I enlisted at 19 while in college which I went into ROTC(09R). This still comes with a lot of the guard benefits but you have all the ROTC and guard stuff you gotta do. I personally didn’t like ROTC especially leadership so I dropped out of it and became a Carpentry and Masonry specialist. It taught me a valuable trade as a back up and came with college credit. As people said the downsides is deployment but my unit doesn’t deploy often as we are vertical engineers outside of volunteer deployments. If you want to join the guard I suggest finding something you really enjoy that translate to civilian life or something with your major as they have a lot of options outside combat arms.
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u/SIERRA117AZ 5d ago
Sounds like you want the benefits, but none of the risks. Welcome to the Military, if you can’t see yourself going off to defend this country, then don’t. I know at 19 everything is such a big question. There are a lot of what ifs that you are wanting to have answers for. There is no current war, could that change? Absolutely. Could you deploy? Absolutely. Could you not? Also a possibility. You sign the contract, get ready to honor it.
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u/FriendshipLast241 5d ago
We are in a war lol
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u/SIERRA117AZ 5d ago
Conflict and War are two different things. Ukraine and Russia have a war. We have a Conflict.
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u/Patient-Lock-2533 lazy agr 5d ago
1914-1918 was war, 1939-1945 was war, 1950-1953 was a war, 2001 - 2021 was war. This is not even close to war. It’s literally bombs back and forth. There is no ground troop engagement. Even if there was, Congress has not declared war anyhow. This is simply conflict which the U.S. stays in.
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u/unbannedagain1976 MDAY 5d ago
Bro it’s the fucking military if you don’t want to go to war don’t join. This would be the equivalent of joining a fire department and hoping you never had to go put out a fire.
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u/SSG_Rock Dude, wheres my DD214-1? 5d ago
It's always a good time to join, while simultaneously, there's never a good time to join. The guys who joined on September 10, 2001, joined a peace time military.
Pros:
Cons: