<p>while I am not a parent my brother wants to join the army reserve his hopes at west point were shot down. Joining the navy straight out of highschool is not a good idea they will probably have her cleaning toilets on a ship… Maybe there is some sort of rotc or navy reserve program that she can enroll in where she can go to school and be in the navy at the same time. Talk to the navy recuirer and ask him if she can do both dont be sucked into him when he tells you how great the navy is tho once you join the navy the gov. owns you</p>
<p>^^You can’t be in NROTC and be active duty at the same time.<br>
The OP’s D does not appear to be interested in going to college at this time.</p>
<p>“they will probably have her cleaning toilets on a ship”</p>
<p>In the series “Carrier” they interviewed a young woman whose job was to refill the carrier’s snack vending machines, twelve hours a day, every day. There’s still an adventure aspect to shipboard life, visiting foreign ports, etc. But boy, that would make me think long and hard before I chose enlistment over ROTC.</p>
<p>I agree with posters above that if you’ve presented her with all the information about officer options and voiced your concerns, and she’s still determined to enlist, get behind her. Hopefully she will make you proud by thriving in the challenging environment.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>this seems like really good advice, imho.</p>
<p>My husband enlisted in the Navy, then later was accepted at both the Naval Academy and NROTC. He went to the University of Washington and became an officer. </p>
<p>My advice would be to keep her as far away from a recruiter as you can. I’ve heard horror stories. Call up your closest Naval Reserve Center and get some factual information on how to combine the Navy and college. </p>
<p>Good luck!</p>
<p>If it was my D i would also advise her to consider NROTC.
[What</a> the Recruiter Never Told You – Part 1, Deciding Which Military Service to Join](<a href=“http://usmilitary.about.com/cs/joiningup/a/recruiter1.htm]What”>http://usmilitary.about.com/cs/joiningup/a/recruiter1.htm)
Virtually all the young soldiers I know from my daughters friends are Marines.- & no college.</p>
<p>My S joined the Navy right out of his non-traditional HS experience because his mentor had been in the Navy. He was assigned to an aircraft carrier which soon deployed to the Middle East, and returned by way of Europe. While for some months his job was to do the laundry (he can out-launder and iron me, let me tell you), he also received valuable on-the-job-training in his area of interest, which was mechanics. He has always been able to fix anything, anywhere, anytime. </p>
<p>He left after his only tour and now has a job combining his love of mechanics and construction. He is the only non-degreed person in his company, but also the most valuable. There are currently two companies fighting over him. </p>
<p>His take on joining up was always this: go in with eyes wide open-you WILL get to “see the world” but it won’t always be fun or glamorous. There is a war on (it had just started when S joined) so you may be in danger. Boot camp is tough, even for kids who are in good shape and used to studying very hard. The hours are long, the training punishing. But if you know that and can live with it, you may also find a place where you belong.</p>
<p>My nephew is aiming for the Air Force Academy and spends every waking moment maintaining his spot at the top of his HS class, drilling with the Civil Air Patrol and working on his resume for the government official who will be nominating him. And yet he still may not make it-the process is extremely selective. He has ROTC and colleges known for producing good officers in his backup plan.</p>
<p>OP, perhaps your D could do something like that. Good luck, either way. I remember my angst when S joined up, as I am a staunch liberal. But it was his decision and I was very proud of all that he accomplished.</p>
<p>It’s not necessarily a bad decision.</p>
<p>But has she thought about the fact that when she enters college – which apparently she wants to do after her term of enlistment ends – she will be substantially older than her classmates? She might find that she does not fit in well socially in a traditional residential college environment.</p>
<p>If that’s the type of college environment she’s looking for, it’s something to think about.</p>
<p>There’s something to be said for being an older student. My older D took a few years off between HS and college and was “older” when she started. She was less interested in where the next party was, less interested in romance drama, more easy-going when it came to roommates (have you seen some of the roommate complaints on the College Lfe forum?!?). Anyone who’s been in the service knows how to buckle down and get their work done. The OP’s D will probably be like me D-less interested in the traditional college experience than in simply getting an education. Given some of the high drama some of today’s students seem to be having, that doesn’t seem like a bad thing.</p>
<p>I sound like I’m arguing FOR her to enter the military. I’m not! LOL. I think she should enter SOME kind of ROTC or cadet program first just to get a feel for military life.</p>
<p>BUT</p>
<p>You CAN get college hours and even a degree WHILE enlisted.</p>
<p>Still think she should compromise, and go 2 years to a junior college with an ROTC or an academy and get her AA before enlisting.</p>
<p>Junior colleges do not have NROTC units. NROTC scholarships are really hard to get. 85% of NROTC scholarships are reserved for those majoring in engineering or other hard science. The Navy is currently in a downsizing mode. They aren’t looking for random people who are just trying it out to see if they might like it. Doesn’t work that way. </p>
<p>S1 knows guys who comissioned w/ him who were in the pipeline to go to Flight school in FL. After moving down there, they were then told that that had too much of a back-up for aviation training and they got dropped from the Navy. This was AFTER completing four years of college and NROTC and having been accepted to Naval Flight School.
S1 knew another guy who was dropped from Nuc. school…just had more people than they needed. None of them had to pay back the ROTC scholarship money since they were dropped by the Navy.</p>
<p>Enlistment would be a huge step and serious commitment and no one can predict where it will take her.</p>
<p>I have a friend whose son was a very strong math/science student in HS who had been planning on majoring in engineering at Texas A&M. However, he and some friends met with a marine recruiter his senior year and he was intrigued. After some thought he took up the offer to enlist in the marines with the plan to get his college degree afterwards. He was very bright and so while in the marines he was noticed and picked out to join some elite teams and he saw much more action than one would have expected. </p>
<p>After he finished his enlistment, he did enroll at A&M to major in engineering, but he could not sit still anymore and found he could not study. He was too used to the adrenaline rush of military action. He left school and, after a job guarding certain very high security federal facilities (not prisons, much higher security than that), which was also considered unstimulating, he joined a private security agency that sent him to Afghanistan. He has been in and out of Afghanistan for years since, usually in very dangerous situations, with his mother (my friend) always on pins and needles. He seems to have become addicted to the rush from surviving deadly confrontations.</p>
<p>Once he left the path toward becoming an engineer, he could never make his way back to it.</p>
<p>Packmom, Oh, you’re right. Most of those ROTC programs in junior colleges are for Army. I had no idea it was so difficult to get in the Navy right now.</p>
<p>As I stated before, the ROTC programs require a commitment after some point, but the cadet programs don’t, and are regionally available and are for ages 13-17.</p>
<p>I’m just wondering if OP ever had a “heads’ up” by her D?</p>
<p>Is she fit, athletic, adventurous, driven, etc? In other words, do YOU think she would thrive in that environment?</p>
<p>I enlisted in the Navy a couple of years out of high school. Best thing I ever did. I joined to get save up some money to go back to college and I ended up staying for 24 years. You really need to know what you want to do though. I would recommend any of the Cryptologic Technician (CT) ratings. Hospital Corpsman (HM) is another good one. You get great training, with the CT rating you will have a security clearance which will be worth big bucks after you get out. You can take classes and get a degree while your in. You may not be able to finish a 4 year degree, but you should be able to get an AA. There are also commissioning programs for enlisted Sailors who are interested in going to the dark side :).</p>
<p>Your daughter should really have a specific job in mind if she’s going to enlist. Don’t join without a garaunteed school. They will put the school in your contract. Some ratings have enlistment bonuses. You sign up for an extra year and can get $12,000 (it may be more than that now) after you complete your training. Those are normally nuke and CT ratings. An enlistment bonus will also be in your contract. Get everything in writing.</p>
<p>After boot camp you go to your initial training also known as “A” school. After A school you go to your first duty station. Depending on the rating, you will spend your first three to six months doing work details (laundry, mess decks, weed pulling, etc), after your time is up you’ll be working in your rating. </p>
<p>I loved my time in the Navy, I had a blast. I travelled all over the Pacific, and have been to just about every country in Asia, and lived there too. I’m still friends with people that I went to A school with 30 years ago. </p>
<p>PM me if you want more info.</p>
<p>It’s a while ago now, but one kid who went to my offspring’s NYC’s public magnet joined the marines straight out of high school. He went in enlisted. He came out and went to Columbia for college and law school. Is now an attorney with a top NYC law firm.</p>
<p>S1 commands a platoon of seven enlisted men in a select unit within the Navy. Four of his seven enlisted men have college degrees. They got their degrees before joining the Navy and then enlisted. You would be surpised at how many enlisted personnnel in the military earned college degrees prior to enlistment. S1 knows a degreed guy who quit a Wall St. job( earning six figures) to enlist in the Navy and try to get into this specific Navy unit.</p>
<p>A friend of older Ds took a few gap years to teach in Micronesia after high school, co founding an education non profit, then joined the Marines where he completed four tours of duty as a non- commissioned officer in Iraq & Afghanistan after which he was awarded the Purple Heart.
I also believe he recently reenlisted.</p>
<p>But I have a friend who isn’t that much older, who had an extended tour in Afghanistan, loved the country &(some)of the people, but is really grappling with PTSD, and some days is hanging on by his fingernails.</p>
<p>I’d recommend reading The Sandbox even if you aren’t interested in the military.
[Doonesbury-The</a> Sandbox-Military Blog, Milblogs for Military Families](<a href=“http://gocomics.typepad.com/the_sandbox/]Doonesbury-The”>Doonesbury-The Sandbox-Military Blog, Milblogs for Military Families)</p>
<p>Does she know what career field she wants to be in? The military, even more so than many large companies, has a lot of “bland” jobs. If she knows what she wants, then it will probably work out decently. If she just wants to join the Navy, but nothing more, she might be disappointed in what job she gets. I’ll echo the idea that officer positions have a lot of advantages. I certainly appreciate my AF officer job and benefits. Being a single LT can be a pretty comfortable lifestyle. I’ve also had several enlisted members say that they sometimes wish they had gone to the officer side. However, there are benefits to being enlisted too. Most of the “hands-on” jobs in the military are enlisted (or warrant) positions. In a whole bunch of career fields, officers move into the administrative side within a couple years (if not from the start).</p>
<p>Check out the PBS series “carrier” that chronicles a six month tour on the USS Nimitz.</p>
<p>[CARRIER</a> | PBS](<a href=“http://www.pbs.org/weta/carrier/]CARRIER”>CARRIER | PBS)</p>
<p>Have you talked to her about what her expectations are about what she’ll be doing in the Navy? It may be that her vision includes things that she won’t be able to do if she enlists right of highschool, or that will require years of service. As long as she understands (as best an 18 year old can) what life in the Navy will entail, I don’t know what else you can do.</p>
<p>Your daughter needs to know that as a woman in the military she will face a <em>substantial</em> risk for rape and other forms of sexual assault, and the military has a notoriously poor record in terms of meting out justice to victims of these crimes.</p>
<p>Here is info specific to the Navy (or Navy/Marines):
[What’s</a> New in Rape Prevalence](<a href=“http://www.musc.edu/vawprevention/research/newprevalence.shtml]What’s”>What's New in Rape Prevalence) excerpt:
</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.public.navy.mil/bupers-npc/support/readiness/Documents/DON%20SAPRO%20Commanders%20Guide.pdf[/url]”>http://www.public.navy.mil/bupers-npc/support/readiness/Documents/DON%20SAPRO%20Commanders%20Guide.pdf</a> This contains statistics for the Navy/Marines I dont know how to cut-and-paste from a pdf document, and at this hour Im too tired to type it in myself!</p>
<p>The following are about the military in general:</p>
<p>[Preview</a> tonights report on rape and sexual assault in the military](<a href=“http://feministing.com/2012/09/27/preview-tonights-expose-on-rape-and-sexual-assault-in-the-military/]Preview”>Preview tonight’s report on rape and sexual assault in the military) excerpt:
</p>
<p>[Why</a> rapists in military get away with it - CNN.com](<a href=“http://www.cnn.com/2012/06/21/opinion/speier-military-rape/index.html]Why”>http://www.cnn.com/2012/06/21/opinion/speier-military-rape/index.html) Titled Why Rapists in Military Get Away With It excerpt:
. Much more at link, and this article refers to (and has a link to a preview of) a documentary on the subject called The Invisible War </p>
<p>[Rape</a> victims say military labels them ‘crazy’ - CNN.com](<a href=“http://www.cnn.com/2012/04/14/health/military-sexual-assaults-personality-disorder/index.html]Rape”>http://www.cnn.com/2012/04/14/health/military-sexual-assaults-personality-disorder/index.html) title Rape Victims Say Military Labels Them Crazy</p>
<p>There’s lots more out there, but it’s time to head off to bed…</p>