Age Requirements For E3 2016

Should I enlist in the Air Force at the age of 33? I’m feeling my call.

I enlisted at age 35, and did one deployment to Afghanistan at 37. I outdid most of the younger peeps on my PT test.I’m going against the grain and say yes, as long as you understands what that means. If you are willing to enlist you would only do it to go active duty, this means, working for the Air Force full time.Go active duty. This way you get all the benefits there are. Including a pension eventually.Active duty means you will have to move when they tell you to move. If this is ok for your wife and 4 kids, then go for it. They can usually go to school on the base.Active duty means that if you live on base, they pay for your housing. If you live outside base, they give you money to pay for housingKnow that someone at age 22 can be yelling at you. You will be surrounded by a lot of young people, a lot of them outrank youMake sure that you list your Associate degree, so that you can enter as an E-3, get paid as an E-3, rather than E-1. Enlisted ranks are E-1 through E-9.Air Force is the correct branch to go. Do not join the army. That’s what I did. That’s the only mistake I did, joined the army, ended up looking for bombs in Afghanistan. The Air Force is the “most common sense applied” branch. None of them are common sense, but there is a relative ranking between the branches.The benefits are incredible. If you feel stuck at a dead end job, and you think Department of Defense can be interesting, enlisting is not a bad way to go. Once you qualify for school benefits and put in enough years, you can pass them on to your kids.Are your wife and kids ok with you being gone while you do basic training and your “job” training? During this time, you will not be home, and they will not house your family. For me, this was 6 months.You can qualify to student loan repayment as one of the benefits. This will take care of some of your only debt that you may have.So, long story short, if you feel stuck, do it. Understand that they may treat you like an 18 year old, and if you are ok with that, you will not have an issue. Take it seriously, promote as soon as you can, and always do a great job, regardless of peers that may look at it as a temporary phase of their life and not give a shit.

At age 32 with a family, should I join the Marines or Army?

Since I am an Army Soldier (albeit a reservist now after doing four years active duty) you might want to consider that I may be biased.Being that you’re 32, more than likely your personal mentality is probably more concrete and less easily influenced than the majority of 18 year olds that you’ll be enlisting with and going to either Boot Camp or Basic Combat Training with. As long as you have a decent amount of common sense and are partially athletic, you’d probably be fine in either branch. However, through what I’ve noticed and conversations I’ve had with Marines is that they typically seek younger, impressionable recruits that are more easily molded into the Marine Corps mindset. Also, being an Army soldier, I can safely say on average the physical aspect of the training in the Marines is often more strenuous. But on the other hand, depending on what army unit you’re assigned to, you can expect to spend a lot more time training in the field than you would’ve in the Marines, but not all unit’s or MOS’s are created equal in that aspect.Whichever one you decide to join, unless you are set on being in a combat MOS, like infantry, artillery, combat engineer etc., consider choosing a support MOS like signal (like me!) or intelligence. Also many medical jobs (with the exception of combat medic) seem like pretty sweet gigs especially if you wind up working in a hospital or a clinic. If I were to go back in time, knowing what I know now, that’s probably the route I would take. Also, these fields have translatable job skills back in the civilian sector. Believe it or not, not a whole lot employers are looking for people that can drive an M1 Abrams, as awesome as it probably is.Also, you will most likely make rank in the Army faster, plus if you have a bachelor’s degree you will start of as an E4 in the army opposed to an E3 in the Marines. There’s also a good amount of bonus money floating around in the Army for particular MOS’s and I believe even potentially two year enlistments (always make shorter commitments if possible). I personally don’t pay too much attention to Marine recruiting incentives but similar programs may be in place.Overall, my second answer would be to join the Army. My first would be to join the Airforce!Whichever you choose, best of luck to you and your family.

What is the average age per rank in the US military?

From the Air Force Personnel Center Database Interactive Demographic Analysis System (HQ Air Force Personnel Center: IDEAS) Using just the 2014 Active Duty population you get the following.  Reserve and Guard personnel tend to be a bit older, in my experience.For Officers:  (As an example, I started young at 21 (most are 22 or 23), but had a purely "on time" promotion rate after that.)2 Lt: 17-24  (I was 21) (I've never heard of any 2 Lt's 17-20 years old...)1 Lt: 25-34  (average would be on the low end)  (I was 23) Capt: 25 - 34   (average would be on the high end)  (I was 25)Major:  35-44  (average would be on the low end)  (I was 33)Lt Col: 35 - 44 (average would be on the high end)  (I was 38) Col: 45+  (I was 44)No data for the various General Officer ranks, consider them 45+For Enlisted:E-1: 17-24  E-2: 17-24  (Some start as E-2 or E-3 based on college and other factors)E-3: 17-24E-4: 17-24E-5: 25-34E-6: 25-34 (but there were 2 in the 17-24 range)E-7: 35-44E-8: 35-44E-9: 45+  (but there were 2 E-9's in the 25-34 range)Warrant Officers: The USAF does not have Warrant Officers

What is it like to join the military when you're 50+ years old?

When I first joined the military, I noticed the pay scale had all the blocks filled in, from O-1 with under 2 years of service, to O-10 with over 26. Looking high and left, I found my first military goal: become an O-10 with under 2 years of service! Alas, I did not make 4-star admiral in my first two years—it was only one of many goals that I was to fall short of.Anyone over 50 that enters the military does so under time of extreme crisis or need. They are likely highly skilled specialists who are essentially drafted to best take advantage of their talents. Pulling people into the military allows greater legal control over them and has been done quite a few times. Mainly, they are industrialists, brought in to oversee arms manufacturing or some technical project. There have been times when medical personnel with specialties have done this, though. They come in as O-6s and serve for as long as they want (usually until age 60).Having read about the eras where this was less rare—I can't imagine today's military having to resort to this practice—the response was varied. Most often, the person understood that they were only in uniform for the convenience of the government and their authority was limited. These people were accorded the respect they gained through their civilian lives and then maybe a little more for not riding high on false brass. Others took their rank to heart and were not treated very well, sometimes getting slapped down pretty hard by those who legitimately outranked them.