Anyone's child join the military?

All three of mine joined the military. With two of them it was no surprise as they had been talking about it since they were 10. The third one did surprise me. It was good for all of them. In the end none of them have made a career of it. They all have made good use of their college benefits. I also have a son in law and a daughter in law who served. The son in law has retired from the military.

My 20 year old DS is in the Navy. He was 19 when he joined so he also handled everything on his own. My DH was also in the Navy so he gave our son some pointers.

Hopefully I won't step on anybody's toes but recruiters are there to get folks to sign up. They will tell you a lot of things that may or may not be true. They need to get everything in writing.....EVERYTHING! Also, if the job that your DD's want is not available they can either wait until it comes available or choose a different job. DH says never, ever go in as un-designated.

My son's experience has been really good. He has yet to go on deployment but he's anxious to see the world. He's on the USS Nimitz based out of Bremerton, Washington. He's excited about that but this momma is not. He will be gone 9 months.

As a parent, this has been the hardest yet most proudest thing I've ever experienced. I miss him terribly. I remember when he was in bootcamp and every week they would post pictures of the recruits on the FB page. I would scour every single one of them hoping to see my boy. I did finally about a month after he left! I cried like a baby and still get teary eyed thinking about it. When he graduated from bootcamp and I saw him march in.....I thought my heart would burst with pride! I'm tearing up just typing this.

I'm not sure if I helped or not but I wish your daughters the best of luck!

My second oldest joined the Marines. It was a good decision for him...he was a little wild and out of control and learned a new respect when he went away to boot camp.

We were contacted by the police about 6 months after he joined, because our personal information had been compromised. His recruiter had stolen many recruitees information and was opening Amex accounts, etc. in their names.....just a word of caution....99% of the recruiters are honest and above board....

And I have to say your post made me smile.

My Marine got out and is going through Police Academy. For whatever odd reason I didn't worry tooooo much about him in the Marines. I'm a whole lot more worried about him being a LEO (although I know he will be great at it) In the military it is a lot easier to know who is "friendly" and who is not.

I would recommend you ask your daughters these questions before the interviews:

1) what are you hoping to get out of the military?
2) what leads you to select these two branches?
3) have you prepared a list of questions to ask them?

Then, I would ask them to also visit a Navy and Air Force recruiter. Have them ask them the same set of prepared questions to each recruiter. You should ask each recruiter a question that deals with #1 above, as in "my daughter wants to get _____ out of her experience. How would the Army fulfill that?"

How wonderful for your son!  I have heard similar stories from parents whose unmotivated daughters and sons enlisted and it helped them to become more disciplined and set them up for a great future!

I have no experience, but congratulations to your daughters for meeting with a recruiter and considering serving our country!

Well my two oldest kiddos are (or was) in the military.  They are 19 and 20.  

My son who is 20, is in the Air Force.  In the AF, you are not guaranteed a job.  I am not sure about the Army or Marines.  But in our case, even if the recruiter says they can get you in a job, it might not happen (at least in the AF)

My daughter went to boot camp for the Navy and was sent home on a medical discharge.  She can try again in a year.  But it is pretty hard but she really wants to.  Navy has been an uphill battle and I don't know why.  She is a strong girl but it's been hassles from day one.  I know Navy has more than enough people volunteering so they will do anything to get the weak out, but her heart is set on it.

We found some FB pages for parents that helped out A LOT... you kinda have to really research to find them.  The AF page for my son's group was awesome and me and a few moms are still friends to this day.  The page was specifically for his group.   The Navy had one as well but we never did find a page for her group...  There are parent pages, mom pages and on and on.  You get a feel for it once you start researching websites... The AF's official website for parents is where we found a ton of information that led us to the group's page.  

Hope that helps... welcome to being a military parent!!!

PS..if they do go in and get to boot camp... DON'T send them anything!!! LOL... really....they will get in trouble for getting stuff... other than just plain letters or cards in white envelopes. With no lovey dovey stuff written on it.

Is the 19yr old the daughter that had some issues???  Maybe this is a good thing. 

All 3 of my sons have been/are military. My oldest joined the Army National Guard near the end of his senior year, and left for Basic Training a week after he graduated. After the Fall semester of college the Guard sent him to the Defense Language Institute where he got a degree in Russian, then sent him to be trained as an interrogator. At the end of college, he commissioned into the Army as an officer, and is currently a Captain. We knew this son would be military from his sophomore year. He had originally wanted to end up CIA, but after meeting "the girl" he changed his mind (which I was glad about.)

Our second son was kinda floundering after graduation. At age 19, my dh & I sat down with him and told him we didn't care what branch he joined, but that he was going to join one of them or else we would not be supporting him any longer. He chose Army National Guard and it has been a wonderful thing for him. He has always been interested in computers, and ended up working with them in the Guard. He isn't Active Duty with them, but they have sent him to sooooooo much training that has helped him get work outside of the military. He re-upped and is about to be promoted to an E6, and is currently in the background check portion of an application to work in cyber-security with Homeland Security. Without his Guard training, he would have never been at this point.

Our 3rd son decided to go Marine Reserves. He is the only one who had a bad recruiter experience, and really got screwed over, but he served his time even so, and learned some life lessons along the way. He did not choose to re-up, but has not ruled out military in the future (he is only 24.)

I agree with the above posters regarding the request for a specific position. DH was recently helping a young man with his Navy recruiting process - he wanted to be a medic. That was the sole reason he was joining. Recruiters told him that there were no open positions and were really trying to push him into the nuclear program.

DH's advice to the young man - hold firm and then tell them you're going to go see what the Air Force has to offer. As soon as the word "Air Force" was spoken to the recruiter, magically, a medic position opened up!

Always keep in mind that recruiters are SALES PEOPLE. Just like on a used car lot, some are great and others a bit slimy.

Good to hear the meetings went well.