Was choosing your branch of service everything you thought it would be? Did you expect more or less?

I was going in the Marines w/ my best friend on the buddy system but the recruiter began joking around swimming! I got up & he asked, "where are you going"? I said, "down the hall to the Army recruiter"! Best move I could have made!! Thanks Sgr. January!!! Still remember that cat's name!

I chose the Army, and i went Airborne, home is where you make it!

While I did not get the job I wanted, I have never regretted my decision to join the Air Force. My uncle served 26 years in the Army, the last 9 of which as a recruiter. When he found out I was looking to join the military, he informed that my only options were Air Force or Navy. If I even considered Army or Marines he was going to find me and kick my ass. Seeing as a former Army recruiter was telling me to avoid the Army, I took his advice to heart. I didn't want to spend the rest of my life on a boat or a submarine, so Air Force was the only option left for me. Sorry coast guard, as TSgt Hunter Logan mentioned in her post, I did not even realize at the time that you guys were a branch of the military. Thought you were more on the lines of a police dept. branch for the water...

I know I haven't completed my first contract but joining the army schooling wise (AIT) I did have a little more expectations when it came to discipline and respect I'm not to sure about operational army but once I get out of the TRADOC environment then I'll be able to express my opinions on what I think about the Army. But so far so good!

It was exactly what I expected

I work in a JOINT environment, so I'm still trying to figure out which branch I'm in. It clearly isn't the Army, because all Army regulations have been tossed out the window.

I was raised on a cattle ranch in Western Wyoming an the Navy seemed to be a better place than pushing cows. I joined in 1965 - boot in SD - then off to IC A school. After A school went to VN as a telephone specialist and was there from early 66 to late 68. Got out and everywhere I looked for a job they asked me if I was a VN vet -- I was and they did not need me. Went down saw the recruiter asked if I could get my rank back and sub school. He got it - I went back in and never looked back. Made SCPO and was offered a commission in 1979 - took it and had a ball. Major commands were the USS Constellation CV-64, Dir EM/IC schools in GLakes and USS Wisconsin BB-64. Beings that I retired as a LCDR -- well the Navy was alright by me. I think it boils down to you get out of anything what you put into it.

I joined the Marine Corps in 1968 I retired August 1990. There were only 2 days I did not love being a Marine, the day I decided to retire and the day I retired!

When I joined the Army National Guard in 1984, the nearest Guard unit was in Gladstone, MI within half an hour from my home. At the time, I didn't know the ARNG had different branches because the only units in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan were the 107th Combat Engineers. I signed up after my three brothers had joined and were going to leave me doing all their farm work for the Summer. I joined three months later and we all left for basic training together at FT. Leonard Wood, MO. It was our first plane ride. Now I have a ton of stories to tell about being in the service with my three brothers (and one sister). How cool is that!

I actually went back and forth before joining. I wanted choices on entering the service, and I looked at the Navy, Army, and the Marine Corps. I always had a fascination with the Navy and still do to this day, but my father was a Corpsman in Vietnam and made it very clear that he thought I'd hate the Navy as an enlisted man. The Army quite literally promised everything I asked for on paper. The Corps promised nothing. They wanted me to be what they wanted. Period. When I told them the Army had promised me a particular contract, the GySgt merely smile and pointed across the street to the Army depot and stated "Then go over there and join them. It's your career." So for a few months that's exactly what I did. Then my father found the company historian for Fox 2/7, his unit in Vietnam. Within days we were getting phone calls for Doc Barnes. People came down to visit, drove cross country, flew in from Canada once, and when they got here, it was as though they'd known each other every day for those last 30 years. And every one of them spoke more of the Marines than anything else. Some were successful businessmen, some were high ranking law enforcement, and everything in between, but when asked what they were, they didn't say "Chief of Police," or "CEO of whatever," or "Doctor of this." Unanimously, they would respond with Marine. The reverence in which they held that institution, the confidence with which they handled any situation, and the brotherhood they exhibited, that made me rethink everything. I began to question relatives and friends and family friends about the Army. I searched, hard, to find all of these things. And, no flies on the Army, I could find some. Some people still identified as soldiers and were very proud. Some were extremely confident and still had military bearing. Some maintained friendships, albeit never to the degree I witnessed with the Marines. None, however, exhibited all of these things together. By contrast, every Marine I met did. Being stubborn, I felt like I could not just walk in and change my mind. I vowed to stand by my decision. But that Gunny's words kept eating me. It was my career, after all. I realized that no matter how much I immersed myself in the Army, no matter how much I tried, every time I saw a Marine I would feel like I'd made a mistake. I would wonder what it would be like. Sure, it would be a fleeting moment, but I would be doomed to repeat it over and over for the rest of my life. I joined the Corps, and not once have I regretted that choice. I've met Marines who regretted the military as a whole, but that's not an institutional damnation. Point is, I got what I wanted, but it wasn't what I thought I wanted. If you feel any sort of nagging regret, you need to analyze it. That doesn't apply if that regret is fear of pain or tribulation, but you get the idea. Good luck. I sincerely hope you are as happy with your choice as I was with mine.