Military before college

50N40W
Sun, 03 Jul 2016 23:55:52 +0000

I very nearly did this a couple decades ago.
You’ll want to do some investigation at the websites of the Army and Air Force (and possibly Navy) and talk to a recruiter, but bear in mind the recruiters may not always be the most accurate.

My experience was Air Force and is out of date, but here goes.
In my experience the USAF was very supportive of having enlisted people further their education. I just googled the education offices of Kirkland (Albuquerque) and Wright Patt (Dayton OH). KAFB offers lunchtime classes from Lewis University, U of New Haven, Wayland Baptist, and Embry Riddle. WPAFB also hosts an Embry Riddle campus plus Central Michigan, U Dayton, Park University (Gene Cernan “Failure is Not an Option” author is an alum, I think) etc.

Redstone Arsenal (Army) shows they host Athens State, Florida Inst Tech, Columbia College, Embry Riddle etc.

The point being that opportunities exist while on active duty. It will take discipline, especially those times when most of your peers are out partying, but it can be done - I’ve known several to start and/or complete a degree while on active duty.

I would expect that a really top-notch ASVAB (study guides are available) would be the first step to getting a desk job - desk jobs tend to be more stable, more stable assignments are easier to schedule assignments and tests around etc.

The person coming off 3-4 years of active duty is fundamentally different from a fresh high school grad. I can’t imagine extracurriculars would matter as much as a clean DD214 and a couple semesters worth of course work.