Dayr0n,
This is a decision for you alone to make.
The military is an excellent choice, and provides insurmountable opportunities for your age.
I have been in the Army, I liked it okay. It was challenging, and fun at times, but like any job, it had its downsides.
I am in the Air Force now and I prefer it. They treat their people better, because they have more funding and less bodies.
The Marines ARE NOT LIKE THE AIR FORCE, so dont compare them.
The Air Force is basically a civilian in BDUs. They dont do PT (Physical training) every morning. In fact, 90% of the units never do it.
Whereas the Army and Marines have PT every morning at such and such a time 4:30-6am, and its an ass kicker hour plus session.
If you are military police, then you either do PT before or after shift because you arent on a normal training schedule.
The Army and Marines, (especially infantry units) are often confined on base in barracks.
The Air force has "Dorms" available, but often allow you to have your own house or appartment off post. Of which they give you an extra allowance of pay, BAH, to pay for it. Around 800 bucks extra here. 1500 if I were married
As far as your fear of deployment, in the Air Force, you wont see it as much. You will have opportunities to go TDY for a month or so to another country, but its nothing like the Army / Marines.
Unless you choose Security Forces or combat controller, Para - rescue, pilot, you wont be fighting at all, and probably wont be involuntarily deployed.
But you will want to deploy man. Deployments kick ass. There are a lot of anti - bush micheal moore preaching bleeding hearts in here, that have everything figured out, but im telling you, decide for yourself whether or not you support what we are doing over there. I do 100%
If you dont, then stay the hell outta my military and go suck on your thumb.
Another good idea is the Air National Guard. In most jobs you will have the opportunity to work full time as active duty, but the great thing is, front the national guard, you can switch branches or states any time you like via conditional release.
If you are put on voluntary orders for say a year (most NG orders are voluntary unless your entire wing is mobilized, which is rare in the NG you will usually only see that from units like the Red Horse units or PJ / SF units) And half way through it, you get a local job that is better for you. You tell your commander and they will amend your orders and let you off back to a traditional guardsmen (1 weekend a month) just like that.
That is what I am doing now.
At e-4 I make just over 40k a year, most of it tax free since it is allowances. Free college, extra pay when I am taking classes, full benefits etc etc. I get a lot of deployment, TDY opportunities and for now this is great for me. Military experience is great for any civilian occupation. Combine that with a degree and you will be a step ahead of the competition.
FYI, I was Military Police in the Army, and am SF in the Air Force.
I want to go back to the Army and try out for special forces, but I will wait till the end of my current enlistment. I have passed all the required asvab, Dlab, tests required. Now I just gotta go get my ass kicked and see if I am tough enough
If you have any other questions or anything, about what to expect in any aspect, feel free to give me a shout at
Cliff_lien@yahoo.com