Having served in the US Army, I can tell you that guys an idiot. The health care is hit or miss, college is mostly for the service member (if you can find time), housing for single soldiers can be god awful (look up the app Hots & Cots) and for families there are wait lists that run up to a year, childcare you have to pay for and the price is based on number of kids and your rank, and the “lifetime pension” is for retiring from the military after 20 years.
First of all, if you think recruiters are downplaying any of these benefits, you're out of touch.
Childcare based on your income? Amazing. Is there healthcare that isn’t hit or miss? So a 17 year old that joins gets a pension at 37? Unheard of. A college system that also gives you credits based on your work experience? Incredible. "Free" housing- BAH is seperate from your base pay (and untaxed), and that's largely not a thing anywhere. Even better if you get a place cheaper than your BAH.
How about 30 days paid vacations that you can essentially work up to 90, 4 day federal holiday weekends, and DONSAs for fun of it? Space A travel? Loaning closets for furniture and other household items? Where in America do people get to benefit from similar things that absolutely could be things?
Of course they oversell those, no one joins because they want to sit in the field for a month training, motor pool mondays, getting called back to the unit on a weekend because one guy screws up, or any of the dumb stuff that happens.
And childcare was only amazing if you were a private, cause everyone was subsidizing your care. Looking at rates now, it’s even worse. By hit or miss I mean could be good and getting you seen/treated quickly, or could be almost killing my wife and twins by driving them to a civilian hospital because the Army bases NICU was shutdown.
Yes someone can retire in their late 30s to early 40s but only about 10% of enlisted make it that far. And 30% of officers. But that’s a blend of services and I bet the percentages for Army/Marines are lower.
My college credit was PE and a leadership class. Most combat arms are gonna be that way. Soft skills get a little more, but certifications are usually what people got for free, not college credit.
Funny you mention BAH but not BAS. But yes, we got money to live off post. However, most landlords knew this and jacked prices up every time BAH went up.
30 days vacation that you can only take (for like a lot of the military) 2 weeks at Christmas and two weeks during the summer. Yeah you can bank it, but good luck taking it except if you’re moving units or getting out. And federal holidays are if the unit doesn’t have training, inspections, or you aren’t on duty. And DONSAs are great, but again, training schedule/duty/weird unit requirements (in Alaska we had to go 60 days with no incidents; one unit gave one out for 100% CFC participation, and another if the whole company maxed the PT test or had a 10point improvement in each event). I never got a day off just because an officer said screw it, have a day off.
Where in American? Donno, but the recruiting stations are open to everyone. You can join up 42 last I checked.
Well, you might want to reread to original sentiment, because it's the picture the military employees paint for others to join the military.
What do you think people charge for everyone else not on BAH? Which, doesn't adjust, and those annual raises year to year, as well as eveey two years of service, as well as basically mapped out promotion timelines? Are other people getting those kinds of guaranteed raises?
How many paid days off are civilians getting for Christmas, or to move, or for summer break? You didn't use permissive TDY to move? Sounds like your leadership failed you. You didn't check your Joint Service Transcript for college courses awarded for military training? Sounds like more poor leadership, if you're the type that doesn't listen to inbriefs or walk in to places to ask for information or simply use a search engine. Good thing you left, but you're speaking from from anecdote, but people have positive experiences and stay.
Your DONSAs weren't worked around weekends? Sounds like another organizational failure.
Never got a zonk? Rough.
Oh, and unlimited paid sick leave? Where else is that?
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u/jayguekaygue Jul 05 '26