Why was joining Air Force the best decision for me at that time?
It’s time for Blog 4 already, wow! Thank you to those who are back, and welcome to those who are new here. I am truly grateful for everyone here!
Today I would like to tell you why joining the military, in particular Air Force, was the best decision for me after high school and a year of college. There are a couple things that I would like to touch on in this blog and explain every single one of them. I want to say that everything worked out for me during my career, but it did not come without a price. As currently I am fully separated from the Air Force I still use a lot of benefits that military gave me after I signed that dotted line on the first day of my journey back on September 20th of 2016. It is a strategic decision and if you play your cards right you will succeed, maybe not in the short term but in the long term for sure. The amount of information out there about all possible military benefits is wild. Active-duty members and veterans are giving out information that is so useful that it feels like a sin not to use it and set yourself for future success.
Back to my story now. After a year of college (you can read about my college experience here), I went off to start a new chapter in my life with the US Air Force. I made this choice because my brother was serving for 2 years at that point and because I did not want to have a student loan on my shoulders, plus I did not know what I wanted to do. At that point everything was taken care of me, my parents did it all. Being 19, going to college would mean I have to step up and do it all myself. At that point I was not ready, I just didn’t know honestly. Some people were ready, but I wasn’t. Hats off to those you went off to college, graduated and now working and making bank. As soon as I came to the recruiter, they did everything for me, just told me where to show up and at what time. That was a relief. It went like that my whole career. Every year I had annual appointments scheduled for me, missions, deployments, awards, etc. everything was tracked. You just have to do your job and not worry about other stuff. That’s why every job in the military is important, someone has to track everything to keep the force going. Of course, there were times when it was too much, and it felt like you have no ownership of yourself but it’s which way you look at it. I realized that I made a correct decision because from the first day to the last day in the military, I was getting paid. Steady paycheck was coming twice a month to a kid who had to work part time jobs to make quarter of that. It wasn’t a lot right away, but it was something, better than nothing. If you are interested in what the paychecks are, google it, it’s all there. With each year and rank it grew. Plus, during Basic Training and Tech school you get food for free in the cafeteria. So, for the first couple months, you can just save that money. Right away I realized that if I had gone to college, I’d have to have an additional job to have some money for myself. I think it’s a huge plus.
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A huge selling point for the military is free education. That’s what got me too ha-ha. My parents always wanted us to get a bachelor’s degree, education is important. Some say it isn’t, but I truly believe it, especially if it’s paid for. There are so many different ways you can use education benefit to benefit you and your career. It’s great. I got my bachelor’s degree without paying a dime for it. It did take a little longer, but I still managed to get it. Little by little I was chipping away, I was taking 1 class at a time, during my deployments I would try to take 2 I even tried to take 3 once. Since you have a job to do daily, it is hard to do college full-time, just not enough time to do homework and still being able to finish all work tasks. Air Force has a program called Tuition Assistance which gives you $4500 for a year to spend on school classes. If your classes cost $750 (mine did) than you can take up to 6 classes a year completely for free. If you want more than you’ll have to pay out of your own pocket or find some grants, etc. There’s also GI Bill which will pay for your school. During my time in service, I got a Bachelor’s degree and now that I am separated my plan is to get my Master’s degree using GI Bill benefits for completely free for me.
A lot of people ask me about Raven (read about Raven here). They want to know how I traveled so much. That is what they want to do too. I know a lot of them don’t realize that it is possible to travel with any job. It is a different kind of travel; you have to pay for everything yourself but still. For example, if you live in Colorado and you get stationed in the state you have never been to. It is already traveling. I am from WA state and got stationed in Tampa. I have never been there before, and I already took as a traveling. Every new city, new place is traveling to me. Google what’s around and go there on the weekends. If you are in stationed in Europe. OMG, go travel all over the place. Don’t sit and wait for a perfect moment. All the doors are open for you there. I have friends who are in different countries every single weekend. Now, if your job requires traveling, than that’s a huge bonus. Don’t think negatively if your job does not require you to travel. If you state side, put request for Korea and go to Europe after. There is always a way, just keep trying.
Post military benefits are great, I did not realize that until I was fully separated. Veterans Affairs is amazing. They take care of you and provide a lot of great resources. If you receive a disability rating, it’s money for the rest of your life. That’s why it is important to see a doctor if something hurts. If you did 4 years or retired, you still considered veteran. No matter how your career went, you signed that line and were ready to do it. It’s awesome, I am proud of you. You served! Huge step, especially after high school because I know how it was for me.
Hope this helped. I’m sharing my personal experiences and want to provide as much information as possible about the Air Force. I truly enjoy doing this and I hope you like this as well. Don’t go blind sided into the armed forces. Make sure to do your research and pick what is best for you. You don’t find military as your cup of tea, it is totally ok, but you want to go to college, go to college, just make sure to plan for the future and start setting yourself up now. If you have any questions, feel free to contact me. I would love to answer them all.
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Next Friday, my blog will be about, “Why I decided from separate from Air Force”
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You guys rock!!!
Very Respectfully,
Vlad Kalinin