Haha, I was under the assumption that some of the base training was the same or very similar as the outside. I know now, civilian ratings may make you more attractive to other branches but civilian time or training doesn't replace military time.

Thanks for the responses folks, theyre much appreciated.

The more I research it, the more I find myself in a grey area as applying goes. I wouldn't mind being deployed to live combat if it was needed, but I'd want to primarily be involved in the emergency relief/humanitarian side of things and from what I've heard, you don't go in choosing that; you're more or less assigned to the projects as need dictates. I most definitely wouldnt mind putting down 10 years if I knew I was going to be doing something on the humanitarian side of things. But, I'm not in favor of being in a combat role until I'm 33-38 years old and from what I understand, it's pretty much a gamble for someone of those interests.