considering joining...thoughts?
I thought I would get some opinions from some of you already in the service. Here’s a short run-down of my situation. I have a mountain of student loan debt for an aviation degree and my flight training. I’m on my second furlough, despite 2500+ TT, 1600+ turbine 121 SIC, etc. Nobody’s hiring pilots and nobody will be for quite a while. I’ve considered changing careers, but an aviation degree isn’t worth much outside of aviation even in a good job market. I can’t find anything. I’m 34, no wife, no kids (though I hope to change that sooner than later). The clock is ticking, the economy is in freefall, the job market’s in the toilet, and my experience and education happen to be in the one industry that’s at the forefront of said freefall. I feel like I’m pretty much screwed, except for one possible solution.
I’m seriously considering joining the military. As I understand it, they’ll pay off a substantial portion – if not all – of my student loans, and give me a stable income for four to six years. I could come out the other end debt free, or close to it, and hopefully back into a recovered economy. I don’t see any other way out of my disaster in so short an amount of time.
According to my local recruiters, the Army is the only branch willing to give me an age waiver, despite being in good shape, intelligent, educated and experienced (if anyone knows that this is bad info, please let me know). So on that front, I’m looking pretty strongly at WOFT, but also thinking about OCS. I’m on the fence about whether to pick an MOS in aviation, since I already have considerable experience and a degree in that field, or one where I’ll get some training in a different field so I’m not so pigeon-holed, professionally speaking. I haven’t completely ruled out straight enlistment, but considering what I bring to the table, I tend to think there are better options. I could be wrong.
Any and all advice, opinions or suggestions, military related or otherwise, would be tremendously appreciated. I seriously need to get out of this mess. And by the way, thanks to those of you already in the forces for your dedication and service to our country.