Great camaraderie and benefits, but tough work-life balance
Pros
1. Camaraderie - you will never work with a better group of people than the ones you meet in your unit. 2. Fringe benefits - 30 days of paid leave earned per year, tuition assistance to attend college while on active duty, full medical and dental coverage, housing (barracks, base housing, or in town depending on rank and marital status), veteran's benefits when you discharge, and the list goes on. 3. Travel - while serving, I have lived in five states, seven cities, been to nine states for training, deployed to or been in nine countries for training or operations, been underway on a ship, and have more on the horizon. 4. Fitness - you are required to maintain a high degree of physical fitness. You'll see friends from high school and college add weight as years go by, but you don't have a choice in that. Keeping fit is part of your job. 5. Training - not only the skills you'll learn that can translate into civilian jobs later. You'll learn how to apply lifesaving first aid, survive in the water while wearing heavy gear, navigate with a map and compass, to use weapons, martial arts, and tons of additional courses if you seek them out and ask (rescue swimming techniques, rappelling, pack animals, etc.) it just depends what you want to do.
Cons
1. It can be difficult to balance the demands of the work with your personal life and personal obligations. If you're stationed away from where you grew up, you will not come back very often. You'll miss some holidays, weddings, birthdays, funerals, all the stuff people normally come together for. 2. Hours - you'll generally spend a few weeks at a time in the field, work a few weekends, stand duty (basically phone watch and security) at your unit on a 24 hour shift about once per month. The work days can get long depending what your job is and what your unit is doing. A regular day is still eight hours but it's not uncommon to stay for anywhere from 10-14 hours if something important is happening. 3. It will eventually take a toll on your body. I'm still relatively young and have some aches and pains that I wasn't expecting for another 15-20 years. Lesson there - push your body, but listen to it at the same time. Take recovery seriously.
