College or military?

The A.F. isn't always Beer and Skittles, along with the training and specialities, a much less known fact is the working hours, not all in the A.F. do a 9-5 Monday through Friday, and if your in the mechanical field, unless your in a shop state side, chances are your doing 12 on and 12 off, and on deployments flight line duty is non stop as long as there are ops taking place, those can run weeks and months! Often at strange hours, and your turning airframes at an astounding rate. I once observed our F-15 maintenance wing doing turns every hour and 30 min, that's a complete inspection, fueling, and arming/rearming turn on ether an entire squadron or and entire wing, non stop for 3 months strait! Not only is that quite common, it's extremely dangerous. This is where the rubber meets the road, flight line duties during ops, and I can tell you, the accidents do happen a lot more then folks think, loose half your pinky finger, your ether driving a desk or your out! We did have good quarters and good mess halls, I guess you could say it was compensation for the extra training and the more specific requirements of the job.

Another observance, again, my beloved F-15 squadron, the engine shop is about the most boring place on the planet. The engines are removed from the airframe, brought to you on a big rolling cart, pushed through a large by huge X-Ray booth, and then brought to your work bench with the work order. Y Liu sign for that engine, and then you sigh for the book. You follow the exact sequence of dissemvle for your assigned components, all the while others are doing the fuel and electrical, neudrolics, hydrolics, burner section, hot section, compressor section, etc. Untill you have your section apart for repair/inspection/replacement. The whole time, you better have your book open to the correct page, and the exact steps, one finger on that exact step, the other hand and correct tool doing that exact step!!!! Like I said, boring as hell, mindless and yet extremely tedious. You are literally responsable for a 10 million dollar engine, a 40 million dollar airframe, and millions of dollars worth of weapons, and even more millions worth of very senior pilot training value! Your name in permentally attached to that engine through out it's life and any thing that happens, your name will come up during any investigation! That' why I say stay out of aircraft engines, learn other things aircraft relayed, then go to civilian trade school!

 

I'm late to this party, but I did read the entire thread and as someone who did not serve in the military but does hold two college degrees (one of them in a STEM field), I think I can add something that has not already been said.

First off, is your son mechanically inclined? Is he the kind of kid who will pull an old lawnmower out of the trash and spend a whole weekend tearing it apart? Does he like to work with tools? Does he even own any tools? Does he have a genuine hands-on interest in mechanical stuff or is he only a curious onlooker? There is a difference between the person who loves diving into mechanical things and someone who just thinks it's cool. Think of it in terms of the NASCAR fan vs. the NASCAR driver.

Second, no one should join the military for the primary purpose of learning a trade. As others with more experience in this area have already explained, there is no guarantee that he'll learn what he wants to learn, or that what he learns will be useful in the civilian world. Furthermore, being in the military comes with a lot of strings attached. You join because you want to serve your country. The rest is just a bonus.

An aviation trade school is very expensive, but he will learn exactly what he wants to learn fairly quickly. If he joins the military, he'll have to wait four years before he even has a shot at attending college.

If he is exceptionally talented, particularly in math, he can consider a four year engineering degree. Engineering is not as "hands on" but the money is outstanding and there is a much higher ceiling for advancement.

Good luck.

 

Do an enlistment then, most college will seem easy, unless it's vibrations or fluid dynamics 2 you're taking.

 

Ta heck with all that knuckle bustin, tell him he needs to burn rod

Sass's uncle is one of those guys that has a God-given talent for mechanics. Sounds a lot like your son, started out tinkering with stuff and loved it. After high school went to a small trade school in this county then went to work. Had a very good career and ended up with his own garage and folks around here cried when he retired
There is a lot to be said for trade schools and even union programs. I myself quit college after my 1st quarter. Long story, but it didn't challenge me. Went to work as a welder's helper liked the trade and you know the rest.

If your son wants to work on planes I would say go AF, suck up as many schools as he can then go civvy. A buddy of mine did just that, except he stayed in for 20. Had his pick of jobs afterwards. 1st went to the gulf as a civilian contractor, made a shit ton of cash bought a GREAT farm in MO for C-A-S-H then took a job with a large aircraft company. Just going by what he did I'd say go air frame mechanic. He worked on a bunch of different aircraft but the last ones he worked on for Uncle Sam were the stealth bombers outta Whitman.
LOL, Years ago he called me up late one night and asked,"Hey Bro if you could write anything on a bomb that was headed to Saddam's house what would it be?" We talked for a few minutes then I came up with what I thought sounded cool and he told me to watch CNN the next day. Sure enough they got delivered

 

I agree with Bandit99. It's hard to explain. This might be hard to read, but it will help clear up some things.

We teach immediate obedience to orders, no questions, just do it. NOW!!! This is because trying to do things a new way right now might get everybody in the squad killed. I served at a time when my boss had probably been inducted by the draft, was likely much older than me, and could be illiterate. So the old Gunny might seem stupid and stubborn doing things the way we always did it. If you wanted to suggest changes you had to be tactful, and ready to work the change through to its end result. Is it cheaper, faster, safer? Probably not. That's why we do everything the way we always did, even when it seems counter-intuitive, or totally crazy. (Response to a near ambush? Anybody remember that?)

Keep in mind that the fundamental difference between the Gunny and the professor is that the Gunny is responsible for the lives of his Marines. If he starts trying new things without thinking them through the CO has to write those letters that begin with "I regret to inform you..." and the chaplain and Casualty Assistance Officer have to go visit hometown USA.

It's a mans decision. He has to make it himself.

 

1. Plenty of kids join to learn a trade, get money for school, find direction in life, get away from family stuff, etc. Serving your country is not always the number one priority of first term kids. (Although we tell civies this so they think we are all noble) I see it all the time in my unit. This is not a bad thing. The military needs labor. These kids provide it and the military gives them benefits. Once you’ve been in a while the motivation generally changes. I am proud of being a reservist and afghanistan vet. I enjoy serving my country. I did not join originally for that reason! I joined for college money. I reenlisted for my country. I am now in the ready to hang up my reservist uniform phase because I am sick of being sent to camp sandy butt crack every few years. Only 2 more until I hit my 20 abd then free agency! Going to war was a different motivation for me. I didn’t feel like I went for my country. I wanted to go to be there for the guys in my unit because they are my friends, almost like family.

As someone who also has multiple degrees, bs and ms in engineering, it CAN be more hands on. It depends on your specialty and position. If you are a mechanical engineer who works in production in a plant you will be installing new equipment, designing upgrades to existing stuff and working with mechanics to keep it all running. Materials enginners are very hands on in a plant environment too. You are the process expert. If you work in r&d sometimes you do and sometimes you don’t. Usually though that depends on the individual ability of the engineer. When I was r&d i also did most of my own grunt work when possible and used technicians only when i had to. If you get into ndt engineering to be a level 3 you have to be a qualified level 2 inspector first so you have to be hands on. I actually use my military training in addition to my civilian education and experience in my civilian job every day. Like anything else it depends on your field!

 

Another way to put it is that the military has to compete for talent just like any other enterprise. If they want good people to enlist, then they have to be competitive and offer a good deal. Otherwise, private employers will scoop up all the talented people and the military ends up as a dumping ground for those who can't cut it anywhere else.

That said, a lot of people do enlist to learn a trade but they often overlook the one huge difference between civilian college and the military:

In the military, you serve them.
In college, they serve you.

The "correct" path is not the same for everyone but it's important to understand this distinction. It's also important to understand that every single veteran/active duty service person who went to college on the government's dime worked for and fully earned every cent of that tuition money. They did not go to school for "free".

So it's a "pay me now, or pay me later" tradeoff: Join the military and indirectly pay for your education on the front end through your service, or go straight to college and pay the student loans off yourself after you graduate. In this sense, it's a zero-sum game, and either way, you're going to pay.

 

Actually the military has higher standards than many civilian businesses. There are extensive background checks, physicals, aptitude testing, and educational requirements. Actually as a reservist I find that the enlisted guys in my reserve unit are generally smarter people than many of the hourly guys at work. They have a better work ethic too. Don’t accuse the military of being society’s dumping ground. That has been proven false time and time again by many studies. There was an experiment back during vietnam era of recruiting people with lower IQs but it ended extremely poorly.