I need to tap the wisdom on this board regarding the Army. My 17 yr old - Jr in High School - wants to join the Army Reserves now under the split option program. He does boot camp between Jr / Sr year then when he graduates High School he goes in - his intent is to go Full Time active duty as soon as he can. We talk to the recruiter tomorrow - what questions do I need to ask? We are supportive though we don't know if this is best way for him to join. Any help would be appreciated.
He reminds me of me at that age. All I wanted to do was get the hell out of town and tackle an irresistible challenge, and the military happened to be the first thing to come along that fit the bill. Are those his motivations? Could those motivations be realized in some other manner?
Would he rather go to college, let alone a service academy? At the very least he needs to hear the recruiter's explanation of the GI Bill.
Does your son feel ready for college? My nephew (an Army Ranger) enlisted out of high school because he didn't feel he was ready for college (wrong!). After two deployments to Afghanistan and a few more months of behind-the-lines pregame for Iraq's opening day, suddenly college didn't seem so scary. USMA welcomed a combat veteran with open arms, and today he's a 2LT going back through Ranger school again.
Of all the ways to enlist, the Reserves offers the most wiggle room. If your son wants to try the military with as little commitment as possible, this is the way to do it. If he decides during boot camp (or senior year) that the Army isn't what he had in mind, he'll be able to get free with a lot less hassle than if he enlisted on active duty. If he changes his mind about college and wants to go ROTC or even USMA then he'll have Army experience on his résumé. OTOH if he wants to return to civilian life, drag his feet, stop going to drills, and generally be uncooperative about the whole enlistment contract then he'll probably be administratively discharged and never permitted to join the military again. He'll get an OTHD or a general discharge which will have no impact (either way) on his college or career choices. He wouldn't be able to get away with that very easily on an active-duty enlistment contract.
Infantry gives him plenty of ways to look around and decide what specialty he wants to tackle... sort of "try before you buy". Another option would be to take the ASVAB and whatever other skills/interests assessments they offer and see if something really tickles his fancy. If he's really looking for a hardcore physical infantry skill then he should enlist for Ranger training and make noises about going SF.
It's really really hard to persuade a teenager that a signing bonus is just money. Hopefully he's developing a sense of cynicism about the government and will appreciate that there's a reason for them being so nice to him.
Despite their friendly & professional manner, you'll have to remember that the recruiter is no more your friend than your son's friend. Like a used-car salesman, there are things he's required to tell you by law but he won't tell you anything more than that. And like a car salesman, by the end of the month/quarter he'll be truly desperate to make quota. It'll help a lot if you can bring a family member, a friend, or even a co-worker to these meetings who's on active duty, in the Reserves, or at least a veteran. They'll be able to smell the odor of evasive answers as soon as it starts happening.
