Careers in the Army with low deployment rates?

I really don't mean to be blunt here...but..

You really need to step back from trying figure out the risk factors in each branch. They are all risky, look at the number of casualties caused by IED's, they don't care if your SF or a Quatermaster driving or walking on the road.

If risk is a factor which I assume it is because of the number of times you have asked about it, the Army is not the right career choice for you. You have no control over what branch you get, you could want MI and get Infantry. You need to be prepared to accept any risk that comes with joining the military. Those that accept that risk don't ask which branch is safer.

To answer your question, yes.

It is not as much a factor for me as it is for my parents though. I am aware that there are risks (but the levels vary based on your job) and I have accepted it for what it is. I just want to have a successful career as an Officer. I know I shouldn't compromise with my parents--and I won't, but when you are a person that has lived under their roof for 22 years of your life under strict rules you feel the need to at least make them feel safe (even though its not the smartest thing to do) about your whereabouts
 
.. when you are a person that has lived under their roof for 22 years of your life under strict rules you feel the need to at least make them feel safe (even though its not the smartest thing to do) about your whereabouts
Where do you think the rest of us (and our children) lived during the first 20 +/- years of our lives? Parents will worry. They will want you to be safe. Either decide your own path or follow the path your parents want you to take....your call. But dear God....PLEASE quit trying to figure out the safest job in the military. There are no safe jobs.
Good luck! :thumb:
 
It is not as much a factor for me as it is for my parents though.

I think it is and has been a factor for most military parents for all time. Life is risky, things happen. You can stay in bomb shelter your whole life to be safe. I would think it would turn out to be not much of a life.
 
Where do you think the rest of us (and our children) lived during the first 20 +/- years of our lives? Parents will worry. They will want you to be safe. Either decide your own path or follow the path your parents want you to take....your call. But dear God....PLEASE quit trying to figure out the safest job in the military. There are no safe jobs.
Good luck! :thumb:

also understand that they try to impose unreasonable fears that come with being in the military (rumor, movies) and they justify it as reality.
 
also understand that they try to impose unreasonable fears that come with being in the military (rumor, movies) and they justify it as reality.

Well then, don't let them impose it. They'll get over it... or not. My son wants to go infantry. Will I worry about him WHEN he deploys (there is no if). Sure. Will I fret every day? No. This is his dream and I need to allow him to follow it.

I understand trying to calm them and encourage you to do that. But don't let them run it. It's your life. Or if your unwilling to take that step, avoid or get out of the military ASAP.
 
Gridiron, I am writing this assuming that you are a serious person and that you are not yanking chains here. If I am wrong, then shame on me.

My "come to Jesus" moment was when DS (AROTC MS III 1/2) was asked to provide dental records before enrollment.

A while back, my family was all together with assorted friends and a few adult beverages. Someone asked my brother about flying during the Vietnam War. He flew one of the lowest and slowest planes in the Air Force, carrying all manner of cargo from ammunition and food, to ducks and mercenary snipers. He was a hell raiser throughout his youth and like most young men had no fear of death because he had no concept of death. Dying to him was something that your grandparents do after a long happy life or an unlucky draw of the cards in the form of cancer or heart attack.

He described how he idolized fighter pilots and how he thought the main qualifications were to be able to drink whiskey and cuss. He knew that if he minded his P's and Q's, he would eventually get to fly an F4. He lived in this fantasy world until he arrived in country. He said it took just a few days before he said to himself, "You can get killed doing this stuff".

Ever since DS got the notion to apply for an xROTC scholarship, I have made sure that he understood that notion. Like my brother in his early 20's, my DS had/has little concept of untimely death, certainly not his own.

Beyond that I, like kinnem, have little to offer him other than my support.
 
Kid, you are going from the frying pan into the fire with questions like this.

It's simple, your almost if not already 22 years old. If by now you have not been able to make a decision, you have been asking these same questions for months, it may be time to move on to a new goal.

If you are picking a MOS off of death tolls then maybe you should go civilian....
 
If you are not ready to make mom and dad a little upset about your adult decisions, you are not capable of leading America's sons and daughters. It's that simple.
 
I know there are death tolls in any branch but the risks vary depending on your job. I've come to terms with that a long time ago.

Seeing that you have accepted the risks of the job, I think the appropriate way to end this conversation with your parents might be as follows...

Parent: So you've chosen X branch. Does it get deployed less than Y or Z branches?

Son: As an officer, my X branch company may be attached to a Y or Z branch battalion which has as much opportunity to deploy depending upon the random nature of military missions dictated upon unpredictable world event. It is a fools mission to try to game such a complex system for that purpose. Additionally, if word got out that I was trying to avoid action, do you think that my soldiers would respect me or my peers would have my back when I do see action? I think having this objective would be counterproductive in assuring my safety, so it is best that I focus my energies on being the most proficient branch X officer that I can be so I can earn the trust and backing of my soldiers and peers in the field.

Parent: Oh, I never thought of it that way...

Part of your job as an officer will be to educate the public (including your parents) as to the nature of military life.

Perhaps others will have more to contribute to this conversation...
 
It is not as much a factor for me as it is for my parents though. I am aware that there are risks (but the levels vary based on your job) and I have accepted it for what it is. I just want to have a successful career as an Officer. I know I shouldn't compromise with my parents--and I won't, but when you are a person that has lived under their roof for 22 years of your life under strict rules you feel the need to at least make them feel safe (even though its not the smartest thing to do) about your whereabouts

Gridironkid, when you start at Virginia Tech, I hope you are quite a ways from your parents. You need to start a life apart from them and their constant worries and doubts. You are 22 and it's time for Mommy and Daddy to let you off their leash. Parental guidance is great but parental control at your age is NOT helpful.

When you get to VT, you work as hard as you know how. Maybe your military goals will work out but they won't if you keep listening to your parents' nonstop chatter, looking at weirdo videos online, and listening to "people." I saw that you said that you might be interested in law school someday----law school is brutal and you need top grades and a super LSAT score to get in so quit fiddling around and get busy.

I have sons not too much older than you and if they kept mooning around and asking odd questions on a forum instead of taking charge of their lives, they would have my boot on their rear end.
 
Gridironkid, when you start at Virginia Tech, I hope you are quite a ways from your parents. You need to start a life apart from them and their constant worries and doubts. You are 22 and it's time for Mommy and Daddy to let you off their leash. Parental guidance is great but parental control at your age is NOT helpful.

When you get to VT, you work as hard as you know how. Maybe your military goals will work out but they won't if you keep listening to your parents' nonstop chatter, looking at weirdo videos online, and listening to "people." I saw that you said that you might be interested in law school someday----law school is brutal and you need top grades and a super LSAT score to get in so quit fiddling around and get busy.

I have sons not too much older than you and if they kept mooning around and asking odd questions on a forum instead of taking charge of their lives, they would have my boot on their rear end.

Just curious how do you deal with parents that don't support you with your decisions? usually, parents would cope with their kids decisions and then support them for it, but mine are stubborn. I even told them that if I listen to them I would most likely regret the decision
 
Just curious how do you deal with parents that don't support you with your decisions? usually, parents would cope with their kids decisions and then support them for it, but mine are stubborn. I even told them that if I listen to them I would most likely regret the decision

Just stop, you keep asking the same questions. If at 22 you haven't figured it out, you won't find your answers here.
 
Just curious how do you deal with parents that don't support you with your decisions? usually, parents would cope with their kids decisions and then support them for it, but mine are stubborn. I even told them that if I listen to them I would most likely regret the decision

Frankie summed it up perfectly: "You mute them and continue forward with your plans."

You plug your ears when they start their jabber and say, "Stop. I don't want to hear it." And walk away. You have figured it out---they don't have confidence in you or your decisions. So, continue on with your plans and do well at Virginia Tech. PLENTY of people in the world have parents who don't believe in them or their goals, but they don't sit around and wring their hands and moan and groan about it!! If you don't put a stop to it, you will be hearing the same mess from them when you are 32, then 42........

When you get to VT, please find some on-campus counseling and learn how to deal with these things that seem to paralyze you. It would probably be a huge relief to have the ear of someone who is glad to help you work through your doubts and concerns.
 
Just curious how do you deal with parents that don't support you with your decisions? usually, parents would cope with their kids decisions and then support them for it, but mine are stubborn. I even told them that if I listen to them I would most likely regret the decision

What do you want from your parents?

Is your parents wealthy so you don't want to piss them off to make sure you get your share of their money?

Are you looking for their full approval? If so, why? It's not like you are commiting crimes and seeking their approval.

The bond and love between parents should be unconditional and go both ways. If your parents disapprove of your actions because you are not doing what they want you to do, both your parents and you are fault.

Everything in life costs something. So what you need to ask yourself is what wil cost you if you don't get your parents support/approval?
 
Just curious how do you deal with parents that don't support you with your decisions? usually, parents would cope with their kids decisions and then support them for it, but mine are stubborn. I even told them that if I listen to them I would most likely regret the decision

Perhaps a bit callous and petty, but if they're concerned about losing you, you might tell them if they keep it up they might lose you anyway. Perhaps put a period on it by walking away. You're a grown man, you don't have to put up with their crap anymore. One would expect they'll eventually come around, but you never know.

In order to initially bring my wife around to DS doing NROTC, I had to remind her of his age and that there was no way she could stop him from enlisting (which is what he wanted to do at the time instead of college). She was pretty dead set against it initially but is now gung-ho the other way. Of course she's worried about what could happen to him one day but she's proud of him and recognizes it's part of the price she pays to continue to have a relationship with her son. Perhaps I've oversimplified the story, but you get the gist.
 
I don't really think anything anyone is saying/writing will assist the OP at all at this point. The bush has been beaten so hard already that there is nothing left to even show a bush was once there.

Yet, at the same time the OP has yet to give up on asking, which should tell everyone that none of us are giving the only answer he wants to hear.

So OP here goes.

Don't worry the lightbulb in your parent's cranium will turn on and support you 1 million percent.

Now is that likely to happen, maybe, but really what I am seeing and others are seeing is if you can stand on your own two feet until the lightbulb turns on, especially with adding in your current age, many are unsure of your chances of commissioning from AROTC.

Do you have it in you to fight them on the home front while you now have the real 1st hurdle to clear...adapting to college, living in dorms, creating new friendships, managing both the corps and ROTC while pulling 18 credit hours.

The drop out rate is not 0%, and that includes cadets with 100% support from home. Not the what do you mean you can't come home for the weekend because you are doing a two day march with AROTC type of parent. Or the why can,t you have a fridge in your dorm....that is just ridiculous, and mandatory quite hours,..don't they know you are 22? This is what I mean when I told you this was a bad decision comments.

Then when the chips are down, your body is exhausted from drilling and you still have to write a paper, plus study for an exam will you agree with them or throw in the towel BC you are listening to the folks and the you tube posters.
~ I am sure you will say I won't quit, but like I said earlier there has never been 100% commissioning rate out of any SMC, 25% leaving is common.
 
Gridiron: my daughter in law has just turned 23 and is in charge of of several hundred people and she's AIR FORCE, the corporate branch of our military services.

No offense, dear soul, but please, you are 22, if you can't stand up to your parents now, you will never be able to. Your life is yours to live... you either grab what you want and live with all the consequences, or fold and serve up hotdogs and eskimo pies in the family business for the rest of your life.

You decide, but either do it or get off the potty.

Go ahead flamers.... I've got my fire hose at the ready.
 
Go ahead flamers.... I've got my fire hose at the ready.

I have to admit that made me snort in laughter.

As many people have tried to answer the OP on the best path I think I'll take a reverse psychology approach to an answer.

Yes the chance of you meeting your maker are extreme in any career you chose and you shouldn't join.

Yes every mission we carry out has the required parameter to cause as much collateral damage to the civilian populous especially kids.

Now that you've read the above defend your choice. If you can't defend your choice, to me a complete internet stranger, then how can you possibly do it to your parents? If this is truly what you want learn to defend it. If you can defend it then use the arguments you just came up with in your mind to tell you parents!
 
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