Today is Saturday, and it is my last drill in the National Guard. It is a good feeling after 6 years of going to drill, deploying, and finishing up my National Guard time in the Recruit Sustainment program. I was lucky to get a position as a cadet, where I was placed in a real leadership role. I was a platoon leader for the RSP program. Developing training schedules, working with the platoon sergeants, and “moving the pieces” throughout drill, to make sure that the students are getting the best training possible during the drill weekend.

Now it is time for me to commission and go downrange as a 2nd LT on Active Duty. Most of my friends in the MSIV class (Senior ROTC class) are commissioning in May, and I will follow suit in August upon returning from my internship in Australia. I will be stationed in Ft. Stewart Georgia as an Adjutant General officer. I don’t know exactly what I am going to be doing, but that is part of the fun. That is why I decided to go Active Duty in the first place. To know I have job security, but not finding out what I am doing until I get there. It is nice to have a plan and a paycheck doing something you love, and I am excited to put the skills I have learned over the last 6 years to work.

Many of my friends are just out of college and have a huge amount of debt from student loans, and can’t find a job because of the economy. Or, they find a job, but it’s not what they went to school for, or are not doing something they enjoy. They are working paycheck to paycheck because it is a tough job climate, and everyone is feeling it. A college degree is not necessarily your ticket out of working a job you don’t enjoy. Many have to “put in their time” at low-paying, uninteresting positions. And it is the same in the military, but for the last 6 years, I put in my time as an infantry guy, and now I am moving onto the managerial side, I didn’t want to step backwards and start that process over in the civilian world. I will be entering into middle management, making a salary well beyond what I could achieve with my journalism major right out of school ($50,000 or so). On top of that, I’ll have government benefits like full medical, and have enough money per month to get a retirement going. When I do retire, I will have a full government-backed pension for the rest of my life. And that money I can’t lose in the stock market, as many people are have suffered with their retirement in the stock market.

But although the money and benefit part of the job is great, there are many other reasons I chose the route that I did. The Army, unlike many segregated civilian areas, is a community. Everyone around a post has a similar lifestyle to your own and they understand what it means to be a part of something bigger than themselves. When you go home at night in the civilian world, most people don’t walk across the street and hang out with your neighbor, but in a Military Community it’s different. You work with the same people that you go out and have a beer with later. You deploy and become a family.

That is something you do not find in an office cubicle, and as difficult as Army life can be sometimes, you have your fellow soldiers with you sucking it just as much and laughing with you at the same time to make it better. As a leader, I will get the least sleep, the least free time, and probably suck the most. But that is the point. That is why I “earn the big bucks”, to take care of my men and women and to put them before myself. If you are considering becoming an officer, you have to put that at the forefront of your mind. It is no longer about you, it is about that kid who just enlisted and is scared and looking for your guidance. You have to bring him home safe from combat, and provide him the best training and or operational environment possible. I sort of went off on tangents, but be prepared for my blogs being in this format, stay tuned :).