I'm looking to be recruited into some type of armed forces. I got a perfect score on the practice ASVAB, and the only recruiter I've been to so far is a Navy one. I want to know which of the armed forces would best fit what I want to do.

The tl;dr version would be typical spy shit. If I were to join the Navy, I'd be heavily leaning towards the SEALS. I want to sky dive, scuba dive, sneak around at night in high tech gear, etc.

I was also wondering whether or not I should go for officer or enlisted? Which pays more, and which gets to do the most cool shit? Pros and cons please.

Background info: I'm 17, 6' 2", 135 lbs, and have 40 credit hours at Florida State University. I'm turning 18 at the end of January.

Haha.. your enthusiasm is cool.

I hope that whatever you decide to do doesn't turn out to be a disappointment for you.. as much as you hear about how much cool shit you can do in the military.. especially stuff like spy shit and sneaking around at night.. might not really be as cool as it sounds once you get there.. I definitely had a few ideas of what the army would be like before I joined and now just having been in for a few months it's totalllly not how I imagined it. I'm not doing any sort of spec ops type shit though, just regular enlisted army.

Officers definitely get paid more, you have to go through more training for that though.. officers seem to be the leaders, the planners, more of the paper pushers than what the enlisted people do which is most of the actual work and doing missions and whatever else goes on, Im a private I don't know much yet.. anyone please correct me if I'm wrong about any of this..

I definitely remember my drill sergeants lovvvved to go on and on about how THEY run this shit, NCOs run the real shit, the officers are just up there at their little desks making sure everything's right on paper..

I'd go officer though if you could just cuz the money is better and they seem to get treated better too.

As for what branch you should go in.. shit.. you could easily do some research on that yourself to make that decision..

you might as well just register on this site - https://www.us.army.mil

cuz it has a great, big, active forum where you could probably find much better informed people there to tell you what you want to know.. just repost your post onto that forum and see what kinda replies you get..

then go and google the sites that are similar to the one above but for the navy, or the marines, or whatever, and don't trust totse to help you make big decisions like this :)

All branches have their special forces. Navy has their SEALs, Army has their green berets, Marines have their recon patrol-something or other (Forgive me, I can't remember the actual name), and the Air Force has it's pararescue and combat controllers. Each of which I imagine are just as hard to get into.

As for this sneaking around spy stuff you're on about, I think you need to believe the movies and video games less. These "special agents" you're thinking of are works of fiction, and if we did have spies, they'd be in connection with the FBI, CIA, NSA/CSS, or secret service.

You'll probably have to sign up for those well after you've retired (and I don't mean just your 6 year enlistment contract) from the military.

Thanks for all the help. I'm leaning heavily towards the Navy SEALS so far, but I have to be a US citizen for that. However, I remember the Navy recruiter telling me that I could gain citizen ship for being in the Navy after 6 months. I could get it now, but it's like $500. I was born in England, and have been living in the US for 10 years (since I was 7).

I looked over the SEALS program entry requirements a few minutes ago. I'm extremely out of shape right now, but could still far exceed all of the requirements except for the running, which I would be able to work down to at least 1.5 miles in 12 minutes. The swim would probably be harder. I've always been a slow swimmer. Oh well, I have about 2 years to prepare for it all, and then basic training would get me into decent shape too.

haha you seem like you're well organized and everything will work out fine. a friend of mine wants to join the navy and is running into the whole 'need to be a citizen' thing except for i think he's completely illegal.. he's looking into random marriages now lol.

so in comparison, your situation is so golden. :) gl

haha you seem like you're well organized and everything will work out fine. a friend of mine wants to join the navy and is running into the whole 'need to be a citizen' thing except for i think he's completely illegal.. he's looking into random marriages now lol.

so in comparison, your situation is so golden. :) gl


You dont need to be a citizen to join...just a green card and possibly some other documentation....hell military service is a faster way to become a legal citizen.

You dont need to be a citizen to join...just a green card and possibly some other documentation....hell military service is a faster way to become a legal citizen.

6 months in the US as opposed to 6 years. Yeah, I'd say so.

i think, you have to be a natural born citizen though to go into special forces because it requires a security clearance.

i think, you have to be a natural born citizen though to go into special forces because it requires a security clearance.

You don't need to be a natural born citizen to get a clearance. It doesn't take nearly as long, if you are a citizen, but foreign born person can obtain the highest clearances, if they have a clean record.

You don't need to be a natural born citizen to get a clearance. It doesn't take nearly as long, if you are a citizen, but foreign born person can obtain the highest clearances, if they have a clean record.

thx for correcting me:)

you do have to be a citizen though right? and no dual nationalities, correct?

thx for correcting me:)

you do have to be a citizen though right? and no dual nationalities, correct?

Correct. There was a guy in my basic training flight, who held dual citizenship. He lived in England most his life, but I guess was born in the US. In order to get his clearance, he had to give up his British citizenship.

Regardless of being a citizen or not, it will take a very long time to get your clearance if you've lived abroad, or were born in another country. Even if your parents were foreign born, it can still take a very long time.

The only military job that I can think of that requires natural born citizenship is the President's. Are there any others?