I really enjoyed my time in the Army, and while there was some ditch digging (for crawling into and shooting out of, dirt is a great bullet stopper.) It was mainly a 9-5 job for me, but I had a communications specialty. Your job in any branch of the service will determine more than anything how much digging/manual labor you do. I enjoyed being in the woods, still do, so for me training exercises were actually quite pleasant, if a hell of lot of hard work and next to no sleep. At the time though we were training for fighting Ivan the Russki, the current training emphasis for desert combat, not sure how I'd feel.
I wasn't married in the Army, but I did talk with many spouses when visiting off base and such. The hardest thing for the spouse to get used to, is a lack of control they feel over their own lives because of their spouse's job/career. Uncle Sugar says go, and the spouse is gone, forget whatever plans you may have whether it's for a family get together, vacation, or a career move to a nearby town-they are suddenly having to deal with it alone with their best friend gone and in harms way.
As for recruitment restrictions requirements, etc. best stop is a recruiter and the ASVAB test. This test will be the main decider on what job paths are open to you, next followed by physical limitations (such as color blindness-something I didn't know I had). I had great mechanical, spatial, communications scores, but a just above minimum mathematics score. Still my choices were pretty much wide open.
So at this point the recruiter lied to me and I got screwed. Now I have to admit, I helped. I helped a lot. I did not research my career choice. I passed up jobs that would have helped me in the then nascent networking field, general electronics work, or even satellite communications. I believed him when he said all forms of communications in the army were state of the art, and would help me for decades after leaving. So I became a 31c10-Radio Teletype Operator.
Had I known that I was basically someone that types messages sent from one location to another over an AM radio, something that was done much better and cheaper by a Fax machine I would have picked a wiredog position, field radio repair, or pretty much anything else. A recruiter gets bonuses for filling hard to fill slots, like this one would be. It had no promotion points assigned for it's higher enlistment levels, and very few training classes. It was a job that is being phased out. So the promotion points for my field were always 999-an impossible to reach figure. To ever make Sergeant, I would have to change jobs in the army, go back to AIT and learn a new field. This is not difficult to do, I just did not want to do it. Protip: Ask to compare promotion points to E5-Sergeant on any job fields you may consider these will change as openings in the field change, they are not set in stone.
Basic training for the army is held in several TRADOC command posts in the US. I think the Air Force only has one specific place. Your wife should not expect to follow you to them. It's a short time (2-2 1/2 months) and they would only get to see you on graduation day anyhow.
This looks like a good article. I read through the Army basic Training section, and it fits quite well whith what I remember/saw. "Next to Marine Corps Boot Camp, Army Basic Training is the most physically intensive. If you are not physically active, you'll want to start preparing yourself a couple of months before leaving for basic training. Concentrate on running (both sprints and distance), push-ups, and sit-ups." You will have little time to write home, but every letter you get from outside will be worth more than jewels and gold.
You should both expect your thinking to change, no matter what service while in basic and advanced training.
You should both expect the way you think to change no matter what branch of service you enter, during basic and advanced training.
Yes I put the same point in twice, it's very important to both of you. Basic training is a form of mental indoctrination. This is deliberate, and specifically done for many reasons, trainers for the military have done this for a long time, and are very good at it.
You need to learn to think the (Air force/Army) way. Zero tolerance for "good nuff" thinking-go to a get it
perfect the first time. This is to save your life and the lives of your teammates. How does folding your sox a certain way save your life? It gets you into the habit of doing things right the first time every time. A missed bolt can with a little help from murphy can deadline a plane or a track, a scrap of paper on the ground can give away a concealed fighting position and invite lots of high caliber death. Another reason for doing this is to get the teamwork frame of mind, the group can work in coordination, and multiply it's effectiveness. This is one of the main points for what this does, imagine one of those office team building jaunts on radioactive steroids. For the Army, if you were walking around town and suddenly heard a lot of shots being fired, would you move toward or away from the shooting? Yah, they change that.
Since your way of thinking changes, you will react to things differently, and yes, your wife will feel this. Discuss!
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