I’m in my mid 30s and make 6 figures in IT. I’m considering joining the Air Force Reserves. Is this a stupid idea?
I always regretted not enlisting in my 20s as I feel a strong personal drive to serve my country. I feel that a part time enlistment would fill that void. Any thoughts or experiences are appreciated.
Used to be Air Guard, lemme weigh in.
In your 30s, with (I’m assuming) a degree, and a six figure job, enlisting is not for you.
Your peers will be 18 - 20. Your supervisors will be 20 on up.
At basic and tech school you will be older than your drill sergeants and instructors, they will 100% of the time put you in charge of babysitting the rest of your class.
Depending on the career field youre looking for, I’m assuming IT related, youll find more frustration than satisfaction.
Lets talk about home life. No matter what any recruiter tells you, you will deploy. You will be away from your home for extended periods of time, depending on your career field and unit that can mean a few weeks a year or a few months.
The Reserves are as their name implies, they exist as a reserve force for the active duty, to deploy.
If you want to help you local state, the Guard is where you wanna look. Air Guard is a thing.
Now if you read that all as trying to disuade you, I’m not, but you should go in with realistic expectations.
What I think would benefit you is the officer route. You can go from being Joe Blow off the street to Lt Blow in a few months, you dont have to go through ROTC or the acadamy to do it.
Youd find a much more familiar peer group in the officer corps, both in age and experience.
DM me if you have questions.
Edit: gramar
This just came up on my feed. I’m going to say this as a person who didn’t serve but had had the same thoughts as you.
It’s not that it’s too late to enlist… But there are probably better things you can be doing with your time and resources to help your community. Volunteer to teach a course at your local library. Check a local work training facility to see if they need any assistance. Check with local schools and offer shadowing. These small actions are pretty trivial to someone in your position, but could really help improve the lives I’ve people in your community.
Plan for what you don’t want. The military will give you exactly that.
AmeriCorps is also a way to serve.
It’s, essentially, the PeaceCorps but for within the United States (my eldest just finished a stint with them). There are several groups under the umbrella, my kid worked with the NCCC (they worked roughly like an outreach program for FEMA).
While I don’t think someone in their mid-30s would fit in most of the generic parts of AmeriCorps (it targets the 19-25 crowd), they do have administrative needs. This would be probably similar to what you would do as an Air Force Reservist of a similar age.
It’s also a way to get kicked out if you so much as even say the word ‘damn’, so mind your language if you do happen to enlist in any branch of service.
Edit: I’m not talking out of my ass, I’m speaking from experience. They’ll just as soon kick you out for saying anything they consider a curse word, including ‘damn’.
From my understanding, if you haven’t enlisted by age 36, you’re no longer eligible to enlist.
42 is the cutoff to enlist for the Air Force Reserve.
To join the Air Force Reserve, you must be between the ages of 17 and have not reached your 42nd birthday, a current U.S. citizen, and have obtained either a high school diploma or GED. Applicants can’t have any serious law violations or drug use or serious health problems.
Info here about 3/4 down the page under the Questions section.
