--- In
DSN_KLR650@yahoogroups.com, "Dooden" wrote:
>
> Not to mention GI Bill for continued education, stick it out for 20
> yrs or whatever it is now.. draw pay rest of your life.
Unfortunately today's GI bill benefits are nowhere near as expansive as they were only
twenty years ago. When I went to college twenty years ago, the GI bill would pay your full
tuition and books at a state college and many of my fellow students were there via GI bill
benefits. Today, it might pay for your books. That's just how far it has lagged behind the spiraling cost of college.
Regarding the military to learn to be a mechanic, again, the military today is not what it
was twenty years ago. All that Army tank mechanics do nowdays if an engine conks out in
a tank, for example, is slide out the engine module and send it to a contractor to be
rebuilt, and slide a rebuilt engine module in to replace it. In general most mechanical tasks
are now done by contractors, with the Army's mechanics involved only to slide out entire
assemblies and slide in new ones. There is no component-level work involved anymore,
not like back in the old days.
And then there's the problem of the world's biggest catbox, but we'll not go there. My
point is that going into the military to learn to be a mechanic today isn't what it was
twenty years ago, and you'd be better off going to a publicly funded community college or
publicly funded trade school. (As I noted earlier, avoid the private for-profit ones like the
plague).
As for sticking it out for 20 years in the military and drawing a pension for life, that is
certainly a career possibility. My stepfather did that and between the pension and Tricare
and what he got from his post-military retirement pension (from the state) he is set pretty
well in retirement. But that's nothing to do with mechanic'ing. You do that because you
want to make the military your career, not because you want to be a mechanic.
> I know alot of higher educated people who are just plain "Dumb as a
> Rock", but have papers many employers want. Go Figure
I'm lucky to be in a profession where folks don't care about papers for the most part. Not
that this stops folks from coming up with new "certifications" that you "must" have. My
own thought is that any employer who prefers a "certification" over 20 years of experience
in the field probably isn't worth working for in the first place.
_E