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Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Do current conflicts weigh on re-enlistment decisions?
J and I were discussing him re-enlisting when the time comes and he's basing it off of kid status, bonuses & promotion slots within his MOS. I can't stop thinking about current conflicts and potential future ones. If we're at war with Korea that may change my opinion versus just dealing with MEU to the Indian Ocean.
What's your thinking process regarding re-renlisting?
Re: Do current conflicts weigh on re-enlistment decisions?
It's too late for J now (he hits ten years this year), but when it was discussed, current combat conflicts meant that both of us felt strongly about him reenlisting.
The current global climate to me means that no matter what the exact current climate is, there's a very healthy chance of combat in any four year period.
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He knows my stance is I support his decision, regardless of what it is and what is going on.
You have no way of knowing how the scene is going to change in the next year, let alone the next several years. There thousands of what-ifs you could use to try and swing the decision either way.
I don't think so, they are why he enlisted in the first place. TODAY, he's 99.999999% sure he's done after this enlistment. He's even looking into palace chase-ing soon if he can. He's pretty discouraged here and at this point, unless a wonderful opportunity comes along, he's done. He wants to stay in, he loves the military and he loves serving, but not in this unit and another enlistment with horrible leadership is not an option.
Kids, future kids, wanting to buy a house at HOME (or close to it), more stability (read: him being home), more $ etc are also all reasons he's considering leaving after this enlistment (which is coming up in the near future). I know he'll miss it, and even maybe regret it, but its the path we're talking about right now at least. This could all change tomorrow, of course
We're in a different boat, but I'll still share. K's civilian contract states that she may go back 3 additional times (each time for 9 months) but it's up to her after each time if she wants to renew. Right now we're 99% sure she will not return but this has nothing to do with the wars. It has everything to do with 1) already missing 12 of the 15 months our daughter has been alive and 2) the bureaucratic bs she has had to put up with in her program. Having served in the military she understood that part, but the lack of respect for her program and the disorganization of the people around her is enough to make her not go back.
The only way I could see her returning is if she was sent to a different base with a different team.
Sort of. H is an officer, so things are a bit different. He also had a ridiculously long commitment initially, so that hasn't allowed for many opportunities to separate (the first official one won't be until 12 YOS, although they've had RIF opportunities).
For us, it's not the conflicts specifically so much as how much time we spend apart. We've spent basically the last 2 years apart, and we're just getting to a place where we can live together, and yet he'll likely be gone 50% of the time. A huge part of the decision making is how much we prioritize our time together. So, it's not a "you're going into war and could be killed" so much as we want to maximize time together as a quality of life issue. There's no easy or right/wrong answer in it, either. Fortunately/unfortunately, we've yet to really face much of a decision node.
Granted, we are out in 14 months (that will get DH to 28 years in). But I can honestly say that when DH made Chief and we had to decide to stay in or not (staying in meant 3 years to retire at rank), the world's current climate had NOTHING to do with our decision.
The whole point of the military is to protect our nation from the world's hypothetical climate. Since one really and truely cannot predict how things are going to go (I mean really, two years ago Lybia was not even valid blip...), you cannot base your decesions on the future. That is the nature of the job.
DH and I based our decision on the actual tangibles - current (at that time) job market for BOTH of us, the new baby, SS moving in with us (his school needs), our debt vs savings, our parental/familial issues and DH's education (he had two more semesters until he graduted from Grad School).