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DH with BSN considering Army or Navy
My DH recently graduated with a bachelors in nursing. Last week, while reading a nursing journal, he came across an ad for the army saying they help significantly with paying off student loans for people that join. Now he's seriously considering it because he has 60k+ in student loans.
Because of nursing, he's trying to decide between army or navy since to our understanding, those are the only branches with nurses.
Would they just take anyone or would they interview him like for a normal job at a hospital?
I'm scared of change, so this potential decision is huge for me. Some questions we have for a recruiter are: Is housing included? Are pets allowed (we have cats and dogs)? How likely is it as a nurse that he'd be moving a lot? How long is the minimum commitment? What training would he need to do at the beginning (as an officer)?
Thanks ladies!!
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Re: DH with BSN considering Army or Navy
HI! I don't know if I'll be that much help but I can try. Both my fiance and I are in the army, since we didn't want to take out school loans. They pay up to $4500 each semester. So you'll have to base it off that. They ONLY pay for tuition though, so if there were any general fees you would have to still pay those loans off. You get semi-interviewed. They do it for everyone in the army. Basically just have you ever done drugs, are you in good health, things like that. They won't interview you for a job. You have to give them your degree and you have to take the ASVAB and they base your scores off that. It's not a hard test - like a standardized tenth-grade level test.
If he is going active, and going to be a nurse, he should be ATLEAST an e-4 (its based on credit hours) or higher. You get a housing allowance if you are an e-5 or higher. So he'll have to talk to his recruiter. Pets are allowed but you have to contact the base he's staying at for more information (some have fees, etc). Any active army moves around a lot, it really depends on their needs. The minimum commitment is 8 years total. They will tell you 6 and that is technically true. You go 6 years active and then 2 years ready reserve. You go to your normal job and dont have to live on base or do anything army related, but if we were to break out in war and they needed you, you are committed to go. In the beginning he would need to go to officer basic. All I know is that it was harder then what I went through. Mine was a 10 week basic training and then 14 week AIT. You could probably do a google search and find out more about officer basic.
Hope I helped some!
If I'm not mistaken, the Army Nurse Corps has it's own recruiters. Your husband would need to speak to them for specific advice. You can find more information about the Nurse Corps at the following link: http://www.goarmy.com/amedd/nurse.html
I can tell you that ALL married service members, not just E5 and up and stated above, receive an allowance for housing. If you live on post, all of the housing allowance will go to pay for your post housing. The amount of BAH given is based on rank and location. Depending on the amount and the area, there are times when it pays to live off post.
For enlisted, service contracts are 8 years. You can break that up into several different options. I served 6 years in the Reserves and 2 in the Ready Reserve. Active contracts can very. I believe the minimum for an Active contract is currently 4 with the remainder to be served in the IRR, Reserves or National Guard.
Loan repayment programs change often depending on what is being offered at the time. I was offered a repayment of $20,000 when I joined. I had no student loan debt, so I asked for other things. I have seen it go as high as $40,000 repayment. Like I said, it depends on what is being offered to specific jobs at the time. A recruiter would better answer that question.
How often you move will really depend on the needs of the branch of service. I know several Army nurses. A few of them move often. A few of them have been stationed at the same hospitals for 4 or 5 years.
Do you have any other questions we can answer for you?
Thank you. This information was very helpful! It is especially a relief to hear about housing and pets. Since we don't have kids of our own and would be leaving family, our pets are part of our family and would be heartbreaking to leave behind. And now I sound like a pet nut...
Any preference or reasons to go with army vs navy? Or is it personal preference? Also, you said that service contracts are 8 years. Is this just for enlisted or would officers be different? Since he already has his degree, he has told me he would be an officer.
One nice thing (silly and little, yes, but still nice) is that the recruiter for army is 1.5 hrs closer to us!
Thanks again!
In both branches, yes, in order to be a nurse, your husband would have to be an Officer. He would apply through a medical Officer recruiter in either branch.
The branch that your husband will choose to go to should definitely be a matter of personal preference. Different branches are better fits for different people. Your husband should really go talk to both recruiters before he makes his decision if he hasn't already and you should go with him. For example, FIL was a mechanic in the Army for 22 years. You would think maybe my husband would have just gone to the Army but he wanted to be in the medical field. When he joined the military, he felt like the Navy offered him the best education and the most opportunities as a medical provider. That doesn't mean everyone will feel the same way, even when it comes to those specific criteria. That's why the branch you choose should be a matter of personal preference regarding what is best for your family.
Air Force does has nurses I think. I was in the health care recruiter's office about a week ago, and there was an information packet with all the other ones. I think my H has also looked into the possibility.
Just food for thought if he was interested in AF.
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Officers don't have enlistment times the same way that enlisted people do. There's your initial time in, and any pay back time (so, like, if you get reimbursed for school or accrue time because they are paying for school, or whatever) and when your payback time is up, you can separate when you want - so you don't have to keep re-signing contracts once your payback is up. You can file to separate when you are ready (which then gets into a whole other story)
Also, having a degree does not automatically mean you are an officer. You can enlist with a degree if you want. For nursing specifically, you are an officer though.
I changed my name
When I last looked into it, most of the branches were offering a 3 year commitment in exchange for either 36k cash or toward loans. That was a couple years ago, though.
Yes, nurses are officers and commissioned, but they go through COT rather than OTS. They're in navy, army, and af, not sure about marines. There's also the PHS if your husband is interested in serving but not doing the military thing. I seriously considered that, but it doesn't work well as a trailing spouse. There are also reserve and guard spots.
I know some Airmen who would disagree.
OP, I'm with TX. I wanted to be a Marine forever. I worked with the OSO for 7 months, and when it didn't work out, I was devastated for a week and am now working with the Army office. If I had just had a more open mind in the first place, I think I would have gone with them. Their overall mission is more in line with what I want to do, though I do miss a lot of things about working with the USMC. Their emphasis on servant leadership for one thing. But the MC is working towards returning to its amphibious roots, which is not something I'm all that into. See what branch fits for your H personality and goals wise.