• Please take a moment and update your account profile. If you have an updated account profile with basic information on why you are on Air Warriors it will help other people respond to your posts. How do you update your profile you ask?

    Go here:

    Edit Account Details and Profile

any advice?

Status
Not open for further replies.
N

NickPollock19

Prospective Candidate for OCS
Ok, so my parents are worried because i want to commission when i graduate, so worried and pissed that they are thinking about cutting me off financially, and not helping me with any payments of any sort, i need to get PRK, and well, personally, i'm poor heh, cant afford 4 grand. Any suggestions what i can say to my parents? their concerns are that i wont make enough money as a pilot in the Marines, they are too worried about my fiscal success, and not personal success. Any advice from anyone would help, i'm talking with them tomorrow.
Thanks
 
Unpatriotic Parents

:jump2refe :jump2refe I couldn't help be taken back by the stance your parents have taken in regards to your desires to become a USMC OFFICER and later a pilot in the service of your country. I have a son that went through OCS and made that decision after 911. He is my ONLY SON and I am extremely proud of the decision he made and his decision to serve his country. He is now in Primary Flight training in Pensacola and will tell you that it's tough but extremely rewarding. I will personallly keep you in my thoughts and prayers and if your parents or you may have any questions about becoming a Marine officer and pilot, I'll be glad to tell you what I know and what being a parent entails in this regard.
SEMPER FI-DEVILDOGDAD
 
Wow, that is a pretty suprising stance. good luck in the talk tomorrow. I kinda had a similar talk with my parants as I am currently considering OCS after NOT doing very well in the civilian world. I am 26 years old, have 2 Bachelors Degrees in Computer Science and Mathematics, and am still making less than 30k/year in part time/contract jobs.

The only advice/ammunition I can give you is that the base commissioned officer pay (0-1 grade) according to a 2001/2002 chart (I don't remember what year it was I looked at) was 30k/year. Now keep in mind, as a soldier in the U.S. Military, housing, food, medical, pretty much your entire life is handed to you. So that 30k/year is all play money. If you are going into flight, you are looking at 2-3 years of training as a commisioned officer. So that's $60-90k before you even get deployed to a squadron. If you are money smart, you can actually come out pretty damn well off imho.

just my 2 cents, hope it helps.
 
Hope this reaches you in time

My parents too were very concerned about $$ and what would happen if I joined up as Jr into PLC so I was stupid and waited it out until after I graduated like they asked... retarded mistake. To get money had they cut me off is loans and everyone who is anyone will give a college kid a loan, you just have to look for them. I decided to wait to see what the Civilian world had to offer... I got 3 offers right before I graduated college... $15k/yr, $20k/yr and $23k a year... I took the $20k/year because it was a lot better job and promised me a raise in a year... after that raise didn't happen my parents decided it was ok for me to seek other opportunities of employment. I went straight to a recruiter, signed up and left within 2 weeks (enlisted)... they were shocked... come graduation day they couldn't stop smiling and crying... now I'm going to OCS and they are even happier... don't do what I did but do what you feel in your heart is the best thing no matter what everyone else says or think... because the Marine Corps is not for everyone and thats why so few people encourage it because so few people really know it... but my dad is now the best Marine father I've ever seen.
 
USMC_Candidate said:
Ok, so my parents are worried because i want to commission when i graduate, so worried and pissed that they are thinking about cutting me off financially, and not helping me with any payments of any sort, i need to get PRK, and well, personally, i'm poor heh, cant afford 4 grand. Any suggestions what i can say to my parents? their concerns are that i wont make enough money as a pilot in the Marines, they are too worried about my fiscal success, and not personal success. Any advice from anyone would help, i'm talking with them tomorrow.
Thanks
Click to expand...

Financially, the life of a Marine Officer is freaking competitive. I'm a 2nd Lt, and counting my BAH, BAS, all that crap, I made about 40 K last year (only 28 of which is taxable... nice). This year I'm pinning on 1st Lt, and going over 3 years in the same month, which makes for a 20,000/year raise. Now, I'm not sure what job prospects you would have had lined up, but where I come from, 40/yr entry level is pretty damn good, especially with guaranteed raises all over the place (one every Jan 1st, 1 every time you get promoted, 1 every time your time in service increases beyond 2 years).

There are lots of reasons to not want your son to join the Marine Corps, however I don't think the financial argument is a very strong one.
 
First, I have to sympathize with your situation, as I was once in a similar predicament. My parents did indeed cut off their finacial support, and I did join up (the Navy, enlisted). I can tell you that my parents' initial response was shock and horror. On the other hand, once my decision had a chance to sink in, they got used to it and they very quickly came to understand what an excellent occupation the military can be. My parents couldn't be prouder of what I do now (even more so since I made the switch to officer, and pilot training, but they were justifiably proud of my enlisted service as well).

My parents issues with the service I think sprung from my mother's father who enlisted in the Army in WWII and was made promises by the government that were not honored. Along with those concerns, both of my parents grew up during the Vietnam war and (I believe) still harbored some of their liberal (hippie, commie) misgivings about that war. Seeing how the military actually is has really brought them around. I mention this just in case your parents fall into the same catagory ... if not, disregard.

Best advice I can give you on their financial concerns is to look at what a Marine officer actually makes per year, then look at your prospects out of college. I know that in my field (Chemistry) it was possible to gather up the trade journals (the ACS magazine in particular) and find out the average salaries for new graduates. The Marine Corps Times does an issue each year in which they estimate the actual equivalent income of service members and compare them to their civilian counterparts. In my opinion they significantly inflate the value of some of our benefits, which should work to your purpose.

Hope that this helps a little ... good luck!
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top