Air Force or Navy Reserves????

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I'm an MICU nurse who will have completed 2 years of nursing in Sept of this year. I have my BSN as well and I'm considering joining either the Air Force or Navy reserves after that time. I'm also a Navy spouse with a husband currently on sea duty and deploying every 6 months for 6 month tours to Bahrain. I have 2 children (7 and 4) and a mother who lives with us full time to help with child care. I very clearly understand the committment associated with military life and am considering possibly going active duty once my husband retires in 5 years. I would love to get a great bonus, small monthly pay check, and help going back to school to pursue my MSN and DNP (or NP, or CRNA, or CNS...not sure yet). There is an Navy facility very close to me (I live in San Diego) and an Air Force base about an hour away...so proximity is not an issue. I'm just looking for anyone's personal opinion/experience with either service. What are the possibilities of deployment, how long, and to where? I love my current job and they are extremely understanding of reserve service and the committments associated with it. Any and all help/advice is welcome! Thanks!

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If you join, expect to deploy. Especially with your specialty, if you actually apply and get in (which will be a challenge to start off with considering the overabundance of nurses in the service at present), you are going to be highly deployable. Make sure you are willing to leave your children and to commit the kind of time in training, etc. that the military will demand.

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