Before you join...

AD Navy nurse here, and I want to tell it to you all straight. Keep in mind these are my opinions, not the Navy's.

Overall, I see many people asking about benefits, minor details, can I go here, do this, yadda yadda bla bla, and I have to give you all a word of warning. Do not join any branch or part of the military for the benefits, pay, lifestyle, etc.

-The pay and all that is not worth it. You are expected to literally be on call 24/7, and I am not joking. This is not my hospital's policy, this is NAVY POLICY. That means when you are asleep because you are on night shift and they call you in the middle of the day, you must answer and come into to do whatever stupid thing they make you do, or else you'll get a good chewing-out.

-30 days of leave? HA! Good luck getting the leave when you want it, and when you do get it, it may very well be arbitrarily rescheduled and you'll lose your airline tickets (seen it happen twice already).

-You better check your earning statement extremely well, because if the government overpays you (happens all the time), they will underpay you accordingly on the next pay check, regardless if you have bills to pay (this is happening to two of my corpsman, they got paid only $400 one month).

-You will come in on many of your off days. We work Wed-Thur one week, then Mon Tue Fri Sat Sun the next week. For example this week I had to come in on Monday and Tuesday for collaterals, work wednesday and thursday night, then stay until 11AM for training on Friday, and I may get called in to work this weekend if one of our civilians calls in sick (bug is going around). Next week I will literally be at the hospital every day, Monday through Sunday. On my two off days I have numerous items to attend to. And you know what? I just suck it up. Everyone here does. Many fellow navy nurses are miserable, simply because they joined because they thought this or that and didn't consider that you will sacrifice an immense degree of personal freedom to serve our nation.

The point I am making is that one must join simply out of the desire to serve. I love the Navy, but it kinda sucks sometimes. It's supposed to suck - it's the military. Know what I mean?

If you want to proudly serve your nation by putting on the uniform, working hard everyday for your sailors marines dependents and retirees, at other times risking life or limb, or even dying for your country (see: 2 nurses killed in Iraq), then go for it. Otherwise go work for Christus St. John's.

ENS M out.