Still can't decide on Army or Airforce

midinphx, BSN · Jan 1, 2010

I was enlisted Army. I'm working on joining AF as a nurse. I think you summed it up pretty well. Living conditions are better in my opinion with the Air Force. Army is good too. I did not look into potential duty locations for nursing for the Army. There are plenty of awsome places to see going blue. (though if I went Navy, I'd have just loved going San Diego)

Start your paperwork journey NOW. and keep reading the posts on here.

Good luck!

carolinapooh, BSN, RN · Jan 1, 2010

One of my brothers is retired Army, one is retired Navy. My dad was retired Navy. I'm Air Force, currently an officer but with prior service as enlisted.

It depends on what you want, really. Talk to recruiters (carefully!!), find people who serve in each branch, and hang out here, like midinphx said.

But think about this - living conditions aren't important until you're in them.

Rose3721 · Jan 4, 2010

I don't think the argument that the AF has better living conditions should be a deal creaker for ya. :) The Army has tons of new housing going up every day that is very nice and new barracks are being built as well. But as a single officer you would not live in Army housing anyways. You would find housing off post. As far as nursing experience, of course as an Army nurse I'm prejudiced :). In my opinion, Army nurses get much more trauma and critical care experience than Air Force nurses. Several of my friends were deployed and never saw an Air Force nurse at all. So it just depends on what you want to do as far as specialty.

allnurses Guide · Jan 5, 2010

I don't think the argument that the AF has better living conditions should be a deal creaker for ya. :) The Army has tons of new housing going up every day that is very nice and new barracks are being built as well. But as a single officer you would not live in Army housing anyways. You would find housing off post. As far as nursing experience, of course as an Army nurse I'm prejudiced :). In my opinion, Army nurses get much more trauma and critical care experience than Air Force nurses. Several of my friends were deployed and never saw an Air Force nurse at all. So it just depends on what you want to do as far as specialty.

Unless you are doing trauma on base (which most bases don't trully do) then both AF and Army see the same things when deployed. Now if you end up deployed for 12+mo instead of the 6mo for the normal AF nurse rotation then yes you would see more trauma. Also, AF critical care nurses often goto C-Stars before they deploy http://www.sg.af.mil/news/story.asp?id=123062514. I don't think the Army has an equivalent course and no C4 does not count.

The Army is ahead of the AF the last time I heard in building new houses, but there is more to living conditions than just base housing such as facilities on base/activities offered etc. The Army has some really great qualities such as promotion rates, training, and more opportunities in general for nurses than what are open to AF nurses. The Army does not have better quality life (in my opinion) or any little niche on the trauma or different deployments than AF nurses. We all share pretty much the same deployment sites anymore.

Everyone should pick the branch that best suits there needs. There is a little different flavor to every branch and each nurse should look into each branch before making a decision.

zombie · Jan 5, 2010

I'm biased Army. However, overall what people are saying is pretty much true. Consider the Navy too.

If I had to do it over again. I would seriously consider AF or Navy. However, the AF slow promotion rate really counts after a while.

Navy has some good stations. AF nice facilities and Stations. I always hear people saying Army don't treat there people right. But, I don' really see that. We do alot of stuff the other branches don't do and by nature our work overall is different... I mean c'mon... Support Airman and there families (air bases).. Sailors and there families (ports)... and then the army who can be infantry, artillery, and whatever manpower intensive stuff there is to do.

I work with all branches except the coastguard. I respect them all and if it came down to it I could be happy in any of the other branches.. Its pretty much what you make of it.

allnurses Guide · Jan 5, 2010

I'm biased Army. However, overall what people are saying is pretty much true. Consider the Navy too.
If I had to do it over again. I would seriously consider AF or Navy. However, the AF slow promotion rate really counts after a while.
Navy has some good stations. AF nice facilities and Stations. I always hear people saying Army don't treat there people right. But, I don' really see that. We do alot of stuff the other branches don't do and by nature our work overall is different... I mean c'mon... Support Airman and there families (air bases).. Sailors and there families (ports)... and then the army who can be infantry, artillery, and whatever manpower intensive stuff there is to do.
I work with all branches except the coastguard. I respect them all and if it came down to it I could be happy in any of the other branches.. Its pretty much what you make of it.

Navy has the Marines you kinda left off a big portion of thier responsibilities there. AF doesn't have a lot of ground pounders, but who do you think is assigned to Army units calling in the air strikes it certainly isn't someone from the infantry try TACPs. Right now I am at Elmendorf AFB and the AFB has the only military hospital in the area so all the soliders from FT Richardson come here. When I was at National Naval Medical Center there was no OB care at WRAMC (or several other bases including the pentagon) so all the Army came to NNMC for there OB care. No one can simply state that our jobs are inheritenly different because we take care of soliders, amn, sailors, or marines because we all take care of all military persons and their dependents. I have only been at one base so far where I took care of primarily AF persons.

carolinapooh, BSN, RN · Jan 7, 2010

I don't think the argument that the AF has better living conditions should be a deal creaker for ya. :) The Army has tons of new housing going up every day that is very nice and new barracks are being built as well. But as a single officer you would not live in Army housing anyways. You would find housing off post. As far as nursing experience, of course as an Army nurse I'm prejudiced :). In my opinion, Army nurses get much more trauma and critical care experience than Air Force nurses. Several of my friends were deployed and never saw an Air Force nurse at all. So it just depends on what you want to do as far as specialty.

I'm in my ACLS refresher course and have talked to tons of AF RNs with trauma experience, so it's going to depend on where you are. Most of the AF RNs are at the hospitals, not out in the field or in more remote areas - that's more where the Army is.

So I wouldn't say one branch has more trauma experience than the other. We're at war on two fronts - EVERYONE'S getting trauma experience - including non-trauma nurses in ALL the branches.

huggiebear1979 · Jan 23, 2010

Keep in mind this is just Rumint, but it depends on your eventual goals. Right now I'm currently in Nursing School, and my eventual goal is to become a CRNA or a Nurse Practitioner. I don't know how true this is but I've been hearing that once you hit Captain, you can get an academic release to pursue a Master's program but the army still pays you like your on Active Duty, plus they will pay your tuition. I'm not sure if the Air Force has the same thing, I am in the same boat as far as not knowing if I want to be Army or Air Force as I was also prior service Army, Also the Force Reduction that the Air Force had a few years back kind of scares me,

allnurses Guide · Jan 23, 2010

Keep in mind this is just Rumint, but it depends on your eventual goals. Right now I'm currently in Nursing School, and my eventual goal is to become a CRNA or a Nurse Practitioner. I don't know how true this is but I've been hearing that once you hit Captain, you can get an academic release to pursue a Master's program but the army still pays you like your on Active Duty, plus they will pay your tuition. I'm not sure if the Air Force has the same thing, I am in the same boat as far as not knowing if I want to be Army or Air Force as I was also prior service Army, Also the Force Reduction that the Air Force had a few years back kind of scares me,

The AF, Army, Navy, and USPHS all have programs to let you pursue your Masters degree full time. The AF did have a draw down a few years ago, but it had nothing to do with medical providers (nurses etc). The Army had draw down of nurses back in early 2000 or so if I remember correctly, so no matter what service you pick you could face draw down of forces. A lot of the Army nurses just switched to the AF when they got released from the Army.

carolinapooh, BSN, RN · Jan 23, 2010

The AF, Army, Navy, and USPHS all have programs to let you pursue your Masters degree full time. The AF did have a draw down a few years ago, but it had nothing to do with medical providers (nurses etc). The Army had draw down of nurses back in early 2000 or so if I remember correctly, so no matter what service you pick you could face draw down of forces. A lot of the Army nurses just switched to the AF when they got released from the Army.

And by the same token when the Air Force had its officer drawdown (which they now call "force shaping" - oh please, the semantics kill me), many of the AF officers were given the opportunity to go green, some with an increase in rank. And I'd bet you'd be valuable to the Navy as well, even though they're a bit different from us (meaning the folks in green and blue).

As far as I know, none of the officers involved in the most recent drawdown were medical - they were all from the line side.

You might even say each branch takes care of the other in a way, because we're all starting to realize we're valuable to each other.

sch983 · Jun 9, 2010

What kind of recruiter would I need to talk to if I wanted to join the Army post-graduation? And do you guys recommend getting some experience in a hospital by where I live now before joining?