Are You Thinking About Separating from the Military?

Making the decision to separate from the military isn't always an easy choice for anyone. It was definitely a hard choice for me to decide when I came face to face with the decision. You have to weigh the pros and cons of staying in and getting out. My dilemma was that my husband had just recently separated and I was going to stay in to keep all of our benefits. But, when I really thought about it, I wanted to get out of the military more and more. These are the pros and cons that I rolled around in my head.

Pros:

1. I didn't want to deploy every two years. I had a young child at home and didn't want to end up leaving her for 18 months. Most people don't know that women in the military are deployable 6 weeks after the birth of a child.

2. Getting paid for each hour of work that you do. This is definitely a big incentive when you get paid for the hours that you actually do work and anything extra is overtime.

3. You aren't on call 7 days a week and 24 hours a day. When you are a soldier you are a soldier every minute of every day and you don't get a break.

4. Being an NCO, you have to be responsible for more than just yourself. In other words, I had to make sure that all my soldiers were in the right place at the right time.

Cons:

1. Medical care is very good for your family while you are on active duty. I basically got to have my daughter for free at a civilian hospital. You don't have to pay any premiums at all or meet any deductibles.

2. Getting a steady paycheck twice a month. It's easy to get used to getting paid on the 1^st and 15^th of every month. While you are looking for a job, you may not get paid until you find one.

3. Knowing that you won't get laid off. Let's face it in today's economy, almost every employee is afraid that they will be getting laid off.

In the end, my decision was to get out of the service. I did eight years of active duty and decided that it was time to start a new career for me and my family. It was a tough decision but I wanted to be a mother and be home everyday and not have to worry about deployments. Now, I do have to pay for medical insurance but it balances out because I am eligible for overtime pay. I am currently a government contractor and this job offers quite a bit of benefits that make getting out of the service worth it.

If you are thinking about separating from the military then make sure that you read this article. There are a lot of other personal factors that may affect each person individually but I have highlighted the most important ones.