Navy vs. Air Force

After reviewing my previous list and talking to a lot of people and doing more research than I did for my senior thesis, I have decided to join the military.

Oh lord. Now I'm a little scared.

But I stand by my decision, and to make sure that I go through with it, I've been announcing it to everyone. That way, I can't back out without a whole lot of embarrassment.

So now that I've decided to sign my life away, I have to decide who gets to be the recipient. At first I was thinking Navy, though I didn't really have a good reason. It mostly just seemed more "military" and hard-core, and I would feel more like a badass. And I like the ocean. But my grandfather was Air Corps, the granddaddy of the Air Force, and Chris's parents were Air Force. Not to mention that I've heard pretty much universally that Air Force standard of living is pretty much the best you can get.

So, as is apparently my way now, I made a list of the benefits of the Navy versus the Air Force.

Navy:

1. More "military"/badass
2. Greater sense of tradition and history, since it's significantly older
3. I would get to travel more

I had initially put down that I could also learn to be a diver if linguistics didn't pan out, but after I thought about that and talked to some people about it, I realized I was way romanticizing that. It would be less gliding just under the surface playing with fish and whale sharks, and more underwater welding where you can't see your hand in front of you or recovering bodies from downed planes and ships. So, not so much on the diving.

Air Force:

1. Better food and housing
2. Better access to planes for traveling or coming home to visit
3. Less travel required, so greater potential for a stable environment for my eventual family
4. Personal history, with my grandfather and Chris's parents
5. They also have a photojournalism job, even though it's hard to get
6. Chris, if he decided to join later, could work on planes
   
7. Not stuck on a ship
8. Better uniforms
9. Not called a "seaman"

And the winner is....