Hi, I'm an Airman (E3) in the Navy (active duty). I've got about 2 years of time in and two years left till my enlistment is up. I also have a wonderful wife and two beautiful children that mean more than the world to me. Well... my wife has been getting extremely homesick/depressed ever since I PCS'd up here to Washington state and took her away from her family in Arizona where we're both from.
My dillemma is this: I want to stay in the military. I don't plan on getting out after my time is up and "going to school" on my GI Bill like she wants me to do. First of all, $20k doesn't cover a whole lot of college, maybe two years at a community college. Second of all, I joined the Navy for a lot of reasons. Education certainly was one of them, but first and foremost I joined for patriotic reasons, but a close second is the fact that regardless of what rank I hold, where I'm stationed or what job I have, my family will always have food on the table, a roof over their heads, clothes on their backs and full medical benefits. That's a lot more than I could ever say when I was struggling to support them as a civilian with no college degree or technical training to speak of.
So the decision is a no brainer to me, but the stresses of being a military family are beginning to take a toll on our marriage. I won't go into the details because I'm sure that my situation is in no way unique or new.
I want to stay in the military. She wants to go home, which as long as I'm in the Navy is simply not an option. There just aren't any Navy facilities in Arizona. However, there are several Air Force Bases (Luke AFB, Davis Monthan AFB...)
Granted, I still have two years left so it wouldn't be something I could do right now. While I'm on deployment she goes back to Phoenix, and with at least 2 more deployments to go before I'm out she should be spending at least half the time out there. She always does a lot better while she's got her family around, but she gets depressed being away from them while I'm at home, and when I'm deployed it's even worse. So for the sake of my marriage and my wife's sanity, I know that at some point I will find myself back in Arizona. So my questions are:

What are my options when my enlistment is over?
Would I have to go through Air Force boot camp?
Would I retain my rank?
I know that there is nothing saying that I can't enlist in another branch once my commitment to the Navy is fulfilled. Being that my job in the Navy is in Aviation (I'm an AE, or aviation electrician's mate) it shouldn't be impossible to find myself in a similar MOS in the Air Force. Hell, in my squadron half of our pilots and ECMOs are Air Force officers anyway!
When going from one branch to another, how much control do you have over your choice of orders?

My ideal situation would be to complete my enlistment in the navy and then cross branches to the Air Force and be stationed at Luke AFB.

Perhaps this post would have been better suited for another forum, but I'm lost.
HELP PLEASE!!!

You may get better answers in the Air Force forums since this area is for spouse, friends, etc.

A lot of what would happen will depend on the Air Force's needs 2 years from now when you try to change over.

Your choice of orders are not the same in the AF the way I understand it. Friends always waited around and when the AF decided to move them, they moved them to where ever. At least you can talk with the Navy detailer and get the lesser of 3 evils so to speak.

It's hard for me to help here since I'm rather independent. It never bothered me to move away from family and "do my own thing". I love to visit when I can, but I don't need to be there in the same town with them 24/7/365.

I loved the time with my husband active duty Navy. (AW) If he could have done more time in he probably would have. He retired last summer when he got home from Iraq.

I loved moving to new places, seeing new things, meeting new people along the way. We always made the best of where we were living at the time and tried to get out and see things.

Some people just aren't cut out for this life and it sounds like your wife may be one of them.

Good luck.



Sgt Mom

Honestly unless things change in the next 2 years you have very little chance of comming into the Air Force as prior service. There are a select handful of jobs that they will take Prior service for. And your AFSC ( MOS) is not one of them. Due to the nature of the mission at luke. your gonna be looking at a lot of time away from her. But being there might make it easier for her to deal with. It all depends the AF isn't hurting for people so they arn't gonna be bending over backwards to get you. Where as if you go to the Army, they are much more accommodating,they need the people. When my husband switched from the AF to the Army we got a list to pick from for our first duty station and it was put into his enlistment contract.

It sounds like the Navy is something you thought out and planned for. I am gonna assume that she was well aware of all of this before you joined. She's got to at least try. Being away from home sucks some times. But it can a great thing to. Has she tried to get to know the other wifes. Does she have anything she likes to do that she could do with other people in the community. It just sounds to me like she's not even trying to adjust to this life style. Its a hard one and like sgt mom says its not for everyone. Hopefully the two of you can work this out. But she's gotta try.