The military is perhaps the best place to become an educated young person in America. Not only are there too many educational opportunities to list here, but most of the things I list will be free. Moreover, some of the classes you will travel to will make you money. How cool is that?
First things first, this is part three of our Military Success series; please check out Military Success 101: Physical Fitness and Military Success 102: Mental Fitness when you get a chance. Now back to my favorite benefit of being in the military, the education.
The educational opportunities in the military are immense. In most cases, these are the highest-ranking courses in the world. You can get top advice, guidance, and mentorship from the top professionals in the world.
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One of the things I love about the military is that everyone who teaches you at a course has performed the actions in “the real world.” When I went to school to become an Air Traffic Control Communications Technician in 1999, all my instructors had 5-15 years of real-world experience in that field. The same goes for snipers, tankers, and supply instructors.
Having instructors who have real-world experience may sound trivial, but in academia, some professors have never ventured past the halls of a university. They get their degrees and then become professors directly after graduation. No experience necessary.
I am going to try to condense this article down to keep it brief. If we need to revisit it, we can always return and expound upon some of the topics here. As you can see from my educational history, I attended loads of courses. This snapshot is not even half of the classes I attended; these are considered professional education. I have also attended local courses like safety, hazardous materials, equal opportunity, substance abuse counselor, etc.
I will break down the education types into four categories: Military Occupational Speciality (MOS) Training/Related, Professional Military Education, related civilian job training, and higher education.
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Military Occupational Speciality (MOS) Training/Related. MOS training is where it all begins. Most of the time, when you join the military, you will be assigned a MOS. People rarely join as “open contract,” which means you will get assigned a MOS after boot camp. I love the way the military teaches its servicemembers. The training is as inclusive as possible. Everyone in the class should pass the class. Some of the brighter students may find it easy, but the goal is to get everyone through the course and to the fleet. The fleet is the “real world” of the military. In the fleet, you will be assigned to an operational unit and have a chance to deploy to exercises, operations, and warzones.
I joined and was assigned to become an electronics technician. I had never touched electronics in my life. The military sent me to Pensacola, Florida, and taught me electronics for over one year. When I got to the fleet in September 2000, I was the lowest man on the totem pole. I had no idea what to do or how to do it. When I left the fleet in July 2017, I was the top man on the totem pole. I was a Master Sergeant and an Air Traffic Control Systems Maintenance Chief. I had 50 Marines under my charge and $25 million of Air Traffic Control equipment that my maintenance folks were responsible for maintaining.
To go from knowing nothing about a topic to eventually leading a group of Marines in combat and being responsible for everyone and everything highlights the power of military education and training. I believe the military is the best at what it does— training, educating, and ensuring servicemembers gain valuable experience.
On top of your specific MOS training, you have the opportunity to attend related training courses. For example, as an ATC communications person, some of the radios I used were also used by field radio operators on the ground side. The military lets you attend their training as well. Participating in other MOSs schools adds about 5-10 times more courses to your inventory.
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When I served as an ATC System Maintenance Chief (Master Sergeant E-8), I used the Navy supply system every day. To get a better grasp of how supply works, I attended the Navy Aviation Supply Course for three weeks in Newport, Rhode Island. This course is for middle management level leaders in the Aviation Supply Community. When I returned from the course, I was better able to relate to my supply representative because I had attended their course.
The travel associated with attending these courses is also top-notch. Some of these courses take place in premier locations like Newport, Rhode Island; San Diego, California; Tokyo, Japan; and Key West, Florida; to name a few. Every service has its favorites, and you can also attend courses from different services— the possibilities are truly endless.
I will take this time to mention something not spoken about very often. Your training and education opportunities are incumbent on you to fulfill. After you get to the fleet, you should be the one tracking these courses down. Once you know what classes are out there, your leadership will attempt to get you there. Some leaders build a calendar of courses for the shop to attend, but usually, you are in charge of your destiny. I followed all of my studies on my own initiative. I know people who have achieved the rank of E-9 in my profession who have attended no MOS training outside of initial schools. You have to decide who you want to be early on.
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Professional Military Education (PME). Professional Military Education is very similar to your technical training, except it doesn’t focus on your technological abilities; it focuses on you. Yes, PMEs’ goal is to make you a more well-rounded, effective leader. The Marine Corps has PME specifically for each rank— Lance Corporal (E-3), Corporal (E-4), Sergeant (E-5), Staff Sergeant (E-6), Gunnery Sergeant (E-7), and First Sergeant/Master Sergeant (E-8). The Officers also have a similar structure.
PME is one of the best education systems because teaching you how to think critically is the main objective. Notice I said education, not training. Understanding the difference between education and training is one of the most significant concepts of your entire life. If you can grasp the difference, you will be better at understanding why you attend specific courses.
Training is a technical, step-by-step process of performing an action. Education is the broad analysis of why you perform an action. It may sound confusing so let’s take some examples. When I read the book “Rich Dad, Poor Dad” for the first time, Robert Kiyosaki told me to start a business, buy real estate, and put the proceeds into the paper assets (stock market). He gave me an education on how money flows and how to capture the process of wealth best. From there, I read more education on business, real estate, and investing. However, when it came time to open my business, a blog, I had to seek specific training on opening my site, adding blog posts, customizing my layout, etc.
Not knowing the difference between training and education is why so many people get stuck in life. People go to YouTube to learn how to start a blog but don’t know why they are starting a blog. Starting a blog to make money will not keep you going long-term. Knowing that a blog can lead to multiple streams of income like advertising, affiliate marketing, personal product sales, online courses, and merchandising will keep you going. However, you need that education before you get the training.
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PME will give you knowledge and education on leading other service members in garrison and combat. PME also includes courses that will assist your unit in accomplishing its mission outside of your MOS. These courses include ground safety, security manager, substance abuse, equal opportunity, and more. Attending these auxiliary courses will make you highly sought after in the civilian sector because they are responsible for maintaining the same programs.
Related civilian job training. Being in the military gives you the best of both worlds, military training and the chance to attend civilian training. The military understands that sometimes the civilian world is the leader in a specific activity. While the military catches up, they will pay for civilian training. Most of the time, the training has to correlate to your MOS, but not all of the time.
Some examples are the information technology courses Security+ and Network+— these courses are very valuable in the civilian sector. The military will send you to a two-week preparation course and then pay for your certification test. They will then pay to keep your certification up to date. How cool is that?
I was able to get certified as a Federal Communications Commission (FCC) radio operator and radar technician. The military paid for me to attend a one-week prep course at a local community college in Beaufort, South Carolina. I tested out and received my two certifications. These two certifications opened the door to South Carolina jobs paying $60,000 to $70,000 in 2013. I was also able to become qualified as an Electronic Tester apprentice with the United States Department of Labor. Again, the possibilities here are near endless. If the demand is there, I will elaborate further in separate articles.
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Higher Education. The military appreciates that having a higher degree will make their servicemembers more well-rounded and more effective leaders and communicators. Therefore, it will pay for your off-duty education. I know tons of Marines who have received their bachelor’s and master’s degrees in their off-time. It is possible.
Officers get to attend Master level courses during their official tour of duty. Higher education is a nice perk of being an officer and something you may want to consider.
I would caution you from joining the military only for the higher education prospects. You never know what unit you will arrive at first or even second. The company may be highly deployable and time of the essence. Also, if a war kicks off, everyone is highly deployable. You do not want to find yourself in a warzone getting shot at, thinking you joined for the college. Join for the right reasons and have college be a great benefit in addition to those reasons.
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I am not going to talk too much about college opportunities because I never used them. I haven’t taken one college course in my 22 years. I didn’t join to go to college. But that is just me; I want to be rich. However, if the demand is there, I can get with many of my friends who have leveraged military education to get high-paying civilian jobs. I have a friend who is making a very lovely military retirement and making $140,000/year in Los Angeles as a high school ROTC instructor. That $140,000 is on top of $72,000/year in military pension. Yes, the opportunities are there, and they are amazing.
Final thoughts. This article is just the tip of the iceberg of what the military has to offer. It is too much to write in one piece. If you would like to see more about these opportunities, please let me know, and I can build something out. The chances are that if you are curious, others are curious as well. The military is truly the place to be for self-improvement, education, and training.
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Disclosure: I am not a financial advisor or money manager, and any knowledge is given as guidance and not direct actionable investment advice. I am an Amazon Affiliate. Please research any investment vehicles that are being considered. I wrote this article myself, and it expresses my own opinions. I am not receiving compensation for it. I have no business relationship with any company whose stock is mentioned in this article.
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