Becoming You Navigating Military Careers

The "Bail Yourself Out Happy Hour" podcast episode discusses military life and career choices. Kandice Whitaker introduces her guests: Natalie Madison Rasco (Air Force), Andre Rasco (Air Force), and Jerry Whitaker (Army). They debate the primary reasons for joining the military, with education and financial needs outranking duty. They share personal experiences, including the challenges of job assignments, the importance of networking, and the impact of policy changes like the 2018 retirement reform. The conversation highlights the need for thorough research, advocacy, and support systems, emphasizing the long-term effects of military service on personal and professional lives.

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Chapters

• 0:00 Intro
• 1:45 Reasons for Joining the Military
• 4:45 Travel and Job Opportunities in the Military
• 7:45 Challenges and Corruption in the Military
• 11:24 Transitioning Jobs Within the Military
• 22:48 Impact of Military Service on Personal Lives
• 23:32 Recruiting Experiences and Expectations
• 53:25 Recommendations for Joining the Military
• 57:40 Final Thoughts and Advice

Transcript

0:00

Kandice, welcome to the bail yourself out Happy Hour Podcast, where each week we'll help you navigate the corporate jungle. Here's your host, Kandice Whitaker is happy hour. Welcome to bail yourself out Happy Hour pod, friends. Here we focus on personal growth, career growth and entrepreneurship. Our crew is dedicated to providing you with the tools and insights necessary to turn your dreams into reality and get your money up. In each episode, we'll explore strategies rooted in the bail method of resilience, guiding you to conquer challenges and thrive in everything you do. I'm your host, Kandice Whitaker, and at the age of 21 I was a determined young mother who wanted to ensure my best possible life and defy the odds. So I took steps towards achieving the life I desired. I got my master's degree. Then I was a sought after consultant, which led me to starting my own company. I have a passion for guiding people into the life they envision through resilience, using the bail yourself out approach. So I'm happy you're here. Kick off your shoes and relax your feet. Fill up your favorite treat, because the bail yourself out Happy Hour podcast is about to start now you're listening to Kandice with a, k, and together, we'll learn how to bail yourself out. B, believe that you can a accept change as a natural, automatic process. I inventory your strengths and the strengths available to you and your network. L learn from your experience and the experience of others. Hey everybody. Hey, welcome to the bail yourself out. Happy Hour podcast today in the lounge, we are going to talk about military life and that choice as a career. I have invited some of my friends to join in on the conversation, because they're military and I'm not. Ladies, first, I'd like to introduce my friend from childhood, Natalie Madison Rasco, Hey girl. Hey, and she's out here repping the Air Force, and then Natalie's bass voice, handsome husband Andre Rascoe Nader of the Rasco, yeah, yeah, also representing Air Force. Last but not least, my cousin, bottom line, father to the Z Jerry Whitaker, representing the United States Army. Hey, everybody, welcome. According to indeed, the number one reason people join the military is sense of duty. What do y'all think about that? No, I don't agree. I was like, Y'all lying education. A lot of times it's for behavioral issues that need to be corrected as well. That's what I've noticed. Yeah, is that still a thing they put you in the military to get your ass right. I think after those two it might be like some people in the cornfield gates from having it as like my dad, my granddad, a great granddad, was in so it's that sense of honor and duty, so I can see, but it's slower on the list, in my opinion. So I did have that sense of duty as well. My dad was Army, but yes, I joined primarily, first off, because I needed to finish paying for school, because I was going to school with period. Yeah, I was going to school, going to Howard, and they shut down School of Fine Arts. We had a big protest about and everything. Chadwick Boseman was a part of that too. So Old Black Panther was there with us and doing that whole thing that's in power. They were like, okay, cool. Thank you for letting us know your opinions, but we still doing this. So I needed some money. So I said, well, guess I'm going to the Air Force, you know. Shout out to the Howard U Bisons, bison, you know, so Jerry, you think that's a lie too, though? Yeah, since duty came into play, to me, is when, like 911 hit, then it was like a sensitivity for everybody. I mean, when it was because something tragic happened, I mean, but before that, it's education. Me was a little bit different, but it was mostly it's education. People all getting in trouble, like she said, that was outlet. I mean, people need to mature. People not as mature as they think they are, till they get in their streets. Well, you know, sense of duty was number one, but education and training assistance, that was also number two, number three. Interestingly enough, according to this indeed article, was an opportunity to travel. I don't know if y'all ever heard but Sinbad did like this famous set on I joined the military so I could travel. Everybody's got it, like Japan. And I got put in Wichita, Kansas, that's right, yeah. I got put in Lawton, Oklahoma. I. Yeah, that is a true statement. I will say that I traveled way more in the military than I did after the military. It's just so much more accessible. In my mind. I didn't join to travel. I don't even think that was in my purview. I honestly it was a divine intervention for me to go in but I do feel like a lot of people, when they find out they're not traveling, they're like, Wait a minute. I don't want to travel. I want to get out. Or they get stationed back in the same place where they lived. Their hearts are broken. Everything is just like, Oh my gosh. I can't believe this happened to me. I've definitely seen that issue. We call it the dream sheet, because you're supposed to actually put down where you want to go, where you want to get stationed. But the running joke is never put down where you actually want to go, because those are the exact places they will not send you. I wanted to go to if only a few army people get to go to Japan, but very few army, most of them, are high ranking people that get to go, yeah, so funny how that works. I mean, I did have the pleasure of living in Heidelberg, Germany. That was the best assignment. I got to go to Germany. Thank God Simba, because the army had it first, and then they left that whole area. And then as soon as we left, the army took it back. They're like, Yeah, we're good. Y'all can go. So let me ask you guys something. My son is a reservist in the army at this point, and I got a good education on military in his process. I don't know if you guys know this about me, for the people who are listening, but earlier in my life, I almost went into the military myself, two different times. First time, no, for real, it's actually three different times. The first time, following my best friend Natalie, I was going to go, I was going to the Air Force, because Natalie, she graduated high school, she went to the Air Force. She was doing it. And I took the test, the asvap test, because I didn't want to go to math that day. Honestly, when I took the test, I did really well, and then all of these recruiters started showing up at my house. That's what happened. And so the army guy was in my ear until the army recruiter tried to kiss me, and I was 17 years old in high school. Never told you no, yes. He picked me up in his car, and he's Negro, full wedding ring and everything this happened. Oh, my God. I didn't know that was a thing. I was 17. I just knew you wasn't supposed to deal with people's husbands. So I left him alone, and the army scared me, right? Absolutely, cuz, like this kind of vibe y'all on, I'm good. It goes down for real more. Look more than you think it do you just think of a Petri dish. That's it. Oh, that's why they tell recruiters do not have the recruits in your car. You're getting all these people from different parts of life coming into this microcosm of the military. And you have pedophiles, you have people who are sex traffickers. You have people who are sex offenders. You have people that are rumors. You have people that hold sex rings. I remember at my last duty station, they busted a major group of people for they had a sex ring with the trainees, right? They were bringing them across state lines. You can't just be a military person and just go off of the credibility of, okay, we must vouch for them. You can vouch for them with their security clearance, but pass that, you need to look at some more credentials. We were really had to be able to look at the uniform and be like, Oh, okay, well, that's military. It's like a police. We were raised to be like, Oh, that's a cop, so they're good. And then all of a sudden, we find out more. You know, it's that same thing. When I was in Kuwait, they busted a sex ring, and that the major and Sergeant Major and colonels was running it. They had a whole section of tents that you couldn't go to, that only special people were allowed over there. And the way they busted that sex ring is this girl. She was nice looking. She was sending the box. Every week she would send a box, and the person that was mailing it out for her, it was exact same way every time, because she was putting $10,000 in the Nike sneaker box. She's right. So every week she was sending this home, and they put Cid on it and found out about this sex ring. So then, once they busted the ring, they gave her a dishonor. They put her out of the military, and three days later, she was back getting paid$150,000 at working in the same building, in the same and being the boss as a civilian, over the people that she was working there. It is, in a nutshell, because she'll get in trouble. Everybody else was involved. They're like to do, to do, you know, and then she come right back, keep making her money. So she's not going to say anything, you know, wild. I mean, that is like, it's like, with any place you choose to work, there's this underbelly that, yeah, only certain people who are in it really know. It's kind of like, if you know, you know, the main difference, I think, with the military is y'all actually. Lived in so like, right? I think they were just trying to pass a law that says that if there is a sexual assault incident that the commanders cannot do anything about it. Now, it has to be a third party. Now it's like third party investigations, and you could have done that as well in the military, but it always had to be signed off within your chain of command, you're they have a vested interest of covering things up exactly, exactly. When I hear that people are going in, male or female, because males do get sexually assaulted quite often in the military as well. And now, since Don't Ask, Don't Tell, has been lifted to where you can just be openly sexually saying whatever you are. I tell people, make sure you're protecting yourself, and that you stay close with somebody. You can tell somebody, if something happens, make sure you write it down. Make sure you have evidence, God forbid, make sure you are getting everything you need, because it's He Said, She Said, after a while, literally. And then when you get out in the military, when you need to get mental health, work up physical help, sometimes people get pregnant, all types of stuff. You need to have evidence to show okay. This happened to me. I need some compensation. I need help medically so you can be taken care of for the future. Black people just get left out and they don't do all the work. That sentiment is exactly the same as corporate I tell people all the time, you get a new job, get you a notebook, and anything that seems off, you just write that joint that need it. You may never need it, yeah, in your life, but it's better to have it and not need it than to need it and not have that's my favorite saying, my favorite. I say it all the time, yeah, and in the military, we call that a memorandum for record, yeah, put the date. You sign it at the bottom, and you just tuck it away. I'll tell you that memorandum for record. That's what we're calling it, period. What I tell people, even at my job, any incident, to have your notebook and write it down time and date. When it go up high enough and you go to arbitration or whatever, it's more credible because you have it in the book and you annotated it. This happened on this date, and you have it chronologically listed. So instead of you saying it from your head, they're not going to take that seriously. You got it in the book. They're like, wow. So this hadn't happened exactly. I have a question about what we were talking about earlier, related to why people join the military. One of the things that y'all mentioned, everybody said that they wanted to travel more, and just for the people who are listening, if they are in the military or have somebody in their family that is considering the military as an option, as I mentioned, in relation to my son, I learned that certain jobs, they do different things, like, for example, my son, when he had the opportunity to pick his job, the first thing that he picked was Cook, because he likes to cook, and then, like his second job, like a mechanic or something like that. And I remember the guy that I was dating at the time who was retired military, was like, tell him to call a recruiter and take that off. He don't want to be no damn Cook, because cooking in the Army is not cooking. Tell him to take that off. That's where they put the dummies. He does not want to be there. And he was like, in the military has raggedy ass vehicles. He does not want to work as a mechanic. His ass is going to be out in the ward zone trying to pick up somebody's raggedy ass tank. I mean, he was going off doing that because, right civilian, I didn't know. I was like, Oh, you like to cook. Alright, cool. Be in the kitchen. Cook something. So if a person wants to travel, or if they want to advance their education or their skill set. Are there certain jobs they should consider, or something like that? Absolutely, I was notating to make sure, I said, take the ASVAB as many times as you can to get as high a score as you can, and to make sure you have all the jobs available to you. And look at all the jobs. Don't just look at, oh, I think I like cooking. No, there's so many things. Because when you're in the military, you want stuff that's transferable in the civilian world, because you will have to leave. We were in the Air Force band. We were musicians. A lot of people have their degrees. Some people were had doctorates in music, getting into a enlisted position, but we got to travel so much and do a big performances for presidents, generals, dignitaries in other countries, huge performances. But then you have people who have desk jobs, Google, hey, what does this job look like? Do they get to travel talk with somebody because the hands on information is critical. And the last thing I will say, always depends on budget, because you can have a job that is well funded one year, and then it can be some administration change, and all of a sudden there's no budget for travel. There's no budget for vehicles, there's no budget for Extra. Stuff. So you have to be cognizant of that as well. What you're saying is definitely a truth, and it happened to me because when I went in, I wanted to do computers, yeah. But man, my job, the brief description of it was computers, and it was my job, was computers and radios, analog and digital radios, signal support system. Yeah, but the job I really wanted I was a 31 uniform. Was a 74 bribery actually doing computer network and building the actual, oh man, see. So my job, I was fixing computers in the field. So my first unit was multi launch rocket system unit in Fort. Sill, okay, yeah, I'm fixing the computers, in tanks, and I'm in the field, 320 days out of the year you fixing computers. I mean, it's just what kind of units you went to. Now, the bad thing about that is, when you get identified as a field artillery, they usually send you to that kind of unit, to your next unit. You just keep going to that. So it's very rarely that you get sent to a single unit or something else, because they say, Oh, we got somebody that has done that already. We're going to send them there. Get pigeonholed. So you have to really read the definition and the job duties that you're going to do for your job when you looking for a position in the military, not to discourage him. Because, of course, if that's his dream, you know, do you that kind of thing? And I know there are some tourists too, where some people actually went and got trained. I think it was overseas. So when they came back and got out, and then they're making 150 a year. Well, back then, over in Las Vegas, because they couldn't put one of the casinos, stuff like that. So you have those dreams too. Because keep in mind, when you're in the military, you can actually also just get trained on your own, do the GI Bill, or not even just GI Bill, that's afterwards, yeah. But even while you're in they'll pay for you to go to school if you can get the time. That's the hard part. So you can just do one job in the military while you're training on something else. You did that. I definitely did that. And so computers well, you bring up an interesting point. And I was going to ask that next, like, if you are a person who does that, like, say, for example, you go in as enlisted. So for people who are unaware, like enlisted as you just graduated high school, you have a high school diploma, you go in, you are enlisted. And then you know, maybe you get some education, or some specialized training in a different field. How hard is it to transition from one to another? I'm going to correct you real quick. Actually, the number for enlisted people having a bachelor's degree has gone up so high, it's probably like 50% at this point. I don't quote me on it, but it was, it was inching up a while ago. It just depends on if you want to tell people what to do, as opposed to being a part of what's going on on the Brownfield. For me, I didn't have a degree when I came in, but majority of the people in the field that I was in, 98% of them had their degree, if not higher degrees, masters, doctoral degrees, as enlisted folks. So I definitely come in like that, or did they get it while they were no, they came in with it. Oh, okay, so let's really talk about that. Though I thought that I told you I don't know. Then, how do you differentiate? Then who's the officer and who is the enlisted? Wonderful question. Okay, that used to be the case. It was the idea, especially the ones who came in with degrees. In fact, we used to have meetings on it all the time. I always remember this guy, I won't out, but he was funny and brilliant, and we asked the same question. I was like, well, so if, like, pretty much 80 to 90% of us in this room have degrees over all enlisted, but it's the officers who are expecting to have the degrees, especially masters and above, still, why can't we be designated with officer status? And he answered, so we're talking to the actual commander at the time He answered from the back of the room, because you keep accepting it was like, so as long as you sign up, enlisted, with your degree and everything else, you walk and answer, they're like, come on in. We'll take that training. Yeah. But a lot of people go in not knowing that they can be officers off the back in the room not going to tell you. Do you want to say it? I mean, even signing bonuses and everything, they're not going to tell if you do not know, they're not going to say so a lot of people come in and get kind of pigeon holed in there, and then they say, Oh, you got programs like green and gold and all that. But again, a person that has to sign off on it. As soon as you have, like, a personality conflict with somebody, or you go there and do anything, they can say, No, you want to go to school. They can say, No, you have to get it signed off. The mission needs you right now so you can't go to class. When I went in, the recruiter was like, the first thing he said, Well, you know, I mean, we really are looking. For some security officers. He wanted me to be police, Air Force, police, because no one was doing it. And I told him, I said, Well, I have this training here, but I also have computer science and I've gotten this kind of award. And he said, Yeah, you know, you may have to wait about a year to get in, because we're not taking positions for those right now security forces. We got it right now where you can do this other thing. And I'm like, okay, so they have an agenda too. They have quotas they need to fill in certain positions, and they have their own, you know, agendas that they need to take care of. So you have to go in there with as your own advocate, really, and kind of say, well, no, this is what I'm looking for. This is what I like to do with my life in the military and after the military, right? Because that's the important part. Alright, so let me ask y'all this cuz we've gotten a lot of information. I feel like I just drank from a fire hose on a scale of one to 10, one being the easiest, 10 being the hardest. If you enter the military with one position, whether it be enlisted or even an officer, and you just want to change fields. How hard is it and 10 being the hardest on a scale of one to 10, y'all. Or give me a number, how hard is it to change from? Let's say you was a cook and now you want to be in security. Oh, not. It depends. The first criteria is going to be the needs of the service. The second thing is going to be your GT score. Did you score high enough to move into that position? You know? I mean so. And then underneath that is how strong is the job that you're in right now? Is it full or is it low? What percentage of people in the military are still in that job, so they're not going to just let you jump. I had a lot of people get out of the military altogether and get back in before they actually transition exactly for them to change the job or even change services. Yeah, a lot of people do that as well, to get rank and to do just do a different position. So what's your number? Nat, do you agree with every time I was going to say a five out of 10? Why do you say that? Definitely agree with you? Gerald, that you know it depends on your job if the numbers are low, but let's just say it's a nice thing all across the board. Let's just say your job is packed. The other place has a vacancy. Now it's called networking. Now it's that a lot of people are ain't good at that, but this is where the gift of gab comes in. And knowing who you're, you have to know your audience, and you have to have, as we said, There's memorandums for bad stuff, but there's also, I love me, files that you keep on yourself. You have your own portfolio to say, Hey, this is something I was working on. And I really think I'd be a great fit for this unit. I really think I can really help you guys with dot, dot, dot. Let me show you what I got. And then now you're getting somebody else into it that sees your gifts. And then you could talk to your commander, your NCOs, and your commanders. It depends on, you know, if you're an officer or not, or if you're enlisted, going into that field and then just communicating the whole way through, and just keep trying. Because, as Andre said, you can even leave the service. Come back in, because he's done it. I'm going to give it a five, alright. Andre, what's your number? I've always been, yeah, a weird guy. The number, truly, I think, depends on the service, yes, from. So this is all anecdotal, because I know people going to see it. So just from what I know and what I've heard from friends and so forth and family, the army, to me, for them, was the hearts training over. So I think that nine was very appropriate. The Navy was similar. For the ones that I know, marine, same thing, Army, Navy, Marine, but Air Force and Coast Guard actually seem to be a little bit easier, seemingly just from what I know. My story is when I first got in because, again, I was just looking for money for school and I was trying to be a patron on the positive side of that word, the position they had open for me to get into was actually, so we'll work on the back of cargo planes, so c1 30, c5 stuff like that. So that's what I was actually going to do. I was going to go into training at high aspap scores, so again, I could work on computers and things like that. And so they were like, Okay, great. But when I was in by the grace of God. There was one guy. He looked at my scores, looked at my resume. We had to have all of our stuff out for him to go over our careers with us. And he says, Well, it looks here that you have training in music. I said, Yeah, I was about to graduate, but the day that I told the whole hour story, it says, Why don't you join the Air Force band? I said, What Air Force Band? Yeah, we didn't know. I asked the recruiter about the Air Force man in DC, and I said, Well, I've been to the concerts. I'm from DC, and so I've seen them on the steps and everything else. And he said this, for confidence, you have to have, like, a degree, I think, like a master's, or a doctorate or something to be and that's, oh, I didn't finish it, so I'll work on that and try to get there later. So then fast forward. I'm in basic training, like week four, like I'm in basic training saying, Oh, I'm about to go work on the back of the planes. And sure enough, is that, no, you can just audition for the band. I can set it up for you right now. You can audition this week. There's a band here on base, and you can go ahead and see what they say. And I'm like, Are you kidding me? And that's exactly what he was saying. You know, when Jared was talking about, if you don't know, then you have all of these opportunities that are really kind of by passing. So you really do need to get with someone like that. Was saying to shadow, find out the information, things like that. And as far as what a question so for the Air Force, yeah, I would give it a five, because it was a lot easier for me to transition right in that moment to go to the van from cargo plane so completely across the board. Wow, that is a great place to take a break. What do you want to talk about? If you have a show idea? Drop Canvas alive at fill yourself out pod.com and com, do you want me to speak at your next event? Hit me up at bail yourself outpod.com. Now back to the show. Welcome back, y'all. To the bail yourself out Happy Hour lounge. We are chilling today with my guest co host, my girl, Natalie Madison Rasco Andre Rasco and Jerry Whitaker Junior. According to military.com they've reported that white enlistment of soldiers has gone down. What are y'all thoughts? I can tell you my immediate thoughts. I thought that was very weird, that that was something that we were really thinking about, you know, I actually just looked that up recently. I mean, like, right before the podcast, it was like the 2020, so, so like, you know, four years old, almost not only the whitelist was gone down, but I think it was Air Force, Army. I think it was Army. The ladies have actually gone up on the enlisting side. So African American ladies are enlisted more than the men. And so the dynamics are changing just period, I'm thinking they're just starting to see more of the benefits, and they're like, You mean these people can get out and still get paid for the rest of their life? They're considered retired at 40 something, and all these benefits are with it. You got training for your job, and jobs want to hire you first, especially in the government, because you have this military. So I'm thinking it just started to take more advantage. Maybe. I think it has to do with the white plight of men not working, not going to college anymore. Like the numbers for Caucasian men going to school is probably in the same range as the military. They want to play the video games. They want the sugar mama now. And I think that a lot of times it's just the video games are just inside. They don't want to leave out. Like Jordan Peterson, I don't agree with a lot of things that he says, but he has said that there is a growing trend of just white males not going to work, white males not going to college anymore, white males not being in relationships, white males not getting married. And so I think it probably has to do with that scenario. I think for African Americans, I think that the younger generation is becoming more woke about not really joining on military missions and doing things different groups of people like they're more sensitive to what's going on, because people see global news now I can understand that as well. I think for the military as a whole, it's going down since 2018 Mm, hmm, Obama changed the rules to say that the military had to pay into their retirement now, like I do at the post office, like everybody else does, yeah, see, but the whole thing is, the post office pays for all federal governance retirement. That's why they didn't have to pay into it. So now the benefit of people going to the military and retiring in 20 years is gone. Like they say, okay, the people that got in there in 2018 they're paying for their own retirement, even though the post office has billions of dollars saved up for retirement, and they taking billions from the post office every year for this retirement. You know, I'm saying, where's that money going to go in 20 years? 2038 those people pay for their own retirement. So this is, to me, another government way to get at that money from the post office, like Social Security, the incentive for people to go and say, I can retire in 20 years and start my life over and have that money also is gone. So they're not going in there. That's a great one. Yeah, they're not going in why? Imma do it now. I still have to go out and work. I'm not going to get my check. The reserve is, no, you're not going to be able to get your check if you retire until you 62 years old. But when you go on active duty, and that's your job every day, you after 20 years, that was your incentive to say, okay, I can start over and do something else, or I can do nothing, whatever it is, but that's my choice. After 20 years, if I finish now, you said I'm taking that away, so there's no reason for me to go in there. You. I'm curious if it goes back to your question as well, and it's when you were saying the incentive for getting in. Because if the patriotism is that number one incentive, and the ones who were feeling the strongest passion for that patriotism are now starting to see, Oh, you guys are catering more so to this. Or if you're on the other side of the spectrum and you're like, Oh, I see too much of what's happening overseas. And I remember when my dad went over there, it was because we were fighting for freedom. But now I feel like we're fighting for oil. All these different things are now just being exposed. I'm wondering if that has an effect on it too. Just out of curiosity, also, our white young Americans are turning towards non military militias. They have the patriotism to want to be a part of something, but they're going to now be a part of like a January 6, the proud boys, different groups like that, and I think that's another reason why they're not showing up to enlist into the military. When I was in Kuwait, they had sections we used to call it kicking night for the Cowboys, and they have their Confederate flags waving, and there were certain sections that they lived in. It's very segregated in the military, your people go, look at the way it set up. So when they start taking stuff away from them, that was part of their patriotism, they're not going to go there? Because that's the one thing that they had, was their patriotism, you know, I'm saying so now they can't do that. They can't put that on their bumper sticker. They can't just go over and do whatever they want. So why am I going to go in there? That was one of their strongholds. This is really interesting. The point that Jerry brought up earlier related to Obama, changing the retirement I looked it up, right? So the way they framed it is really interesting. They didn't say, Hey, we are changing our pension plan going forward. What they said was, we're going to allow people who don't retire from the military to be able to have some sort of retirement benefit, which they don't have. So they're like, alright, well, if you don't retire from the military, I don't know statistically, but I know a whole lot of people who didn't do 20 years and retire. I think I know more people who didn't do 20 years and retire. So the way they put this was that those people who did not do the full 20 years and retire, at least they'll have some sort of retirement. I'm not saying I agree or disagree, but I'm definitely saying that I could see both sides. That's definitely someone glazing over the main issue. So the people that are doing 20 years are like, where's my retirement? Oh, yeah, you gotta pay for it. I medically retired. I did 15 and a half years. I could have done an early retirement, and I chose to do the medical retirement. Thank God I did. We can get into that later as well. But they were threatening that, like two years before I got out, and I was in 2014 of, hey, we're going to start going to a pay based system to where the TSP you're going to pay in. And I remember when they first started TSP, which is our form of an a Roth IRA, yeah, a 401 k, the child version of the 401 K. We were like, No, the sergeants Association, all the people who have, like, outside of the regular military that help us in that way, we're like, that's not a good idea. But they passed it anyway. I think part of the issue was this military aside, we sit at a very weird intersection, me as an elder millennial, technically, and you guys as Gen X right before me. We are a smaller generation. We got the boomers in front of us, and there's a lot of them, and then the folks behind us, there's also a lot of them. And you know, the reality is that we can't get around even though, you know, if you listen to certain news, media, propaganda, we're the best country in the world. I'm like best by what standard? Yeah, we're like so low in education. We're low in our medical benefits. We're low in many things. We're pretty high in patriotism. Maybe, I don't know, even those numbers are going down. Y'all gotta be fair, though. I mean, at least we have more guns that'll go back to Yamamoto. Yamamoto said that nobody can attack mainland USA because there's a gun behind every blade of grass. This goes back to my thing, where I'm telling you, I hate to say, I believe, within the next 40 years, somebody's gonna make a push at mainland USA, and it's gonna be China or Russia, because they actually gonna own all the land around us, and they own a lot of the USA. How them you gonna keep them from bringing their people in, stationing them right there to make the attack? We got Chinese spies right here. Y'all ain't really ready for that adult conversation, no, no, no, but people are blinded by shiny things. You know I'm saying, but I'm not the super religious person. But even in the Bible, if God don't say, Look at my bling, he says, Know my voice, stop looking for shiny things. We keep the fools occupied by. Shiny things. Yeah, and the people who have intelligence, they're silenced. Yeah, they're crazy, insane. I argue this all the time. You're not going to let somebody put a marine missile base in your backyard if they're your enemy. That just not going to do it. I want to lighten it up a little bit. We're going to do a lightning round of this or that. That was the lifestyle two things, and you pick which one you want this or that. Initial response. So first thing, you're a crippled millionaire, or you're middle class and you can travel this or that. Jerry, first response, middle class and travel. Nat, middle class and travel Andre, yeah, MC and travel, alright, I definitely would pick middle class and travel, this or that can't taste or can't smell. Nat, well, I think they go together, they do, but it's the same. You can't smell, you can't take Yeah, you're not exactly, let's just take it. I'm going to say, smell. I don't need to smell. I want to taste everything. Okay, can't taste the can't smell. I'm a taster. I definitely want to taste that taste. Jerry can't taste the, can smell. Come on, come on over to Tasty. Something won't be the eyeball out. I'll be with smell. I'm going to say, I don't want to smell either. You know why? Because I smell everything, and you don't want to smell everything. Technically, we all just chose we don't want to smell. Yeah, like for months I lived between a sewage plant and a garbage dump in Kuwait. So just let you know, did you do your pact act? I'm working on that right now because please do, wow, what y'all talking about? It's for burn pits and dumps. And that's part of my disability with my skin and everything, because the way I was working at, yeah, oh, wow, yeah, there's so many unexplained things. But you can get in the military and leave and then, like, five years later, you're like, Oh, my foot fell off. What, you know? What I mean? Like, just stop. No, it's happening when a lot of times people get their VA and then they can't get treated. The military shoots you with everything, man, when you sign up, you give up all your rights to everything you do. You are no longer a citizen. You are a number, yep, if you had to do it all again, okay? Military or college, I think I would pick military, honestly, military, because I met my boat. Well, no pressure Andre I know this is you did college. This is what I'll tell you. This is my logic on it. I tell people what I mentor people go to college and try it. Yes, go live in a dorm. Go do what you gotta do if you're still in a place that you feel okay, you know you need more grooming or whatever. Then there's programs you can do and say, Okay, I want to do the Rocc program, where Imma be in college and I have to be an officer afterwards, where you going to do it like this? But I said, go to college first, if you have to do anything like me. I went to college. I went to Nassau, and I got to the point where I said, Okay, I did a year college. I'm working at the post office full time. I really I wasn't bad kid, but I was parallel in the streets, everything I did, I was partying. Then, you know, I grew up in the area where there's a lot of drug dealers and everything else. Jason, right? I call it parallel in the street. So I luckily, by the grace of God, didn't get caught up in some rage. Have to be at work or somewhere else. I'm saying when it happened. So I remember, I was getting off work at 730 in the morning in Melville, Long Island, yeah, and I had to be at English class in Hempstead at eight o'clock. Now it's traffic, so, yo, it's impossible to do it, right? Yeah. So I would get in the class like 810 but every time you were late to a class, she deducted a grade. So I'm telling her, I get off at 730 you know, I'm saying I'm in traffic. I get in here as soon as I can get so I had 100 average in her class, test wise and everything else. And she said, I'm gonna give you an F and I'm like, you know, I got a good GPA, and you're gonna rule my GPA because I'm late a couple minutes every day, like, what? So I saw like, a million army ads, and actually I was supposed to go into the Navy before that. But then I was like, you know, I just got so fed up. I said, You know what, I'm doing this college thing, and I'm working full time and I'm partying full time, like I need something. I wasn't totally bad. I need a little more grooming, and I'm going to the military. My grandfather was in Korea, did three tours in the war, and I had another great gentleman. JC Jones me. He was integral in my life. I said, You know what I'm going and I went to the recruiter, and I pushed the button and I'm saying, and nobody believed that I did it. I remember the day I walked in my grandma's room with the paperwork, and I said, Grandma joined the military, and I'm leaving in 34 days. And my grandma said, No way, you ain't going in the military. And I held up the paperwork, and my grandfather rolled over, right? He just looked at me, and he said, Oh. Yeah, he signed that paper. I had to pick again, military, college, military, all right, Andre military or college, definitely, definitely military, but I will say military officer, military, remix, all right, right. Here is a good place to take a break. We'll be back in our virtual happy hour. The party never stops. Join your bail yourself out virtual coworkers on Facebook, Instagram and Tiktok. Now back to the show. Bye. Hey, y'all, Hey, welcome back to the bail yourself out Happy Hour lounge. I got my peoples Andre Yeah, Gary Junior, we are talking about life in the military, in the military overall as a career choice. So I want to ask y'all, what was your recruiting experience like? But then also, I want to know how that actually compared to your life in the military. Okay, was it false? Appetizing? Was it close? I was a lot the recruiter a lot, because he omitted a lot of things. Like when I joined with my job in New York, you had to have a 80 to get my job. When I got to Fort Knox, Kentucky for basic training, people that lived down south only had to have a 30. So I was like, what? And it was like, what an education system up north is better than down south. So they don't have to score as high to compound the bull. All of them got $10,000 signing bonuses for the job, and I didn't. So everybody that was in my AI team, yeah, all of those from down south got $10,000 signing bonuses, and I didn't get one. I had to score higher, and I didn't get paid for the same job that they got. That's sad. I'm sorry that happened. I'll tell you what I had the best experience. But I'm telling you, mine was divine at the time, I was dating this guy, he was not the recruiter, not the recruiter. He was he went into the Air Force before me. My sister also served somebody. She dated somebody before you. Wait a minute, listen, let's focus. I had a terrible life before my husband, so I met the recruiter, and he was such a nice guy. His name was staff sergeant Christopher room back then. He's retired now, at the time, I was just like, Okay, I'm done with school. I'm just going to work. No problem. I'll just wait for this guy to come back in the military, and we'll just have our life, whatever I'm thinking, the Lord woke me up and said, Go to the recruiter and tell him you want to be in the band. I said, Oh, this must be nuts. I'm going back to bed. We'll be up again. Go to the recruiter and tell him you want to be in the band. I don't know about a band. I never heard of a military band. I didn't know that they had anything like that. So third time, Get up right now and go to the recruiter and tell him you want to be in the band. So I said, Okay, God, put my clothes on. I called him up. I said, Can I come by your office? I said, because, for some reason the Lord told me to to ask you to see about the band. He goes, Man, I don't know anything about a band. I said, I know. I think this is crazy. Hey, so let me call you back. So I didn't even have to go. He goes, You know what's so funny? He goes, there is a band, there's an Air Force band, and there's an audition right in Massachusetts, about a couple hours away from here. I said, really? I said, Well, what? I said, What do I have to do? He's like, let me make some phone calls. Let me see what's going on. So he did all the life work try to find the whole thing. He's like, first of all, we need to do an ASVAB for you. And I was like, Okay. I was like, What's in ASVAB? Like, I was completely a novice. I had no idea. So I got there. I can't remember what I got. I know I did horrible at mechanic, but we didn't go there for mechanics, so we're good to go. He was like, my supervisor told me not to drive you, because that was the whole thing. You probably heard about, what happened with your recruiter and but he's like, but I feel like you really need to get to this, this audition. He's like, so I'm gonna go against what my supervisor said. And I was like, we don't have anywhere to stay. He goes, I'm gonna call a friend. I do have a friend that lives there on base. You stay on their couch. I'm gonna sleep in the room. He's like, we're gonna get you there. We're in the car. He goes, Wait a minute. I don't even know if you could sing. Can you sing? I can't sing. I have my portfolio because, remember, I was auditioning on Broadway at the time we had Mrs. Taranas Rest in peace. When I got to the audition, I was completely ready and won the audition. The guy was just like, I can't believe this happened. I was like me either, definitely a God ordained moment, the fact that the recruiter was so kind to me and he kept up with me throughout the years. He never lied to me. I did my recruiting. Also, just let you guys know, after you do join the military and you serve and do your basic training, you can come back and shadow your recruiter and get free leave, and you still get. Paid you just hang out at the recruiter's office and do little jobs for him so you can go home visit your family and get in a local newspaper and say, Hey, we did it, you know. But it was an excellent, excellent opportunity, and he was so kind and just a spot on. Gentlemen Audrey, what was your experience like? Do you feel like you knew what you were getting into? You feel like you got the Okie doke, not even Okie doke. I think just like what Gerald saying, they just didn't know, same thing. I showed up at the recruiter's office to meet with the Navy recruiter. The Navy recruiter wasn't there. I think he was with somebody else, another appointment or something. So I'm just waiting outside his office. Normally, the recruiters were all together in their little center. So Army, Air Force, Navy, Marine. And the Air Force guy came out of his office and just have him see me there and says, Oh, all right, how you doing, son? You have signed up for the Navy. Huh? Say yes, sir, yeah, ready to serve my country. Ready to get this going. All right. Well, I'm glad thank you in advance for your service. Good luck with the six months. And then he walks back into his office. Now, of course, I'm like, I don't know what you're talking about. Oh, that was a setup. I'm like, Excuse me. I'm sorry. I hate so he was smooth with it, apparently, because I ended up going to air force that day. So he really was trying to get his autofill for, like, security forces, some of the stuff that just wasn't as easy to feel and I was like, No, I'm sitting to my guns, at least for what I was good at, because my ass back to give me a certain thing for anyone listening who doesn't know, we keep saying ASVAB. That's just like the s, a T or the A, C, T test for high school that you would take after to get into college. Once I got in, though, and again, I had to switch, going from working on the back of planes to actually being a vocal for the Air Force band. You know, once I was in the band, it was glorious. One of our jobs, of course, is to we would sing, we call the last full measure of devotion. So we would actually sing for the funerals, for those who didn't make it back home, things like that. So we've been to what Afghanistan, Kuwait, UAE, Djibouti, with the Marines, camelona. They would normally have a band as guards too. But then we would actually put on performances almost like the USO, because you had so many folks who were there for a year two years, we can go further in than like uso, could stuff like that, because we're actually active duty, so we have the clearance to be able to get to some places. So we kind of had a hotspot, but also just for ceremonies and stuff like that. So as far as for comparison to recruiter, to the actual career, because I was looked out for, I think it was glorious for me. That's another reason also, I found a love of my life. So that helps. Do you think if somebody has a recruiter that they're not really feeling, do you recommend that they seek out another recruiter, because Absolutely, if you can, and also you can formally make a complaint about the recruiter if there's something nefarious going on, or if you send something, as we say, make those notes start early. Yeah, be the Becky of your own dreams. I'm a football player, but I'm a baseball player. First, give your recruiter three strikes. They hit the three strike mark where they don't answer questions. I mean, the horn to answer your questions. If they him and Hall three times, change a recruiter, they're not there for your best interest. Yeah, superiors too, get your answer. Don't allow them to give you an answer. This is what I tell my daughters, I say, Never be content. Always be satisfied. Oh, I love that. Don't be content with their answer. This is your life vision. Be satisfied with the answer. And for so many people who are might just be coming out of high school, they're not accustomed to doing that level of inquiry. And especially if it's somebody who's older, they might just take what you say at face value. Because think about it, the majority of your life, heretofore, that's what you had to do. And those are the people they're looking for. You want yes men. You want women that say just yes to the gig. So it's kind of like it's funneling its own machine. You're coming in that way, some people can feel like they're taken advantage of, and those people, the people that have a backbone, they don't end up doing too well in the military, because then they say, oh, this person has an attitude. Oh, this person's always looking for a way out. Oh, this person's always telling us and making notes about what we're doing. So it's it funnels on the news again, that was me. I did 11 years. I got in some trouble. I ended my career as an e4 from taking care of soldiers. You see what I'm saying. I am comfortable where I ended and and at first, I always blamed everybody for what was going on. 99.99% of my problems happen from black folks, not white folks, black. That was dangerous. But what I will say to you is, I realized in my older ages that the problems that I had, I still had more power to correct them than I did like, like I couldn't run so because. I was excellent at my job, but I sucked that running that was always held against me, but I didn't get out of work at C, O, B, close the business and go to the gym and practice running, or go get a running coach. I went to the bar. I party, you know, saying so I had to really, really reevaluate why I didn't Excel, besides my attitude and besides me knowing the regs I was going to the reg library and reading the regs to protect myself from the people that were attacking me more than I was going to the gym, right? No, but you bring up an interesting point. That's accountability at its core, right? And first of all, the fact that you could be able to look back at your experience and say, Hey, y'all was jacked up, but here's where I messed up, too. That's amazing, because a lot of people can use that absolutely, absolutely. I was done so dirty in the military as well, we always would say, Oh, the military will eat their young. They don't want people to make it. It feels like I'm like, What is wrong with you? You shouldn't want us to make it so we can be just a big force to be reckoned with, but no, if indeed they're young, they don't want us to promote I left as an e5 and I spent 15 and a half years and people, Oh, you didn't study. Yeah, I studied. I had other stuff to do. I was PCSing, which means I was moving from country to country, state to state, and things like that. But I have a life as well, so medical stuff too, and medical stuff as well, for some that have on their watch, right? How do you hold this against me if it happened on your watch? The same thing in corporate world or any other business entity, they're going to squeeze out of you everything that they're paying for. So you just have to make sure you do your research, like finding podcasts, like bail yourself out and getting that information you know, so that you can find out what you're looking for people who've done it before, so you don't step in the same landmines did it. I would do the research as much as you can. And that's the message even to get out. I think if I knew how possible it was to become an officer, man, that's a different world, right there. Once I had my bachelor's degree, I told my military won't even pay for it. Now I can go back to school and get my master's degree on the military's dime. But Obama did this. I was going to transfer it to my wife so she can go to college. But when he got in 2018 he changed the rule that I couldn't transfer to my wife unless I was re enlisting. Right? I had no idea. I never heard that. When he came in, he changed the rule that said the only way I can transfer it to my kids or my wife is if I was reenlisting. I had it before that, so it hurt me. I'm like, okay, so pay off my the debt I have for college. They won't pay off my debt that I have for college because I have my bachelor's degree prior to them. So now I can go get my mastery, which is going to cost more, which I plan on doing? Wait, wait, you need to apply for the loan forgiveness. Uncle Jared, Yeah, cuz you're the federal government. Uncle Joe, I'm waiting for a result. But I was a military I voted Republican because they gave me raises every time. Right now it doesn't benefit me to to vote for them, because they trying to do away what feeds me. You know, I'm saying people need to really start looking at what is in their best interest, right? You have to do your research, and it starts with your district attorney in your neighborhood. Well, yeah, if you don't do anything, research your district attorney, because that's who's putting people in jail. I just fund this to the left foot. It's okay. It all relates. Yeah, a lot of military people don't really go hard into the politics stuff, because it doesn't really affect us that much when you're a long term career military person, because every four years is something new, and you just you gotta support each president just like you did the last one. Yes, sir, yes, ma'am, let's go for your best vested interest of you and your family to figure out who we're voting for what we're trying to do. Knowledge is power. Well, one last question, would you recommend the military as a career? Why or why not? I would recommend it, and it would be in a few different places. I do recommend the enlisted force if you truly do desire mentorship. For me, I never got the mentorship. I asked so many people to mentor me, and there's not a lot of African Americans in the Air Force with the army. You're like, My people, you know, but in the Air Force showed up to work and I'm like, I'm the only black person here for so many years, and they do treat you differently. I was called the N word the first week I was there by one of my co workers. And I was like, I got you. She's right here. Like, yeah. Basically, I would recommend the military for enlisted and for officers, but I would have the caveat as in to say, make sure you have your exit strategy on day one. But the military wants you to do is they want you to get so deep in it that they're the only thing that feeds you. They get you up in the morning, like people can't function when they get out there, like military told me when to wake up, they told me what to eat, they told me how to dress. And it's serious, like I couldn't function for a while. I was depressed and couldn't get together. It is two smiles for real. Please keep some people around you that are not in the military, that have life outside of the military, so you can really see what's going on. Because a lot of time you go in, you go in hard, it's like a fraternity, and then for the office, I'm like, again, no, no, it is. You have to realize every single person that goes into the military has a level of PTSD the minute they hit basic training. Yep, your brain waves or change forever you think a different way. The way they train you to think is mission. Soldier me, right? You go into the mission. You ignore yourself for a lot of this stuff. When you see people, they say, I was in the military and they came out, and people don't understand why they this is a problem. This is PTSD, because their brain has been forever changed. They think in a certain track mind, but nobody accounts that sptsd, even if you didn't make it through basic training, you lived in an environment for eight, nine weeks that they told you how to do this. Just think about it took your parents 18 years to get you a certain way. They changed you in eight weeks. Mm hmm, through sleep, hundreds of years of experience of doing, yeah. Would you recommend it? Yes? Listen, I recommend the military for anybody who is on the cusp of life, they feel like I need a little more to make me a better person. It's something else that is has just not smoothed me out enough so that I can push forth what my parents put on me. I need that little bit extra, and that's why we're little too. I love that Andre what say you be in the weird one again. So I would recommend it first and foremost. I would say, go for officer if you can, if you can, I would still recommend it listed. The reasoning is, the military changed me in my perspective. So like you said, You are forever changed. But that can actually be a very good thing, like you also said, because when I went to this was Djibouti, so it's in Africa, between Somalia and Ethiopia, and military was actually there building wells like a humanitarian mission at that point, because they used to have to walk like, you know, miles to carry water back to the village, all that kind of stuff every day. And we had a break one time. We have to go downtown to area that they had people trying to sell stuff. They also had, of course, as you if you've gone to any place outside the US and someplace inside of us, where was that open market? But you also have the kids and then beggars just period, who were just coming up to you. So you have one lady, and she was just asking for money. She had baby swaddle, that whole thing right there. The guy grabbed me, said, no, no, she's still carrying her dead child, because she knows that's going to allow her to get more money from people, but her baby has already passed away, and I think that broke me. I think I was silent for like the rest of the day. I had never been in that situation, to where someone was that desperate, and it made me stop complaining about so many things. So I think I was so self absorbed at that point, not terribly, but enough. I was enough to be an idiot, and part of that is youth, absolutely, absolutely. So that changed me to where I think about that. And I don't always catch it in my memory when I'm complaining about whatever it is that I'm doing, but then sometimes it'll come back and be like, Oh yeah, and little things like that, of having the opportunities too, because, like we said, we've had a wonderful chance, because we had a very special job to be in front of very high dignitaries, famous folks, all that kind of stuff as we were doing our jobs and things like that. But as far as for the military in general, if you can use what they're giving you. That's what I said they're going to use. You. Use them. Get all the track and know what you're going in there for, and make them give it to you. Don't make them your plan. Make them part of your plan. Yeah, perfect, perfect. That's perfect. But I'm going to tell you what he's talking about. I didn't see that. But in the military, you know, just living in Germany and going, even going to Czechoslovakia, when you see poverty over other places, when you cross the border to Czechoslovakia from Germany, they're selling their daughters and kids for $15 $20 for them to have a better life when you go in Iraq and Afghanistan and Kuwait and you see the level of poverty, the stuff that you're owning on your house is made out of they live in that every day. They live in sheets like just a canvas tent over their head, and they shade their camels in the daytime because it's two. Hot. You understand, like Aubrey used to say, my grandfather got to separate the fly from the pepper. Right? When he came back from Korea, he learned that he needed to separate the flagship from the pep how much life is important. Oh, my goodness. This has been an amazing episode. I want to thank y'all. Go all day, part of our Thank you. Happy Hour lounge vibe, which is completely different. This is our first show on the military. I've learned so much, we could definitely do it again, because it sounds like there's more to learn. Part two, y'all want to tell people where to hit you up on socials. I am absolutely but I will be, yeah, special ops ain't on socials. None of these people, not yet, not yet. Well, listen everybody. Thank you so much for listening. I love you, and I mean it. We out. Wasn't that a great interview? Pose up before you grab your hat and head out. Make sure you make your way to facebook and join the bail yourself out pod Facebook group. That's where you'll find your virtual coworkers, luxuriating and chatting. Thank you so much for listening, and if you enjoy the show, please leave a review. That's how we keep the lights on. If you're on social media, follow your girl, Kandice Whitaker, Whitaker, and you know what I'd love to hear from you with that I love you, and I mean it, because there are people who hate in the world for no reason. I choose to love for no reason. I believe that the great Martin Luther King Jr said hate is too great a burden to bear, so I choose to love. Peace. Y'all you.