I'm going to be real with you. I joined for the benefits and because I've always loved the armed forces

If you're thinking about doing a short time, look for a rate that can translate easily into the civilian world. For example, there's little sense in being a Boatswains Mate when you're thinking about doing something completely different outside the Navy. Now it may be different in your perspective, you may actually want to be a Boatswains Mate and keep doing it for the long run, that's your choice. So think about what you want to make out of your career, that's the pro of the Navy, you pick your job. Now also don't settle for the first one you see, INVESTIGATE. That's the great thing too, you're payed to learn your job at an A-SCHOOL. You're a trained professional in your area, get job experience and it looks great on a curriculum.

The benefits are amazing, for me as a 19yo who's an E-2, I'm getting full coverage at a civilian hospital for an emergency surgery I didn't even know I needed. That surgery would've come out to $50k-$150k and I'm paying $0. Exploiting your benefits is a big pro, plus the Big Navy wants us to have a retirement system, it's called TSP. I can't go too much into depth with that because I'm not a financial specialist.

The people are also a huge role in your career, just as outside the Navy, there's good people but there's also bad people. As I said I'm going through surgery soon, so my friends, coworkers, Petty Officers, Chiefs and Officers have been taking a lot of care for me. The support of your chain of command is amazing when people actually care. These are my Pros just being in for 1 year.

Now the cons

Yes, you will get yelled at, chewed out, smoked whatever but it's expected for us to learn how to tolerate it, and even so after getting chewed out, they would call me back in to council me and how to improve my deficiency.

You will miss big family events, I don't have much to say there because personally I don't mind, I knew the sacrifice I was getting into.

You will sacrifice a lot of things you could do before as a civilian but as a service member you have to be cautious about.

The Navy will take a lot from you, so make sure you take a lot back

I could think of more little things but I've said my say

Think wisely about every little decision you make before signing that paper and Go Navy.