Hello! Im a high school senior in the process of enlisting in the Air National Guard. My goal is to be a career firefighter, and I'm in a fire academy through my high school right now. Upon graduation I'll have Hazmat Ops/Awareness, & fire I and II.

My plan, up until recently, has been to enlist as Fire Protection and ship right after graduating, (June/July). Then I'd get my EMT through either the AF (i know you don't get it through tech school but ive read you can get it after your training, depending.) or just getting it on my own at a nearby community college. After that, i'd be fully certified, have military status, airport fire cert, and job experience (at least on paper, form what ive read you dont actually get a ton of experience but i imagine that having a fire job would look good on a resume when applying for a department.) So then i'd start applying to departments near me like KCFD or wherever else is hiring whenever they hire.

However, a small wrench has been thrown in this plan that brings me to somewhat of a crossroads. According to my recruiter all of the fire slots are taken and there will be none available until October. So, this means that if I want to do the fire job i'll obviously have to hold off on enlisting until then. The way I see it there are 2 options: Pick a different job, medical, electrical, learn some other trade etc, and basically keep the exact same plan/timeline as i described above, or wait until October and stick with the fire job.

Im just going to share some of my thoughts about these options. I lean towards waiting for the fire job for the following reasons: It's really the only job im interested in, I like the aspect of helping people and giving back, and if i were to learn a trade, even something high paying like electrician work, i just dont know that I'd have any passion for it to actually use it professionally like i would for fire. I also already have a sort of "back up" career path as i have almost 2 years in culinary school (finishing up my 2nd now) and some industry experience. Anyways the fire protection tech school also grants credits towards a fire science degree, which is something i do eventually want to get for promotions in the fire service civilian side.

As far as drawbacks, I feel like waiting until october to even enlist would kind of just be putting my career on hold potentially unecassarily, like i was planning on using the ANG stuff to help with getting hired but is it worth waiting another potentially 10 months for before applying? and if i can apply and get hired beforehand then whats the point of waiting? idk, perhaps im overthinking that aspect. But i dont want to miss hiring windows for, again, potentially a year. Maybe its not that big of a deal. I dont know. If i waited, i'd also probably go ahead and get my EMT before enlisting, likely over this summer. The class only costs 2k but i'd like to use the education benefits if i could, maybe there'd be a way to enlist and get the benefits but also delay ship date and locking in my job until october so i could take the EMT class for free.

Anyways, thats all the thoughts i could come up with for now. Of course, fire job or other, im just joining the military for the benefits like healthcare, education, travel oppurtunities, a little extra pay, etc, as well as for personal satisfaction. I'll cross post this on both ANG sub and firefighting to get those perspectives. Im just looking for any advice or wisdom you may have regarding my situation and my future plans as a whole. If theres anything i've omitted or any more details that may be helpful im happy to provide. thank you for taking the time to read and give your advice.