Since the beginning of the War on Terror, in Iraq and Afghanistan, many of us tend to look at military service as just that -- service, a gift given to one's country. We see it as something you'd do briefly, probably in one's youth, before going home and entering college or civilian work. However, military service is also a job. Or many jobs, with training programs and paygrades and the like. It wasn't so long ago that many people based the rest of their careers on a skill they learned in the Army or Navy.
There are five branches of the armed services in the United States, and each one offers different opportunities for learning and career advancement, (although there is a lot of overlap). If you've got a yearning to be a pilot, of course you'd think of the Air Force. But the Navy has a proud tradition of putting fighter jets in the air; just think of the famous Blue Angels. And Army pilots fly that branch's helicopter gunships, like the Kiowa and the Apache. Interested in computers? Cyberwarfare and information management are extremely important in the 21st century. There are glamour jobs, if you make the grade, like being an Army Ranger or Navy SEAL. On the other hand, the backbone of the military are the majority of people in unglamorous jobs, from air traffic controllers to mess cooks.
How well do you know the jobs of the armed services? Find out now with our quiz!
