Military Herpers....

Hey guys,

To make a very long story short, I am thinking about withdrawing from grad school and joining the military. As of yet, I do not know which branch, but it will almost certainly be the Marines. I have several questions for those of you in the service. Did you have any herps prior to basic? Could you find anyone to 'babysit' them? Aside from being deployed overseas, have you managed to keep them?

I am really just looking for any and all feedback-especially from the single ones (as I know some of your wives might take care of them for you).

Sincerely,

Gino

Oh no!!! Don't do that...you'll top out in a low position because you don't have a degree. For example, my guy spent 10 years in the Army. He was promoted several times but could not be promoted above his last rank of Sargent because he didn't have a degree. He loved being in the military but left so that he could go back to school. So, please...if you're already attending school, finish and then go into the military. You'll be much better off.

If he's withdrawing from grad school, he already has his BA or BS in his undergrad studies. So, the degree he has will be sufficient for anything he wants to do in the military.

I was in the Navy, until I went into the Reserves. Then, the profound lack of ocean front property in Missouri compelled me to switch to the Army! I never knew anyone with herps when I was in, and I didn't have any when I joined. However, when I was preaching in Ohio, one of the members of the congregation was an Airforce guy at Wright-Patterson. He and his wife and a couple of ball pythons in their on-bas housing. I think he had permission to do so, but he may not have asked(???).

Sorry I couldn't be of more help . . .

Hi guys,

Thanks so much for your responses. And Darrin is right, I already
have both my Bachelor of Arts and Master of Science degrees.
Currently, I am working on a doctorate degree (in history). The problems are: I am at least 5 years away from finishing and God-knows how much money will be needed. Now, with that having been said, I have always wanted to be in the military. I am close to turning 30, and would more than likely go back to my degree once I am out. That is, if I didn't ake the service a career.

Basically, I was just looking for any insider opinions or comments.

Thanks again.

Gino

ps-Sybella I am sorry about those notes that Neil Gubicz sent you. But the more important part, is that we are finally rid of him, in here, for good. Thanks even more for that

I couldn't imagine that there would be much of a problem with keeping them, unless you end up stationed overseas and having them in other countries becomes an issue...although on base, or on orders, things are different. I think the hardest part will be finding a snake-sitter for 6 to 8 weeks, while you're in boot camp, then waiting for orders and then getting settled. If you can't find anyone local, I'll do it for you.

If you want to hear from someone with experience, Tamara and her husband were just deployed. They have ads up on Kingsnake for some of their reptiles under T and S Ransom. If you want to contact them directly and have any trouble finding their email address, feel free to send me a note and I'll help you.

It was sweet of you to apologize on Mr. Gubitz behalf...Thanks.
His email wasn't too bad. He just basically told me I was an idiot for not immediately sending money to somoene I didn't know. He thought he was doing me a favor by giving me a virtual slap. That's all I'm going to say...I don't want to bad-mouth him. I'm actually kind of burned out on the topic and cringe every time I see a new post on the BOI about him. <sigh>

Forget about it! I highly recommend joining the service (go Army) but forget about the babysitter! Its been may years but when I joined Basic Training was two (2) months and Advanced another couple! You would have little or no contact with your collection during this time and then after some leave you'd be sent off to who knows where for your first duty assignment. While I was doing some OJT (On the Job Training) back in the 1970s I had the bright idea of ordering two (2) yellow anacondas. I picked them up at the local airport and took them back to my barracks (I had a private room - my first & last during my six years in the service!). The following morning I overhear the drill seargents commenting on reports of someone in the barracks with snakes! Yikes! Well, later that afternoon I get called in to see the Commanding Officer! He kept an adult iguana in his office so I figured I'd only be alittle dead! Anyway he was pretty cool about it and even asked if he could have them so that he could keep them with his iguana. I figured my immediate chances for promotion were less than good and if one of my snakes ate his iguana I'd still be scrubbing pots ( we didn't peel potatoes back then, they had machines to do that!). The other option was to get rid of them by that weekend. I did, I gave them to my mother to babysit! Yea, just feed them a each a pre-killed rat once a week...... To make a long story short, I get orders to Germany within a couple weeks, my mother sells both anacondas for $20.00 to a local shop ("spin-off" of Hermosa Reptiles). My suggestion is to take this opportunity to build your herp library ( I did alot of business with Herpetological Search Service and the former Ralph Curtis Books) and as duty stations allow get in some quality field collecting/observation time. I was fortunate in being stationed in Panama for two years .... Good luck.

Hey guys,

Thanks so much for your advice. I really do appreciate it.

Mike: I really value your advice. I still have little knowledge
about what goes on in the military-at least from an insiders'
point of view. And, further, I still have a tonne of research to
do. I know how monumental this decision is-and am, by no
means, going to make any uninformed decisions.

Sybella: Thank you so much for your most kind offers. I
certainly will be looking up T and S Ransom (I hope that you
dont mind me mentioning your name!). And, your offer to
look after my snakes is really very thoughtful. I am grateful.

I'll keep you both updated.

Sincerely,

Gino

Of course I don't mind...mention away!! I'm sure you'll love Tamara just as much as I do.

Gino,

I can't help you much with the Marine Corps, but I've got friends who were Marines and after a break in service, joined the Army.

I've been enlisted in the Army for almost 11 years now and currently work for the US Army Recruiting Command (USAREC) 1st Bde, which covers the North East. I have been keeping leopard and fattail geckos for the past 5 years.

First off, the Army has changed quite a lot in the past years, so while good meaning, the info provided by Sybella and Mike is a bit dated.

If you qualify for service (test scores and physical), you've got so many options. First would be whether to join as an enlisted soldier (Private through Command Sergeant Major of the Army; E-1 through E-9 pay grades), or as an officer (2nd Lieutenant through General; O-1 through O-10). Check out the Pay Charts.

There's benefits to both routes. Obviously after checking out the pay charts, pay is better as an officer, but still not too bad enlisted either. With your schooling, you'll be able to enlist as an E-4, which would still be about $600+ less a month than a 2nd Lieutenant would make. While that's a great amount of cash, you have to figure in other payments, such as housing allowance, Basic Allowance for Subsistence(BAS), clothing allowance (not given to officers), any special proficiency pays, etc. As an E-6, my monthly basic pay is only $2477, but my most recent statement of military compensation has my actual income up around $53k, factoring in all the other benefits above. Obviously the officer pay rates are higher.

As an enlisted soldier, you'll have better choice of your job, over 200 different ones right now. What are you interested in doing; chances are there's something the Army needs. One of the things the Recruiters I work with always say is a benefit to the Army over other services is the amount of jobs we offer as well as the guarantee that we can give over others as far as which job you'll do. You'll truly become a professional in that field specializing in and receiving future training in whatever it is you choose. Your next promotion as an Enlisted soldier will most likely be to SGT/E-5 and would be a Non-Commissioned Officer and you'll likely be in charge of some soldiers and would be the first link in thier chain of command.

As an officer, most often times unless you already have a skill, such as Chaplain, Doctor, Dentist, you won't get a choice of what you do. You could end up as an Infantry, Transportation, Aviation, etc officer after your training. Officers are not really specialists in thier fields at least until they reach a certain level of rank and get branch qualified and only in certain fields. They are general managers and often spend thier time bouncing back and forth between 'Commands' and Staff time from 6 months to 2 years. I'm not an officer and don't profess to know all there is about it, but there are some political aspects to it that you don't usually have with Enlisted positions. However, if you can manage to get guaranteed to work in a field that interests you and like the idea of being a generalist manager, go for it.

As for your herps. I don't know what you keep, but if you don't have good access to a reliable herp sitter that you totally trust, you may consider selling them. Your first 9+ weeks will be in Basic Training, where you won't have many of your personal items, let alone any pets. Then you'll spend the next few weeks to months in Advanced Individual Training where you'll still be living in barracks that don't typically allow any pets or (remote) possibly a fish, depending on the length and location of training. Most barracks will at best allow a fishtank. Depending on your job and location of first duty station, you'll either live in barracks or be allowed to get your own place off post. There's really no way to be sure until you get there. As an NCO, many places are allowing soldiers to live off post, but again, it all depends on how much barracks space there is. That goes for CONUS (Continental US) and OCONUS (Outside CONUS). For officers, they have BOQ or Bachelor Officers Quarters, where they may fall under the same rules; I'm not sure. Post Housing usually allows small harmless animals and dogs/cats. So, if you're into large boids, you may run into trouble in Post housing(It seems to me that each Housing office writes thier own rules, so I can't say it's that way everywhere); but that's if anyone pays attention to what you have in the first place.

One of the biggest obstacles you'll have to keeping your present herps is if you get assigned overseas. Here's a scenario I've just gone through. I received orders for Japan in 99, which is a 3 year tour for married or career soldiers. I was unable to find info on exporting/importing my leopard geckos, so I left them with family and then a friend after family couldn't take care of them anymore. The 21 I left turned out to be about 39 when I returned. I was paying for thier food and care while I was gone, but couldn't enjoy them myself, sell and upgrade stock, etc. So I'm left with many normals, a couple dwarfs, and a couple with what appears to be incubation or calcium deficiency problems. I was able to get some AFTs and Leopard geckos in Japan, for about 3x the price they are in the States, but again, couldn't afford the $500+ to import the few I had back into the States.

Looking back, I probably should've sold the geckos I had before leaving and started all over upon returning. Other than that, I wouldn't trade anything for what I've gotten to experience over the past 11 years. I've been able to live in 4 countries over 3 continents and visit places most other people in the world don't get to go. I've seen herps in the Middle East, Japan, South AND North Korea, and all over the states.

Okay, I'll quit now before I sound like a Recruiter. I've probably gotten off track from your initial question anyhow. If you'd like more info, PM me or email and I'll let you know all I can.

Okay, I'll quit now before I sound like a Recruiter.

Way too late!!! LOL!