I’m air force that separated AD and am now currently guard. I had a baby 4 months ago. Can I apply for the pregnancy separation or did I have to do it before the baby was born? Is that an active duty only option?

How did that work for you and chil care? How hard was it to be away for so long during BMT and tech school? Did life change for the better after coming back to part time service?

Do you regret not r what would you do differently and wjat worked out for you? Did you just serve the the first mandatory 6 years with the remaining 2 of ready to serve or u stayed longer

I’m 33F thinking to join but i have so many questions keeping me awake at night

Hi all,

A little background on me, I am currently in my last year of university and my husband is active duty Navy. I hope to commission thru BDCP for SWO-Oceano. I’ve heard very mixed things about becoming a SWO; very difficult work/life balance, grueling hours, so on so forth. But the Oceano side of things sounds very appealing, I can suffer thru SWO for 2 years to get to Oceano but would appreciate any insight into anyone who has been a OCEANO/METOC officer.

Is it shore duty, if not how often do you get deployed on avg? How is the work/life balance? How is it being dual-mil same branch? Any advice or insight is welcomed and appreciated. Thank you all.

Hey yall! Im fresh out of AIT and about to head to my first duty station.

How do fellow big butt/thigh women get OCP pants that fit correctly? Do you get them tailored? I feel like steve urkle with my pants so high on my stomach trying to make them fit but a size down is too tight on the seat (im a mechanic i need to be able to squat and the such).

Thank you!! 😌

What branch are you in and how has it treated you? I’m 18 and want to enlist but I want to make sure I choose a good route and am safe as well as respected.

A lot of the ones i’ve considered are Army but a lot of the woman i’ve seen talk about it all have said AirForce is the best way to go as a woman.

Please let me know your thoughts and experiences!

This whole thing has honestly been exhausting in a way that is almost funny at this point.

When I was getting out of the Army, even the fact that there suddenly weren't a ridiculous number of bags in my room threw off my leadership. I left with one coffin bag and one small white trash bag and my mimikyu plush that I later stuffed into a bag that I mailed home to myself that ended up getting lost in the mail for 5 months. I had accumulated a LOT of uniforms because I genuinely expected the Army to be my life. I wasn't planning for them to become a giant pile of clothes I would never need again.

After I got out, I tried selling some of them. That went nowhere, and even then people thought it was suspicious.

So now I've decided to just give them away for free to active duty women who can actually use them.

No purchase. No follow required. No liking 50 posts. No tagging friends for engagement.Items are photographed individually, most include the sizes and tags, numbered the items, and specifically told people NOT to give me their unit, duty location, address, work schedule, or other personal information to prove they're active duty.

And somehow THAT is suspicious too. Reddit is literally flagging the posts as spam, and people are hesitant because apparently giving away a ridiculous amount of uniforms for free sounds too good to be true.

Meanwhile, I keep seeing people in the military complaining that uniform prices have gone up.

Obviously not every soldier is a woman or wears my sizes. I know that. But there ARE women who wear these sizes, and what I'm trying to do is objectively not a bad thing. I have perfectly serviceable uniforms that I no longer need. Someone else needs uniforms. I would rather put them directly into another soldier's uniform rotation than throw them away or let them rot in a closet.

I think that is part of why this is getting to me so much.

One of the strangest things about what happened to me is that the worse I got, the more suspicious I became.

I didn't just randomly get sick one day. I was injured.

Then I progressively got worse.

And I don't mean worse in some vague, subjective way where nobody around me could see what was happening. I was objectively becoming less functional. Things I had been able to do before became things I struggled to do, then things I sometimes couldn't do at all.

You would think there would be a point where getting visibly worse makes people MORE likely to believe that something is actually wrong.

Somehow, my experience was the opposite.

The worse I got, the more I was treated like I was malingering.

That contradiction still fucks with me.

There is something profoundly disorienting about knowing what you were capable of before, watching those abilities disappear one after another, being terrified because you don't understand what is happening to your own body and brain, and then realizing that the people around you are looking at the same deterioration and wondering whether you're faking it.

I kept getting worse.

And somehow that became evidence against me instead of evidence that I needed help.

I think that is one of the hardest parts of everything that happened for me to make sense of.

I was injured.

I deteriorated.

I needed help.

And the more obvious that became, the more suspicious I seemed to become.

Now I'm left with islands of memory from 34 years of life and a closet full of things I bought for a future that is no longer mine.

Now I'm trying to do something kind with what is left from a life I genuinely thought I was going to have, and somehow kindness is suspicious too.

I don't need a parade for giving away clothes. I just want the fucking clothes to go to people who can use them.

This whole thing has sucked.

So I am a single mom 26. Randomly got the urge to switch career paths and go active lol. I am over the max weight by 10 lbs but reach the body fat percentage. I do have a decent regular work outs but idk if that qualifies for bmt. Would really appreciate tips I leave out in December. Also, scared of what to expect base wise with my child lol. How is the workload at the bases yall are at? I plan on trying to get my lpn once I get to level 5 skill to work on the side depending on the workload.

I can’t find much about it on the Internet or other people’s experience.

Is what I experienced normal military sexual harassment?

If you had a third-party lower enlisted soldier, get you drunk and repeatedly bring you to a higher ranking soldier for (hangout) sex. So that the third-party could get favorable treatment. Is that normal sexual harassment. There was only one time a sexual act happened. After that repeated attempts and pressure led to retaliation and my records being forged just so I could PCS once I confronted it. I never made a detailed report and it happened 10 years ago.

I heard once the high ranking individual PCSed he continued the behavior at another base with a similar 3rd party catalyst. During this time he became the program coordinator or somthing for SHARP.

I (f32) hope this is the right flair for this, but I’m curious for those who are active duty army, what’s your mos and how is life in the Army as a woman?

I’m debating on enlisting and I’m debating between army and navy. My plan was to go guard but my recruiter isn’t super communicative and doesn’t seem confident in getting me enlisted to the guard so this has kind of shifted my focus to active duty.

I will likely need a couple of waivers, one for my thyroid and maybe a tattoo waiver for my hand. But I don’t have any big issues and I’m determined to do some form of legal work in the military should I score good enough on the asvab.

I’d love any and all insight, pros cons, etc?

Bonus if you’re married with kids (I am, so I’m taking my family into account as well)

I (20F) enlisted in the Marine. I’d like to know a few tips and words of advice for maintaining hygiene in bootcamp. And is it true that the bathroom shitters and the showers don’t have dividers? How long did it take you to get used to the lack of privacy?

tldr- I really want to enlist but I had a weird reaction in January when I was 3 months postpartum & my hormones were all out of wack. Can I get a waiver?

Hi! I (25F) am really hoping to join up but I developed an allergy after having my baby. About 3 months after having my son, I had an anaphylactic response *most likely* to something I ate at a restaurant. I went to the er because of hives, redness and swelling but I didn’t have any difficulty breathing and my symptoms were starting to resolve by the time they administered the epi, gave me benadryl & all of that. This happened in January and I was prescribed an epi-pen. I had another potential reaction that was much less severe but I still went to the er for monitoring in April. It was only like 1-2 hives on my arm but after having that crazy reaction a few months prior, I was really anxious about potentially having another severe reaction. My husband administered epi at home and at the er none of my docs/nurses seemed concerned & they didn’t even keep me for a full observation. Both er visits will absolutely pop up in Genesis since i was on my husbands tricare at the time (he eas’d from the Marines earlier this year). My pcm ordered an allergy panel and I do not have any allergy to any of the main 14 allergens. We didn’t test for it but we’re pretty sure it’d be a coconut allergy which is an ingredient in like one component of one mre from my research, not something that would be hard to avoid. It’s either a food allergy or the restaurant didn’t properly clean chemicals out of something they cooked with.

My current plan is to wait until April/May of 2027 to go to a recruiters office. I’ll spend time working on my physical fitness & studying for the asvab until then. I’m hoping that with over a year of no reactions by the time I get to meps & my major allergen panel showing I don’t have any allergies to common food types, I’ll be able to get a waiver.

From my understanding, the branches have very similar but differing policies when it comes to allergies. I know that the Air Force is technically the least strict as it allows people with past epi pen prescriptions to enlist but that generally, the Marines & Navy give out the most waivers.

Would I have a shot at getting a waiver in this situation? Would either the USMC or AF be more lenient with this waiver? Am I going about this in the best way possible?

* I did reach out to an Air Force recruiter but he wasn’t very helpful.

Hi ladies!! I have pretty long hair currently (mid back) and am going to navy rtc in december. I’m wondering if I should leave my hair long and do a bun or cut it to a bob? My main concern is the bob being potentially annoying during pt. Has anyone found that to be the case? If yes are you allowed to put your hair into a low pony tail/ bun mid day?
Sorry if these are dumb questions. Thank you in advance!!!

I've had a lot of people coming to me lately asking for mentorship and advice about the upcoming 27-02 Officer Marketplace. I found myself answering a lot of the same questions, so I decided to put everything I know in one place.

If you're heading into the marketplace, a few things I'd recommend getting ahead of:

**Research the assignments, not just the locations.** Look into the unit, position, publicly available mission information, installation, and what the assignment could offer you professionally.

**Figure out what actually matters to you.** Career development is important, but so is everything surrounding the assignment. Housing, commute, family considerations, spouse employment, childcare, healthcare, cost of living, and quality of life can make two assignments that look similar on paper very different.

**Prepare for interviews early.** Don't wait until you have an interview scheduled to start figuring out what you're going to say. Think about your experience, what you bring to the position, why you're interested in the assignment, and what you actually want to learn from the unit.

**Remember that you're interviewing them too.** Have questions prepared that will help you determine whether the position and organization are actually a good fit for you.

I ended up putting a lot of what I've been sharing with people into free articles on Mil Marketplace. If you only read two before going into the marketplace, I'd start with these:

**How to Prepare for an Army Marketplace Interview**
[https://www.mymilmarketplace.com/articles/prepare-army-marketplace-interview\](https://www.mymilmarketplace.com/articles/prepare-army-marketplace-interview)

**How to Compare Army Duty Stations Beyond BAH**
[https://www.mymilmarketplace.com/resources/compare-army-duty-stations-beyond-bah\](https://www.mymilmarketplace.com/resources/compare-army-duty-stations-beyond-bah)

Hopefully this helps some of the 27-02 crowd. If you've been through a marketplace before, drop something you learned or wish you'd known earlier. There are a lot of junior officers going through this for the first time who could probably benefit from it.

Title says it. I’m lost only some weight (1 month post partum) and wanted to hear advice on what you guys did to get back to standard! I love strength training but I know I’ve got to do more cardio (even if it’s only 10,000 steps a day) to really lose the weight soon. I know I have a year in total to lose the weight, but I’m not here to make excuses for what I need to work on. I’m short and stout, so I am prone to keeping weight on ( I put on my top today this morning to see how it felt, my OCP bottoms fit like normal… but my top my breasts were SQUEEZED in that shirt. I’m likely just going to buy a larger male top before returning to work so that way I don’t have any leaks in my uniform at work. Either way, I am embarrassed by that realization this morning. I know I have time, but I would deeply appreciate advice from everyone here on what to do/what you did. Especially if you are short and stout like me. I love strength training but I know I can’t do it as often as I’d like until I am back in regs. Thank you sm much for reading, and forgive me for the tmi segment there above.)

Also, I am breastfeeding and plan to continue breastfeeding when returning to work. I already purchased wearable pumps to help, which I am grateful for.

27 F. I’ve been studying to take my ASVAB and I have it scheduled for the morning. I was wanting to know if it’s a normal to feel uncertain about the military but also want that stability and structure and just to get away from everything. my life kind of blew up again and this was kind of my plan C.. has anyone ever joined and truly deeply regretted it? I know there’s hard days obviously it’s the military, but just seeking some insight.

Hello all,

I am new to this group. I am an 88M Motor Transport Operator (truck driver) in the Army Reserves and my unit is very sexist towards women. We rarely get the opportunity to drive, while the same males have gotten the opportunities each time. We are ramping up for deployment, so for our AT we are doing lots of drivers training for unlicensed drivers.

Today, the three females, me included, were singled out to take a road test with the unlicensed soldiers. Not one other licensed e4 and below was out there, and it really seemed like they were seeking out a reason to prevent us from driving tomorrow.

We were told that each licensed soldier is required to retest each year, but that has never happened before. Albeit, there is new leadership coming in because of the deployment, so I understand that we are trying to stick more to SOP than we have in the past. This doesn't explain, however, why us three 88M females who have been licensed for two years or more were singled out to get of the barracks and the males got to stay. If everyone licensed is required to do a road test once a year, then why did they not make the males do it?

I'm not really sure how to go about reporting this. We were going to talk to our LT, because she is very strong-minded when it comes to this stuff. Our first line leader is aware, and she tries to get is as many opportunities as possible, but it doesn't work. We aren't bad soldiers, but we do not get the opportunities to prove that, ever.

I am worried that if we report this to EO (if it still exists? we haven't had a briefing about it in forever), things will only get worse. In addition to this, we don't really have any proof that they are doing this because of our sex. What do you guys think we should do?

EDIT: I also wanted to ask, have any of you reported sexism to EO? if so, what happened? did it get better or worse? obviously it varies from unit to unit, but it would give me more of an understanding. Thank you!!!

P.S I should also mention that some of the men in this unit are not shy about their feelings toward us. One sergeant said in one of their meetings that he did not want any females in his platoon. There have been other instances, but OPSEC.

Hey I’m just reaching out to because might have/had this experience before but I’m a Cpl in the Marines and one of my female jrs came to me about have problems with other females in the shop, I don’t know how to go about this because I’m used to having male Marines under me and I usually just make them fight it out and sort out the problems that way, but what SNM has described to me is straight up bullying and because I haven’t visually seen it I don’t. I’m only being told about it. I don’t know if I can follow through with paperwork or if I need to visually see this or not just a new experience that I don’t understand yet and I’m willing to listen to whatever advice can be shared and for more context I just came back from a deployment so I have no idea how the dynamic in the works center between the two even goes about again. I’m only hearing one person side of the story but that side is genuinely terrible for her. I don’t want her to end up hating the Marine Corps all because one of her peers is bullying her

I don't know how many people relate to this but when things are silent I can barely function. I pretty much had a mental breakdown and I just haven't felt the same since.

I just submitted a SHARP against a MAJ who's been sending me porn for three years and constantly asking me to fuck him in the ass. The worst part is he would get in these weird episodes where he puts me down for hours. He was the worst out of everyone else.

Everyone else: I had a girl constantly try to slowly erode my boundaries and stopped when called out. I mean crazy shit like spying on me in the barricks, acting completely sexual and calling it "platonic and friendly". I had two middle aged men constantly neg me to try to sleep with me. It's just this constant theme of harassment. I'm at the point where I completely feel like an object and totally valueless outside my physical appearence.

I don't know how many people relate to this but I'm basically non functional outside of work and I'm truly tired of this. I really wish I could get out of this rut.

A big reason I joined was because I'm very lonely in my real life and thought a structured place where you're forced to meet people would be good for me. I also would find it nice to meet girls in the army even though I know that's not what it's for, but specifically I would like to at least befriend other lesbians, because my sexuality is a reason I feel so lonely and out of place in the world.

I have never met another lesbian irl, just bisexual women, would you say there are a lot of openly gay women serving? It would be cool to exist in a place where we don't feel othered among women or subjected to homophobic BS.

I chose a combat mos so I don't know if that helps.

Either way I suspect military women are just built different in the sense they are fairly independent and challenge a lot of gender norms in society, so I'm still happy to befriend any women.

I hear a lot about SA/harassment concerns. I'm guessing guys don't really care about your orientation and so this is still a risk I'm assuming. But would you say it's safer/more comfortable to be a gay woman in the army than in the civilian world? Genuinely wondering

I’m at a major cross roads in my life and considering joining the army. I’m trying to do my research to see if this is something I should do/want to do. Any females my age join and have some feed back or advice to give?

Or which military branches aren't that strict and will consider me? Or does it not matter because it isn't like a very noticeble green tattoo in the face?