[azasadny]

I was a Hospital Corpsman (HM) on active duty for 9 years and got out in '91 as an E6 and the Navy tried to get me to either stay on as a commissioned officer (I got my BS degree while in the USN) or stay in the Reserves, but I chose to get out because I speak Arabic and knew that I would be getting deployed repeatedly to some of the crappier places (Somalia, Afghanistan, Iraq (again!)) and I was angry about the way the Gulf War ended. The war should have ended with an unconditional surrender, with Saddam swinging from a gallows, but with a "cease-fire", you know you'll have to go back and finish the job (like Korea).

I wanted to switch from "medical" to "IT" and the USN wouldn't do that because medical was a "critical rating", so that was another issue that kept me from staying in... Good luck with your decision...