should i enlist before or after college?
I am going into my senior year of high school this fall, and my end goal with the Navy is to be a musician (MU), but its extremely difficult to pass an audition without having some sort of musical degree first. I want to enlist straight out of high school and go to college after my first contract, but I’m worried that I might lose my musicianship. The only reason I initially considered waiting to go to college is because I don’t want to worry about being in debt and want to be able to have my Post 9/11 GI bill ready and available to use. I know I could also go reserves this summer to at least still be enlisted so my next question is:
does the 20 year retirement limit include time in the reserves? or is it strictly active duty? and if it does include reservist time, is it true to how many years were served in the reserves or is the time put towards retirement less than what you actually served? for example: if i am a reservist for 5 years would that 5 go towards the retirement count or would it only be 2 or 3 years since its only part time?