[Anymnillulky]

it probably won't be so "bad" if you got a fed. government job. To me, its the most stable employer to work for, though you may not make as much $$$ compared to working for some private company but the bigges thing for me is, my 4 years in the Corps counts towards my total government service. i just made 10 years last September.

Also, the leave is good. i'm earning 6 hours of annual leave & 4 hours of sick leave every pay check and so would you since you would be prior service. 6 hours annual leave X 26 pay days a year comes out to 156 hours. divide that by 8 hours and that comes out to 19.5 days of leave earned a year. and remember, saturdays & sundays don't count against your leave balance. so thats almost a full month you could take off if you really wanted to.

compare that to some joe shmoe that just starts working for the government with no prior mililtary time served. they would only get 4 hours annual leave & 4 hours sick leave a pay check. that comes out to 104 hours of annual leave/13 days a year.

for sick leave, you're allowed to be out sick 3 consecutive work days in a row. if you're out an additional 4th day, THEN you have to make sure you get a doctors note. but if you're out 3 or less you don't. LOL.

and you can use sick leave to cover your medical & dental appointments. take the whole day if you want. also, you can use it if you have to take your spouse or kids to appointments.

i've been working for the Army (i EAS'd April '02) since i got out of the Corps.

i just started going back to school this past April on the old GI Bill. i need to find out what i have to do to start using the Post 9/11 GIB (i only qualify for 1/2 the BAH, which is still good!!).

anyway, i think you should be alright with some kind of federal job. and if you choose to go to school afterwork, you should be ok too since you will no doubt be eligible for full BAH with dependents rate for Sgt./E-5.

sorry for the long post....(o_O)