What would you do in my situation?

[GetX'd]

Wow - your situation is indeed difficult. There's been some really good advice on here - particularly about going into the military. A focused, hard working young guy like you could really do well there.

As far as your dad - the Shopko disability is private insurance and I hope you get them to pony up - but in the meantime he should be applying for Social Security Disability - that's government and he would easily qualify for it and probably get $2-3k a month. There are legal representative companies that represent you for free - until you get paid then they take a cut of the initial payments. That's how they make money. I would definitely try that asap.

Good luck and God Bless your whole family.

 

[Chargerjase]

I can see you are mature beyond your years which is an awesome attribute to have. I agree with those that have suggested the Military, but there are also the Fire Service and Police to think about. You must forge your own career and life, but it is still ok to help your folks out financially in the short term. I do feel sorry for your current situation, but I can assure you it will only be temporary. Get out there and make your own luck by making great decisions and working hard. The good times are literally just around the corner. Good luck.

 

[snakeoil24]

1. You must have a lawyer represent you with your disability case.
2. Anything else is a waste of time today.
3. If you don't get it read number one again.
4. Insurance companies and Large retailers will stew you along until they are forced to deal with an attorney.
5. Why? Once your hire and have representative they are forced by law to meet in person for a hearing! At that point the rules change. A record exists in third party hands. Dates, times and rules have to be attended to. Now costs begin to rise. Most people don't fight.
6. Every state has different rules. IE "At will hire and fire".
7. Judges are very detailed and only will help you if you do your homework!

 

[drobertson]

There's more than one issue here. Speaking as a parent myself, I'm sure his Dad is more concerned about his son's welfare than his own. The military offers an immediate solution to most of his problems. It gives him a good paying job, access to the training and education he wants, and will get him started on a road to success that he's not on right now. He's in no position to really help his family now aside from offering moral support that his Dad doesn't likely need. What his Dad needs to do is get himself a real lawyer and take care of himself, and his son needs to get started on being able to take care of himself.

I agree 100%. I care about my family very much, but my mom and dad don't think my ideas are valid. Thus I need to leave and start a life on my own. Many men in my extended family have served in the military, but I don't know whether it's a good idea or not... especially seeing what happened in benghazi... from poor leadership.

 

[drobertson]

I can see you are mature beyond your years which is an awesome attribute to have. I agree with those that have suggested the Military, but there are also the Fire Service and Police to think about. You must forge your own career and life, but it is still ok to help your folks out financially in the short term. I do feel sorry for your current situation, but I can assure you it will only be temporary. Get out there and make your own luck by making great decisions and working hard. The good times are literally just around the corner. Good luck.

I think I would enjoy being a cop! Getting to drive pursuit chargers while eating doughnuts would be awesome! lol... but in all seriousness I do worry about what could happen in the military (if I joined), especially with leadership going to hell in a handbasket. I think Trump is our last hope now...

But I will be glad to see the light at the end of the tunnel. I've been working my a$$ off and am searching for ideas. My dream for the future is to have a somewhat enjoyable job (at the least) with a decent salary that can fund my mopar muscle car addiction, and maybe a wife and kids someday. But right now I agree with you guys that I either need to get an education or possibly the military.

 

[Bruzilla]

Police and Fire are options, but not easy ones. When I was with a Sheriff's Office and we hired deputies, we usually had 100 or so applications come in, and many of them were from sworn officers at other departments who wanted to come to ours. Fire departments are usually the same way, especially if there are a lot of VFDs in your area.

Military service does involve some risk, but how many bartenders at Gay bars thought they were at risk until last Sunday? Truth be told, I felt safer flying around in a plane that was old as I was than I do going to work at an office these days. At least in the military you know what the threats are and how to deal with them.

My kids are in careers now, but I told them if they decided to go into the service, they should look at the Coast Guard. You rarely, if ever, leave the US, most folks pick up E-4 upon graduation from their initial technical training, which is about $25k a year and that doesn't include money for food, housing, etc. Where else are you going to find a job that starts you at that wage these days?

 

[Hanover Mopar]

X2 on Coast Guard.

 

[crash89]

I think I would enjoy being a cop! Getting to drive pursuit chargers while eating doughnuts would be awesome! lol... but in all seriousness I do worry about what could happen in the military (if I joined), especially with leadership going to hell in a handbasket. I think Trump is our last hope now...

But I will be glad to see the light at the end of the tunnel. I've been working my a$$ off and am searching for ideas. My dream for the future is to have a somewhat enjoyable job (at the least) with a decent salary that can fund my mopar muscle car addiction, and maybe a wife and kids someday. But right now I agree with you guys that I either need to get an education or possibly the military.

The only thing I could add is that wars happen even with good leadership.. (I won't get into the politics of the recent 7 1/2 years) The military can be an excellent choice and was my way out of a bad situation growing up. It was great for me in more ways than I can count. Not only did it allow me to distance myself from a bad situation, but afforded me experience and skills that I could use when I got out. I also got to travel to some great (and not great) areas in my 6 years that I would never had a chance to do otherwise. All this while getting paid to do it. The experience and new perspective were invaluable to me in later life.
Oh, and many bases have an auto hobby shop (at least the did when I was in) so you can take your Charger all over the place and be able to work on it.

 

[verdelaw]

especially with leadership going to hell in a handbasket. I think Trump is our last hope now...

lol.. and you think that egomaniac won't sacrifice you and your buddies in a split second as easily as batting an eye?!

However off you may be about some things.. and despite that you get your notions about leadership from the media.. you are inadvertently correct about today's leadership in the military. I can only speak to the AF, but the culture is predominantly PC yes-men careerists. That is, if you want to make it a career. If you want to just serve for a few years to get a leg up, get some experience, a resume builder, get some skills, and get a bit of college or tech school paid for.. then the AF is the ticket.

Not everybody carries a ruck and a rifle. There's nearly no limit to what you can do in the military. If you do it right.

 

[kiwigtx]

@drobertson ....here is a little something I put together a couple of weeks ago with you in mind. Hopefully cheers you up a bit in the current circumstances.

 

[Budnicks]

Good ol' Benny Hill Theme music

 

[BeatersRus]

lol!
was i the only one who watched kiwis vid and was waiting for that car to start pulling wheelies??

 

[70bigblockdodge]

Lawyer, lawyer, lawyer
Apply over and over to Union Pacific and BNSF, being in Wyoming there are a lot of maintenance in Bailie yard. Better to work on locomotives than than Mrs. PITA's new Cadillac. Military is a good right now fix for you, I have no regrets, kind of wish I would have stayed and retired but I did not. I learned a lot of engineering principals and repair of large machinery in the Navy that serves me to this day. The travel to places in a way that cannot be done by any travel agent at any price was a experience. Good luck.

 

[drobertson]

So what do guys in each branch of the military do? I'm curious now...

 

[69a100]

I spent 27 years as a aircrew member doing "Inflight Refueling". Really is a badass job! Kc-135's and Kc-10's. Got to see a lot of the world but also deployed a few times because of those ******* goat fuckers!

 

[70bigblockdodge]

I can only speak for the Navy and it may have changed some since I was in 30 years ago. It is broken down into groups and specialized from there. When I was in there was, seamen, firemen, airmen, and Seabees
Seamen included all ship mission operations(from shooting ships guns to paperwork)
Firemen was all shipboard engineering( everything that made it move, have power, water, and putting it all back together when it breaks)
Airmen everything to do with aircraft( refueling, reloading, repairing, launching, recovery at sea)
Seabees are Navy construction group. Beyond that I don't know much of what they do.

I was a machinist mate in engineering.

 

[verdelaw]

I spent 27 years as a aircrew member doing "Inflight Refueling". Really is a badass job! Kc-135's and Kc-10's. Got to see a lot of the world but also deployed a few times because of those ******* goat fuckers!

^^ this

From what I can tell, boom operator and loadmaster seem to be the best enlisted jobs in the AF, and boom probably has the edge. Relatively low work load, cool job, awesome travel opportunities, and aircrew privileges. Downside is that it doesn't translate into the civilian side. In today's military, you WILL deploy, no matter what branch and seemingly no matter what job. It's kind of ridiculous. But usually aircrew have it better than most.

In response to the question, I'm a pilot. But I don't recommend that to you from your current position. I'd tell you to do some research about job fields available in the AF and go from there. They need aircraft maintainers these days.. but it's because they treat them like sh!t (long hours, tough job, not much thanks, etc). As a maintainer you'd learn valuable job skills and there is opportunity for advancement (more or less depending on specific shop/trade). If you're motivated and smart, you can even translate a lot of the training into civilian certifications.. certs that are worth tens of thousands of dollars to civilians.. and you'd get them almost free. You can get the AF to pay for your education. If you join they'll push you to do an associate degree, but you should do a bachelor's.. but I digress.

You could be almost anything you want to be in the military. Dentist assistant, cop, aircraft maintainer, vehicle maintainer, logistician, aircrew, hospital staff, finance staff, spec ops... almost anything. Think it through ahead of time.

 

[Bobo]

Hang in there hard times put the shine on a diamond I did not even finish 7 grade I worked as a construction laborer pushing wheelbarrows full of concrete and did not make it out of construction field still I am a self employed handyman people hound me to help them with small repairs .. And stay booked 2-3 weeks in advance 1500/2000 per 5 day work week you will get what you need work hard and hold on God bless

 

[drobertson]

^^ this

From what I can tell, boom operator and loadmaster seem to be the best enlisted jobs in the AF, and boom probably has the edge. Relatively low work load, cool job, awesome travel opportunities, and aircrew privileges. Downside is that it doesn't translate into the civilian side. In today's military, you WILL deploy, no matter what branch and seemingly no matter what job. It's kind of ridiculous. But usually aircrew have it better than most.

In response to the question, I'm a pilot. But I don't recommend that to you from your current position. I'd tell you to do some research about job fields available in the AF and go from there. They need aircraft maintainers these days.. but it's because they treat them like sh!t (long hours, tough job, not much thanks, etc). As a maintainer you'd learn valuable job skills and there is opportunity for advancement (more or less depending on specific shop/trade). If you're motivated and smart, you can even translate a lot of the training into civilian certifications.. certs that are worth tens of thousands of dollars to civilians.. and you'd get them almost free. You can get the AF to pay for your education. If you join they'll push you to do an associate degree, but you should do a bachelor's.. but I digress.

You could be almost anything you want to be in the military. Dentist assistant, cop, aircraft maintainer, vehicle maintainer, logistician, aircrew, hospital staff, finance staff, spec ops... almost anything. Think it through ahead of time.

I think I'd do well as a vehicle maintainer. It's something I enjoy, and it would sure be nice to learn the trade better while being paid.

 

[69a100]

If you go into vehicle maint., you'll be working on more then the General's car, you'll be working on all the vehicles like Fire Trucks, School buses, etc. etc.