Thank you everyone for the info. From the research I have done so far, I'm thinking of he goes the military route, Navy would probably be the best. Maybe I'm being naive, but I think he would have the least chance there at being forced into combat. I completely realize that with any military position there are always risks, but would obviously like to minimize them as much as possible. I'm also under the impression that machinists are getting hard to come by so I wouldn't think they wouldn't want to risk a valuable asset if it could be avoided. My son would be a 4th generation machinist. My grandfather and father were both machinists and my brother is a shop supervisor. He has been able to get some guidance from my dad and brother, but I want him to get as many opinions as possible before making any decisions. Until recently the military had been more of a plan b, but he has shown a lot more interest in that lately. He is scheduled to take his ASVAB next month and has started studying. He knows getting the best score possible is the first step if he decides to go that route. The mother in me would rather he just get a civilian job, but I also think that the military structure could really do him a lot of good in the long run. We have several military family members, some active duty and some retired that I want him to talk to before making his final decision.