Hello Eta71,
I was in during the 80's. I went in under a 4-year contract for avionics and stumbled across the Nav opportunity by accident. It was a great gig when you got to fly, pretty ho hum otherwise. My total flight time after 4 years was something like 1600 hours. One of my classmates actually enlisted for it and got $3000 upon getting his wings (Tech Skill Bonus Program). Another was on a 6-year contract with "guaranteed" Corporal upon graduating from the Nav school. Now most of my military bases are gone (Mather AFB, MCAS El Toro, NAS Barbers Point, Clark AFB, NAS Cubi Pt. & soon MCAS Futenma). I wanted to stay go Reserves but the unit was in Chicago (I'm a CaliBoy). It was a real let down when I got out. Here I was thinking I could go AFR or ANG, and they were interested until they found out I had no college. I was kind of surprised that I didn't get called up during the 1st Guld War.
Take Care & Semper Fi,
JR