This is a great thread!
I love pretty much everything about it. I love the health insurance, I love moving every few years. I love the sense of community with other military families especially in our sub community. I love the commissary.
My husband received his pay and benefits while going to college, and the Navy paid the tab for his tuition too. Hopefully, we'll be going to Monterey, CA in a few months where my husband will get his master's free of charge while getting all his pay and benefits.
In a weird sorta way, I even kinda like the deployments. For us they're short and fairly predictable. The kids and I get to travel and live like a bunch of single ladies for awhile. When he's home, if we're out we always get back by the time that he gets off work so that we don't miss out on family time, but when he's away we can spend the evening walking through the mall or hanging out at the library.
My husband's original contract is up in less than a year and for the first time since he joined we had to really think about whether or not to stay in. He's the one who does the work and spends months away from his family at a time, so I kinda left it up to him and told him that we would be absolutely fine either way. I'm glad he decided to stay in because when I actually thought about it, I realized that I didn't want to be civilian family.