What military branch would be best for me? Any women who I can ask advice?

I am a 20 year old female, and I live in Illinois. I am interested in joining the armed forces to serve my country. I would like to be in the reserves, as I am in college and would like to finish that up. I would also like to be able to stay home for the most part. Also, which branch of the military has the shortest deployments, where I could stay home and train locally? I know that I should not be concerned with deployments if I want to serve my country, but I do not want to hurt my family by being overseas away from home for a year+. I would really like to do the national guard and help Americans within the country, but I know most National guard members are being deployed overseas.





Also, I was wondering if I could possibly e-mail any of you who are women and have served or are serving in the armed forces just so I can learn a little more and get first-hand information.





God bless our troops.What military branch would be best for me? Any women who I can ask advice?
Not going to answer from a woman's point of view - but look at the following google search -





http://www.google.com/search?q=Reserve+U鈥?/a>





Your first mission is to find the reserve centers around you that you would be willing to drive to once a month for training.





That will shape what service.





Next, most of the time each one of these locations will have a specialty or job trait that they will be good at. Do you want this military job to be similar to what your doing in college?





This will also shape what service/location.





Traditionally, the AF has the shortest deployments. However, even they are starting to move from 4 mon, to 6 mon, to 12 mon. It all really depends on the level of the unit that you deploy with.





Talk with the National Guard unit that is close to you about their deployment schedule. They can give you a good picture of if/when they might be deploying next.





Why would you hurt your family by being deployed? Most of the time this brings you all closer, AND they get to see an insight on the war from your perspective.





If you need any perspective from me, let me know... I am pretty open minded and fair on the question you might be asking.What military branch would be best for me? Any women who I can ask advice?
If you want to stay home and train locally you should check into the reserves or national guard.





National guard also helps out with state emergencies (i.e. flooding)





AF has the shortest deployments at the moment.





Just remember regardless you are a soldier first so if you join and you get deployed your college will have to go on hold. Guard and reserves also have to do 2 weeks a year of AT training, and of course you have to do basic and AIT.
We are basically in the same situation. I live in Missouri (from Iowa but in college here) and I wanted to be in the Air National Guard, now I'm thinking about Army National Guard and even Navy Reserves. Take some time to talk to all of them and see what they have to offer you and what you would like to do in all of them. Don't rush to make your decision. This is all what I'm trying to do as well as ask around and talk to my step dad who is a military man and was in army and air.
It sounds like the U.S. Air Force would be a good choice for you. On the plus side their deployments are shorter and the quality of life is great. On the negative side, promotions are very slow and it can be a bit difficult to join (they have the highest academic standards of all the branches).