Any military recruiters on the board?

[thedave1164]

My daughter is considering enlistment.....

[Not_A_Llama]

Get it all in writing.

[TheGrey]

Be sure to let her know that most recruiters lie. They make Basic Training sound easy-peasy and they have an agenda.

It's physical work and discomfort, followed by mind-numbing boredom...all the while being surrounded by some of the stupidest mouth-breathers you've ever had the displeasure to encounter. Introverts will have a much tougher time than extroverts, because there is no time to yourself to recharge.

Girls have it tougher. Lord of the Flies is a kiddie tale compared to Basic Training in the south in the summertime. Females are vicious when they feel cornered or threatened- or when they see an opportunity to advance themselves.

That being said, if she comes to the understanding that the BS that they put her through is simply a long game; to teach her both how to follow orders and to think on her feet, to blend in and let the attention-hogs and the self-centered cliques draw the baleful eyes of the DIs/TIs, and to be patient and use the opportunity to test her own limitations...the military can be a fast-track to a great many benefits.

[Guylee]

Recruiters have an agenda. Have her talk to someone in a similar field as what she wants to do and go from there.

[anaphylaxis]

+1 to all of the above.

Pick a branch, pick a job and do research that doesn't involve chatting with a recruiter quite yet.

[Honey Badger282.8]

When she goes to MEPS to pick her job they are going to push her to the ones that need filling. All jobs are open, just not all the time. I don't know her situation but if what she wants isn't available immediately tell her to wait until it opens. If she has any Navy questions I'd be more than happy to answer them.

[Double00]

What branch is she considering? I might know someone who can point her in the right direction. PM and I will we what I can do.

[cstone]

Sorry. After BNCOC we were told it was either a tour as a recruiter or a year as a Drill Sergeant. I chose the easy way out so I can't help you with recruiter information. I can however give a very tidy block of instruction utilizing the See, Show, Do method of instruction. Srart Position! Ready! In cadence.... Exercise! [Coffee]

[RonMexico]

What questions do you have? My brother was a career recruiter but after a few years(7)he decided the Corps and recruiting wasn't for him. I am also a former Marine and know a little about the Army too.
Here is one advantage she has going for here but I personally think it's BS...... She is a female and they have a quota for females, so they will give here everything and anything she wants. A female recruit is equivalent to 2/3 highly qualified male recruits.

[HoneyBadger]

If I were an Air Force recruiter, I would say that the AF offers good food, comfortable living, and really neat opportunities all around the world, especially in the newer facets of warfare like space and cyberspace. Hard to go wrong. However, if she wants to fly, she'll need to get a commission and if she wants to kick down doors and drive convoys around the sandbox, the AF is probably not the right one.

[thedave1164]

She was thinking something in the medical field, but wants something exciting.

She has heard about MI and seems to be leaning that way, not sure I like the idea, but ultimately it will be her choice.

[thedave1164]

Yeah, I was USN 7+ years, but I know there have been a lot of changes since the 80's

[HoneyBadger]

The AF has a mix of really awesome medical jobs (providing onboard medical support to casualties while they fly out of theater to a place like Ramstein), and really lame ones (being a dental tech on base). Not sure if any of that sounds appealing, though. Monday, I'll be working with a guy all day who just finished up being a AF recruiter for 8 years. I could ask him any questions if you'd like. He was a MSgt and just commissioned last year, so he's been around the block a little.

[Honey Badger282.8]

She could go Corpsman in the Navy, like other branches there are exciting ones and not so exciting ones. I don't think FMF is open to women but I do know SMT (Search and Rescue [SAR] Med Tech) is. They fly in MH-60S' for MEDEVACs. It's a pretty cool job and most squadrons have them.

[theGinsue]

Encourage her towards the medical field versus MI. I've worked the Intelligence field various times throughout my career. It's okay, but not particularly exciting and not a lot of opportunities to use it once you separate. The medical field on the outside is always in demand for folks with experience.

Oh, and when I signed up I was flat out lied to multiple times by the folks at the MEPS station. Before she signs anything that isn't in line with exactly what she wants, have her talk with folks who've been there/done that. Don't let her get pressured into anything else. Like buying a car, they'll tell you all sorts of things and even the "this offer is only good today", but in reality it's better to walk away, think about the offers without the pressure and come back with your decision. Any offers they make will still be there later on.

[thedave1164]

Yep, I was lied to by the people at MEPS, and have already told her to not process through when she goes to take the ASVAB.

They specifically told me that Electronic Warfare technicians could go on subs, turns out it was one of 2 or 3 rates that could never go on subs.

Couple of other lies as well.

[Great-Kazoo]

What ever service she chooses and the field picked. Check to see what the advancement rate is. Our daughter was an ordy with a squadron. Her goal was E5 in 5, She did it first time around, however. After that, the advancement rate for anyone in the Airman field was less than 1% of all tested. Too bad, she would have been 6 yrs shy of retirement.

[Honey Badger282.8]

What ever service she chooses and the field picked. Check to see what the advancement rate is. Our daughter was an ordy with a squadron. Her goal was E5 in 5, She did it first time around, however. After that, the advancement rate for anyone in the Airman field was less than 1% of all tested. Too bad she would have been 6 yrs shy of retirement.

Great advice here. The advancement rate for my job was abysmal.

[patrick0685]

i dont know if she likes planes but if she does air traffic is a good pick along with if she decides to get out before she is 31 she would have a really good chance at a job in the FAA

[DenverGP]

I know a bunch of really smart people who were told "with your scores, you can get any job you want" so they didn't go in with a guaranteed job, and ended up with crap jobs no where near what they wanted.

[RonMexico]

If I was her and wanted to do medical I would join as a 68W, then tryout for Civil Affairs and get selected, she will attend socm(same school as 18D,SEAL, RAIDER/Recon corpsman, SWCC,CA, 160th) it's the best school but extremely hard. She will then be set for the Interservice PA school at Ft Sam Houston.
She would be set for a technical and rewarding job and if she is stationed at FT Bragg, she will fall under SOCOM and USASOC and most deployments will be helping out teams.

[Martinjmpr]

Although I can understand why people might enlist in the Navy, after seeing how they live on ships what I can't figure out is why anybody would RE-enlist in the Navy!

I was MI the last 15 years or so of my time in the Army but I've been retired almost 10 years so I can't give any honest perspective on what it's like now. I was an NCO (retired as an E-7) but I would say that generally speaking it would be better to go in as an officer if that's an option (i.e. if she has graduated college.) From what I've seen officers generally have to deal with a higher class of stupidity than enlisted folk. :D It also looks better on a civilian resume.

Lots of good options for women in the MI field, I think they can do everything except maybe GSR (Ground Surveillance Radar) and even that may be open to them now (not that I'd recommend GSR to anybody...)

One other note, though: Because of the recent data breach anybody who is required to maintain a top secret/SCI clearance is probably going to face major hassles when it comes time to update or renew their clearance. Just FYI.

[Irving]

Isn't the military going through severe cuts right now? Is now a good time to enlist?

[Martinjmpr]

Isn't the military going through severe cuts right now? Is now a good time to enlist?

There's always a boom-and-bust cycle in the military. Whether it's a good idea to enlist is dependent on the individual. Even with cuts the military will always need people. I joined up during the "hollow army" Carter years (1980) and it worked out well for me. I think the key is to make sure you don't go into a dead end career field. In the Army that would mean things like air defense artillery. If the goal is to get training that will help in a civilian career field, that should be the focus but don't be fooled - in many "real world" jobs military experience doesn't count for much (military police is a good example of this - unless you get specialized training like K9 or investigations, most civilian LE agencies give scant attention to years spent as an MP.)

MI can be a good career field but any decent civilian job is most likely going to require a college degree, military experience notwithstanding. Also most of the intel jobs are located on the East Coast in the DC area.

In many aspects the military is a "meritocracy." There are people who are just there to do the minimum and cash their paychecks, and for those people there are plenty of rocks to paint and TPS reports that need cover sheets. But every military organization has a need for hard chargers who go beyond the minimums and people like that can do very well for themselves. Volunteering for schools, for leadership opportunities, and for the important tasks that other people don't want to do is a great way to get noticed and to be given additional responsibilities and opportunities to succeed.

I think they key is to stay focused and not allow oneself to be distracted because there are lots of distractions available to a young GI (alcohol, drugs, sex, etc) and there are always vultures just off post who are there to fleece the unwary soldier/sailor/airman/marine with offers of "easy credit."

[Honey Badger282.8]

Although I can understand why people might enlist in the Navy, after seeing how they live on ships what I can't figure out is why anybody would RE-enlist in the Navy!

LOL. I did 7.5 years in the Navy and my sea counter is at 23 hours. There are ways you can do an entire career without deploying on a boat, just ask the P3/P8 flyers.


Isn't the military going through severe cuts right now? Is now a good time to enlist?

The cuts aren't affecting those on their first enlistment, it's affecting everyone up for re-enlistment. Unless the cuts became really drastic she'd be guaranteed to at least fulfill her initial contract. Also, not all jobs are being cut right now.

[cstone]

My brother in law was a Mass Communications Specialist (journalist) in the Navy and did several tours in Antarctica. Never set foot on a ship but plenty of sea pay for living on the ice.

[Aloha_Shooter]

When she goes to MEPS to pick her job they are going to push her to the ones that need filling.

This. One of my Eagle Scouts got sidelined by his recruiter into HVAC maintenance when he would have been much better off (and done more for the AF) in another career field. Didn't tell me until a week before he left for Basic. I still encouraged him to attempt to change career fields but he was afraid of making waves at that point. [facepalm]

[Aloha_Shooter]

LOL. I did 7.5 years in the Navy and my sea counter is at 23 hours. There are ways you can do an entire career without deploying on a boat, just ask the P3/P8 flyers.
I'm retired AF and I have more sea time than my office mate who is USNR.

[TheGrey]

My recruiter talked me into going into Open Electronics. I was gullible and didn't understand that what that meant was that the USAF would offer me only jobs they needed filling. HVAC was one of those on the list I could select from. In Basic, they took me to a room that had a list of AFSCs, and the job title (to include acroyms that I didn't know). No explanation, no description of the jobs, nothing. I was to select four of those jobs, placed in the order of preference.

So, no Open fields unless she wants to simply fill a slot for the military...

[wyome]

Did 22 yrs in the AF,8 as a ground radar repairman and the rest as an Intel troop. I enlisted as guaranteed electronics, and was willing to wait it out on delayed enlistment for a decent job.

Do your homework and don't be in a rush...been retired almost 4 yrs, and would do it again.

Believe all the services have the regs for what the various job families and codes are on the internet. Do homework....at least have an idea of what you are looking at, if your kiddo really wants to do something specific be willing to wait, or walk on over to another service's recruiter

[thedave1164]

Update:
She is going to take her ASVAB on Thursday, then when she has completed that she will look at the jobs she qualifies for.

I am going to try and make sure she talks to the USN and USAF before she commits to anything.

She currently is leaning towards MI, so we will see.

[davsel]

http://u5aq4437zm120nck735bj1c6.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/ChooseWisely.jpg

[thedave1164]

Took her to see the Navy recruiter yesterday, they closed at 3:00 :-/

[Aloha_Shooter]

Took her to see the Navy recruiter yesterday, they closed at 3:00 :-/
That could be good or bad for recruiting. ;-)

Seriously, may not have been related but the Navy had a lot to deal with yesterday.

[Danimal]

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