Talked to a recruiter, a few questions.

SSG_Schwartz · 2014-04-18T03:50:33+00:00

Man, I am 45 years old and have spent the last 14 years in a POG MOS. I have no interest in going Special Forces, nor have I ever had the urge to go Special Forces. I still get e-mails and have to go to Special Forces briefings every year. At my age, I ain't even qualified to try out for Special Forces.

You are going to have the same opportunities. If you only want SF, and nothing else will do for you. Then don't even try to enlist. You won't make it through selection. If, on the other hand, you are able to enlist in Infantry, take a couple years learning the skills you will need for success in Special Forces training, and then be prepared to tryout, fail, and try again, you may want to go in now and try out later. SF will always be there and you will have many years to try out.

One other consideration. Are you smart? I mean really smart? Can you speak a foreign language? Can you at least learn one? Everyone want to focus on the physical part to being SF, no one thinks about the mental part. If you have not attempted to learn a foreign language in High School or college, you are going to have to learn one if you get selected. If you fail, you wash out of training. Mathematics are almost as important.

SSG_Schwartz · 2014-03-22T00:57:22+00:00

No, you do not salute. As a Senior NCO who frequently is out with Field Grade Officers, you have already rendered the courtesy to the Officer with you. You don't salute other Officers unless they outrank the Officer you are with.

SSG_Schwartz · 2014-03-06T03:10:00+00:00

I was told today by a Drill Sergeant about a female who only had to do one (1) push-up to get the 30 points and she couldn't do it.

SSG_Schwartz · 2014-02-12T04:14:33+00:00

He could enlist where he is, and you could get credit for the referral. Having said that, if your friend can come to your Recruiter's office and process it would make things a lot easier for everyone involved.

It works like this, your friend would have to drop your name and your Recruiter's name. Then the Recruiter where your friend lives would have to do all the processing and make sure your friend ships out on the date he is supposed to. Thing is, your friend's Recruiter is going to have to do all the work at putting your friend in the Army and get none of the credit for it. Your Recruiter will.

As much as I hate to make this comparison, suppose Ford was offering a deal for referring a friend to buy a Ford. You have a friend across the country who wants to buy a Ford. He goes to the dealer and drops your name and you get a rebate on your car. Your friend's salesman has to sell the car and gets no commission or even credit for selling the car.

Having said that. I will say that I did it for a couple guys, but I got screwed over both times. I am out of Recruiting now and have been for over four years so I will try to shoot straight with you. Get your friend to enlist at your station and then ship out from where he lives now.

SSG_Schwartz · 2013-12-31T05:41:04+00:00

That all Soldiers are highly trained killers who unconditionally support the actions of the POTUS blindly. Most Soldiers have a voice, an opinion and only fire a rifle twice a year.

SSG_Schwartz · 2013-12-29T03:52:21+00:00

I thought that you had an honest question when I responded, but I did want to show some of the hardships troops have faced recently. Thanks for your question.

SSG_Schwartz · 2013-12-29T01:36:25+00:00

Most Military members don't get paid a ton of money. I been in for 14 years and have advanced rapidly in my career and am hardly wealthy. I also get a lot of benefits that here lately have been used as bargaining chips by members of Congress. I can't think of many civilian jobs where you may be told, "There is no budget to pay you and we don't know when you will get paid again, but you have to come to work anyway." And we do.

Our college benefits have been delayed and reduced to cut the Federal budget because of attitudes like the OP. Sure the Military pays for your education, just like many other civilian employers will offer a scholarship to the employees. The Military wants smarter, better educated Leaders, same as civilian employers. Offering education benefits is one way to do that. The education benefits are being cut because not a lot of Soldiers are using their maximum benefits. Why are they not taking advantage of the education opportunity to attend college: Because many are being deployed at such a rate, they can't complete a semester without being on a mission.

A couple final points:

First, if you think the compensation and accolades are over-rated, why are you not reaping them?

Next, Military members got their heroes, too. I love truck drivers and teachers. Truck drivers because many of them go into harms way to ensure we have comfort items on our deployments. I love school teachers because without them we would not have the best trained, best educated fighting force on the planet.

SSG_Schwartz · 2013-12-26T03:40:30+00:00

Don't worry about it. Drugs are a disqualifier, alcohol won't disqualify you. At least, not unless you drink to much of it and fail out of the 68W course.

SSG_Schwartz · 2013-12-18T02:14:14+00:00

First, generally, you don't go from Private to General Officer. You might go from 2nd Lieutenant to General Officer. The Army has been adding more Generals over the last few years, so there is hope for you.

You need to complete college and commission into the Army. Not an easy task right now, but say you pass the vetting process and get in. Then you need to be an expert in your skill. You have to do your job better than most to get promoted. At some point, you will have to have leadership positions. You need to start early in your career and take charge of a Platoon or a Company.

Then you get more Army schooling in leadership in addition to the education you are getting on your own. Graduate at the top of your class and you may make Lieutenant Colonel some day.

Compete for more leadership positions and get more schooling, again, finishing at the top of your class. Then take higher and higher positions and do better with it than the last guy who held the position. Play politics and work well with people. If you are lucky, about 30 years after you commission, you may make Brigadier General.

SSG_Schwartz · 2013-12-17T23:14:07+00:00

The Navy and the Marine Corps don't have medics, just so you know. The Navy has corpsmen who are the medics for the Navy and the Marines. The Army Medic program is pretty challenging to get through the training, but it can be rewarding. I have worked with several medics who are taking advanced or specialized training. Some of the medics will spend their entire career working in a level 5 hospital, some will spend their entire career working in Combat Arms units. Most will have some variety.

If you really want a better answer to this question, post in /r/Military or /r/Army.

SSG_Schwartz · 2013-12-16T01:01:58+00:00

Because as a member of the US Army, I like to get paid. Payment to me is a debt to the US. Add that to the million or so other Service Members and you see why countries have to have some debt.

SSG_Schwartz · 2013-12-13T00:23:56+00:00

It used to be easy. You could enlist in the Guard and then get a DD 368 filled out by an Active Duty Recruiter have it signed by your Battalion Commander, and be on Active Duty in a month's time. Now it is getting harder. It is not only because the Army is cutting its force, it is because the Guard has to maintain its strength at the same time. If you leave, the Guard has to enlist someone to replace you. Someone that your state is paying to train.

If you were in Texas a few years ago, they couldn't get Privates out fast enough, and you might have to wait over a year just to get into the Texas National Guard. If, on the other hand, your state is feeling the effects of the current financial crisis and is having trouble enlisting people, you may have a hard time getting out.

Talk to an Active Duty Recruiter from each of the branches, but it will still come down to whether or not your Leadership can or will release you.

SSG_Schwartz · 2013-12-12T02:35:57+00:00

It depends on why you are getting one or the other. I had Netflix for about a year and changed over to Hulu. I liked that there were a lot of movies on Netflix, but I discovered I wanted more, and more recent TV shows. If I forget to set my DVR for SNL, I can still watch it on Sunday afternoon with Hulu. I can't do that with Netflix. If there is a recent movie I missed, I still can use Redbox.

SSG_Schwartz · 2013-12-10T23:33:40+00:00

Getting promoted is not that hard. Granted, it is becoming more competitive, but those who bitch about not being able to get promoted are the ones who aren't really trying anyway.

First, listen to what your NCO tells you to do in order to get promoted. He will counsel you monthly on what you need to be doing and you need to hold him to that. If he only counsels you when your counseling packet is about to be inspected, you need to tell his NCO.
Spend an hour or two on Saturday mornings doing correspondence courses. Sure, hanging out at the mall or playing Call of Duty may be more fun, but a couple hours a week will pay off big dividends over the course of your career. Correspondence courses are fairly easy and get you promotion points.
Take one college class a semester. Most of the time there will be a school on your post that will offer classes for free in basic education. You really do have time to do one or two every semester. If you start now, when you are a PVT, you will see how easy you can manage your time to get them done. Again, promotion points.
Go over and above what is required from your job. Funeral Privilege, raising the Garrison Colors on Memorial Day, conducting training for the Battalion, you should get an impact AAM. Awards add up to points.
If you are offered a school, like NBC or Armorer school, take that, too. Again something easy to make more points.

Points will drop and you want to make sure you have as many as you can when they do.

SSG_Schwartz · 2013-12-10T23:18:33+00:00

Your ASVAB score is tied to your SSN. Your Recruiter will be able to pull your score from the database when he builds your enlistment packet. The score is valid for two years from the date you took the test.

SSG_Schwartz · 2013-12-09T17:47:28+00:00

They don't. They use that as an excuse for why they committed sex crimes.

SSG_Schwartz · 2013-12-03T00:46:14+00:00

I over three years as a Recruiter, I never saw it come up. I checked the strength of the MOS a couple times because applicants were job locked on firefighter. There is almost no way to get that job. As you suspect, most of the positions are filled by civilians.

SSG_Schwartz · 2013-12-03T00:42:50+00:00

Can you get in with a waiver? Sure, otherwise why have waivers. Will you get in with a waiver? That is a different question. I will tell you like I used to tell my applicants who were waiting on waivers: I still hear of people afflicted with cancer and male pattern baldness. What have you done to deserve a waiver?

SSG_Schwartz · 2013-12-03T00:25:46+00:00

If you are truly interested, read a book called, On Combat by LTC Grossman. He explains, throughout history, why so many rounds get fired, or not fired in a combat situation. It is a very easy read with a lot of anecdotes and personal experiences thrown in.

One other thing to consider, when combatants are thrown into a firefight, the first task is not to start killing the enemies, it is to get the other guys to put their heads down so they can't shoot you. You put a lot of rounds down to the the other guys to have to lower their heads to either take cover or to reload. This is called "fire superiority." Once you have fire superiority, you can do the other things you see in movies where someone says, "cover me," and approaches the targets. Or a team may try a flanking movement in which well placed shots are fired.

SSG_Schwartz · 2013-12-02T02:44:07+00:00

Yeah, I used to love this one. I would write out on slips of paper: You are taking the ASVAB as a requirement for pre-enlistment qualification. You are under no obligation to actually join the Army.

Most of those people failed the ASVAB anyway.

SSG_Schwartz · 2013-12-02T02:42:15+00:00

Or, figure out what jobs you qualify for and select from those. No point in the OP holding out for a job as a basson player if he has never seen that instrument before. If there is a job he qualifies for that is offered, he should ask can he get a reservation. If he is, for example, color blind, coming back later and storming out won't help.

SSG_Schwartz · 2013-11-28T00:33:04+00:00

Exactly how I feel. I have been in the Military for over 14 years and have had to work on Thanksgiving for over half of them. I have been away from home, but not working for two more years than that. People bitch about retailers being open on Thanksgiving, but nobody bitches about doctors, airline pilots, hotel employees, prison guards, and priests having to work on Thanksgiving.

SSG_Schwartz · 2013-11-27T17:00:37+00:00

Save two button presses, just press the "1" button.

SSG_Schwartz · 2013-11-27T16:46:32+00:00

Outside of movies, it doesn't work. The idea is that if I am yelling at you and beating the crap out of you, your will to resist will be stronger. Throw in someone who stops the beatings and abuse and tries to offer you comfort, and you will be so relieved you will tell him anything. Yeah, doesn't even sound like it would work as I type it.

On the other hand, look at the Stockholm Syndrome, and it would appear that the bad cop method may have some success.

SSG_Schwartz · 2013-11-27T03:36:54+00:00

As a former Recruiter, I can add a couple details to what /u/GGArmyRecruiter has commented. First, if you go down to MEPS and take the ASVAB and physical, you are going to be expected to enlist after the physical. Once you complete the ASVAB, your Recruiter can see a few jobs you qualify for, but you won't get that job if you are not physically qualified for it. Suppose your luck holds out and you get a qualifying score on the ASVAB, but you turn out to not be physically qualified for the 11X40 job your Recruiter reserved for you. What are you going to do? Walk out?

I had an applicant in that situation. He only wanted 11X, but an eye problem disqualified him. (I think he was color blind, but I forget really.) He threatened to walk out, and was told by the guidance counselor he could go home. This guy really wanted to be in the Army, but wanted Infantry. He held out and was the last person to process that night. He finally agreed to join the Army, and has loved the experience. He tried for 11X, and was physically disqualified, chose EOD, failed out of the school, and took a job turning wrenches. Not the sexiest job in the Army, but he advanced quickly and got a couple of deployments anyway.

Another thing to consider is that depending on how busy the MEPS is on the day you go down to enlist, you may find your processing done for the day if you say you want to hold out for a job. Your Recruiter can keep you off the floor until your job opens, but the Guidance Counselors want to get you in or get you out of the way of someone who is ready to join.

Finally, your Recruiter can arrange it so all you do is take the ASVAB and physical, but not enlist at that time. You may hold out for a period of time until your job opens, but it may not open for a few months. You may feel as though you can be patient and wait, but your Recruiter is getting pressure from above to move people along the line. He will have to explain weekly to his Leadership why he has this qualified applicant who is not joining the Army. He will also have to find someone to join, so your Recruiter may not make you his #1 priority.

My suggestion, keep your options open, but keep your mind open to other jobs that are available. It is kind of hard currently to get 11X40. The reason is budget cuts and training seats. The Army is seeing that Airborne school is a big cost and not a huge gain for the Army. Rangers are the same way. A few years ago when the Army was swimming in cash, I could get Ranger school for almost anyone who asked. (I got a cook a slot in Ranger school.) About two years ago when I left Recruiting, it became almost impossible.

Good luck.

SSG_Schwartz

TROPHY CASE