RESOURCE- Ask Us About Joining The US Military!

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Larry Parrish: Jul 9, 2012; by Jeffrey of YOSPOS

So I've already gone to MEPS and signed a contract and everything. I ship in a few weeks. Theoretically, I'm going to end up a command post apprentice.

It's a little late to be asking, I know, but am I totally going to hate myself for this? I don't know why I'm suddenly worried last second, but whatever.

# ¿ Aug 11, 2013 15:43

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# ¿ May 22, 2024 17:39

Larry Parrish: Jul 9, 2012; by Jeffrey of YOSPOS

Well, thanks. I feel a little better about it, at least.

# ¿ Aug 11, 2013 16:39

Larry Parrish: Jul 9, 2012; by Jeffrey of YOSPOS

I know an AF reservist who's in as a mental health counselor. He's not actually a doctor, though, so he's enlisted scum. But so far he hasn't had a bad time, and from what I've heard most medical jobs at least in the AF are fairly laid back and chill.

# ¿ Mar 14, 2014 02:47

Larry Parrish: Jul 9, 2012; by Jeffrey of YOSPOS

As much as command and control sucks hell-dicks, I'm p sure ISR people are the only ones more miserable. Also at least my job is tangentially related to FEMA poo poo as a civ.

# ¿ Apr 17, 2014 15:49

Larry Parrish: Jul 9, 2012; by Jeffrey of YOSPOS

The quality of life really is leagues above the Army. My cousin was infantry, ended up leaving as an E-4. Had to endure all kinds of idiotic poo poo, like having a weapon issued stateside despite not ever using it for anything, having to wear his uniform off-duty, living in a barracks, etc etc etc. In comparison, I live in what is essentially a Motel 6 with a shared bathroom and kitchenette. I also only have to wear my uniform to work, except for special poo poo like ceremonies or whatever that don't happen often in my very tiny unit.

# ¿ Apr 20, 2014 07:31

Larry Parrish: Jul 9, 2012; by Jeffrey of YOSPOS

holocaust bloopers posted:

Two things: the CCAF is utterly worthless. I wouldn't even put it on a resume.

The AF doesn't need people at all. They're kicking out dudes by the thousands.

Command Post is a soul-crushing career field but we aren't actually overmanned and wildly flipflop between 'critically undermanned' and 'at manning' every single time they do an evaluation. Also you miss out on a lot of squadron faggotry by not ever being in a squadron once you leave AETC.

# ¿ May 2, 2014 03:59

Larry Parrish: Jul 9, 2012; by Jeffrey of YOSPOS

If there's a military doctor out there who isn't partially retarded I will eat my loving hat.

# ¿ May 3, 2014 04:54

Larry Parrish: Jul 9, 2012; by Jeffrey of YOSPOS

Grody posted:

What concerns me is the wording on the sf-86 it says something along the lines of "list all police interactions" then they had me sign 4 or 5 different things saying that I had no other contact with them. I have been arrested before and it was dropped and the waiver process is done but I've heard that multiple incidents involving the police is cause to deny clearance because it seems like a pattern of disobeying authority, and I'm sure it will look that way to someone with no context on top of looking like I am purposely leaving stuff out. It also doesn't help that I didn't include the trip to the hospital on my medical history, I read a horror story of someone in Navy Nuke school who had an emergency room visit come up on a top secret clearance that he didn't mention and was kicked out. So if they saw the police report they'd know I was brought there so its a mess, I just don't wanna run the risk if possible so its making me kind of nervous because I wouldn't know until halfway through A school one way or another.

i was really worried about my TS till it got approved, but there are people who got and continue to have their clearance who are way worse with money, the law, drugs, etc. basically once you meet a few fuckups who have TS you'll realize its probably not so bad.

# ¿ Jul 13, 2014 05:51

Larry Parrish: Jul 9, 2012; by Jeffrey of YOSPOS

Folly posted:

How difficult would it be to get a Top Secret clearance by enlisting in the Air Force Reserves?

This isn't for me, it's for my brother. He plans to enlist on Monday, and he called me because I'm a lawyer and he's heard enough recruiting stories to want a second set of eyes on his contract. But he doesn't have his contract yet, and can't seem to get it in advance, so I asked him about his plans.

So here's his plan, as I understand it. He wants to work in the defense industry. The best way to do that is with a Top Secret clearance and some military experience. He believes that he can get both through Air Force Reserve job code 1C3X1. Everything I've seen makes that sound impossible. But he spent about 18mos as a civilian contractor in Afghanistan, which is where, I gather, he came up with this plan. I assume he's talked to a lot of soldiers and has a better handle on the odds than I do.

I don't know of anything in his history that would disqualify him from top secret. And if it's relevant, he has a degree but his GPA is too low to go for a commission.

Can someone give me a quick gut-level check on whether his plan seems plausible or even possible?

I am a 1C3 in the Active Air Force. I work with a lot of Reserve and Guard 1C3s in my day-to-day. Tell him to not go 1C3 if he is expecting to be only a weekend warrior. He has like a 90% chance of ending up working in their Wing Operations Center or Command Post on a more-or-less full-time basis due to manning and budget restrictions. There are other jobs that require TS and he should probably get one of those. Is Reservist Intel a thing?

I'm not even going to mention the other stuff which sounds insanely retarded for a variety of reasons.

# ¿ Jul 26, 2014 01:29

Larry Parrish: Jul 9, 2012; by Jeffrey of YOSPOS

Folly posted:

Well, I'm not going to convince the man that he's got a bad career plan. You guys know this.

If it looks like he can actually get a security clearance, then my task is to make sure the contract says what he thinks it does. I think it's complete poo poo that he can't get this contract in advance, but I guess that's intentional. Does anybody have something like a model contract so I can at least give him an explanation of what to look out for? Something more specific that form DD 4/1.

Also, how bad is the "X" wildcard in 1C3X1? I've had at least 2 friends screwed over by wildcards in their contracts and recruiters promising them that they'd get a specific job, only end up in another, shittier job because it was also covered by their job code.

I mean all the Reservist 1C3's I've met are tards, so maybe he'll fit right in. The ones in my Reservist wing ended up changing their career field to 1C5 so they wouldn't have to merge with our shop.

# ¿ Jul 26, 2014 15:05

Larry Parrish: Jul 9, 2012; by Jeffrey of YOSPOS

USMC503 posted:

Alright. Kinda what I thought, "tell them to gently caress off until you get what you want" is sort of what I told him before. Thanks for confirming.

Edit: And yes the recruiter tried to con him into the general aptitude thing. Thankfully he had the sense to see through that, and if he hadn't, that sounds way too close to an open contract (who am I kidding, it's the same drat thing) for me to let him ship without changing that poo poo.

i'm pretty sure open general is somehow actually worse than a completely open contract. most of the decent/cool jobs seem to be under administrative or mechanical.

# ¿ Sep 24, 2014 09:36

Larry Parrish: Jul 9, 2012; by Jeffrey of YOSPOS

I didn't really read if 17-year-old dude got his answers but as a dude who DEP'd at 17 and shipped out just after high school, seriously please evaluate all your options. I graduated with a 1.8 and figured I didn't have much of a shot at college, but looking into it after the fact, I would have been fine if I had just gotten off my rear end and done something. The military was the easy, lazy option and I work with a lot of retarded scumbags. I'm sure I'll think about it differently when I come up on my separation date, but right now I don't think trading 6 years for some benefits and a TSEC down the line was worth it.

# ¿ Jan 17, 2015 15:03

Larry Parrish: Jul 9, 2012; by Jeffrey of YOSPOS

Godholio posted:

I guess he means a TS?

Yeah, I'm an idiot. That's the abbreviation GDSS uses so I stare at it all day.

# ¿ Jan 18, 2015 16:52

Larry Parrish: Jul 9, 2012; by Jeffrey of YOSPOS

I have an extremely easy job that has no serious responsibility until I'm an E-5, and even then it's likely I'd just be a shift supervisor. That said, as a poor 19 year old who joined straight out of high school, I really hate the Air Force. How much of that is the Air Force and my unit and how much is me is anybody's guess. I have a feeling it's mostly me, but none of the other airmen and almost all of the NCOs plan on getting out as soon as humanly possible.

If you can deal with it for 4 years I imagine it's not that bad outside of the flightline/ATC.

# ¿ Jan 22, 2015 00:20

Larry Parrish: Jul 9, 2012; by Jeffrey of YOSPOS

I imagine it's just not worth the trouble of figuring out how much they would need to reduce everyone's pay by to account for not being taxed.

# ¿ Jan 23, 2015 01:12

Larry Parrish: Jul 9, 2012; by Jeffrey of YOSPOS

Everyone I know in anything Comm likes their job, even client help desk or whatever people.

# ¿ Mar 13, 2015 05:09

Larry Parrish: Jul 9, 2012; by Jeffrey of YOSPOS

Is there anyone in a military band that's a normal person and not a hosed up wierdo. I've met a few dudes from the band at Travis and they're loving creepy. Kind of like how most chaplains are weird as gently caress I guess.

# ¿ Mar 27, 2015 00:35

Larry Parrish: Jul 9, 2012; by Jeffrey of YOSPOS

Volkerball posted:

My company was opfor at WLC once, and when the band came through our STX lane, it was goddamn hilarious. We ran the same lane over and over for different groups, so we had it down to a science and were just being dicks at that point. We managed to shuffle them all behind this building by shooting flares (rpg's) at them, so literally everyone besides gunners were standing directly in my field of fire with the 240. Wiped them all, and two of their gunners weapons were down, one because it had jammed and the girl didn't know how to clear it. She was just sitting there pulling the trigger like "Why isn't it working?!" But I'm p sure that as far as undertrained idiots go, at least the band ones probably don't actually end up in a ditch somewhere wondering what the hell to do.

Wait, they actually make Army Band people pretend they're soldiers? Hahahaha.

# ¿ Mar 27, 2015 15:28

Larry Parrish: Jul 9, 2012; by Jeffrey of YOSPOS

Godholio posted:

And almost always open only to internal hires.

From what I'm told this is the case for AD civilian slots too pretty much.

# ¿ May 1, 2015 09:39

Larry Parrish: Jul 9, 2012; by Jeffrey of YOSPOS

As a small unit guy it flipflops between being totally unnoticed and desperately trying to be noticed.

# ¿ May 3, 2015 10:05

Larry Parrish: Jul 9, 2012; by Jeffrey of YOSPOS

I mean, he's technically right. Sometimes recruiters say things that are wrong because they are insanely retarded, not because they are lying.

# ¿ May 12, 2015 08:30

Larry Parrish: Jul 9, 2012; by Jeffrey of YOSPOS

Stairmaster posted:

The security clearance guys/meps don't care if you did Marijuana once in high-school and didn't get charged/arrested, right?

I lied about it, and during my follow-up they mentioned friends had said I had at a party. I just said I hung out in the thick of things so they assumed I was obviously blazed/drunk with them when I wasn't. They bought it.

# ¿ Jun 5, 2015 23:41

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# ¿ May 22, 2024 17:39

Larry Parrish: Jul 9, 2012; by Jeffrey of YOSPOS

Keep in mind that the contract only guarantees a tech school slot. If you pick something fancy pantsy and you fail the tech school there's a good chance you'll end up doing some other lovely job that happens to also be taught at that training base.

# ¿ Oct 15, 2015 00:20

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