|
you do want the grass to grow green, dont you
|
#
¿
Dec 25, 2015 20:03
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ May 3, 2024 08:15 |
|
|
So I've been looking into enlisting again, and I might just be hosed, but I'm not sure. I'd be coming in as a prior service guy. The background is that I joined in 07 as an infantryman, graduated OSUT, Airborne, and R.I.P. Later on I was sent to a standard airborne unit where I was waivered to specialist at 18 months to the day. About that time, I was flagged for hearing loss with an H-3 profile, and forced to reclass to 25S, which is some signal poo poo. The problem was that the retention NCO at my old unit sent me to AIT for 25S despite the course mandating at least 3 years time in service, while I only had 2.5 left. When this was all discovered, they told me to re-enlist, and I said no. After a little less than a year of fighting with them through the IG and JAG and getting nowhere, it seemed pretty clear they were just going to let me sit out the rest of my enlistment in hold for a class I wasn't eligible for. As a hot-headed kid who joined 100% to be an infantryman and who had been in the Army since a few days after I graduated high school, and was getting treated like poo poo on the daily by a bunch of TRADOC POGs because I "couldn't hack it in the Army," I was just ready to move on. So I got pissed off and just started showing up to work whenever I felt like, not wearing my uniform, not getting haircuts, that kind of thing. Just get me the hell out of there. I ended up getting out on a pattern of misconduct discharge with a 3 for a re-entry code. Skip forward to today, and I'm very interested in going active duty Civil Affairs, which is 38B. It has a 107 GT score requirement (my GT score was 126), and as far as I know, it's one of the few MOS's that is short for people. I spoke to a SSG recruiter for a half hour or so, and about that time the SFC came to investigate. He looked at my DD214 and saw the re-entry code and the pattern of misconduct reason and just said "no." According to him the Army isn't waivering anything misconduct related right now. I get that it's not 2008 anymore, but he wasn't aware of my intention to go Civil Affairs, which is (I believe) short, or that I'm gaining proficiency in Arabic. He referred me to the VA saying I needed to get my discharge changed. My last dealings with the VA were back in 2010 or so, so my natural instinct was "Oh yeah, too easy.  ." Onto the questions. First off, is there anything I can do besides vote for Lindsey Graham to try and help myself get a waiver here? Even with the misconduct, given my first 18 months of service included becoming a Ranger and getting waivered to E-4, I have a pretty strong record of service prior to the whole reclass gently caress up. Graduating R.I.P. shows that I have what it takes to pass Civil Affairs training, I've already gotten a head start on a language, and Civil Affairs seems to be a pretty restrictive MOS given the high GT requirement. I don't really see who they could be getting that's a better candidate than me. And if that's a dead end, what are my options as far as getting my discharge changed to something that won't preclude me from enlisting? While trying to get something done with the VA is analogous to smashing your face against a brick wall over and over and expecting something to change in my experience, maybe this situation is different? I don't care about my GI bill (since I'd get it again with my Civil Affairs enlistment), or any other benefits. The only goal with this would be to set myself up to be able to join the Army, which might make them look at it a little differently. Any thoughts? Edit: Also would I have any more luck looking into the reserves? Volkerball fucked around with this message at 08:57 on Jan 20, 2016 |
|
#
¿
Jan 20, 2016 07:39
|
|
|
Nostalgia4Ass posted:Real talk: Your life must really suck if you are looking at enlisting in the Army again. I'd seriously look at other ways to improve your situation other than the mil because you don't have a snowball's chance in hell of coming back in. You got kicked out for a pattern of misconduct. I've never seen anyone ever get their RE Code upgraded for a discharge like that and between me and the Army recruiters, I probably talked to 40 or 50 who tried. No one would take you with an RE-3 during the surge (2006-2009) so I doubt that anyone would even spend time talking to you when all the branches are downsizing. Well it's certainly not something I ever expected to be looking at again, but I stumbled across Civil Affairs and realized it would lead really nicely into doing something on the civilian side that I actually enjoy. It was the only thing in the military I was considering. But thanks, a definitive answer is what I needed to close the book on this.
|
|
#
¿
Jan 20, 2016 09:37
|
|
|
Alex433999 posted:Any marines who've been through marsoc or are currently in marsoc? I managed to secure an infantry contract with a high ist and gt score on my asvab. Even though that technically qualifies me, i dont know much about it and would like more information like the school(s) that i have to go through, what roles are performed, etc. I would ask my recruiter but he doesnt have much info besides whats already on the marine corps website do you even know why you would want to do it? marsoc was kind of a running joke in ranger bat, but it's probably a better quality of life than being regular marine infantry. i'd guess the graduation rate is below 50% in selection for force recon or anything like that, so it's something you're gonna have to be all in on just to have a chance. Volkerball fucked around with this message at 01:13 on Apr 26, 2016 |
|
#
¿
Apr 26, 2016 01:10
|
|
|
Melthir posted:My cousin went through a while back. He said other than not getting injured just refuse to let your body quit is the biggest part nothing they ask you to do is impossible you just think it is due to lack of sleep/calorie deficiency from not eating enough or just being stupid. Not paying attention to the poo poo going on around you will gently caress you just as hard as an injury. That and not being physically prepared. Get in great shape ahead of time. But what the gently caress do I know I'm a grumpy Coast Guard powerlifter. The most demanding thing I have to do for my job is run a mile and a half twice a year. Everyone who passes a course like that will tell you that it's not that hard, because the actual pass/fail poo poo is usually nothing too crazy. Failing an event or getting injured (as in, I am medically incapable of continuing with the course, as per the doctor) aren't very common things to have happen to you, and at least in RIP, those act of god type things meant you got recycled rather than outright booted from the course. So you still had a chance. All you had to do was not quit, and you gave yourself a great shot of making it. But if not quitting was so easy, we wouldn't have had 80+ people out of my class of over 200 quit in the first week of RIP. We lost well over half the class before we even made it to the first real pass/fail event. Ended up graduating around 60. I think we only had somewhere around 10 people who legit failed the course, and 1 or 2 of them ended up passing with the next class. So meeting the PT requirements and things like that are almost completely irrelevant to actually passing the course. Just as an illustration of how this process works, for people who wanted to go Ranger, you had to be dedicated enough to it when you first signed up to demand the course option in your contract. To refuse to let your recruiter shuffle you into something else. Then after you've done that, you have to go through infantry OSUT and Airborne school. They are both like 99% pass rates, so they aren't really a threat to stop you from making it to the course. The issue is that over the months while you are dealing with those courses, you learn a shitload about the army since you're actually in it instead of looking at it from the outside in. Maybe you had some misconceptions about what leg and airborne infantry do, and in hindsight, you are fine with going to one of those units. Or maybe Ranger bat doesn't sound appealing to you anymore, or you've heard some rumors about the course and now you're afraid of it. You also have some shin splints or a tweaked ankle or something you've been nursing for a while, and might decide to just do the course "some other time." Between these rationalizations, you have a shitload of people who signed up for the course when they enlisted who've already quit before they've even been exposed to the course that has turned making people quit into an art form. If you make it to the course start without quitting, that's when the pressure cranks up, and the vast majority of people who haven't quit already buckle under it. Everyone says that the most important thing is being in shape and studying the stuff for the paper test ahead of time, but that stuff is all secondary. The most important thing is that you have to have a reason not to quit. Everyone thinks they have a reason, but they don't understand that you are going to be facing some of the most miserable moments of your life, and that reason is the only thing standing between you and making all that pain go away with a snap of your fingers. We had an 8 mile ruck march to the location of our week long field exercise led by a college long distance runner, with no breaks. Once there, we got smoked all day. They (very transparently) teased us with 30 minutes of sleep, before we were surprisingly woken up by "artillery." Then we spent several more hours getting soaked in sweat until it was the middle of the night. We spent the rest of the night laying on the ground pulling security in a patrol base out in the woods, freezing in 30 degree weather. I'm fairly sure I had hypothermia, because I had long since stopped shivering. A few hundred meters away, the instructors made a huge campfire and ordered pizza. They'd swing by every hour or so just to remind everyone that all you had to do was quit, and you could immediately go sit by the campfire, have some pizza, and sleep on a bed indoors. Not one person did. Anyone who would quit in that situation had already been weeded out, because this scenario is the rule, not an exception. There was nothing special about it. I have dozens of stories exactly like it. This is the sort of mental gymnastics you play nearly every hour of every day in a selection course like this. So Alex, I'll tell you what I tell everyone else. All you have to do is not quit, but that's irrelevant, because you will quit, whether you think you will or not. In all likelihood, you're just not cut out for that tier of infantry. Find something else.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 26, 2016 04:57
|
|
|
I wouldn't argue with that, but all of those issues are magnified when you're in a regular infantry unit. I don't know anything about MARSOC other than jokes, but SOCOM had stupid money. When I was in a regular airborne unit, we were doing mock training exercises in the basement half the time. SOCOM throws money around and it makes training a lot more of a memorable experience, although it's certainly more physically demanding. Plus there's a lot more schools and things like that open to you. Overall, it's a lot less boring and monotonous, and it's a cool environment to be in. I preferred it.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 26, 2016 06:54
|
|
|
Bend your knees when you land. If you forget everything else, fine, but bend your loving knees.
|
|
#
¿
Aug 29, 2016 20:35
|
|
|
Vahakyla posted:Quick question, do I get a parachute? Yeah but it was packed by an e2 fresh out of ait. And the plane is flown by the air force. Godspeed.
|
|
#
¿
Aug 29, 2016 21:52
|
|
|
Mustang posted:I wonder if the other basic training reception BNs are as lovely as 30th AG at Benning. all i remember is getting stabbed with a billion needles and fools talking about getting 30th ag tattoos like being there was a badge of honor edit: and learning how to sleep at parade rest
|
|
#
¿
Sep 7, 2016 02:33
|
|
|
LingcodKilla posted:You get your phone in army basic? poo poo, we had 4 of them floating around the barracks. Lost one in the wall though. Spent a good week trying to find ways to get it out like we were in the loving Sandlot.
|
|
#
¿
Nov 3, 2016 20:18
|
|
|
Hillary Clintons Thong posted:there were waivers for up to 42 years old during the height of Iraq war. And we got 42 year old dudes too. Those were some dire mother fuckers.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 4, 2017 23:49
|
|
|
himurak posted:I'd love 74A, but am open to the enlisting side 74D ideally. At this point I'm not terribly picky. Civilian life is lovely so I might as well get a pension in 20 for the suck. Intel, signals, diver, and network warfare are all on my radar. I'd pay a pension to not have to be around signal corps people ever again. No hesitation.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 5, 2017 21:42
|
|
|
Hillary Clintons Thong posted:orientate your map you dumb bitch, check fire roger over repeat Now point to where you think you are. Not with your finger jackass
|
|
#
¿
Apr 9, 2017 05:52
|
|
|
Godholio posted:I'm concerned that people might see that as a joke. 1/10th of one percent is an exaggeration but everything else is spot on.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 20, 2017 14:54
|
|
|
Another GIP feel good story.
|
|
#
¿
Oct 4, 2017 00:45
|
|
|
Go national guard infantry and die a really dumb, preventable death. OCS has good chow though. At least I think it was OCS. A few blocks from Ranger HQ in Benning, right?
|
|
#
¿
Oct 14, 2017 09:22
|
|
|
Just want to point out that an 18 year old fresh out of high school is waiverable to E4 at 18 months and is automatically promoted to E4 at 2 years just for not getting kicked out or demoted. That is all your degree buys you if you enlist with it. We had one guy in basic who came in as an E4 and he about got hosed with harder than anyone just because he distinguished himself as an idiot on day one. He had a big badge saying I enlisted with a degree while the rest of us were still faces in the crowd. He got to be "College boy." I would not look to follow in his footsteps.
Volkerball fucked around with this message at 14:49 on Jan 24, 2018 |
|
#
¿
Jan 24, 2018 14:45
|
|
|
HELLBITCH posted:He said to tell you to go shine your Combat Action Badge and make sure the AC is working 
|
|
#
¿
Feb 23, 2018 10:10
|
|
|
Don't go 18x go 11x with the ranger option that way if you fail you'll still be airborne infantry and will still get blown up.
|
|
#
¿
Feb 23, 2018 10:13
|
|
|
No one ever gets to one up me at dinner conversations because of my numerous exploits in the delta ranger seals, 10/10 would enlist again.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 23, 2019 22:31
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ May 3, 2024 08:15 |
|
|
bird food bathtub posted:Can you even join in your 30s? I was considered old as gently caress joining in my mid-20s, like that was literally my basic nickname, and I was pretty sure I was bumping up against the cutoff age. They change the cut off age depending on how desperate they are. I went to infantry OSUT in the summer of 07 during the surge and we had guys in there well into their 40's. Plus guys pushing 300 pounds.
|
|
#
¿
Aug 1, 2019 08:48
|
|