If someone in your family is contemplating joining the Military; things your recruiter might not tell them.

Shhhhh... a few things military recruiters won't typically tell you! photo - Teila K. Day photos at pbase.com

I suggest anyone wanting to join the Military take time to research how to get trained for a job that transfers to a civilian job when you get out.

In particular every job that is in a typical Hospital except for something like insurance billing the Military has.

My own example of not doing research is I joined the Army to be a Medic.

When I got out the civilian job I qualified for was Hospital Orderly that paid 23 cents more than minimum wage and involved wiping behinds.

If I had done reasearch I could have been a X-ray tech, dental tech, lab tech and so on.
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84 300D, 82 Volvo 244Gl Diesel

I have known several people who were promised the moon when they joined up.

The promises, even in writing, didn't mean a thing once they were in.

Many years ago I knew a guy who joined the Navy because they said they would send him to locksmith school. When he finished basic he found the waiting list was 18 years.

So he wound up working on a carrier and fueled aircraft. He then spent a few years working at a Navy oiling station/tank farm.

He never did make it to locksmith school, but he did get a job with a pipeline company when he got out.

He just retired as a VP from a major oil company.

A funny story: He lied about his age and went in when he was sixteen. He also lied about his education since he was a high school drop out. When he hired on with the pipeline company they didn't ask him about one or the other and he didn't think it was necessary to tell them.

At his retirement party I told him how sad it was he skipped the locksmith school and then had to settle for only $750,000 a year in his VP job.

You just never know.

One more.....

A friend of mine went into the Army with an ironclad contract to attend missile school. That lasted one day and he was transferred to the Infantry.

He injured his leg and was given a choice of a discharge or a light duty job. He took the light duty and wound up caring for a golf course.

After he got out he stayed with the golf course thing and became rather well known in his field. He retired about ten years ago after about twenty years as the Parks director for a middle sized city.

His current pension is $160,000 a year.

He traveled to world before he took on the parks job, consulting on golf course design.

But just think..... He could have worked with missiles!

Check as this is old news.

Get at least a two year degree before military.

Qualify for a foreign language and go into Intelligence. Check which languages are in demand.

I had college before I went in the Navy. It was enough to get me E-3 out of boot camp. That was nice.

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When I joined the Army by contract had to train me for what I enlisted bor. However, after I was trained they were not required to use me for what I was trained for.
Get it all in writing and make copies for your own records.

However, you need to pass the test to qualify for what you want and also in my case once we were in basic training the gave us the same tests again. I suppose that was to prevent some recruiter from making you test score better.

But, that was back in 1970 so there is likely a lot of changes.

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84 300D, 82 Volvo 244Gl Diesel

When I was in the Army there was a guy that was drafted (which was 2 years service) who in civilian life was a Licensed Vocational Nurse. They told him they would bring him in as an E5 if he signed up for 3 years.

He said no because he did not want to serve an addition year and ended up coming in as an E1 and eventually ended up as being a Medic like myself.


This is around 1979 a Guy I worked with had a couple of years at Los Angeles Trade Tech taking Diesel Mechanics (you get college credits there) and joined the Army to be a mechanic at E3 which in the Army is Private First Class.

The Flight Surgeon I worked for said he had been a Sgt. From there he signed up to be a Doctor but had to sign a promisary note obligating him to 11 years of service.

If you fail at your doctors training they use at what ever level of training you left off at. As an example you could end up bing a nurse.

The equivilent to a redgisterd Nurse got you a minimum of 2nd Lt.

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84 300D, 82 Volvo 244Gl Diesel

I did know one person who went in with four years of school and a pre-med degree. He also had some advance doctor schooling of some type.

He faced a lot of challenges but he overcame them and finally became a real Doctor. Then he stayed in for twenty more years give or take. And the Air Force, in his case, picked up all the bills.

Sometimes it works out. But the 'repeat the test' thing you were talking about was a good program since recruiters had to make their numbers and, being human, not all of them were 100% honest.

It isn't just that, most of the people when I was in were drafted. People who did not want to be drafted might have tried to fail the first test hoping not to be drafted.
Taking the test again after the drafted person was already in the Army gave them a chance for an honest score.

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84 300D, 82 Volvo 244Gl Diesel

When you read the fine print on the enlisted contract you will find that it mentions school availability and also the immediate needs of the military. All contracts are contingent on at least these two points if not more.

People who think they were unfairly treated probably didn't read the contract. Or worse, they thought they were special -- never a good attitude for a newbie, military or civilian.

Seems like some added stress, risk, and uncertainty in trying to "plan" kick-off as a E-3 or E-4.

Or, simply want to join and simply want to go Infantry, and want to join as soon as you graduated from HS and you're guaranteed an 0311 slot. Then, do a good job in boot camp and you got around a 5 out of 60-ish chance of being promoted to PFC at graduation. An E-1 or E-2 back in the day was around $500 - $600 bucks a month. Never any worries about a cushy desk job or running around in a hospital ... Not sure if 2 or 3 year contracts are still around. If so, after 2 years of active duty, and if you did a good job, you're a Corporal and you have your benefits to go to college plus the training and leadership for higher ranks if you wanted to stick around after you got your degree ....versus

Being an E3 or E4 at boot camp, and then going off to your school, and then your first duty assignment probably places one at a huge disadvantage. For example, no real training or experience yet you're a FTL or even a squad leader for the next few years? I couldn't imagine being an automatic Lance Cpl. or even a Corporal headed into my first duty assignment.

I have a friend who went through ROTC as an undergrad. When she got her degree, either ROTC or the Navy paid her expenses for law school. After law school, she went into the Navy JAG program and served as both a prosecuting and defense attorney in court martial proceedings. She served for two or three years. When she left the Navy, she went into private practice with experience as a trial attorney. She was debt free and had accumulated savings during her military service.

You don't need the degree if you have a HS diploma and qualify on the DLPT (Defense Language Proficiency Test) and the DLAB (Defense Language Aptitude Battery).

But you must be able to read/write/speak the language at the "2" level at least, in their system.

The real issue is the security clearance and that takes a while.

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Strelnik
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Well I have been out of the loop for a very very long time. I happend to come a cross the info looking for something else and I thought I would post it in case someone has a family member contemplating going in the Military.

If someone wants to go in the Infantry so be that. But, most people don't stay in the Military and are faced getting a job when they get out.

When you get out you have Aliens; illegal or otherwise working in the low skilled jobs and you need education and or experince to get a job that would allow you to raise a family in a little financial comfort.

So I know from my own experience that I would have been better off with a different
military occupation then I picked.
I could have picked something as simple as Welder and been better equipped to get a job after getting out of the military.

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84 300D, 82 Volvo 244Gl Diesel

In the battery of tests during Army Basic Training (ca 1954) used to identify certain proficiencies, there is one that tests the ability to distinguish two Morse Code signals, A (di dah ) and N (dah dit ). Apparently I did well because I was sent to the ASA school at Fort Devens, Mass. to learn code. I was very disappointed that I couldn't go to the language school at Monterey, California, until I learned that all the Russian language grads were posted to Alaska and ended up digging ditches there.

Well, you can see Russia from Alaska, can't you? Palin, could. [/tongue in cheek]

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