Step-son is considering joining the military

[UNM1136]

Biggest mistake in my life was listening to my parents (both prior service) who insisted I go to college before going into the military so I could go in as an officer. I had a guaranteed spot on an A Detachment as an 18D in the Reserves (you do the math) if I enlisted and passed the training. REP63 meant I essentially had an 18 X-ray pipeline more than a decade before the 18 X-ray program existed, and a detachment XO getting me ready for the Q Course.. One of the two teams open to me was a HALO team. Went to college. Military never happened. It would have been nothing to take 2 years off, do the Q, and go to college. I would have also had a reserve gig providing a paycheck, and the GI Bill, reducing the loans I needed to take out for an essentially useless degree.

That said, some research needs to be done, but IIRC an 81 on the ASVAB could severely limit the potential jobs available to him in the military. A study guide and re-test should be in order.

My daughter was an honors student in high school who won scholarships for college. She is now preparing to drop out of college, losing the student job she has. I am hoping she will take my advice and join the local Guard unit.

pat

[jamautry]

Biggest mistake in my life was listening to my parents (both prior service) who insisted I go to college before going into the military so I could go in as an officer. I had a guaranteed spot on an A Detachment as an 18D in the Reserves (you do the math) if I enlisted and passed the training. REP63 meant I essentially had an 18 X-ray pipeline more than a decade before the 18 X-ray program existed, and a detachment XO getting me ready for the Q Course.. One of the two teams open to me was a HALO team. Went to college. Military never happened. It would have been nothing to take 2 years off, do the Q, and go to college. I would have also had a reserve gig providing a paycheck, and the GI Bill, reducing the loans I needed to take out for an essentially useless degree.

That said, some research needs to be done, but IIRC an 81 on the ASVAB could severely limit the potential jobs available to him in the military. A study guide and re-test should be in order.

My daughter was an honors student in high school who won scholarships for college. She is now preparing to drop out of college, losing the student job she has. I am hoping she will take my advice and join the local Guard unit.

pat

As for the ASVAB that is the raw score not the net score they use for MOS. By all accounts from the recruiters at the school that is a very high score, top 99 percentile score.

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[Shoresy]

I had a lot of people telling me to pick a career in the military that would translate over into the civilian world. I said "fuck that, I want to do something I'll never get a chance to do again." I've never regretted it. I got to blow things up, drive a tank, blow things up, learn how to set booby traps, blow things up, shoot big guns, and blow things up. Plus, they let me blow things up.

This. Developing skills before leaving whichever service is valuable, but if I could do what I did outside of the military... I would have done it outside of the military. I signed because I wanted to do things I couldn't do anywhere else.

Most of the "skills" jobs don't translate as well as most people expect, and most of the people I know whose military experience *directly* led to post-service employment went to work on the programs they were working when they were in (e.g. intel folks who went to work for DIA/NASIC/NGIC/etc, many of whom had worked at DIA/NASIC/NGIC while in uniform). If you're trying to build skills to go somewhere else, the value of experience may fall off quickly to the tangential skills/hobbies/etc (e.g. a senior Civil Affairs NCO I worked with had a strong talent for Java/Python/etc and went on to do nothing with CA and everything to do with software development). Not a reason to stay away from anything, just something to be aware of.

Just my two pesos - he should do what he wants to do in whatever service and keep an eye out for marketable skills and build them as they come.

"If it's not in writing it doesn't exist" - truth.

I'll just end my post with this one important piece of advice - he doesn't have a hair on his ass if he doesn't walk into the ARMY recruiters office and demand 12B...

[ranger]

Make sure that the family and son understand that we are a Nation at war and probably will continue to be in some form of conflict for a long time - in other words, do not be surprised if he finishes training and deploys.

If he joins and serves for a few years, he will have a better life perspective plus he should be able to knock out some college classes even while serving if he is motivated.

[UNM1136]

As for the ASVAB that is the raw score not the net score they use for MOS. By all accounts from the recruiters at the school that is a very high score, top 99 percentile score.

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Ok. Just looked it up, and you seem to be partially right. Things have changed since I took it 30 years ago. Recruiters get paid to lie... Based on a quick Google search the net score is a percentile score. So an 81 is better than or equal to 81% of the population, not 99%. Of course I am not a recruiter, nor an administrator of the test. I am sufficiently outside my lane, so I will refrain from posting more.

Good luck to you and your stepson...

pat

[jamautry]

Ok. Just looked it up, and you seem to be partially right. Things have changed since I took it 30 years ago. Recruiters get paid to lie... Based on a quick Google search the net score is a percentile score. So an 81 is better than or equal to 81% of the population, not 99%. Of course I am not a recruiter, nor an administrator of the test. I am sufficiently outside my lane, so I will refrain from posting more.

Good luck to you and your stepson...

pat

Yes, you are correct. I was mistaken, all his scores were in the 99th percentile except for mechanical aptitude which was a 24% which brought the total score to 81%

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[Nephrology]

As a slight aside, it also is worth considering the possibility that your step son is suffering from depression. To go from a high achieving student to getting Ds over the course of 1 year is pretty striking.

I wouldn't be asking this if he was going out and partying, etc, but it sounds like (and I may be wrong) he has become very reclusive/withdrawn, which is not an uncommon sign of depression.. Does he sleep a lot/stay in his room/avoid social contact/etc?

Not saying he couldn't just be a lazy teenager, but a change like that seems sudden and out of character. Unlike conventional wisdom may have you believe, depression is not about being "sad," and can look very different from person to person. I am probably wrong, but if this is the case, it is unlikely the military would help him out very much.

[jamautry]

As a slight aside, it also is worth considering the possibility that your step son is suffering from depression. To go from a high achieving student to getting Ds over the course of 1 year is pretty striking.

I wouldn't be asking this if he was going out and partying, etc, but it sounds like (and I may be wrong) he has become very reclusive/withdrawn, which is not an uncommon sign of depression.. Does he sleep a lot/stay in his room/avoid social contact/etc?

Not saying he couldn't just be a lazy teenager, but a change like that seems sudden and out of character. Unlike conventional wisdom may have you believe, depression is not about being "sad," and can look very different from person to person. I am probably wrong, but if this is the case, it is unlikely the military would help him out very much.

We had the same concern but he is happy and hangs out with his friends and goes to work and is very social there and at school. He just isn't self motivated and doesn't do well in the classes that require self motivation.

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[BehindBlueI's]

We had the same concern but he is happy and hangs out with his friends and goes to work and is very social there and at school. He just isn't self motivated and doesn't do well in the classes that require self motivation.

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I might be projecting a bit, but it sounds like he's just bored with school. I was so tired of school my senior year I looked into getting my GED so I could leave for the Army earlier.

[Gray01]

I might be projecting a bit, but it sounds like he's just bored with school. I was so tired of school my senior year.

I do not remember anything from HS that I have needed or used in the last 50+ years.