Navy anyone?

[gtmtnbiker98]

I was a Marine, but spent 20-months on a ship, the military is the best thing I did. I feel your concern but IMO, after her military service, she'll be much better prepared for college than those straight out of High School.

[Odin Bravo One]

TS/SCI is a license to print money.

My money license must be lost in the mail with the license plates for the new car......

[SeriousStudent]

Dang, sorry about the trouble with the plates. I hope you do not have to stand in line at the DMV to get it fixed.

Locally, we have companies like Raytheon, L-3, DynCorp, Lockheed-Martin and others. The constant refrain I hear from friends that work there is the dearth of people who already have a clearance. They often tell me they would happily train someone on the skills needed, but the hard part is finding someone that already possesses an appropriate clearance. The mantra is that it's cheaper to train an already-cleared individual, than it is to invest the time and money to get them cleared.

With the new baby, I am sure a money license would be very welcome. I hope the little one is doing well.

[fuse]

Another good opportunity would be to go in as a Corpsman and then get her Nursing degree and switch over to the officer side. More money, better housing, better standard of living, good opportunities outside of the Navy as well.

I have known a few people who did this. There are not many more life plans as smart as this.

[RobG]

I enlisted in the Navy in 1991; it was the best career choice I could have ever made. When I went off to boot camp, my father gave me this piece of advice: Never turn down a school, and always take your good deals on the front side. Nearly 22 years later, I still follow that advice.

I echo Irish’s comments. A recruiter should be able to get her an assignment to an “A” school right after boot camp. I would recommend corpsman or aviation electronics. Both of those options are school intensive right out of the gate, and have plenty of opportunities for continuing education. Across the board, more education = advancement opportunities = better quality of life.

There will always be a push to go to the “hard fill” positions. These are often the crap jobs that no one wants. These orders are often sold with a “good deal” set of orders on the backside. The good deals are rarely executed, due to some new “hard fill” position that will be good for your career. Always take the good deal up front. Your turn for the suck will come.

The Navy is full of opportunities. It has given me: A four year degree, 2 years of flight school, two carrier deployments, one trip to Afghanistan, a livelihood for 22 years, a lifetime of memories, and many friendships that will last forever. She is potentially embarking on the greatest adventure of her life. We welcome her to the team.

[jc000]

Thanks everyone for the good thoughts and advice.

She does have a job, but her recruiter is looking into getting her an IS job. I'm starting to be a little dubious of him, but I haven't gotten enough info from my daughter yet to have the complete picture. She's not going in for a while, so I'm hoping nothing has been truly locked down at this point.

I completely agree that if she takes real advantage of what the Navy offers, it can put her well ahead of many of her peers. Though she was not as much of a disaster as I was at her age () she tried a year of college and was pretty bored/turned off by it. She's ready for the challenge, and I think it's a great start to her adult life.

Again, thanks all for the feedback!

[LittleLebowski]

Find another recruiter ASAP if you don't trust him.

[Mr. Goodtimes]

The CT rates are supposed to be great, I knew both a CTI and a CTN when I was in the navy and they both loved their jobs and got pretty great assignments.

[RoyGBiv]

Just want to echo those that pointed out the value of a security clearance. My BIL ran a company that did programming on various .gov projects and his company's growth was limited pprimarily by his ability to hire. He had several skilled employees that he paid to answer telephones for 18 months. He also said it would be cheaper to pay to skills train a competent person who was already cleared.

If she's interested in a career field that would benefit from a clearance, don't take the opportunity lightly.

Thanks to her for her service.

[WDW]

My brother ships out June 4th. I convinced him to enlist as a corpsman. He had a high ASVAB so the recruiter tricked him into picking some ghey admin job. When I found that out, I went down there w/him & got it switched pretty quick.