Chill conversation. Overall, he asked me what I learned and I told him a pretty long, detailed list of what I learned and did. He wasn't upset because in his words, "Compared to the two other bozos you sound genuine. You must've gotten bad instructors" and wants to send me back now. -_- I just don't feel ready to go back to ARC just yet. I wanna go back to my unit and get the leadership experience before going back, but now my unit wants to send me back asap. Le sigh Already had the apartment notified for the 30 day notice as well as my incoming apartment notified. Oh well
Brighter news, discovered my time in service was jacked up. Getting 0 years TIS, actually had four years TIS that counts from Reserve -> Active. Xmas is gonna rock
At least the option is better than no option. Glad to hear that your CC understood.
Yeah, true. I just don't feel mentally prepared to go back in two weeks. I need to duke it out with the S1 tomorrow about extending my orders instead for Stryker's Leaders Course. My Unit is really pushing SLC more than ARC and I'd rather knock SLC out because it'll give me a better understanding about the capabilities of a Stryker.
When you VC in your first convoy to Yakima, you need to let us know how it goes.
I hate sentences like these. Its like the foreshadow of, "[officer rank], you're about to do something really freaking bad in the next X amount of time"
When you VC in your first convoy to Yakima, you need to let us know how it goes.
I hate sentences like these. Its like the foreshadow of, "[officer rank], you're about to do something really freaking bad in the next X amount of time"
Sorry if that sounded really ominous. You'll be fine.
In Fort Lewis you frequently train out at Yakima Training Center. The drive there from Lewis is about four hours long on I-5. You make this drive in Strykers. The drivers see through periscopes and rely on the VC (who stands up in a hatch) as well as the TC, and two air guards (all of whom stand up in hatches, though it looks like the MGS variant might only have one hatch) to clear their blind zones via the vehicle's internal communications. It can be pretty hectic since the vehicle is as wide as the lane and the driver has fairly limited visibility. It's not as difficult as it sounds, but you'll freeze your ass off standing up in that hatch going 60+ MPH in the winter through Snoqualmie pass. Sometimes this drive transitions directly into an FTX immediately after you arrive.
You can make the trip much more enjoyable by holding up signs saying "Show your tits for freedom", but the new army might frown on that. :P After a few such rides, I can attest that women do love freedom.
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Waffles or whateverPreviously known as, I shit you not, "Waffen"Registered Userregular
edited August 2014
You can make the trip much more enjoyable by holding up signs saying "Show your tits for freedom", but the new army might frown on that. :P After a few such rides, I can attest that women do love freedom.
If only that was acceptable officer side... Maybe I can propose the idea to one of my joes and play ignorant if it happens.
Edit: New Question
Before I start off I am not eligible for O-XE pay because I do not have the 1470 something points to be eligible for it. I was in the Reserves for five years prior to going Active Duty. Is that Reserve TIS suppose to transfer over? A few buddies of mine said theirs did, but the lazy S1 here at ABOLC claims it doesn't. I think hes thinking of retirement points not transferring, which he would be right about, but not the Reserve TIS.
To my knowledge reserve TIS should transfer for pay. I mean, recruiters can be full of shit, but IIRC my officer recruiter was pretty clear that I just barely had the points for O-1E, but that I was going to get O-1E over eight pay because reserve years count for pay. I think it sounds like your S1 sucks, I'd try to get a more definitive answer from another channel.
I was in the Reserves for five years prior to going Active Duty. Is that Reserve TIS suppose to transfer over? A few buddies of mine said theirs did, but the lazy S1 here at ABOLC claims it doesn't. I think hes thinking of retirement points not transferring, which he would be right about, but not the Reserve TIS.
For Reserve to AD, your PEBD is what is used to calculate years of pay. Unless things have changed in the 1 year I've been out of the Army, your reserve TIS counts towards your AD TIS. It's not a straight 1-1 conversion though.
Requirements for O-1E are "4 years of Active Service OR 1460 Reserve Points."
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Waffles or whateverPreviously known as, I shit you not, "Waffen"Registered Userregular
I sent in the pay inquiry on Thursday. Hopefully it doesn't take longer than four months to hear back. Currently if I'm eligible for the four years TIS from the Reserves that I am eligible for I'm missing out on something like $700 a month, which would make for a nice christmas present since I'd probably receive the back pay by then.
The issues is however, that if you contract as a Cadet into ROTC, I'm not sure that counts towards O-1E.
I don't qualify for O1E, I don't even want to get onto topic for that.
I don't get it either, but apparently if you did basic/ait and did the SMP route the SMP time counts towards TIS. It however doesn't count towards retirement. Its really weird.
According to the AF budget some of the new LTs in IRR limbo will go active. Some of my field training friends got orders for November but I haven't yet.
According to the AF budget some of the new LTs in IRR limbo will go active. Some of my field training friends got orders for November but I haven't yet.
If you've commissioned you go into IRR and await orders that make you active duty. The AF has one year to activate you and yes it sucks. And by "one year to activate you" I mean they don't have to do anything really, I guess.
Apparently November when is many LTs will be released from this nightmare limbo. You get orders 45 days out and I have nothing. But others have them? Idk.
I bet January is when I'll go. Yay living at home!
"Oh wow you get to live at home until November that sounds awesome! It must be great not doing anything!" - said every person I've talked to ever. If I could hate them to death with my mind it would have already happened.
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Waffles or whateverPreviously known as, I shit you not, "Waffen"Registered Userregular
If you've commissioned you go into IRR and await orders that make you active duty. The AF has one year to activate you and yes it sucks. And by "one year to activate you" I mean they don't have to do anything really, I guess.
Apparently November when is many LTs will be released from this nightmare limbo. You get orders 45 days out and I have nothing. But others have them? Idk.
I bet January is when I'll go. Yay living at home!
"Oh wow you get to live at home until November that sounds awesome! It must be great not doing anything!" - said every person I've talked to ever. If I could hate them to death with my mind it would have already happened.
I was in the same jet (har!) that you were in post commissioning. It sucks. All I can really say now being on AD is despite the answer being enjoy that time off, everyone who says it means it. You're gonna be so busy once you hit AD you're gonna wish you had that time off again. I mean, its the last big break you'll ever have again until retirement in your 60s/70s.
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Waffles or whateverPreviously known as, I shit you not, "Waffen"Registered Userregular
All this time I thought I was getting fat. It turned out my ABU pants shrank significantly over time. I replaced them all. Should I buy them larger to compensate or change the way I'm washing them?
I'm in Korea so I hang dry everything in the summer and use a dryer in the winter.
All this time I thought I was getting fat. It turned out my ABU pants shrank significantly over time. I replaced them all. Should I buy them larger to compensate or change the way I'm washing them?
I'm in Korea so I hang dry everything in the summer and use a dryer in the winter.
A baggy uniform probably isn't going to be any better than a tight uniform.
Also, if ABUs are anything like ACUs then they're manufactured by multiple companies. Meaning that they fade and shrink differently with each manufacturer. It could be that the ones you buy won't shrink like the last ones. Take a note of the ones that shrunk and don't buy pairs made by that company whenever possible.
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spookymuffin( ° ʖ ° )Puyallup WA Registered Userregular
The summer ABUs are drastically smaller than the regular ones. I thought I somehow outgrew my pants until I got home from a deployent and put my thicker ones back on.
PSN: MegaSpooky // 3DS: 3797-6276-7138 Wii U NNID: MegaSpooky
I dont think I had heard of that as a problem. That is crazy that it was overly noticable. You may want to check the rys or airmens attic as i bet a bunch of people are dumping that stuff as they can during the great purge.
The UN's peacekeeping force in Syria, brilliant warfighters that they are, ordered the Filipinos to give over their weapons and surrender, despite being at full fighting strength, to Syrian rebels, on the hope that these were good rebels, and not the "crucify civilians, decapitate every POW, and sell children and women into sex slavery," rebels. The Filipino commander, who is awesome, refused that order and fought his way out of encirclement without losing a single man.
And now the UN commander is super butthurt about it, and calling them cowards for actually being warriors.
I really hope (though thankfully anticipate most would) an American commander would do the exact same thing:
a. I will never surrender of my own free will. If in command, I will never surrender the members of my command while they still have the means to resist.
b. As an individual, a member of the armed forces may never voluntarily surrender. When isolated and no longer able to inflict casualties on the enemy, the American soldier has an obligation to evade capture and rejoin friendly forces.
c. Only when evasion by an individual is impossible and further fighting would lead only to death with no significant loss to the enemy should one consider surrender. With all reasonable means of resistance exhausted and with certain death the only alternative, capture does not imply dishonor.
Good on the Filipinos. Especially when you risk being forced to choke on your own severed testicles before being decapitated -- fighting, fleeing, or blowing your brains out are the only options.
Yeah, at this point I would hope there aren't too many people out there that would willingly lay down arms and hope that these aren't the remove head from body types.
Also, would be interesting to see why things had gotten so bad it came to a point where the UN commander thought that would be the wisest decision tactically. Was there nothing else in area that would have been able to assist, air or otherwise?
Applied for a full-time DC Air guard job. It'd be in Bolling. Probably won't happen as I lack the experience they want but I'm not sure what they were expecting when looking for O-1 or O-2. Obviously someone who was prior enlisted. I am but a baby!
It'd be incredible if it worked out. I have no timeline for entering active duty as my current placeholder day is May 2015. It's just a placeholder until the slugging match over budgeting and the new fiscal year is done.
Got to see my first runaway diesel generator in motor pool this week. It was hilarious, the thing wouldn't die. Plugged the exhaust, unplugged the fuses, unplugged the batteries, still going. They finally had to hit something that lowered the idle speed til it cut out. Turns out the solenoid had completely detached. Level 10 operator ftw!
Got to drive an hour and a half ONE WAY after the end of my shift to bring a soldier in school his PT shoes that he had forgotten. Didn't get back til 2030!
Got a half day of comp time today for the driving, bailed at 11AM this morning. Immediately cracked open a beer, so that if they try to call me back in, at least I can't go in uniform!
Update on my situation in case anyone has any advice:
The main thing is that fuckall has happened. In nearly four months my application has gone to MEPS, gone to Tennessee for a medical review, and, apparently, stayed there. According to my recruiter, he sent them some stuff two weeks ago about how I was a good candidate (or something), so assuming he's not just straight-up lying about that, the application is progressing, albeit slowly.
Unfortunately, in the four goddamn months since I applied, I turned 25. Initially they told me, hey, no problem, you were off getting a bachelor's, the 24-year limit for the nuclear program can be waived. Today they told me, oops, never mind, we don't waive that anymore, you can't be a nuke. Oh, and you can't be a nuke anyway because you took ADD meds in high school.
Well, great. So, assuming they're not wrong (again) or lying, and assuming my application gets a response in my lifetime, I need to find some other jobs to look at. I'm starting to look at some of the intelligence-type stuff, but are there other things I should be looking at, too? I blew away the ASVAB, so that's probably not a limiting factor, although I spent a lot of years exercising only irregularly so I'm still not in incredible physical condition.
Pick a job that sends you to DLI, and gets you a Top Secret clearance. Make big money when you get out. Something like intel.
Alternatively, find a job that teaches you a skill that and gives you experience in a field that makes a lot of money in the civilian world. Nuke was one, but you could also work as an aircraft mechanic or something. Though I really don't know what the Navy has to offer with my being former Army enlisted.
Actually you could probably make a lot of money contracting with anything that involves skilled labor underwater. Welding or demolitions for example. Demo related jobs make lots of money in the civilian world and are just plain sexy.
A ts is nice but it isnt always a money ticket. Could check out linguist @Quid can give you insight. Comm stuff is pretty fun for me and has applications outside the DOD umbrella (which may appeal to people after the enlistment.
Not sure how set you are with Navy, but you may want to wiegh your options and look at other services if they interest you as well.
Careful with the intel linguist thing. Dunno about the Navy, but the Army doesn't let you pick your language. I have a lot of linguist buddies here, and not one of them wanted to learn Korean.
Navy might be different, but the Army also stations you at random forcecom units as a Surplus Soldier, since they have no billet for a person with your language. Then you get half-assedly cross-trained and have to do some job that has nothing to do with your language. Or just mow lawns and paint rocks all day.
That being said, FLP (Foreign Language Proficiency) pay is pretty nice. And Monterrey (where DLI is) is a nice place to spend 1-1.5 years.
Intel can be pretty great, as a linguist or analyst or whatever. Even as a Seaman, you could be briefing Captains and Admirals (or Colonels and Generals), and they actually listen to your opinion (sometimes)! Rank structure is definitely still there, but it often matters a lot less than other fields. It's also a good way to get into special operations stuff if you're not a high speed, door-kicking, shoot mofos type, but still want to be involved with the coolest shit the military does. Plenty of intel folks never see that though, so you don't have to if you don't want to.
The Cryptologic Technician (sigint) ratings can definitely swing over into the wonderful world of contracting pretty easily, as well as government service. Intelligence Specialist rating sounds more like All-Source. It means you get to steal credit for all the CTs' hard work, and also gets you some good gigs afterward. I don't see anything about geoint or humint jobs with the Navy, but I know they have them, could be just specializations with IS? Ask the recruiter if you're interested in those.
If it's like the Army, there may be opportunities to do more active things as a CT, but most CT and IS jobs will largely be computer-based, so if sitting at a desk for a vast amount of the day does not appeal to you, might want to look elsewhere.
Navy CTs are basically all the people who could have been a nuke but didn't want to or couldn't be. Here's how it breaks down:
If you are good with language, and I mean really good, pick CTI. You can't directly pick your language but you do get a dream sheet and the chief in charge of assigning languages does actually make a concerted effort to match people with the language they want. The main options are Mandarin Chinese, Russian, Arabic, Persian Farsi, Spanish, and Korean. Though the last two aren't likely to be given to people with high DLAB scores. Linguists also don't travel around as much as other rates. IE Asian linguists all go to Hawaii for their first tour, no exceptions. You either work there or deploy out of there. And there's not a lot billets open after that. Linguists spend the bulk of their career time at wherever their center is.
CTR is actually very similar to CTI as far as skill set, just without the language requirement. They generally focus a bit more on signals analysis and reporting but unless a person specializes they're fairly similar. The better (Or worse, depending on your point of view) part with this rate though is the increase in areas you can be stationed. They have better advancement than the easier CTI languages but way worse advancement compared to the harder ones.
CTN is great if you're genuinely interested in computers. It's all coding and computer science and stuff. I don't know much beyond that other than they practically never deploy right now. There's rumors of changes coming but I haven't seen any yet. Their advancement is generally so so.
CTM is the maintenance guys. I'd only recommend it if you really, really like studying diagrams and fixing equipment. You're basically IT focused mostly on hardware. Advancement hasn't been great.
CTT is terrible in every way. Everyone who does it is miserable and the advancement is garbage.
That said, if you're a CT you'll be doing a CT's job if you want to. I mean it's the military so there's always mowing lawns and polishing guard rails when you first get in. But as someone who didn't start out as a CT, these guys spend way less of their career doing grunt work.
Oh and if you want to get shit on by every CT ever pick IS.
Pro tip: As an IS you'd probably see CTs a lot and hoooooo boy do we dislike them. Cause they're the worst and terrible and keep screwing up everything.
@moocow Geoint usually gets covered by MCs who become photographers. No idea about who does humint. Odds are that neither will the recruiter. Most are fuzzy on anything intel related.
Sent an email to the contracting functional officer asking if he had an idea for the DC ANG position.
See, the way I view it is that the AF wants fewer people on active duty. So there is this nice 64P full time guard gig for people my rank in DC. BUT I need the training I get from finally getting active duty orders and going to school... but that means I'm AD and can't do the guard option.
So I'd be happy to oblige the AF and go do guard, but there is no system in place. I wonder which will win here, the AF desire to let pressure off the manning issues, or the red-tape/bureaucracy. I don't say that out of spite or malice, I am genuinely curious. This ROTC->Commission->Reserve/ANG concept is brand new and has no procedures or processes set up yet. There is no precedent.
I think that it could technically be done, IE send me to school and then send me to the ANG unit, but I don't think there is enough communication between active duty and guard units. And if there is, it isn't flexible or fast enough.
Also, trying to find a part time job in the interim has been brutal.
EDIT: The functional officer hasn't gotten back to me. Guess that means 'no' on whether the AD component can talk to the Guard/Reserve. Not his fault, this has never been a thing before. Hope I didn't antagonize him. I just left him one call and one email. Haha he could just ship me to Minot if he wanted though.
Trying to contact this reserve recruiter at Andrews. From what I've read you just really have to know someone in a unit to get a job. That makes sense but is unlucky for me.
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Waffles or whateverPreviously known as, I shit you not, "Waffen"Registered Userregular
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Yeah, true. I just don't feel mentally prepared to go back in two weeks. I need to duke it out with the S1 tomorrow about extending my orders instead for Stryker's Leaders Course. My Unit is really pushing SLC more than ARC and I'd rather knock SLC out because it'll give me a better understanding about the capabilities of a Stryker.
When you VC in your first convoy to Yakima, you need to let us know how it goes.
I hate sentences like these. Its like the foreshadow of, "[officer rank], you're about to do something really freaking bad in the next X amount of time"
Sorry if that sounded really ominous. You'll be fine.
In Fort Lewis you frequently train out at Yakima Training Center. The drive there from Lewis is about four hours long on I-5. You make this drive in Strykers. The drivers see through periscopes and rely on the VC (who stands up in a hatch) as well as the TC, and two air guards (all of whom stand up in hatches, though it looks like the MGS variant might only have one hatch) to clear their blind zones via the vehicle's internal communications. It can be pretty hectic since the vehicle is as wide as the lane and the driver has fairly limited visibility. It's not as difficult as it sounds, but you'll freeze your ass off standing up in that hatch going 60+ MPH in the winter through Snoqualmie pass. Sometimes this drive transitions directly into an FTX immediately after you arrive.
You can make the trip much more enjoyable by holding up signs saying "Show your tits for freedom", but the new army might frown on that. :P After a few such rides, I can attest that women do love freedom.
If only that was acceptable officer side... Maybe I can propose the idea to one of my joes and play ignorant if it happens.
Edit: New Question
Before I start off I am not eligible for O-XE pay because I do not have the 1470 something points to be eligible for it. I was in the Reserves for five years prior to going Active Duty. Is that Reserve TIS suppose to transfer over? A few buddies of mine said theirs did, but the lazy S1 here at ABOLC claims it doesn't. I think hes thinking of retirement points not transferring, which he would be right about, but not the Reserve TIS.
For Reserve to AD, your PEBD is what is used to calculate years of pay. Unless things have changed in the 1 year I've been out of the Army, your reserve TIS counts towards your AD TIS. It's not a straight 1-1 conversion though.
Requirements for O-1E are "4 years of Active Service OR 1460 Reserve Points."
I don't qualify for O1E, I don't even want to get onto topic for that.
I don't get it either, but apparently if you did basic/ait and did the SMP route the SMP time counts towards TIS. It however doesn't count towards retirement. Its really weird.
Its a terrible feeling.
Wait, what? As in, folks who have separated IRR?
Apparently November when is many LTs will be released from this nightmare limbo. You get orders 45 days out and I have nothing. But others have them? Idk.
I bet January is when I'll go. Yay living at home!
"Oh wow you get to live at home until November that sounds awesome! It must be great not doing anything!" - said every person I've talked to ever. If I could hate them to death with my mind it would have already happened.
I was in the same jet (har!) that you were in post commissioning. It sucks. All I can really say now being on AD is despite the answer being enjoy that time off, everyone who says it means it. You're gonna be so busy once you hit AD you're gonna wish you had that time off again. I mean, its the last big break you'll ever have again until retirement in your 60s/70s.
http://www.stripes.com/news/pacific/army-in-the-pacific-adopts-new-style-of-deployment-1.300461
I'm heading to that unit. Does that mean I'm prolly going to deploy with them later this year?
I'm in Korea so I hang dry everything in the summer and use a dryer in the winter.
A baggy uniform probably isn't going to be any better than a tight uniform.
Also, if ABUs are anything like ACUs then they're manufactured by multiple companies. Meaning that they fade and shrink differently with each manufacturer. It could be that the ones you buy won't shrink like the last ones. Take a note of the ones that shrunk and don't buy pairs made by that company whenever possible.
Wii U NNID: MegaSpooky
http://www.gmanetwork.com/news/story/377775/pinoyabroad/news/phl-troops-golan-escape-an-act-of-cowardice-undof-official
The UN's peacekeeping force in Syria, brilliant warfighters that they are, ordered the Filipinos to give over their weapons and surrender, despite being at full fighting strength, to Syrian rebels, on the hope that these were good rebels, and not the "crucify civilians, decapitate every POW, and sell children and women into sex slavery," rebels. The Filipino commander, who is awesome, refused that order and fought his way out of encirclement without losing a single man.
And now the UN commander is super butthurt about it, and calling them cowards for actually being warriors.
I really hope (though thankfully anticipate most would) an American commander would do the exact same thing:
Also, would be interesting to see why things had gotten so bad it came to a point where the UN commander thought that would be the wisest decision tactically. Was there nothing else in area that would have been able to assist, air or otherwise?
It'd be incredible if it worked out. I have no timeline for entering active duty as my current placeholder day is May 2015. It's just a placeholder until the slugging match over budgeting and the new fiscal year is done.
Well, it's *near* some great areas! Just remember the green line is not your friend no matter what anyone says!
Got to drive an hour and a half ONE WAY after the end of my shift to bring a soldier in school his PT shoes that he had forgotten. Didn't get back til 2030!
Got a half day of comp time today for the driving, bailed at 11AM this morning. Immediately cracked open a beer, so that if they try to call me back in, at least I can't go in uniform!
PS4:MrZoompants
Mhmmm That's the right attitude.
The main thing is that fuckall has happened. In nearly four months my application has gone to MEPS, gone to Tennessee for a medical review, and, apparently, stayed there. According to my recruiter, he sent them some stuff two weeks ago about how I was a good candidate (or something), so assuming he's not just straight-up lying about that, the application is progressing, albeit slowly.
Unfortunately, in the four goddamn months since I applied, I turned 25. Initially they told me, hey, no problem, you were off getting a bachelor's, the 24-year limit for the nuclear program can be waived. Today they told me, oops, never mind, we don't waive that anymore, you can't be a nuke. Oh, and you can't be a nuke anyway because you took ADD meds in high school.
Well, great. So, assuming they're not wrong (again) or lying, and assuming my application gets a response in my lifetime, I need to find some other jobs to look at. I'm starting to look at some of the intelligence-type stuff, but are there other things I should be looking at, too? I blew away the ASVAB, so that's probably not a limiting factor, although I spent a lot of years exercising only irregularly so I'm still not in incredible physical condition.
EDIT: No, Geth, I'm not joining Hydra.
Alternatively, find a job that teaches you a skill that and gives you experience in a field that makes a lot of money in the civilian world. Nuke was one, but you could also work as an aircraft mechanic or something. Though I really don't know what the Navy has to offer with my being former Army enlisted.
Actually you could probably make a lot of money contracting with anything that involves skilled labor underwater. Welding or demolitions for example. Demo related jobs make lots of money in the civilian world and are just plain sexy.
Not sure how set you are with Navy, but you may want to wiegh your options and look at other services if they interest you as well.
Navy might be different, but the Army also stations you at random forcecom units as a Surplus Soldier, since they have no billet for a person with your language. Then you get half-assedly cross-trained and have to do some job that has nothing to do with your language. Or just mow lawns and paint rocks all day.
That being said, FLP (Foreign Language Proficiency) pay is pretty nice. And Monterrey (where DLI is) is a nice place to spend 1-1.5 years.
Intel can be pretty great, as a linguist or analyst or whatever. Even as a Seaman, you could be briefing Captains and Admirals (or Colonels and Generals), and they actually listen to your opinion (sometimes)! Rank structure is definitely still there, but it often matters a lot less than other fields. It's also a good way to get into special operations stuff if you're not a high speed, door-kicking, shoot mofos type, but still want to be involved with the coolest shit the military does. Plenty of intel folks never see that though, so you don't have to if you don't want to.
The Cryptologic Technician (sigint) ratings can definitely swing over into the wonderful world of contracting pretty easily, as well as government service. Intelligence Specialist rating sounds more like All-Source. It means you get to steal credit for all the CTs' hard work, and also gets you some good gigs afterward. I don't see anything about geoint or humint jobs with the Navy, but I know they have them, could be just specializations with IS? Ask the recruiter if you're interested in those.
If it's like the Army, there may be opportunities to do more active things as a CT, but most CT and IS jobs will largely be computer-based, so if sitting at a desk for a vast amount of the day does not appeal to you, might want to look elsewhere.
PS4:MrZoompants
puff
I heard we were talking about CTs?!
Navy CTs are basically all the people who could have been a nuke but didn't want to or couldn't be. Here's how it breaks down:
If you are good with language, and I mean really good, pick CTI. You can't directly pick your language but you do get a dream sheet and the chief in charge of assigning languages does actually make a concerted effort to match people with the language they want. The main options are Mandarin Chinese, Russian, Arabic, Persian Farsi, Spanish, and Korean. Though the last two aren't likely to be given to people with high DLAB scores. Linguists also don't travel around as much as other rates. IE Asian linguists all go to Hawaii for their first tour, no exceptions. You either work there or deploy out of there. And there's not a lot billets open after that. Linguists spend the bulk of their career time at wherever their center is.
CTR is actually very similar to CTI as far as skill set, just without the language requirement. They generally focus a bit more on signals analysis and reporting but unless a person specializes they're fairly similar. The better (Or worse, depending on your point of view) part with this rate though is the increase in areas you can be stationed. They have better advancement than the easier CTI languages but way worse advancement compared to the harder ones.
CTN is great if you're genuinely interested in computers. It's all coding and computer science and stuff. I don't know much beyond that other than they practically never deploy right now. There's rumors of changes coming but I haven't seen any yet. Their advancement is generally so so.
CTM is the maintenance guys. I'd only recommend it if you really, really like studying diagrams and fixing equipment. You're basically IT focused mostly on hardware. Advancement hasn't been great.
CTT is terrible in every way. Everyone who does it is miserable and the advancement is garbage.
That said, if you're a CT you'll be doing a CT's job if you want to. I mean it's the military so there's always mowing lawns and polishing guard rails when you first get in. But as someone who didn't start out as a CT, these guys spend way less of their career doing grunt work.
Pro tip: As an IS you'd probably see CTs a lot and hoooooo boy do we dislike them. Cause they're the worst and terrible and keep screwing up everything.
@moocow Geoint usually gets covered by MCs who become photographers. No idea about who does humint. Odds are that neither will the recruiter. Most are fuzzy on anything intel related.
See, the way I view it is that the AF wants fewer people on active duty. So there is this nice 64P full time guard gig for people my rank in DC. BUT I need the training I get from finally getting active duty orders and going to school... but that means I'm AD and can't do the guard option.
So I'd be happy to oblige the AF and go do guard, but there is no system in place. I wonder which will win here, the AF desire to let pressure off the manning issues, or the red-tape/bureaucracy. I don't say that out of spite or malice, I am genuinely curious. This ROTC->Commission->Reserve/ANG concept is brand new and has no procedures or processes set up yet. There is no precedent.
I think that it could technically be done, IE send me to school and then send me to the ANG unit, but I don't think there is enough communication between active duty and guard units. And if there is, it isn't flexible or fast enough.
Also, trying to find a part time job in the interim has been brutal.
EDIT: The functional officer hasn't gotten back to me. Guess that means 'no' on whether the AD component can talk to the Guard/Reserve. Not his fault, this has never been a thing before. Hope I didn't antagonize him. I just left him one call and one email. Haha he could just ship me to Minot if he wanted though.
Trying to contact this reserve recruiter at Andrews. From what I've read you just really have to know someone in a unit to get a job. That makes sense but is unlucky for me.
But yea, there are a lot of women around here.
― John Quincy Adams
Thinking I should show up to 7th Group with a full blown beard. It's a good idea, right?
right?
Oh shit did you go to Selection?