The corridors of the Pentagon are filled with silence and sorrow. I saw a chaplain for emotional distress and a clinic for the physical parts and went home.
The corridors of the Pentagon are filled with silence and sorrow. I saw a chaplain for emotional distress and a clinic for the physical parts and went home.
Sounds like a shit day. It's the kind of day where I'm glad I'm out.
The corridors of the Pentagon are filled with silence and sorrow. I saw a chaplain for emotional distress and a clinic for the physical parts and went home.
Sounds like a shit day. It's the kind of day where I'm glad I'm out.
I'm afraid to leave.
I'm a cyber, and military, which will probably be a secure career in the future. I emphasize secure, not safe. I didn't join the military to protect America. I joined to protect me from America.
If I stick it out, get my CISSP and Masters Degree, then maybe.
EDIT - Oh wait. I'm latino. Milky white skin, but still...
Cantido on
3DS Friendcode 5413-1311-3767
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Waffles or whateverPreviously known as, I shit you not, "Waffen"Registered Userregular
Listening to two of my buddies who just got out and immediately started working for Google and Amazon. Have to say, I'm pretty jealous. They're not miserable and actually enjoy life again.
Meanwhile I'm going to get my soul crushed again for applying for an XO Job because my CoC decided to wait two weeks to give me a, "No. You can't apply" when the due date was on the 28th. Granted. I knew I wasn't going to get it, but applying for it makes me feel warm and fuzzy that I am proactively taking care of myself.
I had thought about seeing if I could rejoin (involuntary sep, RE-1E). Now I have reason to re-think whether I want to.
a nu start on
Number One Tricky
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Waffles or whateverPreviously known as, I shit you not, "Waffen"Registered Userregular
edited November 2016
Leadership that looks out for you is true! Its actually real!
Had a sit down with my rater & senior rater today (They're both about 90-120 range new). Rater told me that I'm definitely a top tier Lieutenant (Hes a 14 year TIS Captain) and all the Senior Rater said was, "You're definitely a HQ [Highly Qualified] Staff Officer. You do what you're told and more. You rarely see that in Assistant Staff Officers, especially Junior Officer ones." Both told me they talked to my BN XO and told him something along the lines of, "You're screwing this guy. Quit playing politics and give him a Platoon". S3 told me that they're looking at sending me to a Signal Unit soon because I earned it and that I don't have much time left to keep, "Fucking around", in the Armor community and that I need to develop those Control Branch skills now if I want to be a successful Signal Captain.
All of this feels like a trick or lie of sorts. I've never seen this much sanity, ever, in my eight years of being in the Army.
My career field is getting a 15k/year retention bonus to stop the Cyber exodus.
Wish that boat hadn't sailed Officer side. Then again, Cyber didn't want liberal art majors that, "wanted to learn". They wanted Computer Science and Programmers at the Officer level.
I feel like sharing this here, so no one who can see my face understands how horrible of a person I truly am.
Last drill at OCS we scheduled our wish list for BOLC dates. This was an update of the branch selections we were given in July.
Of the three who initially were branched aviation, only one of us got it. I did. The guy sitting behind me went guard just to branch aviation. Not to go into specifics too much, but he is far more qualified than I am. He has 1k hours of flight time, a masters, a mba, was a marine etc. He received his date selection sheet before I did and when he expressed disappointment I got a huge smile on my face.
I selected aviation because, "What? I can fly helicopters! Sweet put me down for that one."
I've since learned more about the branch and what will be expected of me, but still. Lesson learned, the military is not fair.
Since it's been my job now for a year to do this, figured I'd give some advice for people who plan to get out and go to college on the Post 9/11 GI Bill.
Apply for the GI Bill, on ebenefits.va.gov , at least a month before the payment deadline for classes. When you do, save and print the confirmation page at the end of the VONAPP GI bill application process.
What happens is that the VA will send you a confirmation letter with all of your information on it including coverage percentage, BAH payments, and how much time you have on your coverage. Your school needs that information to start your financial aid processing. However it takes at least a month for it to arrive after you apply.
In the meantime you can take that confirmation page from the VONAPP process earlier, and it should be enough for your Financial Aid department to get things started. When the confirmation letter arrives, your school's cashier office needs a copy of it.
What you need to give to your school:
DD 214 Member 4 Copy
VONAPP confirmation page or VA Certificate of Eligability
Records from any other schools you've attended (these have to be mailed from school to school, not hand delivered)
VA form 22-1995
Degree plan request from the school
Basics on the Post 9/11
You have to be more than half time to get BAH payments. In most places that means 7 credit hours on a long semester (spring, fall) and 4 credit hours on a short semester (summer 1, summer 2, wintermester). Check with your school for how they handle off-semesters.
BAH payments arrive only after the first full month of classes. So if spring classes start on January 17th, you will not get your BAH payments until March 1st. That check will cover all of February and a prorated amount for January. For this reason I suggest to people that they sign up for FAFSA and get the Pell Grant. The Pell Grant doesn't have to be repaid, and it goes directly to the school and any remaining amount is paid back to the student around the middle of their first month of classes as part of the financial aid disbursement plan at your school. Check with your school to see when their financial aid disbursement takes place.
Your first book stipend check should arrive before the start of classes, provided all of your information has already been submitted to your financial aid office and the VA several weeks out.
Remember: One day equals one semester. If you have only a single day left on your GI bill at the start of the semester, they will cover your entire semester including BAH payments just as if you had enough left to cover it.
Every class you use your benefits on has to be on a specific degree plan. You can change degree plans between semesters but you can only be on one degree plan at a time, even if you're attending multiple colleges. So no taking a minor under the GI bill. The school will note your classes, check that they're on your degree plan, and send the information to the VA.
If you start using your benefits at a school and change schools, you don't have to reapply, you just need to fill out another VA Form 22-1995
A lot of TAPS program managers seem to be telling people to show some form of military records to the school for college credit. That college credit is "Phys Ed", so unless you really hate PT or just want one less class to take probably don't bother doing that. The only real exception is the CCAF information, but only if you took actual college courses to get your CCAF degree. Many colleges won't accept credits for classes that you test out of, so CLEP courses may not be viable. Check with your college.
I'll pop in and out of here if people have questions.
I actually got credit for EE101 from army training as a signal soldier.
Can definitely second the "one day means one semester." I may or may not have managed to time it perfectly so I had like two or three days left for my last whole semester. Remember you can choose what rate you draw at (still?), so it's entirely possible to engineer this outcome with some planning.
My career field is getting a 15k/year retention bonus to stop the Cyber exodus.
Wish that boat hadn't sailed Officer side. Then again, Cyber didn't want liberal art majors that, "wanted to learn". They wanted Computer Science and Programmers at the Officer level.
For years I harbored bitterness that they divided us into A shred (haxorz) and B shred (base communications.) I, an engineer, was there because I wanted to be. But I got eaten alive in tech school and ended up as base comm. Later I found my performance was due to a metabolic disease. Can I have my cooler, more lucrative hacking job now?
Something in my grad school work (curriculum on Death March Projects) helped me snap out of this attitude and see the value in management but man. My mom was a manager once, then the Bush Recession happened, now she scrubs toilets and married a man she despises, just for the money. I'm now scrambling to get my masters degree done early so I can move on to scrambling for my CISSP before Trump wreaks havoc on the economy or gives my job to a contractor so I can go shoot at brown people.
You can't switch shreds at all? It seems like that'd be a thing you could do.
PSN: jfrofl
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Waffles or whateverPreviously known as, I shit you not, "Waffen"Registered Userregular
One week till my new job interview. Getting kinda nervous, especially since I heard the unit just filled the positioniwas set to interview for. Only problem for the gy that filled that position is that he's woefully unqualified and not mtoed for the position while I have a year of uas experience, two schools, designator, and am mtoed for it. I'll feel kinda bad if I push him out, but at the same time I hope the new boss doesn't edge me out because he,"just filled the position"
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Waffles or whateverPreviously known as, I shit you not, "Waffen"Registered Userregular
Interview One was, uh, interesting.
LTC talked about himself the whole time. I added one or two words every few minutes to keep him going. Such examples include him talking about how, "Officers think that a different set of rules apply to them", and I replied, "You mean the VIP Culture?" That was meant with, "Yeah! Exactly! You know where I am coming from!" Overall, he said I am currently 1/1 in the Queue (I'm the only Officer hes ever seen ask to go to a Signal Platoon. Apparently nobody wants to go) and overall told me to schedule a time to sit down with the Signal Company's Commander this week. So I guess this means interview went well, round 2, fight?
LTC talked about himself the whole time. I added one or two words every few minutes to keep him going. Such examples include him talking about how, "Officers think that a different set of rules apply to them", and I replied, "You mean the VIP Culture?" That was meant with, "Yeah! Exactly! You know where I am coming from!" Overall, he said I am currently 1/1 in the Queue (I'm the only Officer hes ever seen ask to go to a Signal Platoon. Apparently nobody wants to go) and overall told me to schedule a time to sit down with the Signal Company's Commander this week. So I guess this means interview went well, round 2, fight?
Certain types of people love talking about themselves, so not a bad strat on your end. Good luck though!
PSN: jfrofl
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Waffles or whateverPreviously known as, I shit you not, "Waffen"Registered Userregular
edited January 2017
Interview 2 was bad news.
The Captain mentioned to me that he doesn't plan on switching out his Lieutenants till the end of the year. His XO is leaving in a few more months, but he seemed wishy-washy on the idea of me being the XO. I took it as an implied task that he wanted one of his current PLs to be his next XO. However, he gave me advice for two possible scenarios. He mentioned to me that the post's only Signal Battalion always needs Officers over there. He referenced me to a Major to talk too. Talking to that Major he mentioned that our other SBCT on post might need people and he'd talk to Division Manning to verify. Additionally, he's going to reach over to the Signal BN as well. The Major also wants me to start attending his 1300 Signal LPDs as a way to start my transition early and to keep in touch to my slating.
My commitment is up next spring, and the Trump administration has me terrified of staying. I work in the cyber field in DC, and might have a lot of good opportunities here. What should I know about separating and maybe becoming a contractor? I don't know where to begin.
3DS Friendcode 5413-1311-3767
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Waffles or whateverPreviously known as, I shit you not, "Waffen"Registered Userregular
Problem with contract work now is that there's a hiring freeze due an executive order.
My wife and I have been talking about whether its time to start looking at getting out or staying at in. Especially with Trump talking about invading China, Chicago, Mexico, and now Iran. If I do get out it'll probably be sometime next year or early 2019. We'll see though.
I'm pretty sure the EO hiring freeze impacts will loosen on everything DoD related by next year. Or civilization will end.
If you want to separate and immediately get into defense cyber, try to obtain your CISSP (or security+ if you just can't get the CISSP), and a redhat or windows admin cert. They don't really mean anything, but the defense contracts almost all require staff have those certs to be bid against cyber positions. Make a linkedin profile and reference those certs as soon as you can, and basically just let all the SAIC and Lockheed recruiters start finding your resume, in which you've laid out your time served as years experience in the field. You should have no problem getting picked up as a result.
I'm pretty sure the EO hiring freeze impacts will loosen on everything DoD related by next year. Or civilization will end.
If you want to separate and immediately get into defense cyber, try to obtain your CISSP (or security+ if you just can't get the CISSP), and a redhat or windows admin cert. They don't really mean anything, but the defense contracts almost all require staff have those certs to be bid against cyber positions. Make a linkedin profile and reference those certs as soon as you can, and basically just let all the SAIC and Lockheed recruiters start finding your resume, in which you've laid out your time served as years experience in the field. You should have no problem getting picked up as a result.
I have Sec+, I'll finish my shitty master's in October, so I think I can squeeze in the CISSP course next year.
I'm pretty sure the EO hiring freeze impacts will loosen on everything DoD related by next year. Or civilization will end.
If you want to separate and immediately get into defense cyber, try to obtain your CISSP (or security+ if you just can't get the CISSP), and a redhat or windows admin cert. They don't really mean anything, but the defense contracts almost all require staff have those certs to be bid against cyber positions. Make a linkedin profile and reference those certs as soon as you can, and basically just let all the SAIC and Lockheed recruiters start finding your resume, in which you've laid out your time served as years experience in the field. You should have no problem getting picked up as a result.
I have Sec+, I'll finish my shitty master's in October, so I think I can squeeze in the CISSP course next year.
Try and go to TAPS twice (or whatever your equivalent is), if you can. Once now and once a lot closer to when you get out.
Hard lesson for me that I learned was it wasn't how great I was as a technician or anything like that. It was more the people I know. Keep in touch with other people that got out, or civilians you've worked with.
Depends on what you want to do also, as the field opened up to me after getting out. I was used to a very linear look at my promotions and future. My first job was only slightly related to what I had done while I was in, and what I'm doing now very much represents a different AFSC from what I was doing before.
PSN: jfrofl
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Waffles or whateverPreviously known as, I shit you not, "Waffen"Registered Userregular
Everyone on my Staff keeps giving my number to the Special Forces recruiter.
While it'd be gnarly to grow a beard, shoot SCAR-Hs, and drive buggies, I don't feel like rucking the 1000 miles or so to get to that point.
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TurksonNear the mountains of ColoradoRegistered Userregular
Talked to an advocate today about my old VA claim. He was able to pull up my stuff online.
"10% for that? And 0% for that!? That's the VA I know and love."
Overall it was a good meeting. I just need to get some documentation from doctors in the next few months. I very much wish the process was more transparent or even talked about when I got out in 2008.
It's still a mystery. I've got 4 years until I can drop my retirement paperwork. Shit scares me knowing it a going to be such a hard process as the army fucked me up pretty good. At least if they try to give me any shit I'll toss my purple heart in their face.
" I am a warrior, so that my son may be a merchant, so that his son may be a poet.”
― John Quincy Adams
Make sure you are seeing a doc about any thing that is bothering you now.
Also don't give up when they throw vitamin m at you. Keep fucking going back. Took me like 5 years of bitching and physical therapy that didn't do shit and more complaining before they did an MRI on my knee.
Who knew that having no cartilage in my knee and running would be a bad combo? Certainly not mil docs.
Oh no, I go to the docs all the time. I go every 90 days for migraine treatments (low toxicity botox all over the had and shoulders) that was from the 4th time I got blown up.
Been diagnosed with PTSD/TBI and spent quite a lot of time in treatment/hospital for that. Got fucking rhabdo from my unit doing 3 crossfit workouts a day (got the post record for highest CK numbers) spent 6 days in the hospital with my kidneys failing and now I have to worry about my kidneys failing for the rest of my life.
Plus the normal shit like tinnitus from shooting and blowing shit up with no hearing pro like every one else in the military.
I should be good
" I am a warrior, so that my son may be a merchant, so that his son may be a poet.”
― John Quincy Adams
So thirdhand+ on my Facebook but I'm hearing about some IRR activations going down. Specifically infantry. Anybody have something concrete one way or another?
I found out I don't have to fly home to buy a vehicle for the tax incentives. The local dealers will take a pay stub to make my car a Florida car. Now that I promoted, I'm looking into a Prius.
Yeah, as long as you can show home of record they will do your home state tax, but depending on where you are it might be beneficial to look into how much your local sales tax is. I know being stationed here in Missouri it saved my wife about 1500 bucks to do it here instead of my home state of Iowa on her new Honda.
" I am a warrior, so that my son may be a merchant, so that his son may be a poet.”
― John Quincy Adams
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jungleroomxIt's never too many graves, it's always not enough shovelsRegistered Userregular
edited April 2017
Someone sent me this pic of me out at the retrans site, along with a message that included the fact my old brigade had been deactivated last May. I had no idea.
I'm actually having a pretty powerful nostalgia wave and emotional reaction to this news. Like, I want to go back there and just poke around my old grounds but I imagine that would get me looked at crazy. I've been fairly numb emotionally since I got out but man, everything is just coming back all at once. The sounds, smells, feel, peoples names, everything... ugh...
Posts
Sounds like a shit day. It's the kind of day where I'm glad I'm out.
I'm afraid to leave.
I'm a cyber, and military, which will probably be a secure career in the future. I emphasize secure, not safe. I didn't join the military to protect America. I joined to protect me from America.
If I stick it out, get my CISSP and Masters Degree, then maybe.
EDIT - Oh wait. I'm latino. Milky white skin, but still...
Meanwhile I'm going to get my soul crushed again for applying for an XO Job because my CoC decided to wait two weeks to give me a, "No. You can't apply" when the due date was on the 28th. Granted. I knew I wasn't going to get it, but applying for it makes me feel warm and fuzzy that I am proactively taking care of myself.
Had a sit down with my rater & senior rater today (They're both about 90-120 range new). Rater told me that I'm definitely a top tier Lieutenant (Hes a 14 year TIS Captain) and all the Senior Rater said was, "You're definitely a HQ [Highly Qualified] Staff Officer. You do what you're told and more. You rarely see that in Assistant Staff Officers, especially Junior Officer ones." Both told me they talked to my BN XO and told him something along the lines of, "You're screwing this guy. Quit playing politics and give him a Platoon". S3 told me that they're looking at sending me to a Signal Unit soon because I earned it and that I don't have much time left to keep, "Fucking around", in the Armor community and that I need to develop those Control Branch skills now if I want to be a successful Signal Captain.
All of this feels like a trick or lie of sorts. I've never seen this much sanity, ever, in my eight years of being in the Army.
Wish that boat hadn't sailed Officer side. Then again, Cyber didn't want liberal art majors that, "wanted to learn". They wanted Computer Science and Programmers at the Officer level.
Last drill at OCS we scheduled our wish list for BOLC dates. This was an update of the branch selections we were given in July.
Of the three who initially were branched aviation, only one of us got it. I did. The guy sitting behind me went guard just to branch aviation. Not to go into specifics too much, but he is far more qualified than I am. He has 1k hours of flight time, a masters, a mba, was a marine etc. He received his date selection sheet before I did and when he expressed disappointment I got a huge smile on my face.
I selected aviation because, "What? I can fly helicopters! Sweet put me down for that one."
I've since learned more about the branch and what will be expected of me, but still. Lesson learned, the military is not fair.
FACT
Not only is it not fair. It's like NEGA-fair.
Come at me.
Apply for the GI Bill, on ebenefits.va.gov , at least a month before the payment deadline for classes. When you do, save and print the confirmation page at the end of the VONAPP GI bill application process.
What happens is that the VA will send you a confirmation letter with all of your information on it including coverage percentage, BAH payments, and how much time you have on your coverage. Your school needs that information to start your financial aid processing. However it takes at least a month for it to arrive after you apply.
In the meantime you can take that confirmation page from the VONAPP process earlier, and it should be enough for your Financial Aid department to get things started. When the confirmation letter arrives, your school's cashier office needs a copy of it.
What you need to give to your school:
Basics on the Post 9/11
A lot of TAPS program managers seem to be telling people to show some form of military records to the school for college credit. That college credit is "Phys Ed", so unless you really hate PT or just want one less class to take probably don't bother doing that. The only real exception is the CCAF information, but only if you took actual college courses to get your CCAF degree. Many colleges won't accept credits for classes that you test out of, so CLEP courses may not be viable. Check with your college.
I'll pop in and out of here if people have questions.
Can definitely second the "one day means one semester." I may or may not have managed to time it perfectly so I had like two or three days left for my last whole semester. Remember you can choose what rate you draw at (still?), so it's entirely possible to engineer this outcome with some planning.
For years I harbored bitterness that they divided us into A shred (haxorz) and B shred (base communications.) I, an engineer, was there because I wanted to be. But I got eaten alive in tech school and ended up as base comm. Later I found my performance was due to a metabolic disease. Can I have my cooler, more lucrative hacking job now?
Something in my grad school work (curriculum on Death March Projects) helped me snap out of this attitude and see the value in management but man. My mom was a manager once, then the Bush Recession happened, now she scrubs toilets and married a man she despises, just for the money. I'm now scrambling to get my masters degree done early so I can move on to scrambling for my CISSP before Trump wreaks havoc on the economy or gives my job to a contractor so I can go shoot at brown people.
LTC talked about himself the whole time. I added one or two words every few minutes to keep him going. Such examples include him talking about how, "Officers think that a different set of rules apply to them", and I replied, "You mean the VIP Culture?" That was meant with, "Yeah! Exactly! You know where I am coming from!" Overall, he said I am currently 1/1 in the Queue (I'm the only Officer hes ever seen ask to go to a Signal Platoon. Apparently nobody wants to go) and overall told me to schedule a time to sit down with the Signal Company's Commander this week. So I guess this means interview went well, round 2, fight?
Certain types of people love talking about themselves, so not a bad strat on your end. Good luck though!
The Captain mentioned to me that he doesn't plan on switching out his Lieutenants till the end of the year. His XO is leaving in a few more months, but he seemed wishy-washy on the idea of me being the XO. I took it as an implied task that he wanted one of his current PLs to be his next XO. However, he gave me advice for two possible scenarios. He mentioned to me that the post's only Signal Battalion always needs Officers over there. He referenced me to a Major to talk too. Talking to that Major he mentioned that our other SBCT on post might need people and he'd talk to Division Manning to verify. Additionally, he's going to reach over to the Signal BN as well. The Major also wants me to start attending his 1300 Signal LPDs as a way to start my transition early and to keep in touch to my slating.
My wife and I have been talking about whether its time to start looking at getting out or staying at in. Especially with Trump talking about invading China, Chicago, Mexico, and now Iran. If I do get out it'll probably be sometime next year or early 2019. We'll see though.
If you want to separate and immediately get into defense cyber, try to obtain your CISSP (or security+ if you just can't get the CISSP), and a redhat or windows admin cert. They don't really mean anything, but the defense contracts almost all require staff have those certs to be bid against cyber positions. Make a linkedin profile and reference those certs as soon as you can, and basically just let all the SAIC and Lockheed recruiters start finding your resume, in which you've laid out your time served as years experience in the field. You should have no problem getting picked up as a result.
I have Sec+, I'll finish my shitty master's in October, so I think I can squeeze in the CISSP course next year.
Try and go to TAPS twice (or whatever your equivalent is), if you can. Once now and once a lot closer to when you get out.
Hard lesson for me that I learned was it wasn't how great I was as a technician or anything like that. It was more the people I know. Keep in touch with other people that got out, or civilians you've worked with.
Depends on what you want to do also, as the field opened up to me after getting out. I was used to a very linear look at my promotions and future. My first job was only slightly related to what I had done while I was in, and what I'm doing now very much represents a different AFSC from what I was doing before.
While it'd be gnarly to grow a beard, shoot SCAR-Hs, and drive buggies, I don't feel like rucking the 1000 miles or so to get to that point.
"10% for that? And 0% for that!? That's the VA I know and love."
Overall it was a good meeting. I just need to get some documentation from doctors in the next few months. I very much wish the process was more transparent or even talked about when I got out in 2008.
― John Quincy Adams
Also don't give up when they throw vitamin m at you. Keep fucking going back. Took me like 5 years of bitching and physical therapy that didn't do shit and more complaining before they did an MRI on my knee.
Who knew that having no cartilage in my knee and running would be a bad combo? Certainly not mil docs.
Been diagnosed with PTSD/TBI and spent quite a lot of time in treatment/hospital for that. Got fucking rhabdo from my unit doing 3 crossfit workouts a day (got the post record for highest CK numbers) spent 6 days in the hospital with my kidneys failing and now I have to worry about my kidneys failing for the rest of my life.
Plus the normal shit like tinnitus from shooting and blowing shit up with no hearing pro like every one else in the military.
I should be good
― John Quincy Adams
Geez man.
― John Quincy Adams
― John Quincy Adams
― John Quincy Adams
I'm actually having a pretty powerful nostalgia wave and emotional reaction to this news. Like, I want to go back there and just poke around my old grounds but I imagine that would get me looked at crazy. I've been fairly numb emotionally since I got out but man, everything is just coming back all at once. The sounds, smells, feel, peoples names, everything... ugh...
Oh, the pic... right...