My daughter’s SO wants to join the service. He is 20 years old, and in all ways qualified to serve. He has a clean record, is a high school graduate and has a good work history. His problem is the ASVAB (Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery). He can’t pass the thing. He isn’t slow, or challenged, * he just can’t take a test.* He has taken every practice test he can find, bought 2 ASVAB prep books and done all the online practice test, etc. He has taken the actual test 3 times. His scores are about 15 – 20% too low for the Navy.
Does anyone know of any waivers available for otherwise qualified people?
Is there anything else he can do?
Hard to believe that the recruiter wouldn’t find any possible way to get him qualified, if one exists. If he feels the recruiter isn’t doing all he can, he might try contacting the main recruiting office in the district.
Oh, be careful. The ASVAB isn’t just an admissions test; it’s also a placement test – it’s the armed services vocational aptitude battery, and depending on the combination of scores from different sections of the test, he could up up as something really cool, or something not too desirable. I wouldn’t imagine that needing to procure a waiver would aid his ability to avoid less optimal job classifications.
Current active duty Air Force recruiter here. I’m not sure about the Navy, but there are waivers for the Air Force. Not for the kins of scores you are talking about though. Has he taken the different versions of the test yet? There are several versions: the high school test (his recruiter might be able to work him taking one once school starts again), the paper test at a local test site, and the computer test given at the Military Enteance Processing Station (MEPS). The most difficult by far is the MEPS test. If he has taken the test twice recently, he has to wait 6 months to retake it anyway. If he scores more than 20 points higher on the next try, he has to take ANOTHER ASVAB to “verify” the higher score. If you need more information, feel free to PM me.
Yeah, you have to be really careful here. The test is the difference between being a computer tech or a boatswain’s mate.
I liked most of the bo’suns mates on our ship, and they did a lot of great work, but I personally didn’t want to man a needle gun for four years hacking rust off of a deck.
Thank all of you for your response. Thank you very much.
Mr. Moto. He would be happy to scrape rust. He would be one of the best rust scrapers the navy ever had. He is just that kind of kid. He does, however, want to be in the SP. Does that require one of the higher scores?
A.R.Cane Thanks for the site. He has been to most of them.
BillybOb He is a HS graduate. Does that make a difference as far as taking the non-computer test? He has problems with questions like the ones on auto repair, and the science questions. Math and English he sort of holds his own. He is bilingual, (Hispanic).
He is in his 6 month waiting period before he can take the next test. Yesterday afternoon he was with the recruiter and took another practice test. He added 2 more points, but he still falls short. He gets an A for effort in my book.
I just read about McNamara’s 100,000. Back then, you simply had prove you could produce make warm urine to get in. Times have changed.
Shore patrol is a very tricky question. Very tricky indeed.
Every command in the Navy is responsible for organizing and ensuring its own security, and that includes ships.
Now, shore stations utilize personnel trained in base security. They used to be drawn from a pool of enlisted personnel and led by people with advanced training in security, with a master-at-arms rating. I think this may have changed, and now security is now handled exclusively by masters-at-arms.
Larger bases and ships have Marine detachments as well, for this purpose.
On a ship, there will always be one or more masters-at-arms, with some personnel augmenting him or them for a security detail. Off the ship the shore patrol was manned by the biggest meanest guys who happened to be in the duty section that day - the reason for this was pretty obvious.
After all, we only needed shore patrol in foreign ports, and generally to break up fights and manhandle drunks back to the ship. At home, people were both better behaved and under the watchful eye of base and local police.
On the ship, security for the duty section was handled by everyone - we all had firearms training and practiced regularly with security alerts.
There is no guarantee at all that he will be working security at one duty station and continue to work at it in the next one, if it is a collateral duty. The only guarantee of that is the Master-at-Arms rating, so look at that pretty closely.
Thanks again Mr. Moto.
I have found a new respect for those who serve. The military is no longer an option for wayward youth, instead, as I see it, it accepts only above average individuals for enlistment. I have to assume that it retains only the better members too.
Thank all of you who serve, have served, and will serve. You have earned my respect.
We’re going to keep working on getting his test scores up. We know he will never command an aircraft carrier, but he will be an asset to the Navy (IMHO).
That’s probably so. We used to worry a bit about my brother - he wasn’t an especially good book learner either. When he got to his submarine, though, he was a natural at fixing diesel plants and ventilation systems, and also qualified quickly on all of his watch stations.
He did get out after four, but not before his commanding officer and chief of the boat begged him to stay on.
Yeah, Mr. Moto has some of it right and some a bit wrong. The “MA” rating was created sometime in the 70’s, prior to that Master at Arms were drawn from many ratings as a collateral duty, there was no specialty in the U.S. Navy for law enforcment. The MA rating met w/ lukewarm reception for several years, but I think there was a drastic increase in expanding their duties and increasing their number a few years ago.
It gets complicated and isn’t germane to th Op, but the U.S. Navy has a tradition, based in practicallity, recognizing deck ratings: Bo’sun’s Mate, Quartermaster, Signalman, Gunner’s Mate, Etc. as senior to other specialties, such as admin.and engineering. In earlier times the Chief Master at Arms and his staff, if any, would have likely been chosen from those ratings, there position being demonstrated by the wearing of a police type badge.
Major U.S. Naval ports have had, for decades, a cadre of “permanant” shore patrol (usually a 2-3 year tour), supplimented by temporary appointments from ships, squadrons and other units assigned to the command area. These units had authority over all military personel, on liberty or leave, in the local civilian community. The Marines were traditionally responsible for internal and perimeter security of the military property enclosing the facility. In more recent decades civilian DoD police have assumed this duty from the Marine Corps. There’s a lot more, but that’s the jist of it.
Things had changed a bit before the new security requirements. I retired in 2000. Shore installations had permanently assigned security sections. Those were composed of personnel in the MA rating and other personnel from other ratings.
Shore Patrol was composed of personnel from the host command and tenant units, including ships in port. The SP personnel were drawn from the day’s duty section. And it wasn’t “the biggest and baddest” assigned. All personnel in the rate of PO3 or higher were eligible and took their assigned turns.
Just remembered something that is germane to the OP. Right now I can’t recall the name of the program, though. The Navy has a program which permits a lower qualifying ASVAB component score total (different ratings have different components of the ASVAB added for the qualifying score) than the standard. One enlists in the Apprenticeship Group and then, using that program, later strikes for the intended rating.
I only saw it stood up when we hit ports overseas, and there was a real effort there to make sure the guys on it could handle a mean drunk. 'Course, in the newer friendlier Navy, that might be less of a concern as well.
Different commands, different regs. All I can tell you is that in five years in, while I stood lots of pier sentry watches, quarterdeck watches, weapons rover watches, and gate and door sentry at an intel center overseas, I never once pulled shore patrol.
Yeah, it’s pretty subjective. In days gone by, when the Shore Patrol’s primary duty might be dealing w/ rowdy drunks, the senior watch officer might very well choose the more burly guys for that assignment. Things change over time. I tend to have nostalgia for the “good old days”, but I have to admit they may not have been as attractive as I sometimes recall.
