I can’t pass up this opportunity to tell my “Be all that you can be” story.
I enlisted in the Army in 1985 and one night I was running a floor buffer at the Reception Center (the first place new recruits go through when they get off the bus, whatever they call it, I have almost successfully blocked out Ft. Dix memories) since floor buffing is mind-numbingly boring I was singing that damn “Be all that you can be” song (I thought it was really funny) when I backed into a 2nd Louie who was NOT amused, after getting chewed out for a while he just went away and nothing ever came of it (despite his threats).
If you join the Army remember the rules:
Never stand when you can sit.
Never sit when you can sleep.
Never!!! pass up a chance to use the bathroom.
Don’t volunteer for anything.
If it moves, shoot it.
If it doesn’t move, paint it.
For the sake of all that is good and right in the world, please tell us you had to look up the lyrics and didn’t know them off the top of your head. :eek:
Everyone has to take the ASVAB test prior to coming in. There is a bare minimum requirement just to be considered for any job. Most jobs have much higher requirements than the minimums. Some have very low requirements. The only one I can think of with low requirements at the moment is cook. Most of the combat arms jobs I know of have a minimum score of 90 in GT or CS. A 90 is not genius level but a dim bulb could not get close.
You’d be ab-SO-lutely correct. But still…
No, I don’t remember the lyrics but for some reason the beat just kinda sticks with ya.
I was in highschool in the late 70’s…what can I say.
allright NoClueBoy let’s hear ya say it. Come get this damned tune away from here. In the Navy…in the navy
you’ll pray to see some trees
in the navy
your bunk gets full of fleas
in the navy
you’ll wish you were on land
in the navy
you’ll sing in a gay band
In the Navy…in the Navy…
It sounds like a great opportunity. Especially if you’re in this elite group of recruits.
just funnin NCB no offense intended and thanks for takin that VP song w/ya
young man…
there’s a place you can go
"The army, we do more by 9am than most people do all day. "
That’d probably be pretty easy to do but still. :eek:
And a Green Beret will also be full-qualified in at least one support MOS such as Medical, Demolitions, Communications, Intel, etc. besides infantry. Until the last couple of years (like, for the previous 40-some years of their existence) you applied to go into Special Forces after you were in and had shown promise (usally by excellence in your other specialy training or your first assignment). In my short stint in service I never ran into any SF under the grade of E5 (buck sergeant); the level of training and achievement scores pretty much meant that it took someone all their time as private and SP4 to get there.
Now they changed it so you MAY actually sign up with a commitment to try out for SF. Of course you STILL have to pass all those hurdles to make it there, otherwise you end your enlistment as a very well-trained infantryman.
Similarly, like Ex- said, if you want to fly Apaches or Blackhawks, you CAN apply directly, but that includes applying to enter the Army as a WOC or OC right off the bat.
I’ve been told by a chopper pilot that the dumping ground for not-quite-total fuckups was Chaplains Assistant. If you’re almost, but not completely, incapable of existing in the army, you can look forward to setting up chairs for worship services and whatever other jobs the padre has for you.
I had a coworker who was generally considered incompetant by anyone who met him. I was therefore very disturbed when I heard that he’d been a Colonel commanding a battalion of artillery. When I voiced this concern to some of my more military minded friends, they pointed out that this guy didn’t actually aim the guns or direct fire. Lower ranks did that. He just Administrated. So I guess promotion can help contain incompetance as much as demotion.
Nothing was actually changed. A person has always been able to do this. In fact, SF in Vietnam was filled with huge numbers of “Triple Volunteers” - those who volunteered for the Army, for Airborne, and for SF. A person could not be in SF if they were drafted. Many went straight off the street and became Green Berets. Training back then was no where near as long as it is now. But, let’s face it, the on-the-job learning one got in Cambodia beats anything the school house can dish out these days.
There are several Master Sergeants and Sergeants Major and other high ranking Green Berets out there right now who joined SF right off the street over 20 years ago. I can think of three or four off the top of my head.
However, lately the program has been in full gear. Recruiters have been filling the “18X” contracts like crazy. The Special Warfare school is flooded with 18 X-rays at this point. Though a person can enter right out of high school, the average 18X is about 24 years old with some college or a college degree.
There is also the “High School to Flight School” program, which has been mentioned. I wish I would have known about that program when I left high school. I could have been flying Apaches or Blackhawks before my 19th birthday.
Oh, I forgot to add something about minimum GT requirements. Like everything else in the Army, those can be WAIVED!! If a person scored in the 33rd percentile on his ASVAB, all he has to do is get a waiver, and his Forest Gump ass can join the infantry. I met the dumbest non-mentally challenged (or was he??) individual I have ever seen in Infantry Basic at Ft. Benning. I was floored when I learned he actually had two kids. How does someone with the mental capacity of a twig raise kids?
He scored a low thirty on his ASVAB and received a waiver. The Alabama National Guard doesn’t seem to mind…
As far as I can tell there is no GT requirement for Infantry. There is a minimum CO requirement of 90 .
CO is the COmbat score. It is a combination of AR+CS+AS+MC.
Arithmetic Reasoning (AR)
Coding Speed (CS)
Auto and Shop Information (AS)
Mechanical Comprehension (MC)
Not saying the guy you went to basic with wasn’t an idiot, but they try to keep most idiots out. They don’t like taking drop-outs either. Less than 10% of recruits can have a GED. Those that do have GEDs must meet a higher minimum score on the ASVAB.
Lets go to the different end of the scale. Let say you test way up there in intelligence. Do they care? Do you still get shit jobs? Do they even let you in?
Yep. We called it “fuck-up, move-up.” More commonly known as the Peter Principle. I had a platoon leader (1st Lieutenant) who wasn’t allowed to do much of anything. Period. By anyone. He never made the cut for Captain, and wound up heading off to the Reserves.
I heard there was a percentile requirement. And this guy did mention getting a waiver. So I don’t know what’s up with that. But he was an imbecile, that’s for sure.
Strangely, I’ve also met some soldiers who were extremely book smart but total shitbags as soldiers. Common Sense should be tested on the ASVAB too.
Yes they let me in, thanks for asking. The higher you score on the standardized tests, the more jobs are open to you. Its still up to you to pick your job. If you qualify as a rocket scientist but have your heart set on being a truck driver, you are going to be a truck driver.
I would choose something you would most likely be happy doing,or actually enjoy,something related that you like in the civilian world,possibly.
You can always change your M.O.S. by request, to your Sarg.
YES! As soon as “Naked People Stacking” becomes an MOS, I’m reclassing!!
“Besides Infantry”, is a little misleading. A Green Beret does not necessarily have any infantry MOS at all. Infantry is not a prereq, and neither is Ranger school. Airborne School is though. You’re pretty much dead on with the types of SF jobs though. Medic, Demo, Commo, Intel, Weapons, (18D, 18C, 18E, 18F, 18B respectively). The training varies, for each MOS. Everyone will attend about a month and a half of patrolling and combat type skills, though.
But, basically, a person could have been a cook for 5 years in the Army and then go to Special Forces. If he chose to be an 18B, then he’d start that particular training pipeline. If he did not make it, he wouldn’t be a “very well-trained infantryman”, he would go back to being a cook with no infantry MOS or title.
Those who go straight off the street are almost always, but not quite, sent to infantry school first, then airborne, and then SF Selection to see if they can make it. If they don’t, then you’re right, they get sent to a random (usually Airborne) infantry regiment according to needs of the Army. Some medics, especially (maybe exclusively) those joining the Nation Guard, will be sent to medic school first, and not Infantry School. If they fail in the pipeline, they are sent to a medical unit as a medic somewhere.
Chaplins Assistants stupid? That has to be one of the safest freaking jobs in the service so maybe if you act stupid… When I was drafted, I actually tried to get a CA job while I was in basic training because I knew that I would most likely end up in Viet Nam. Didn’t get the job and ended up as a helicopter crew chief. I don’t recall seeing any chaplins when I flew into LZ Stud or Blackhorse or some of the other small remote hilltop LZs up in the DMZ. They may have been there but they weren’t out humping fuel and ammo.
About a million years ago when I was in the US army in combat medic school, there were a couple of running jokes about this. The instructor liked to say that if you washed out of medic school they’d send us to 88M school (at the time, that was the MOS designator for truck drivers. Chaplain’s assistant was also the butt of that joke.
From my own personal experience of people I’ve met, I’d have to say that the dumbest, most worthless individuals I ever met were in the 11 series (infantry) and 12 series (combat engineering) MOS’s. Combat engineers are basically heavily-armed ditch diggers and construction workers.
If you were truly stupid and could not successfully complete any kind of specialty training, you’d get a general discharge for failure to complete initial entry training (unless there were a troop shortage so dire that nobody could be spared.)
