Need a local military mentor for potential new recruit! (San Antonio: home, transfer)

[wCat]

I need help finding someone locally in the military that can help a potential new recruit with some concerns about joining either the Army or Navy. He's done his homework....but wants this as a career move.....so school/military/career and how to best do all that is very important to him. He is brilliant, but struggled with ADD issues and fears that will hold him back....especially to pursue OCS. His high school testing and grades are marginal at best, but his potential is tremendous. He's very interested in foreign languages and possibly intelligence.

Is there a kind soul out there that can help with some tough questions? He know he has some challenges, but he's determined to overcome them.

BTW - he's already talked to recruiters, so he doesn't need that kind of info. He wants the inside scoop!

Anyone have any success stories to share?

[rd2007]

did he take a DLAB (defense language aptitude battery)? that would be the first thing he should do if he's considering a language. I took it twice and it's an interesting test... You have to have a certain score just to qualify and then the higher your score the more likely you are to learn a more difficult language. The languages are broken down into categories from cat 1-4. Spanish is a cat 1, I believe tagalog is cat 2 but there aren't many 2's, Russian is a 3 and Chinese and Arabic are cat 4's. The category also tells you the length of the class at DLI (Defense Language Institute in Monterey, CA). Cat 1's are 28 weeks, cat 3's are 46 or 48, and the cat 4's are 62. Again I'm not familiar with cat 2's because there just aren't many of them.. I learned Spanish (cat 1) the first time and Serbo-Croatian (cat 3) the second.

As you can probably guess, I was a linguist and I did it in the Navy.. I just retired last year and am not 100% sure any of this information is still completely true. I would personally recommend not joining the Army because they don't always have their people doing their specialty. Good example would be my first time at DLI when I learned Spanish and most of my class was Army cold war linguists (Russian, German, Polish, Czech) learning a new language because the cold war ended. Every one of them except one had just returned from the first Desert Storm and there obviously wasn't a need for their languages over there... The Navy will 99.999% guarantee you are doing the job your learned the language for and the only reason it's not 100% is because I knew someone that got a bit of a shaft, but he's the only one I saw that happen to.
The thing with the languages and intel is you have to pass a pretty hardcore background screening, so hopefully he doesn't have anything bad in the closet.. They also check your medical history and I don't know how something like ADD would impact that. I do know they frown on anything mental related..

I also know a person that is a Navy Recruiter and also works intel. I used to work with him at NSA Texas, but he had to do a dirty job (recruiting) to stay in the San Antonio area. He's born and raised here.. Let me know if you'd like his name and the location he works out of. He's the only recruiter I would let my kids go to... and he won't BS you around, especially if he knows who sent you his way

[wCat]

Is there a practice DLAB? Or is this something he would take after he joins? He's been working hard on the ASVAB practice and working out physically.
I would LOVE the name of your friend who's a recruiter for the Navy! Can you PM that info to me?

[rd2007]

The recruiter administers the DLAB and this site offers some assistance. It consists of a made up language with made up rules and it gave me a headache... It's far from fun, but does a good job of measuring your ability to learn a foreign language. The ability to forget everything you know about grammar rules is paramount to learning a new language, especially one that shares absolutely nothing with English...

I'll send the PM in a minute

[back2sa]

Is there a reason he wouldn't want to join the Air Force?

I know the army is offering big bucks now for their recruits but I would reccomend joining either the Air Force or Navy. First, he's going to be immediately shipped off to Iraq if he joins the Army. There won't be an opportunity to get any schooling done until after he gets out. The Army sends their troops over there for 15 months at a time while the Air Force just increased their deployment time from 4 months to 6 months.

Any of them will pay for college but I remember from being a University of Maryland Rep while in Japan that the Navy members were limited to how many classes the Navy would pay for. That may have changed by now (this was 3 years ago) so that's something to check into. Nothing worse than wanting to get school done to only find out that you're limited to a certain number of classes per year that they actually will pay for. The Air Force doesn't limit it's Tuition Assistance.

But if his choice is Navy or Army I would definitely choose Navy.

[rd2007]

The Navy did have a limit on how many classes it would pay for at one time, but it covered 100% tuition and besides, you are working full time... Also, every service is going to send you to a tech school before sending you out to the fleet/field. For Navy linguists you're going to go to boot camp, then usually a small leave period back home and then off to DLI for probably close to a year, at least. The cat 1 classes don't have a class break, but I know for a fact the cat 3 and 4 classes do. It's only a week, but it's needed. Spending every day (not weekends) only studying a language is pretty rough.. you also learn cultures and 99% of the instructors are natives, so you're going to learn all sorts of culture... for the Navy, the military stuff is pretty minimal at DLI too, it's more like a college campus. They're definitely still in the Navy and they will be treated like recruits in the beginning, but after a while you almost forget you're in the military (except for the uniform of course).
After DLI a linguist goes to Goodfellow AFB in San Angelo, TX. There you learn technical things and stuff more related to the job. That's pretty much all I can say about that part and your security clearance needs to be done prior to getting there..

[goodmanm]

Originally Posted by wCat

I need help finding someone locally in the military that can help a potential new recruit with some concerns about joining either the Army or Navy. He's done his homework....but wants this as a career move.....so school/military/career and how to best do all that is very important to him. He is brilliant, but struggled with ADD issues and fears that will hold him back....especially to pursue OCS. His high school testing and grades are marginal at best, but his potential is tremendous. He's very interested in foreign languages and possibly intelligence.

Is there a kind soul out there that can help with some tough questions? He know he has some challenges, but he's determined to overcome them.

BTW - he's already talked to recruiters, so he doesn't need that kind of info. He wants the inside scoop!

Anyone have any success stories to share?

Joining the service just isn't a career move, it's a complete change of lifestyle.

I tell those that ask that if they have the means to go to college they should do that first even if they have a burning desire to serve.

The Air Force at least accepts a limited number of applications from within the existing ranks and they only select the best of the best. I'm not saying that because of the challenges this individuals has faced but it's just a simple fact for anyone that wants to do it.

He could go to school and obtain a commission through ROTC.

[tgannaway89]

Has this person looked into ROTC? 4-yr scholarships are available and actually not very hard to get now (due to an increased need for officers).

GoArmy.com > Army ROTC > Overview

NROTC: Careers & Jobs: Navy

[gilbertj]

Dear back2sa
This is my first time on this site and your comments on the Army, just blew me away, i served 21 years as a Combat Medic, and i loved every bit of it, it was exciting, demanding and if i had to do it all over again, i would be in Iraq. All the different branches of the Military are great, but to say that if you joined the Air Force is better is ridulous, let me tell you i just met a young Lady that has been in the Air Force for over 12 years as a Medic, she has to reenlist next month, she has been in Afganistan and IRaq for over 24 months attached to the Army, she is going to transfer into the UNITED STATES ARMY. So lets mentor this young recruit the right way, I love my Army, i learned how to be a Great leader and respect the Country i live in, and would still die for her today. Just because you join the Air Force doesn't mean your not going to be out of harms way. To the young recruit, just by joining is the greatest step you will take in your life, you are joining the ranks of the greatest Armed Forces in the world, every branch has its mission, I joined because i wanted to fight for my country, it wasn;t about the education, which i have a Bach. degree, and it wasn't for the money, even though i own my own home plus a couple of more on the side, i had no earthly idea what to expect, but the sky is the limit, i stand tall when i say i was in the Army, one thing i do, to this day, i don't watch things happen, i make things happen. GO ARMY. i love it. have a great career!

[rd2007]

is there an update to this? I am kinda interested..