Questions from a Navy recruit

[bellhead]

I actually knew someone who crossed trained from ET to CTI...What he was doing in the ET rate to begin with I have no idea to this day. He had a degree in arabic linguistics from Brown university. He was also Jewish and spoke and wrote Hebrew fluently, his Spanish was conversationally fluent, and he said he also studied French. When we had a change of command our new Lt. reviewed his records and asked him what he was doing in the ET rate, as he was also a former detailer and knew how hard Arabic slots were to fill.

Working in Doug's advantage was he already had a secret clearance and had been in the Navy 2+ years.

So it is doable...

Even if you can't go in as a CTI look at jobs as that have very good overseas duty assignments as it seems you want to learn languages and practice them on a daily basis.

[sanari]

Originally Posted by Balad1

Something else I was thinking about was that when you fill out the security clearance paperwork (normally electronic) have a statement prepared to explain your situation. A statement that is no BS and accepts personal responsibility for your actions and what you are doing to rectify the situation. Don't write a book, one or two paragraphes that are clear and to the point. Remember never lie or BS.

Do I prepare it before I go to fill out the paperwork? [Like right now?] Not lying and not BS'ing are my specialty

[Balad1]

Originally Posted by sanari

Do I prepare it before I go to fill out the paperwork? [Like right now?] Not lying and not BS'ing are my specialty

Yes, have it composed now so that when you complete the paperwork you have a well thought out statement to copy/put in the remarks section to explain any negative items.

[bellhead]

The advice given to me when I went to see the security officer after A school orders day were...

Always be truthful...
Never lie, everybody makes mistakes in the past, most are forgiven, or there are circumstances to it.
Be upfront about everything and be in detail, the investigator will be more forgiving if he doesn't have to run around in circles getting a true picture.

Good luck it sounds like you know what you are getting into now and enjoy being in the Nav...

[sanari]

Thanks, and I will.

[henry1]

Like every one here the military can be pretty stange at times when it comes down to the socalled Security Clearance rateing system that they use at the time..When i was in i was taken out of the loop because of haveing what was a questionable debt and when i explained to the person who did the socalled interview they where like ok and it made sense to them about where the money had comeing from now ..

The basic reason why they wanted to know why i had $100.000.oo dollars in my account and i was paying off my grandmother and my uncle and my mother debt after they had pass away in 78 79 80 and the money in the my account was from the lawyer to pay off there bills after they had passed ..

With that been done any money left over was my to keep as a payment from them for doing the job my uncle and grandmother debt was to be taken care of my mother but she was sick with cancer in the last stages of her life and i was trying to deal with all of this at one time and keep my head saight and do my job in the military ..

So it was a pretty rough time for me but the guy who did the interview was not a bad person when he figure out what was going on and he did help with me get it back the clearance without alot of problems on there at the end of the time i was without my clearance and all jobs in the military have some type of clearance in them from low level to top secret level for someone who deals with the socalled flow of information out of area

When i was done paying out all the money that was owned to the people from there personal debts i had about $35,000.oo dollars left over in my account and that raised a flag to them inside the socalled security personal about my clearance for where does a 21 year get a $100.000.oo dollars inside there bank account when he only makes this much in 1980 payscale for the Corporal that made this much after taxs

so go online to your socalled credit history sites and see how to change the scores with the company by going through your socalled debt and see if you can get off your records ..

[henry1]

Originally Posted by bellhead

I actually knew someone who crossed trained from ET to CTI...What he was doing in the ET rate to begin with I have no idea to this day. He had a degree in arabic linguistics from Brown university. He was also Jewish and spoke and wrote Hebrew fluently, his Spanish was conversationally fluent, and he said he also studied French. When we had a change of command our new Lt. reviewed his records and asked him what he was doing in the ET rate, as he was also a former detailer and knew how hard Arabic slots were to fill.

Not to get off track but that is the military for you in some of the areas like that with how the military works it magic at times

[henry1]

Let me clear something up i was not going into the military at the time and i had been in the Army since 1975 time frame and after basic training i had been overseas twice on two diff tours once to Korea and once to Germany ..

I had made Corporal and was on the fast track to Sergeant in a year if i keep my nose clean and kept doing the job i was doing with my unit when i was comeing up for review and that when i was trying to figure out what the heck happen to my clearance and my job for i was stuck cleaning the barracks for about 6 months intill the interview with the person who did the follow up check and then everything got back to normal for me and i could now go back to work my job as a mp ..

[amendres]

Originally Posted by sanari

First I will ask my question, and then I will provide my background information/story.

I am planning to join the Navy as a CTI, World Linguist, or Intelligence - in that order of preference. Will my credit prevent me from attaining those dreams?

I am a 30yo married female; my husband is a Marine and finished serving before I met him. I went to college straight out of high school, but due to parental fighting, lost support for my education. I'm a straight-laced girl, who always got straight A's, never tried drugs, never drank, never got in trouble with the law [not even one traffic ticket], and always paid bills when I was employed. When I lost access to school, I went into a depression and was out of employment for a very long time. Very, long time - meaning 8 years or so, with little jobs here and there. I had people [non-family] who were there for me. I've been living these last two years as a housewife, but I have so much more potential than that. I have severe pride and don't ask people for help, and this is a problem because it affects relationships. My pride also affects my ability to borrow, I've only ever borrowed school loans because I was desperate to be in school. If I'm employed I see a bright future ahead for me because I can get rid of the loans and start saving and investing.

So my uncle visited during this past Thanksgiving. We sat and talked, and I explained how I wanted to be doing something more, and definitely finishing school - so I could pay off my defaulted school loans and defaulted phone bill. He suggested I join the military. I looked at him, confused. "But I thought our family was against the military?" The reason I thought this, although my family never voiced any such sentiment, was because no one had ever served. No one. Civilians through and through.

He continued, and started listing off the different branches. When the name "Navy" dropped from his mouth, I knew that was where I was to be. The rest just fell away into obscurity. Not sure if any of the rest of you ever felt something like this, but I'd love to hear those that did. I felt an excitement, and my body and mind rose out of the sleep it was in and gears moved together. I promptly went down to the recruiting office that following day - the Wednesday before Thanksgiving.

I had a chance to speak to a fellow out on the sidewalk as he was closing up the office, but he was heading out of town for something Navy-related. I asked all of the questions I had at the moment and let him be on his way.

I'm overweight - I've been working all of that off. It's no problem to lose the weight, I just have to exercise more and put my body to work. I took my ASVAB this past Monday, I scored pretty high. I spoke to the recruiters today and was assigned a recruiter - and it happened to be the same guy I spoke to on the sidewalk. He remembered me, and was excited because of my score.

I've done a lot of reading - I've learned many things. I've read 30 pages [of posts] of this forum alone, today, if that puts things into perspective. I learned that it's bad to be job-locked, and when I first set out on this journey, I was. But after learning how much of a pain it is to recruiters I looked around to see what else I'd be willing to do, but would still put me where I wanted to be after serving.

Basic picture of me:
- ASVAB: 94
- Medical/Lawful: No problems ever; nothing ever broken/Clean
- Credit: Bad due to unemployment, just finished 9th month of rehabilitation with school loan
- Alcohol/Smoking/Substances: Nothing more than aspirin, and even those less than 4 times a year
- College: 3 years

I welcome any and all hints, advice, tips, and experiences in story form.

Hi_ Here is what I have to say: You got this!!! Go for it!

[Wartrace]

Weight. If you are overweight YOU HAVE TO CHANGE DIET! Exercise will help but 80% of weight loss is dietary. Cut the carbs.