19D Reclassing to 35L

[Rocker19D]

I enlisted as a 19D end of 2008, and went straight to the 82nd. I was unable to attend Airborne school due to a severe injury to my ankle at the time. I did one humanitarian deployment in 2010 to Haiti with the 82nd. Upon finding out that my unit was deploying to Iraq, I reenlisted for a unit that was deploying to Afghanistan wanting to actually do my job, get combat time, and get hands on experience with my job, and that's where I am now.
My goal when I enlisted was going in the MI field, but wanted to get the experience on the ground and combat first, so I could be in the fight and to better understanding for both fields, not just looking at it from one angle. Having the experience and time(currently been a Scout for 3 1/2 years, I want to reclass to 35L. My ETS now put me out of my window until the next window opens (ETS Dec.2014) so I have at least another few months until I can reenlist for the job.
I was wondering how difficult the application process and the transition would be for someone in my career field. I have a clean record, one speeding ticket witch I don't believe will hold me back. From my understanding though, getting my S to a TS can be a lengthy process as well. So my end goal is obviously a ways away. But when everything falls in to place and I do become a 35L, what is the likelihood of me working with special operations, and process would I need to go through to accomplish that?(Schools, pocs?) I'm fully healed and ready to do what is needed.

 

[Brill]

http://www.shadowspear.com/vb/threads/army-counter-int-35l-help.7063/

 

[BravoOne]

"how difficult the application process and the transition would be for someone in my career field" - There will be an interview with a CI Special Agent or possibly an OPM Investigator that wont even take an hour. Be able to express yourself in a cogent manner in writing and convo. Start practicing your typing... youre going to need it. "Hunting and pecking" wont work in CI. Learn your way around MS Word and Powerpoint. The sooner the better. Other than that if you already have a SECRET then you have had a NACLC (credit, criminal check) and once all that info goes to the right places (MD) then youll get an Interim TS/SCI fairly quickly (which is good because you will need it to go to the schoolhouse). As far as the transition... the Army reclasses folks all the time who have absolutely no knowledge about the branch they are going over to.

One moving violation isnt a showstopper. Multiple tickets WOULD BE just as other patterns of irresponsibility would be.

"getting my S to a TS can be a lengthy process as well" - As already mentioned you will get a S upgraded to a INTERIM TS/SCI lickety split. Adjudicating a TS/SCI could take a while. A year easily but that all depends on your age and background. A Single Scope Background Investigation necessary for a TS/SCI will go back 10 years into your personal/employment history or to age 18 whichever is first. If it hasnt been too long since you walked across that stage then it will go pretty quick. If youve been out of H.S. for a while or worse have lived in several states, traveled overseas extensively that will slow your FINAL ADJUDICATION down a lot because an OPM investigator in each state/area will have to go meet with your listed contacts (and ones you havent listed). I remember all the Mormons SSBIs taking a long time. Guys would spend a year in China studying or Latin America or here or there and some of them had a lot of stamps in their passports. We had a lot of Mormons recruited into the National Guard... a squeaky clean background and a foreign language (often times a CAT III or 4 language) is normal. Some of them would kick themselves later in the course for not being Active Duty.

"what is the likelihood of me working with special operations" - Over many years of being around I can tell you that its like the likelihood for anything else in the Army... It DEPENDS on what they need. You can do ONE thing to help yourself out though (if you are Active duty ONLY). When the Airborne recruiter comes to the schoolhouse... volunteer. That will get you orders to the 82nd or an SF GRP 9 times out of 10. I knew people who volunteered for ABN just to avoid going to Korea straight out of the schoolhouse. When the Ranger recruiter stops by (and you have the APFT score)... volunteer. When an SMU recruiter stops by volunteer if you like what you hear. Being NG or USAR wont do you any good for any of that though because you have to be Active Duty to make any of those opportunities happen. Your post didnt state whether youd gotten back to ABN or not but that is definitely the one thing you CAN control. Otherwise you could wind up riding around in a Stryker with Infantrymen or even pumping gas in somebody's motor-pool somewhere (it happens). Of course the Army being the Army you could go ABN and still wind up doing something like that but the chances are remote. You could also wind up going to the 902nd MI GRP wearing a business suit every day and working in a major city in the U.S. Anything can happen. The good part of that is if you get sent off to Korea or somewhere undesirable when its time for your next assignment theyll ask you where you want to go specifically and from what I have seen they try pretty hard to make it happen for you. Good luck!

 

[Brill]

B1, your post was awesome!

Just to tweak but "When an SMU recruiter stops by volunteer if you like what you hear. Being NG or USAR wont do you any good for any of that though because you have to be Active Duty to make any of those opportunities happen. " is not 100% accurate: you can go through the process and if selected, you'll need to transition to AD.

Your post should be a sticky.

 

[Rocker19D]

Thanks for the responses they have been very helpful.

 

[BravoOne]

B1, your post was awesome!

Just to tweak but "When an SMU recruiter stops by volunteer if you like what you hear. Being NG or USAR wont do you any good for any of that though because you have to be Active Duty to make any of those opportunities happen. " is not 100% accurate: you can go through the process and if selected, you'll need to transition to AD.

Your post should be a sticky.

Thanks... thats what I meant. You can go AD but thats going to be time consuming. I was a Reservist and as far as I was concerned those conversations were academic more than anything else. At that time getting a release to go AD wasnt something that was encouraged and frankly the recruiters brushed off the NG and Reservists. There was a Mormon from the Utah Guard who spoke and wrote Chinese (I believe it was Cantonese) like nobodies business and he attracted the attention of a Great Skills program Recruiter but the first question out of his mouth was what his duty status was. As soon as he said UT NG the recruiter got a look on his face and continued answering others questions. Im guessing things are different now we werent at war then. At that time (maybe 2 weeks or so before graduation) recruiters would show up ask for a show of hands and before the FTX guys would have new orders and walk around on cloud nine until their flight left. We had a few guys take advantage of the Ranger recruiters offer to go to RIP and all they got out of it was Airborne wings and orders to the 82nd. They were totally unprepared physically. My understanding is that the Ranger RGT does things a little differently now for their MI guys.