Prior service trying to go SF
- Thread starter Sapper-doc
- Start date
Brill
SOF Support
Blasphemy!!!
Sapper-doc
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Thanks for your input, one question though. If you're signal why wouldn't you recommend anything signals? I'm trying to also consider possible civilian application. Although I am very much a "no quit" type person, it is possible for me to not get selected even if I complete SFAS down the road. Just trying to weigh all options.
policemedic
Verified SWAT
Calvary...pffft.
Conventional Signal is broken. Sierras and Quebecs deployed to Afghanistan would find themselves pulling nightshift duty in the base tech control facility. They were used early in the war, but much of your deployed SATCOM work is done by civilians and Troposcatter was almost never used.
Unless you land a Sierra slot in a SOF unit (I don't think they use 25Q's) you will find yourself bored and underutilized.
If you wanted a Signal MOS, go 25B or maybe 25C and make a run at JCU.
Wait, I thought 19D's were like LRS, but more like a Army version of Force Reconnaissance crossed with some super RECONDO silent killer training? Have I been lied to again?
To the OP, 13F would be a good option if you want to get out the wire and play. If your looking for a civi career, those 15 series dudes make some good cash on the civi technician side. Also if possible, flight medic has some civi applications, especially if you get your paramedic cert.
25B will NOT prepare you for the real world of IT. Most of the things you would need to know to operate in the civi world in IT are handled by contractors (stateside). Your only experience will be when you are deployed OCONUS, and most of that will be the equivalent of customer support. I know a CW3 (250A) in SOF (he's in one of the Groups) that is only allowed to take calls and create tickets for the contractors to solve. He's not allowed to even d0 a password reset. The only position you will be prepared for is help desk, which tops out at about 45k, compared with starting salaries of 50k+ for a sysadmin with basic certs.
Sapper-doc
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Wow! That's very shocking and disappointing.
Another +1 on 13F.
Better options
Better options
Yes, I had a long discussion about it with the CFSOCC-A J-6 while in AFG. Basically, the focus for 25B is on the networking side. The classes, especially AIT, are suffering from a very long game of telephone (that's the one where everyone sits in a circle and a word is whispered from ear to ear and never comes out the same at the other end). I call it the inbreeding effect. Basically, there was an original group of people that were very very good at IT. They then went on to teach other soldiers (train the trainer)_. Unfortunately, the soldiers that they trained had a necessarily imperfect understanding of the material. Those Soldiers went on to train the next group of Soldiers, who had a necessarily imperfect understanding of an imperfect understanding. The cycle continued and until there is outside blood that comes in and refreshes the gene pool, the rate of defects (Soldiers that are not trained accurately and well enough to be useful) will continue to grow resulting in even less effective understanding. There is a small amount of fresh understanding coming in from the outside in the form of Millenials that had an interest before they came in, but the military indoctrination and military customs keep them from being effective. They are basically told to sit down, shut up, and do what that "experienced" NCO told them to do, even if they, the Privates, know it's wrong. And it can't be any other way with lives on the line. Who wants a fresh Private getting in the habit of telling NCOs that they're wrong, even if they really are?
The military has followed the same path as many of the large fortune companies and decided that it is cheaper to hire contractors than to raise the number of employees (military) to what would be needed, especially when you factor in the high attrition caused by Soldiers that think they will take that Military skill out into the civilian world and get rich. As a result, they've lost the organizational knowledge necessary to be self sufficient. Even if they did decide to try and switch back, it would take a minimum of 10 years before the force was trained well enough and had enough experience to entirely eliminate the contract positions. Self sufficiency, once lost, is extremely hard to regain especially in a workforce as large as the military.
It's that damn recruiter at the Red Lobster. He gets you all hopped up on Cheddar Bay Biscuits and you're ready to believe anything.
policemedic
Verified SWAT
Only if you become a paramedic, and that won't happen anywhere in the Army except SOF.
Civilian flight services will only hire EMTs to work in dispatch or to drive ground ambulances when the weather is too bad to fly.
In any case, I'm not sure the OP knows what he want to do. Randomly picking an MOS to get in so you can drop a 4187 for SFAS is a recipe for disaster in my view.
It is limited in the outside world, but that's why I mentioned JCU. Knowing what I know now, if I were to enlist on the 25 series side, I'd choose one of those and work to go JCU. Otherwise...if you want an IT career go in the AF. They get a TS and some schooling.
Brill
SOF Support
If you want to kill people and break their stuff, go anything 18-series.
If you want to enable them with information and brief their exploits while the 18-series are out killing people and breaking stuff (or training surrogates to do same), go 35-series.
If you want to become wealthy beyond your wildest dreams and moderate a website in your "off-time", go 25-series.
If you want to enable them with information and brief their exploits while the 18-series are out killing people and breaking stuff (or training surrogates to do same), go 35-series.
If you want to become wealthy beyond your wildest dreams and moderate a website in your "off-time", go 25-series.
Sapper-doc
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update:
Got a call from my recruiter today. He said I have to come in and resign abunch of stuff because it's now expired. Not sure what's going on over there because I thought my packet had already been sent up the chain. Trying to keep a cool head about it since I am at their mercy, but from what I understand my packet has never left the recruitment battalion.
On a good note, I gave myself a PT test the other day and trimmed almost another full minute off my run and increased in push-ups and sit-ups and can do 6 pull-ups from a dead hang. Maybe the foot-dragging will be beneficial in the long run.
Got a call from my recruiter today. He said I have to come in and resign abunch of stuff because it's now expired. Not sure what's going on over there because I thought my packet had already been sent up the chain. Trying to keep a cool head about it since I am at their mercy, but from what I understand my packet has never left the recruitment battalion.
On a good note, I gave myself a PT test the other day and trimmed almost another full minute off my run and increased in push-ups and sit-ups and can do 6 pull-ups from a dead hang. Maybe the foot-dragging will be beneficial in the long run.
TLDR20
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This is actually not accurate anymore. All flight medics become paramedics, and get things like CCAT, as well as flight specific specialties.
policemedic
Verified SWAT
I stand corrected.
Sapper-doc
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So...
I finally got a definitive answer on my situation.
Drum-roll please....
DISAPPROVED
Recruiting command denied my packet. They didn't comment as to why specifically, just the word "disapproved," was left in the comments section. I'm not really surprised by this, but I'm still a little disappointed. Some on here had warned me that this would be the most likely scenario and I accept it. My recruiter is a little upset though, he just wants to know exactly what was disapproved in case there is anything that we could fix and resubmit. He said he will continue to look into it.
In the meantime I'm most likely going to go for the following MOS 68W10M6. I'm a prior medic so I think this will give me the highest rate of success down the road in the med field. It may give me a little more medical proficiency to offer if I ever do have the honor of making a team.
Part of me wants to sign up for what ever has the shortest MOS just so I can get in and drop a packet, but I know that's probably a dumb idea.
I finally got a definitive answer on my situation.
Drum-roll please....
DISAPPROVED
Recruiting command denied my packet. They didn't comment as to why specifically, just the word "disapproved," was left in the comments section. I'm not really surprised by this, but I'm still a little disappointed. Some on here had warned me that this would be the most likely scenario and I accept it. My recruiter is a little upset though, he just wants to know exactly what was disapproved in case there is anything that we could fix and resubmit. He said he will continue to look into it.
In the meantime I'm most likely going to go for the following MOS 68W10M6. I'm a prior medic so I think this will give me the highest rate of success down the road in the med field. It may give me a little more medical proficiency to offer if I ever do have the honor of making a team.
Part of me wants to sign up for what ever has the shortest MOS just so I can get in and drop a packet, but I know that's probably a dumb idea.
policemedic
Verified SWAT
I thought they did away with ASIs in CMF 68. The LPN MOS is now 68C, if memory serves.
Sapper-doc
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That's what I thought too. How it's listed is 68C (68W10M6).
