I apologize in advance for the length, below is some information on the rather unique situation I am currently in. If you are unable to read it all due to its length I've put my questions at the end to try ease the burden. Thank you in advance.
I’m an Army prior-service E-4 (11B) with 3 years 4 months of AFS and a 1 1/2 break in service. I went to MEPS yesterday and passed my physical/Airborne physical. I was hoping to get an 11x Option 40 contract. However, due to me being MOS qualified it wasn’t available to me. According to the career counselor I spoke to, people who are MOS qual’d need to be sent straight to operational units and cannot receive any option. Usually I’d take a career counselors word for it but he’s an older retiree and he seems to have some confusion on RASP vs. Ranger School.“You don’t need to be a Ranger, people get Option 40s all the time only to go to Ranger School and get sent back their original unit. A tab isn’t going to guarantee placement in a Ranger unit.” Which to my understanding isn't technically wrong information, but it pertains to Ranger School as opposed to Ranger Selection.
I was then offered 13F option 40 as a replacement which would have been incredible news but, unfortunately the ship date came much sooner than expected. I had a letter of enrollment from my college with an estimated completion date in December of 2019 in the system that was sent it a month prior to my MEPS visit, but I was told it wasn't possible for me to ship in 2020 at all. I spent the next couple hours trying to inform my fiance that this may be my only shot and that I would have to cut school short and leave much earlier than we had initially prepared.
At this point my recruiters were called to drive to MEPS at the behest of the MEPS Sergeant Major who was wondering why I was taking so long to sign. Finally, I was able to get in contact with my fiance and explain the situation, she was supportive and everything seemed like it would work out well. I was ready to sign when the counselor stopped and saw my MEPS Physical(DD form 2808). He, saw "FAIL" in one of the vision boxes and immediately DQ'd me for Airborne for Red/Green colorblindness. During my vision portion I failed the PIP test (the dots that make up numbers) but, passed the FALANT test (red,white, and green lights), the red and green vivids test and got signed off by the MEPS physician as being qualified to attend airborne.
I was very confused because the physician cleared me. Everyone in the building was losing their patience because they were getting pressure from higher. I was afraid that I may not be able to come back to this MEPS location if I had walked away, so I signed a reservation for 11x with an assignment of choice with literal minutes before the control desk closed and my process was stopped due to COB for finger prints. The only other MEPS nearby required a memorandum for Prior Service and I couldn't afford to go out of state if my recruiters "blacklisted" me.
On my way home I read the a MEPS publication stating that only one of the 3 tests needs to be passed in order to prove that you can distinguish red and green. I pointed out the mistake to my recruiter and told him that I believed I was falsely DQ'd. Now I’m in the process of trying to renegotiate the reservation and I'm hoping to see that 13F option again.
Questions: Is the 13F Option 40 my best option to become a Ranger (its a great MOS, but if possible I would like to keep my MOS)?
Or is it a mistake on that MOS qual’d 11B cannot get an Option 40?
I called 75th Ranger Recruiting and the Sergeant I spoke to told me it was an option available to PS, but when I mentioned it to the career counselor he said that it essentially didn't matter what the 75th Ranger Recruiter said and that the option isn't available if you hold the MOS already.
According to the HRC business rules anyone E1-E4 with less than 48 months of service can enlist "Training of Choice."
Apologies again if its too long or hard to follow, writing isn't exactly. Any information at all is appreciated, thank you in advance.
- mod edit to make the post more readable and give the OP a better chance to have his question answered -
I’m an Army prior-service E-4 (11B) with 3 years 4 months of AFS and a 1 1/2 break in service. I went to MEPS yesterday and passed my physical/Airborne physical. I was hoping to get an 11x Option 40 contract. However, due to me being MOS qualified it wasn’t available to me. According to the career counselor I spoke to, people who are MOS qual’d need to be sent straight to operational units and cannot receive any option. Usually I’d take a career counselors word for it but he’s an older retiree and he seems to have some confusion on RASP vs. Ranger School.“You don’t need to be a Ranger, people get Option 40s all the time only to go to Ranger School and get sent back their original unit. A tab isn’t going to guarantee placement in a Ranger unit.” Which to my understanding isn't technically wrong information, but it pertains to Ranger School as opposed to Ranger Selection.
I was then offered 13F option 40 as a replacement which would have been incredible news but, unfortunately the ship date came much sooner than expected. I had a letter of enrollment from my college with an estimated completion date in December of 2019 in the system that was sent it a month prior to my MEPS visit, but I was told it wasn't possible for me to ship in 2020 at all. I spent the next couple hours trying to inform my fiance that this may be my only shot and that I would have to cut school short and leave much earlier than we had initially prepared.
At this point my recruiters were called to drive to MEPS at the behest of the MEPS Sergeant Major who was wondering why I was taking so long to sign. Finally, I was able to get in contact with my fiance and explain the situation, she was supportive and everything seemed like it would work out well. I was ready to sign when the counselor stopped and saw my MEPS Physical(DD form 2808). He, saw "FAIL" in one of the vision boxes and immediately DQ'd me for Airborne for Red/Green colorblindness. During my vision portion I failed the PIP test (the dots that make up numbers) but, passed the FALANT test (red,white, and green lights), the red and green vivids test and got signed off by the MEPS physician as being qualified to attend airborne.
I was very confused because the physician cleared me. Everyone in the building was losing their patience because they were getting pressure from higher. I was afraid that I may not be able to come back to this MEPS location if I had walked away, so I signed a reservation for 11x with an assignment of choice with literal minutes before the control desk closed and my process was stopped due to COB for finger prints. The only other MEPS nearby required a memorandum for Prior Service and I couldn't afford to go out of state if my recruiters "blacklisted" me.
On my way home I read the a MEPS publication stating that only one of the 3 tests needs to be passed in order to prove that you can distinguish red and green. I pointed out the mistake to my recruiter and told him that I believed I was falsely DQ'd. Now I’m in the process of trying to renegotiate the reservation and I'm hoping to see that 13F option again.
Questions: Is the 13F Option 40 my best option to become a Ranger (its a great MOS, but if possible I would like to keep my MOS)?
Or is it a mistake on that MOS qual’d 11B cannot get an Option 40?
I called 75th Ranger Recruiting and the Sergeant I spoke to told me it was an option available to PS, but when I mentioned it to the career counselor he said that it essentially didn't matter what the 75th Ranger Recruiter said and that the option isn't available if you hold the MOS already.
According to the HRC business rules anyone E1-E4 with less than 48 months of service can enlist "Training of Choice."
Apologies again if its too long or hard to follow, writing isn't exactly. Any information at all is appreciated, thank you in advance.
- mod edit to make the post more readable and give the OP a better chance to have his question answered -
Last edited by a moderator: