Getting what you want in your contract I get many questions from recruits regarding their contract. I am not a recruiter or a job counselor at MEPS, but from the comments of other trainees and my own observations, I can offer some insight and some things to think about. While you are thinking about joing the Army, your first stop should be to see if you are even qualified to join! Whether you are joining the Active Army, Guard or Reserves, please stop by the About.com Standards of Enlistment. Requirements include things such as age, citizenship status, your family status, financial obligations, educational standards, drug/alcohol use, criminal history, weight, moral status, mental aptitude and medical standards. Some standards may be waiverable on a case by case basis. That means if you are ineligible at first glance, you still may be able to serve. A recruiter would be able to help you with the specifics in your case. If you want to read more about waivers, you can stop by Army Regulation 601-210 (check Chapter 4). If you have served in the military before, check your DD 214 to see what your re-enlistment code is. You will find an explanation of these codes here. It is possible that there may be some restrictions on you being able to serve again. Also, if you have been to MEPS before, you can expect that your information will be on file with the system for at least two years. All the services share their data, so if you were disqualified from one, you could be disqualified from another service as well. The medical standards can be tricky. There is a condensed list of conditions you may not enter the military with at About.com's Medical Standards of Enlistment. If you would like to see the regulation that covers ALL conditions in depth, then visit Army Regulation 40-501 Standards of Medical Fitness. Again, some conditions may be waiverable. If the Army believes you still may be able to serve, it will send you to get evaluated at their expense. Something to keep in mind though, if you have a chronic medical condition that requires medical supervision or the regular use of medication, your chances are slim to none that you will be accepted. I get a lot of questions from folks who have had asthma as a child (and have not used an inhalor since). As a general rule, asthma is a disqualifyer for service, BUT if you really want to serve, I would go to my doctor and get him to write up your entire asthma history from last episodes, medication, treatments and what your condition is now. Get a Pulmonary Function Test (PFT) done to see where you stand. Take all this paperwork with you when you go to MEPS. Again, do not lie when giving your medical history. I've heard of recruits also being sent to get a PFT at the Army's expense from MEPS. The bottom line with asthma is that it is a life threatening condition. Military life has lots of aggravators to asthma such as dust, stress and many environmental triggers. Not only may you be endangering your life, but your fellow soldier's as well. Before going to MEPS: Use the internet and the information your recruiter gives you to "read up" on all the MOSs available to you. You must also take into consideration your scoring on the ASVAB. This is a test the Army uses to determine if you are even qualified for military service and which MOS (career field) you are eligible for. Learn what the test means, what your score will tell you, as well as take a sample test online at the About.com website. Or check out this website for more ASVAB info. At About.com you will also find good MOS descriptions, as well as requirements for each MOS. Collect the ones that seem interesting to you. You might also want to think of those MOSs that have a good equivalent in the civilian world. Please don't let "well, this MOS has a higher bonus than this one" guide you into an MOS. You'll be miserable doing something you didn't even find interesting in your initial "look through". Also don't get into the mindset of "well, the AIT for this MOS is near my hometown". While in AIT, you will have zero time to go anywhere. You may get a pass here and there on a weekend, but these are limited and may only be for a few hours. It's not like you'll have lots of time for family and friends to come visit and vice versa. A DEPer from Iowa has done an excellent job of writing out all the steps you need to follow in joining the Army. His site can be found here. Now that you've got the MOS in mind, make sure you pick at least 3 backup MOSs that also sound good to you. Talk to folks you know in the military, go to the Military.com Army discussion board and use the search engine to find more info on a certain MOS (most have been discussed before in depth). You want to hear what others in that MOS have to say and how they like it. Granted most MOSs have similar day-to-day routines. Most units have vehicles, so expect to spend at least one day in the motorpool, servicing vehicles (and no you do not have to be a mechanic, every soldier learns basic motor vehicle maintenance skills). You'll spend another day servicing your equipment. If you're Intell or Commo, you'll have lots of stuff to service and keep running. Expect to do PT pretty much every morning, sometimes more in the grunt (Infantry) units. Thursday morning, Army-wide is typically "Sergeant's Time". This is when your squad leader can concentrate on reinforcing and training skills that are specific to your MOS and the "wartime" tasks of your squad. Many units also let you go home an hour early or so on Thursdays also. The rest of the week can be spent doing mindless details (especially for the lower enlisted soldier). You'll do stuff like mowing grass, post beautification, etc. If you're an admin MOS, you'll be doing that the rest of the week. If you have a lot of vehicles and equipment in your unit, you'll be down at the motorpool or in your equipment storage area. If you're Infantry, expect lots of ruckmarches and MOS-specific tasks when you are not doing details. Also throughout the year, you'll have classes that every soldier will be trained on, such as sexual harrassment, equal opportunity, etc. You'll also regularly qualify with your assigned weapon and go to ranges. Of course, being in the Army, you will have a chance to go and do your "wartime tasks" in a training environment. This is called going to the field. Combat MOSs tend to do more of this, but don't think because you have a support MOS that you won't have a lot of field time. How often you go also depends on what kind of unit you are assigned to also. In addition to training time in the field (sometimes local, sometimes much farther away, such as the National Training Center in Caligornia and JRTC in Louisiana), your unit may get deployed overseas, such as in Afghanistan, the former Yugoslavia, etc...up to 6 months. I think you get the idea now:-)) One other thing I would like to point out about your trip to MEPS. Do not knowingly lie about a past medical condition (especially if it's in your civilian medical records) or about your criminal history (if you have one). It is always easier to apply for a waiver than to enter the Army and then be found out later (such as during a security check or follow-up doctor visit, etc) and then to get discharged for fraudulent enlistment. I don't care what your recruiter tells you. Do not lie about your past. When you end up in the "hot seat" your recruiter won't be able to help you, and you could throw away a career not because of what you did or had but because you lied. Just something to keep in mind. There were quite a few recruits who were doing well in BT who I had to discharge because during their security check for their clearance, they were found out to have lied (and yes, juvenile records can be unsealed by the Army). I would also like to put in a word here about security background checks. Depending on the level of security required by your MOS, you will have either a simple check or a lengthy one that costs a lot and can last up to a year! To get an idea of what kinds of things will be checked, you can see the Adjudicative Guidelines. The more involved background checks will be conducted by the Defense Security Service. There is also a good article on security clearances located here. So, now you have your top 3-4 MOSs. Now you may want to think about any "extras" you would like. You can read more about the different Army enlistment options here. Many new recruits want to see the world and ask for Overseas Duty or even a specific location (ie Europe) can be requested. This is a great way to start out! Lots of great opportunities overseas, not just travelling (each post has many programs that allow you to travel just about anywhere at low-cost), but also friendship opportunities with other countries' armed forces. Lots of opportunities to receive special awards, train with other armies, receive foreign badges, etc. You can also think about any special skills identifiers such as Ranger and Airborne. If you want to go Ranger or Airborne, I highly suggest you get it in your contract, as you can almost forget it if you decide while in basic or AIT. Any MOS can go Airborne, but if you go to a non-Airborne unit after AIT and then decide to go Airborne, it's almost impossible to get it then..so plan for it now. Stop by the unofficial Army Airborne School site as well as the official Army Airbone School at Ft Benning to see what the training consists of. This year, they have also added the option of Special Forces. This is actually not a skill identifier but an MOS. Lots of rigorous training involved and the selection rate is very low, but if you pass all the training/evaluations/schools your MOS will be Special Forces upon completion. Read more about this new option in this discussion, "What Is up with this new Green Beret enlistment option". If you think you may be interested in going to Ranger School, find out what the training is like and also what the prerequisites are to get in! If you want to be a Ranger as soon as possible, you have to be in one of the Infantry MOSs, then on to Basic & AIT for Infantry, then if you pass you will head over to the Airborne School. If you pass Airborne you will then go to RIP (Ranger Indoctrination Program), not Ranger School. This course, also at Ft Benning, is a 3 week selection process that entails ALOT of PT, more patrolling skills, a combat water survival test, more PT, 5 mile run in under 40 minutes, Ranger history, and more physical training. Here is a list of tasks that you must be proficient in before heading off to Ranger School. Check it out here. There is also a recruit who took the time to talk about his airborne and RIP training. You can find his account here. Be sure to stop by and visit Armyranger.com. If you make it thru RIP AND are successful in your job while assigned to one of the Ranger Battalions AND if you are dedicated enough to make it, you will then be assigned to one of the three Ranger Battalions or 75th Regimental HQ. You will be there 3 months to a year before going to Ranger school. You must prove yourself to them before they will send you to Ranger school. You will be what they call a scrolled Ranger at this point. Getting to a Ranger Battalion is not the hard part, staying in it is. When they decide to send you and you successfully complete Ranger School you will then and ONLY then wear the Ranger Tab on your uniform. So, now you know what you want and have an idea of what to expect. Let your job counselor at MEPS know what you want. DO NOT LET HIM GUIDE YOU INTO AN MOS YOU DON'T WANT!!! You are under absolutely no obligation to take what he/she offers you. He has a mission to fill certain MOSs, and he will do his best to get you in there, wherever. If you do decide to consider what he offers, tell him you want to think about it. If you do get what you want, there is nothing wrong with requesting to take the contract back with you to read over to make sure you didn't miss anything. He will probably grumble and such, but remember, it is your life and not his! So be sure it's what you want BEFORE you sign. I've even talked to a few recruits who took their parent with them when they signed the contract. I've also talked to recruits who walked away from what was offered and were called the next day to come back and get what they wanted. Some enterprising recruits even downloaded the class lists for the MOS and AIT that they wanted and took that to the counselor after being told there were no slots in their MOS and were able to get what they wanted. You can do this here (or see on the left of this page). Being persistent does pay off. If anyone can think of any other great advice that has worked for them, please email me or post on the message board. |
