Catholicsm and the Military

[maxdouglas402]

Originally Posted by Armyvet007

OP-

When you talk to the recruiter-
1. See 1-3 of my prior post.
2. Make sure he understands you have no interest in the signing up if you can not be the MOS you want [Even if this is not completely true]. The recruiter isn't there to help you, he/she is there to help the service fill the service's needs. They aren't your "friend". Walk away if you have to [this dependant on family/fiscal situtation].
3. Your timing on wanting to sign up does not work in your favor in terms of how much the recruiter will work to get you what you want [high school graduation tends to glut the market on the number of people wanting to get into the services].
4. Don't sign up for something you do not want to do. You'll be stuck with it for the rest of your military career [it is extremely hard to change your MOS; or at least it was at the time of my medical retirement].
5. Figure out what you want from the military [career, college money, career and college money]. If you want a career- go active, college money-NG or Reserves, both- I'd say active, but I'm not really an unbiased source [silly guard and reserves].

ASVAB-
1. As far as I know you can take it as many times as you need.
2. Your score on the ASVAB is directly related to how well you take multiple choice tests [i.e. you guess well]. That is if they haven't changed the format too much from what it was when I took it [4 possible answers, 2 of which are obviously wrong]
3. Don't freak/stress yourself out over it.

Army chaplain assistant-
1. Don't expect to be assigned to a Catholic chaplain.
2. Don't expect to be heavly involved with the religous aspect of the chaplain's duties. That's his job, your job is to set the conditions [i.e. deal with all the BS and paperwork] so he can do his job.
3. Expect to be a secretary, "the" non-religous administrator for the chaplain team, a "gofer", a bodyguard, a "minder" [the person in charge of making sure the chaplain doesn't forget about his non-religous duties/responsibilities], the "odd job" guy, etc.
4. Being a chaplain's assistant isn't as bad as 1-3 make out. During both my enlisted and "dark side" time I noticed that the chaplain assistant had a good deal of independance, got to do a lot of non-sucky stuff with/for the chaplain, and could generally get away with a lot of stuff as long as a) he kept his nose clean b) kept the chaplain and the HHT 1SG [his 1SG] happy c) kept the chaplain out of trouble [see the second sentence in 2].
5. If you can, do your best to get assigned to a Squadron level unit. More fun stuff, less BS paperwork.
6. You'll go through basic and AIT at FT. Jackson [also known as "Relaxin Jackson"] I went there for basic, it's not that hard if you remember it's all a mental game. Try to avoid going during the rainy season [mud sucks, it sucks more in basic]. Start getting into shape now [push ups, sit ups, running].

ok, because when i talked to the recruiter he was telling me "you might not get the job you want, i was assigned to infantry my first four years and i just had to deal with it" so basically he was telling me i dont get to choose. and quick question, when i go to sign the documents to enlist, will it show what specialist position i will be going to the ongoing training for or will i have to wait until after basic to find out? another question, can i go to school while on active duty? i was planning on making a career out of the Air Force as a mental health specialist while going to school to earn my masters in counseling, specifically chemical dependency counseling. but the Army offers the same position and i would like to have the experience if I dont get the assistant chaplain position.

[Armyvet007]

Originally Posted by maxdouglas402

ok, because when i talked to the recruiter he was telling me "you might not get the job you want, i was assigned to infantry my first four years and i just had to deal with it" so basically he was telling me i dont get to choose.

That would be an example of the recruiter feeding you a line of BS with some truth within it [it is possible to switch your MOS, it's just very hard to do. I knew of only 1 guy who was able to do it and it wasn't easy or a common event. Don't let yourself be an "easy sell." Play hardball [this dependant on your need to get in]. Your recruiter doesn't have to live with the choices you make, all he cares about is his quota/mission. If he won't help you, talk to the officer in charge of the recruiting station [his/her job performance isn't directly tied to how many people he/she enlists].

and quick question, when i go to sign the documents to enlist, will it show what specialist position i will be going to the ongoing training for or will i have to wait until after basic to find out?

Yes, it will show what MOS you are enlisting for, your term of service, and any "bonus" [money, college money] you get. If your paperwork shows you enlisting as an 11B [infantry] for 6 years active and a bonus of 1,000 dollars that's what you get. My enlistment contract specified 96B [Intel Analyst], 4 years [active, all Army initial enlistments are for 8 years], a couple thousand bonus money. That's what I got. Had it stated 11B instead of 96B I would have been a trigger puller and blank out of luck on becoming a 96B.


another question, can i go to school while on active duty?

Yes and no. No if you mean full time; while there are some programs that let you go full time for a semester, these programs are linked with reenlistment. Yes if you mean online courses and night courses. The Army was making a big push for education [specifically online courses] when I got out ['08]. I don't know much about them since by then I already had my MA and wasn't interested in additional or higher degrees. There are also programs for getting tuition reduced and/or partially paid for. Success in getting your degree while in is linked to how much effort you place in getting it [you have to work for it].

i was planning on making a career out of the Air Force as a mental health specialist while going to school to earn my masters in counseling, specifically chemical dependency counseling.

I have no clue how the Air Force operates. All I really know is that it takes better overall care of its enlisted members and thinks calling your superior by his/her first name is ok [the last being part truth and part joke].

but the Army offers the same position and i would like to have the experience if I dont get the assistant chaplain position.

All I can say on this is to make sure you know what you want out of the military and what you are getting yourself into in regards to each service. My dad is retired Army, I'm retired Army, but we both agree that if my kids want to serve we are going to push them toward the Air Force. It's not that we are bitter, it's just that we know there is a big difference between the two in regards to quality of life.

-You mentioned getting your MA. Do you already have a BA? If so, have you looked into ROTC? I enlisted after college [I wanted to earn my stripes] then used ROTC to get my MA and commission [Army Green to Gold program].

-Depending on your buddy's rank and position in the Air NG you might want to see if he can arrange a meeting between you and his unit's re-enlistment officer [he knows "the inside dope" and has no reason to lie to you about it] and/or the chaplain assistant [whose been through the process and has even less reason to lie to you]. But, I only suggest that if it won't get your buddy in trouble or unwanted attention.

[maxdouglas402]

Armyvet007 I would like to join the Air Force but the Air Force recruiters have been shut down for sometime now i constantly have been trying to contact them but they wont get back to me. I would like to ask my friend for help but i have two mips and a possible marijuana possession charge that could make him look bad.. the recruiter told me i couldn't (the recruiter just called me as im typing this) join because of the marijuana possession but i called district and county court and my record is clean from that charge and one of my mips were dropped. any last minute advice before i leave to go over the details?!?!

[DebChris]

Originally Posted by maxdouglas402

thank you for all the advice DebChris i will definitely choose reserves over guard. and i wouldnt mind holding a gun to protect someone i just would feel bad if i shot someone and to what your were saying about marriage; basically your saying because of military regulations I would be unable to marry a woman outside of the US? not like i was planning on it but i was just wondering. and did your husband enjoy the position of assistant chaplain? what were the benefits of working beside the priest?

You can marry a woman outside the US. There is just a lot of red tape. Regulations are in place to protect against gold diggers. As mentioned earlier, one of my brothers was a civilian who had already completed his military service when he married. My other brother, who made a career out of the Army, did marry while overseas as a member of the military.
My husband did not really talk much about his active duty service. He spent two tours of duty in Vietnam. Much of what he told me remains within the confidence of spouses. Soldiers rarely talk about their experience during war. This was as true for my husband as it was for my father. It was outside sources who actually told me how close he really was to the front line. I don't think he even knows that I know.

Originally Posted by maxdouglas402

ok, because when i talked to the recruiter he was telling me "you might not get the job you want, i was assigned to infantry my first four years and i just had to deal with it" so basically he was telling me i dont get to choose. and quick question, when i go to sign the documents to enlist, will it show what specialist position i will be going to the ongoing training for or will i have to wait until after basic to find out? another question, can i go to school while on active duty? i was planning on making a career out of the Air Force as a mental health specialist while going to school to earn my masters in counseling, specifically chemical dependency counseling. but the Army offers the same position and i would like to have the experience if I dont get the assistant chaplain position.

You should know during the enlistment process what your MOS will be. Just before I resigned from the Reserves, the Army was settling up programs so that soldiers could complete both Basic and AIT on the same post, in some cases not even changing units. AIT is the advanced training the soldier gets in his/her specialty. It has been years since I was in the military. The recruiter may ask for your three top choices. The unspoken choice is "military need."
You can take courses while on active duty. The military is not a 9-5 job, so scheduling studies can be difficult. There are extension courses and other amenities on most posts. These amenities include recreational facilities such as gyms, swimming pools, and craft shops. Many senior NCOs have college degrees earned while on active duty.
As a Reservist, I worked one weekend a month plus two weeks per year while pursuing my BS in physical education. I was also a mother when I enlisted.
There is a low cap on how high you can progress within the military ranking system as a chaplain's assistant. You will find more advancement opportunities within the medical MOS's. If you stand out, in terms of ability, there is also the possibility that your commanding officer (or First Sergeant) will note your potential and recommend additional schooling for you. The more schooling, offered by the military, that you get, the greater your potential for advancement. Some military courses do carry additional obligation. After all they are investing in you and want a return on that investment.
When I last saw him, my uncle told me it was the Navy that sent him to dental school.

[Armyvet007]

Originally Posted by maxdouglas402

Armyvet007 I would like to join the Air Force but the Air Force recruiters have been shut down for sometime now i constantly have been trying to contact them but they wont get back to me. I would like to ask my friend for help but i have two mips and a possible marijuana possession charge that could make him look bad.. the recruiter told me i couldn't (the recruiter just called me as im typing this) join because of the marijuana possession but i called district and county court and my record is clean from that charge and one of my mips were dropped. any last minute advice before i leave to go over the details?!?!

I have no clue on the drug stuff. It should be workable as long as they aren't felonies and have been taken care of [not on probation, etc]. But that's just a guess on my part.

The only other advice I can think of is to not let them talk you into something you don't want to do [which includes lying by omittion (you get in trouble not them if you caught lying)]. Good luck.

[maxdouglas402]

Originally Posted by Armyvet007

I have no clue on the drug stuff. It should be workable as long as they aren't felonies and have been taken care of [not on probation, etc]. But that's just a guess on my part.

The only other advice I can think of is to not let them talk you into something you don't want to do [which includes lying by omittion (you get in trouble not them if you caught lying)]. Good luck.

well i basically wasnt able to stand up for myself and say i didnt want to do the job he told me about. he said i have two choices for Army Reserve; truck driver, or fuel the trucks. I took about a 5 minutes ASVAB pretest and he said i dont apply for any of the other job. i go in next Wednesday to take it again, but i dont think the benefits outweigh going every single weekend to fuel trucks.. im happy but upset

[Armyvet007]

Originally Posted by maxdouglas402

well i basically wasnt able to stand up for myself and say i didnt want to do the job he told me about. he said i have two choices for Army Reserve; truck driver, or fuel the trucks. I took about a 5 minutes ASVAB pretest and he said i dont apply for any of the other job. i go in next Wednesday to take it again, but i dont think the benefits outweigh going every single weekend to fuel trucks.. im happy but upset

Don't feel too bad. Recruiters make used car salesmen look like amatuers. I got lucky and had a retired SGM with me when I went. As for job selection, you're going to be more limited in what you can get when dealing with the Reserves and Guard. They have a limited set of MOSs to begin with and then throw in retention rates, the economy, and it being just after high school graduation and this set of available slots shrink even more. One of the reasons I went Active over Guard was due to my desire to be a 96B [very few slots for that in my state's Guard units].

I have no clue as to the 5 minute pretest or it's usefullness [when I enlisted in '99 they either didn't have it or that office didn't use it]. There are plenty of free sites online that let you take it or practice exams [only do the ones that are FREE and don't require you to send/give any information]. I say take some between now and next Wed and try again [I took a practice one looking for the 5 minute pretest you mentioned, apparently all my years of college and time in the Army has made me dumber then I was in '99]. If you don't like the results, DON'T sign anything, thank them and tell them bye or you'll be back to try again [if you are persistent enough about only wanting X job and keep coming back they'll get the hint and do their best to help you]. Whatever you do, don't let them talk you into signing up for a job you don't like.

[AthenaC]

armyvet - you said you were an analyst earlier - if I may ask, how long ago was this and where were you stationed? I am wondering whether or not we might have inadvertently crossed paths.

[Armyvet007]

Originally Posted by AthenaC

armyvet - you said you were an analyst earlier - if I may ask, how long ago was this and where were you stationed? I am wondering whether or not we might have inadvertently crossed paths.

I was at Huachuca for AIT for the first part of 2000 and at Hood until mid '02 [1-7CAV]. The only Air Force I really interacted with was after I went over to the dark side [which was also at Hood]; but that interaction was extremely limited.

[AthenaC]

Originally Posted by Armyvet007

I was at Huachuca for AIT for the first part of 2000 and at Hood until mid '02 [1-7CAV]. The only Air Force I really interacted with was after I went over to the dark side [which was also at Hood]; but that interaction was extremely limited.

Well I did tag along with some Army folk at Ft. Hood right around that time frame, but you're probably right - I doubt we would have crossed paths. I went to DLI in Monterey from mid '00 - end of '01, then Goodfellow AFB (San Angelo, TX) in '02, then Kunia (HI) for a year.

Typical Chinese 1N3 (that's Air Force for 98B).

[airforcemom]

We are a Catholic/Military family - my dad had over 25 years (Army, Guard, Air Force) and is a veterans of 3 wars, my brother is now in the AF Reserves having completed his AF career, I have two sons and a daughter-in-law in the Air Force, and my oldest grandson is deciding which branch he will go in when he graduates next year. The two have worked out well for our family. If you want to join the military then go ahead - main thing is make sure you get to Mass when you can and select your friends carefully.

[maxdouglas402]

i will airforcemom, ive already had to get rid of some of my former military friends because they were getting in trouble.

i see what you mean armyvet, i wont sign anything unless i have the position i want, and ive been studying and studying ever since ive been home. I'm disappointed in myself for doing so poorly on the pretest, Im also upset the recruiter persuade me into the benefits only and then forgetting the whole reason why i went to join the military, which is TO SERVE!!! i have a few questions about retirement and things of that nature but i need to figure out if I can get the career i want first.

any advice for good Army reserve jobs where i can help others? and that dont require any extremely high asvab scores. (i have been out of school for over a year now, not to mention i didnt take my senior year of high school too seriously)

[Armyvet007]

Originally Posted by maxdouglas402

i will airforcemom, ive already had to get rid of some of my former military friends because they were getting in trouble.

i see what you mean armyvet, i wont sign anything unless i have the position i want, and ive been studying and studying ever since ive been home. I'm disappointed in myself for doing so poorly on the pretest, Im also upset the recruiter persuade me into the benefits only and then forgetting the whole reason why i went to join the military, which is TO SERVE!!! i have a few questions about retirement and things of that nature but i need to figure out if I can get the career i want first.

any advice for good Army reserve jobs where i can help others? and that dont require any extremely high asvab scores. (i have been out of school for over a year now, not to mention i didnt take my senior year of high school too seriously)

You tried, you failed, pick yourself up and try again. At AIT I had to hide in my room for a couple of weekends studying becuase I couldn't firgure out a part of my training. If it helps pretests are easy to fail. They have a limited number of questions [the fewer questions increases the extremes of the grading curve and decreases the median; miss 4 out of 10 score a 60, miss 4 out of 20 score a 80] and have to incorporate a broad range of subjects [I'd fail a pretest if 4 of 10 questions dealt with anything mechanical or technical and got all the others right]. It's a learning experience, learn from it.

Don't get too upset with the recruiter. He has a job to do, part of that is getting people to sign up, and part of getting signatures involves "bending the truth"/creating confusion.

I don't have any real info on the Reserves or the Guard. As to jobs that help others I assume you mean that their primary function is helping others [all MOSs help others to a degree, the military is a team based organization]. The one that jumps to mind is a Combat Medic [God bless all of them], but I would think long and hard before signing up for that one. Anything in the medical field in general, civil affairs [they are mainly Reserve], a lot of the Combat Service Support MOSs help others more so then Combat and Combat Support MOSs. I don't know how the Air Force does handles its MOS structure so I can't really help you in regards to them.

[maxdouglas402]

Originally Posted by Armyvet007

Don't get too upset with the recruiter. He has a job to do, part of that is getting people to sign up, and part of getting signatures involves "bending the truth"/creating confusion.

i could definitely see this lol ^^^^

that was actually the job i was looking to get 68W health care specialist. Hopefully i can get a 104 in general technical and a 101 in skilled technician on my ASVAB.If i didnt score high enough to get this job my second choice is 68X mental health specialist where i only need to score a 101 skilled technician. If those both don't fall through i think i might enjoy being an assistant chaplain.

Any others that you know of?

[DebChris]

Originally Posted by maxdouglas402

i could definitely see this lol ^^^^

that was actually the job i was looking to get 68W health care specialist. Hopefully i can get a 104 in general technical and a 101 in skilled technician on my ASVAB.If i didnt score high enough to get this job my second choice is 68X mental health specialist where i only need to score a 101 skilled technician. If those both don't fall through i think i might enjoy being an assistant chaplain.

Any others that you know of?

Are you debating between active duty and Reserves? The Reserves does have medical units. When it comes to the Army Reserves, you need to look at what units are near where you live. The MOS's available will be dependent on the unit's particular mission.
I was a member of an Infantry Training unit. When I moved, the unit to which I belonged was a Civil Affairs unit. If your local unit is a transportation unit, then you could expect the available MOS's to be related to transportation--mechanic, truck driver, etc.
If you are active duty, on the other hand, the military will transfer you to the unit that matches or needs your MOS.
Chaplain's assistant would be an active duty MOS.