Meehhhh... Awkward situation I put myself in.....

[Shenzou]

I don't really know where this should go........

So yeah... On Monday a couple of marine talked to me to see if I wanted to talk to a recruiter. And I said yeah cause I didn't have anything better to do. So yesterday I go to their office and they pretty much tell me what the marines "can do you me" and what I want to here. After telling all that stuff which sounded pretty decent, they make me take this aptitude test to see if I qualify and honestly any grammar nazi that knows basic math could've passed. I got a 77, I was told that's pretty good and I qualify for over 300 jobs that the marines offer and that the average person scores like a 30. After that they asked me if I wanted to stay in America or travel. And the handful of people here know that I want to live in Japan. The recruiter told me that I could be based over there, along with them telling me that I could be a mechanic and work on the cars at their bases and what not. Again something I want to here, but it doesn't mean they'll send me there just because I want to be there. Well in all honesty, I don't have a problem signing up and doing basic training. But, I'm really skeptical about it because they said that if I joined the reserves (dudes that don't go to war and stay home) I'd have to go to basic training after the upcoming fall semester and by then I'd already be half to my associates and we know that the government doesn't always do what they say. I'm not taking a shot at people that are marines, I just don't trust what I'm being told cause its probably exactly what I want to here. And if I don't look into it with a magnifying glass, I could end up screwed over and not being able to go back to college. The only other things that have me iffy about it, the first one is that buzz cut not a fan of it, plus I like having slightly long and messy hair. Second, I don't like America actually I hate America and you know you can't say that in a room full of marines in a recruitment office. It's like walking to through a neighborhood in the south holding up a sign that says NASCAR sucks. But, yeah I know this has kind of gotten pointlessly long and I just want to know more or less what'd you guys do if you were me, cause it sounds good on paper like they told me but like when I sat and thought about it at home it sounded sketchy.

[Yuki]

i can't read that block enter key

[Maelstrom]

Well, Sven, I'm glad you asked.

You can get stationed over in Japan and be a vehicle mechanic. But you have to make sure that stuff is written in your contract. And they'll only draw up your contract after you go through most of the administrative hoops first. Which reminds me- did you take the asvab or the practice one they have on the recruiter's computers? Cuz you'd have to take the real, official test at the meps station on post. And generally you do your medical evaluations during the rest of the day at the same building. Then they tell you what's available for you and generate your contract.

Read through your contract and make sure your chosen job is stated in there, and that you will be stationed in Japan after completion of your training. If you do go through with it, they may offer you bonuses to enlist for longer. I would highly advise sticking with the basic 3 or 4 year contract. That way you can decide whether or not to stay in, and if you re-enlist, it's like signing the initial contract again and you can get it in writing to re-enlist and stay in the same place, or go somewhere else you want to go. This way gives you choice, and you want maximum choice because after you sign, the military will make a lot of choices for you and you will dislike the vast majority of them.

Whether enlisting or re-enlisting, they may try to low-ball you. Know exactly what you want and don't settle for anything else. They've got different quotas for different jobs as well as for overall enlistments so a lot of guys will tell you the wrong things and try to convince you that something isn't available right now and that this or that job could be fun for you too. Don't buy it. Just leave and tell 'em to call you when it becomes available. Slots open and close, and update every month if not every couple of weeks. If they suddenly double check and find that it just updated and they found an open slot you wanted... well, triple check your contract.

Reserves and national guard DO get deployed and pretty often. A reserve unit of MPs was deployed in the major city in our area of Afghan while we mostly covered all the smaller towns and borders. But with the drawdown and all that, the likelihood of that is small and growing even smaller. And in any case, mechanics are pretty well protected even if they go to the front line little places where they stay and maintain the infantry's vehicles.

As for going to basic training then coming back for college- the reserves and national guard are totally legit with that shit, but to be sure you'd best make sure it's in your contract. And even if something crazy were to go on overseas or nationally, if you're in the program they can't deploy you or send you anywhere else until after you get your degree. When I was in the guard, it was split up to do basic training in the summer so you don't miss semesters, and then if your particular job training won't take too long, you'll also go through training for that during that summer too. If it would be too long and interfere with the starting dates for the next fall semester, you go to school as the priority and go to your job training during the next summer. No school missed.

Also, do you have college credits already or will have some by the time you figure you might join? That and some other things can determine what rank you will start off as when you join. If you have so many credits, you can start as an E-3 or E-2. I think you'd have to have a degree already to go in as an e4, so yeah, that's probably right out of the question. If you don't have any, there's still some other stuff you can do to enter into the army as a higher rank than the super basic E-1. (You'd have to ask 'em specifically what you'd have to do, but I'm pretty sure passing the full pt test before going to basic training is one way, and there are some training things through the recruiting station you can do and you'll get promoted for getting that stuff done). The higher you are when you start, the better. Mostly for pay reasons, of course. You'll all go through the same basic training and do the same shit, but they'll get paid more.

I'm pretty sure that aptitude test you took was at least a practice ASVAB test. And if it was, the average score being 30 is... really, really bad. xD. That's like scraping the minimum accepted score.

The highest possible score for it is 99, but the composite scores that actually give a measure of aptitude in different subjects (like physical or electrical mechanics, medical, math, and such) will go much higher.

Can you guess my asvab score?

And it's not really like I joined the army to serve my country. And you can grow longish hair back later. In basic training, you will be skin-blade bald.

[Shenzou]

Mael, yeah it was the practice asvab test I took at the recruitment office yesterday, even for the math section of it was not that hard (I took remedial math in my first semester). So pretty much boils down to how my contract is drawn up and doing the fine reading to make sure that I'm getting what I asked for and wanted, because I talked to my mom about me considering it as an option. She mentioned that one of her co-workers sons joined the marines and when he wanted to register for St.John's (Well known university in NYC) and have them pay his tuition, and apparently he was told that there was no money to pay for his tuition and he couldn't register. I can only assume that it interfered with his contract and that he didn't do any fine reading or something like that. Going back to the asvab test I'm pretty sure that I can pass that one with no problem, the only two possible things that could prevent me from joining is the medical exam, because I have a bad shoulder that I destroyed from playing too much handball and the other being how much do I really want to join.Either way whether I qualify or not, this is one of those things that I really have to do a lot of thinking and weighing out my options depending on what is available to me.

Ehhhh...... Knowing that I'm going to be skin blade bald, only if I pass all the qualifications and go through with it, is going to remind me of bad memories of 6th grade....

[Maelstrom]

For a while, they stopped/altered the circumstances for getting tuition assistance because of the deficit and budget changes. From what I've seen of the army times headlines, they've eased up on restrictions and what not. Your contract shouldn't have anything to do with you getting TA or not. I used it myself while I was in the Guard. But you'd definitely have to double check with recruiters/have them escort you to the financial office to find out directly from the people who would know best as to who is allowed/qualified to use it. Since you wouldn't be active duty, it seems like there should be little to no reason for you not to get tuition assistance.

The actual asvab will be longer (and I think includes more sections) than the practice ones they have. Same difficulty though, so you shouldn't have a problem. The main score that they told you really only includes the english and math related sections, and doesn't include the science and other questions on the test. The other main score they look at to determine aptitude for most jobs is the GT score, at least for the army.

Looking at this seems to say the marines actually use the other composite scores more than I know that the Air Force and Army do. Passing the asvab is a piece of cake. But sometimes people miss cut-off scores for the jobs they really want.

[Shenzou]

Yeah, I was pretty confused from looking at the required scores, but from what I saw I'd need at least a 105 to be able to qualify to be a mechanic for light armored vehicles..

[Maelstrom]

Well I looked again and it says those are examples. And the 77 score that the practice test gave you is out of a max of 99. The 105 score will come from composites. So you'll almost definitely get it if they said you qualified for it based off the practice one.

Got any other questions or concerns I can help with?

Also got a question for you. If you join, will you be doing the one weekend a month drills all the way until you go to basic training or not until after you finish basic?

[Shenzou]

Not really, no specific questions come to mind at the moment. About the basic training, based on personal preference I'd rather just go with the 3 months of basic training rather than the one weekend once a month and two weeks in the summer. But, in reality chances are I'm probably going with the one weekend once a month because of prior commitments.

[Maelstrom]

It's still 3 months of basic training either way and 2 weeks of training every year in the summer for national guard and reserves. But if you have drills before you even go to basic training, it'll prep you quite a bit for basic training.