A.S.V.A.B.

[WereDragon25]

Ummm, I just made a 93 out of 99 on the adult's ASVAB test. For anyone who doesn't know this, the ASVAB is the test you take before you may go into the military... The Army wants a 31, the Marines a 32, the Air Force a 36, the Navy a 35, and the Coast Guard wants a 36, also. I just wanted to tell everyone of my accomplishment, I went from being a drug, alcohal, and tobacco addict, to making that score, for an adult, let alone a 10th grader... It's always been my dream to join the military, and I wanted to let you all know, since, when I went through my tough times, including when I was taking the test, I was thinking, what would my family say. Thank you all for the support you gave me.

[Sevena]

CONGRATS !!! good job

[Scott Gardener]

Congradulations! Intelligence is something we really need in this world, and I'm glad you have plenty of it. You should go far.

[Uniform Two Six]

Bravo WD25! If memory serves, 92 and above are qualifications for Intelligence fields and Nuke (in other words, you are qualified for everything under the sun), and depending upon which service you're talking about, may also qualify you for enlisted-to-officer program if you make E-4 within a specified time limit. Which service are you getting into?


P.S. Made 99 myself.

EDIT: One other thing. Watch out for the signing bonus thing. If you made a 93, then you're qualified for just about any MOS out there, but recruiters are sometimes under the gun to get a certain number of "General Enlistments". The Army offers signing bonuses of $25,000. (although there was talk that they were going to up it to either $50,000, or $75,000 depending on which source you listen to). If you're getting a bonus of over $25,000, it's probably a General Enlistment. That could be bad if you want a specific job. You're qualified for it, but if your paper says General Enlistment -- to the infantry you will go (probably) -- Of course, if you want infantry (and a surprisingly large number of people do) then you're probably good. Remember that you can get a guaranteed MOS if you want, if your ASVAB is high enough (and unless my memory is hideously faulty, yours is).

[Aki]

Grats! That's pretty crazy good.

Of course, if you want infantry (and a surprisingly large number of people do)

I wouldn't find that surprising, honestly. I imagine lots of folks join the army with the idea of infantry in mind - get your uniform, your helmet, your gun and go shoot some dudes for your country and all that.

[PariahPoet]

Sorry to be a killjoy, but don't get too excited just yet. I made a 93 and the only work I can get these days is a part time spot as a waitress even though I also have a bachelor's degree in psychology now as well. While your score is impressive, it doesn't guarantee any other potential employer will recognize your talent.

May you have better luck than me.

[WereDragon25]

I went ahead and talked to an Army recruiter... The whole "every door under the sun is open" thing, over half of them got closed because I'm color-blind...

[PariahPoet]

Dang that sucks. Sorry to hear that.

[Uniform Two Six]

If you're just simple red/green color blind, that should disqualify you from avaition and (maybe) a couple of rather obscure fields. Heck, even avaition isn't a big deal, since the Army doesn't have all that much aviation compared to the other services (with the possible exception of the Marines). I don't think even armor is disqualified, or if it is, that's the first I've heard of it (of course, I'm not Army, so what do I know). I've got 20/450 eyesight, and avaition was the only thing that I got DQ'd for. What MOS are you hoping to get?

On a slight aside: Word just came down that DoD just completed a study in which they found that approximately 75% of recruitment targets (not the people they can actually get to walk into a recruiting office, just people in that age group, BTW), are unable to meet basic qualifications. To repeat: that's not people who go to MEPS and fail, that's people who cannot pass the qulaifications to go to MEPS. The primary causes for disqualification? Criminal background, lack of education, failure of the drug test, and passing out during the PFA (ie: cannot run 1 1/2 miles without falling unconscious -- face-first on the asphalt).

EDIT: I just checked with somebody I know and found out something interesting I'd never heard of before. Color blindness is a disqualification for Navy officer program (navigation lights on vessels are red and green). Jeez, dude. I'm sorry to hear about that.

[RedEye]

It depends on what sort of CDV you have. (CDV = Color Deficient Vision)
Red blindness is fixable with special contact lenses. Dunno about the others.

Back in the Viet Nam disagreement; red colorblindness was a asset, since for some reason the usual camouflage work Charlie and the NVA used didn't work if you were red-blind. You could see the camo where others couldn't.

One question: Is this problem an: "I see red as grey shades" sort of problem or is it "Red is black" color loss? One is fixable, as I pointed out. The other isn't.
You can blame your father, since it's a male-transmitted genetic problem.

[Baphnedia]

Congrats! I wish you'd talked to moi first, so I could try to squeeze more $$ out of the gov't for a referral. :p

But in all seriousness, I have three pieces of advice for you:
- As long as its in your heart (which is sometimes hard to listen to), if you get in, stay in for as long as they'll allow.
- Be sure to pick something that has excellent transferable skills. Military intelligence, linguistics, Satellite Communications (like I did), nuklear, or whatnot. This doesn't exclude combat MOSs, but you really need to identify what skill sets are marketable (or at least attempt). What I thought was marketable and what ended up being marketable were two different things.
- Take Pariah's words to heart. Doing good on the test opens a lot of doors. But, it does not make you especially employable. As for me, I still think I'm somewhat employable, but because I moved to Oregon instead of Georgia for my retirement, most of the defense contractor jobs I could compete for are across the country, and I have little desire to leave where I'm at.

As far as services go, Army. It is the only service that will allow you to choose the MOS you will train in (so long as you're qualified - no ifs ands or buts). It's known as Guaranteed Training of Choice (GTOC). However, if you fail for academic or disciplinary reasons, or disqualify yourself from that MOS, you can wind up being a cook, no matter how good your score is.

Send me a PM with your recruiter's phone number, if you dare. I have a bone to pick with him, because I want my darned $$! :p