The Week After

So this week was kinda slow, the thanksgiving holiday is kind of putting a damper on the progress of my entry into the Army. What happened this week was on Monday I dropped off the rest of my paperwork to the recruiter in the morning. I heard back later that night and we went through some information like high school classes I might have taken, my ASVAB test score and also what division I would most likely want to be in. I scored a 84 on my ASVAB and we didn't even go over my line scores because I qualified for a lot of good jobs in different areas. We made an appointment to meet at 9am the next morning to go over my papers and also my job opportunities.

The next morning I drove to the recruiters and my recruiter wasn't in at the time, so Sergeant Batiste (if I remember correctly her spelling) helped me sign some more documents and call Sergeant Smith about anything else I might need. He needed another document I had at my house that I made a copy of for him, but he needed the actual document so I drove home, got it, and returned to the offices. At that time he was in after dropping off some recruits for the ASVAB test that day and we started going over my Medical Ready papers. Once we started going over the paperwork and getting it ready the computers when on the fritz and another recruit who just completed her BCT/AIT training came in to talk to another recruiter (who I'm guessing was hers) about the experience and I listened in, as we all did since we were waiting for the computers to come back online.

When the computers came back online we looked over my job opportunities and it looked pleasantly full. I had a lot of jobs in the Intelligence area of the Army, also in Artillery manning missile systems or repairing, and also basic Combat type positions and vehicle operation spots. So I had a wide variety of jobs I could have taken. The one job I was surprised to see was "Special Forces Recruit" since that would something I would love to be in but my difficulty picking up another language would most likely hinder me. I decided though for now Infantry (11b) is what I'm most interested, as I put it "I want to be on the ground in combat kicking down doors". Although I may or may not be kicking down doors, I'm still looking to be on the ground in basic combat. I think because I have a quick mindset to my surroundings wherever I go and also quick ability to analyze, organize and decide on things that are put in front of me that having that skill is a valuable asset for intelligence, but also for ground troops to be able to quickly decipher a threat situation. I do want to take advantage of being able to enter the Army Intelligence progra, but I think for my first enlistment I really want to get combat experience under my belt, so if anything should happen in the future wherever I may be, abroad or home, I can help out in a situation of need, whether it be with doing another tour in a combat zone, helping local authorities or even just protecting innocent people in a bad situation when someone might lose their cool.

On my way home I was thinking about my future career in the army, although combat will give me everyday skills when dealing with teams and decision making and being the best I can be, its really the other jobs (not Infantry) that actually lead to jobs with a grounded future. Like being a mechanic, administrator, or even technician. I figured though, what I would like to do, is go into Infantry for say 8 years and try and work my way into Special Forces possibly. After my initial enlistment I would go into Intelligence, twice, for 6 year enlistments. One for being "Human Intelligence Collector" which I qualified for and then "Imagery Analyst" which I also qualified for. I think by doing those two and having the ability to go into the CIA or even NSA after my work in those fields would be a great way to further myself after the Army in say 20 years. I would be 46 with combat and intelligence experience and a valuable asset to other government programs, I think.