Reserve intel question-

[mudkow60]

Quick question...

I have a friend (civilian). She has a college degree and is a high school teacher in Arizona. She speakes a few Slovic languages, and wants to join the Reserves and do some type of language-translator-intel. program.

Question is, she went to the Navy recruiter, and he said she has to come in as an enlisted first. He said "he will put her officer package in right away, as soon as she signs up."

Is this a load of BS, and are there any other ways she can get into a reserve program for what she wants? I did 9 years in the Navy and this sounds a bit sneaky.

Thanks.

 

[firstthird]

I'm not at all familar with off the street stuff but I'd run far and fast from a recruiter selling 'first you sign up, then we get you where you want to go.' The Navy certainly takes people off the street to be pilots (or used to) and I'm sure one of the services is taking intel officers off the street with the right qualifications, which it sounds like your friend has.

As I'm sure you know though, if she thinks that by signing up for the reserves, she is signing up for a weekend a month and 2 weeks a year; the time to disabuse her of that notion is before she takes an oath. The reserves these days have all kinds of active duty call up associated with them, especially someone that ends up in a translator/intel role. hopefully you'll get a response from someone with current info on the recruiting process.

That recruiter sounds a lot like the horror stories you always hear about recruiters, 'sure, we'll have you flying F-14s in no time, but first we have to meet our quota for E-1s, oops, did I say that out loud.'

 

[SB Diver]

I believe it is the enlisted who hold the bonafide language/intel MOS's, but I think it is wrong for the recruiter to say that she should go enlisted and then apply for the Officer Program (if it is her intent to be an officer in the first place). I would also think that there should be some sort of Intel Officer job that she would fit in nicely given her background. But the hot languages to know are Middle Eastern and Chinese for the military (another 2 cents of mine).

I am also applying to the Naval Reserves for an Intel billet and they appear to be very selective. The last two selection boards selected 5% and 10% of their applicants, so you can see it would be tough for anyone to get into that field (especially if they weren't in prior Navy as I am finding out). The Naval Reserve Intel community selected a large amount of folks last fiscal year, so I believe that it means that FY 06 is and will be tight. Maybe she would want to wait for FY 07?

One would assume that this applicant would want to do the reserves in her local area, and depending on what units/jobs are available, could possibly make it either tough or easier to get in under a specific MOS.

Hope this helps and good luck!

 

[milplt]

Mudkow,

You know the whole recruiter thing is a scam - have you met one who was more interested in mission accomplishment (as in overall military) tha getting his monthly numbers?

The USAF has plenty of intel officers and linguists - as a matter of fact, our leadership has just stated that language skills will be key to promotions in a few years.

Tell her to skip the recruiter for the initial contact - to try to get in touch with someone in the career field first - as in just start cold calling the fighter squadrons at Luke or DM and trying to track down an intel officer - then get contact numbers from them and so on. Then, when she has a track on a position, she can get with a recruiter to complete the paperwork. That is what I had to do to get my Reserve job - the recruiter was just the paper pusher.

PS, what the recruiter told her is what they told me 20 years ago before I got commisioned - and I wanted to be a pilot - "just enlist first, then we will make you a pilot - we make all kinds of enlisted guys into pilots."

 

[mudkow60]

Thanks all-

Good info... I will link her here.

Do you have any contact #'s at DM?

Kow

 

[Spyguy]

Having served in the intel community in a way, I feel I can address some of the navy intel specific stuff. What she wants is Navy intel officer. There is a specific designator for it. They usually are attached to a Naval Security Group/Activity somewhere in the world. I do not know that they have reserves. The only ones I have delt with are active duty. There is currently a shortage of them and if you can breath, you will pick up O-4, maybe O-5. They are a different sort of bunch. Yes, the enlisted do the linguist stuff, but a lot of the officers used to be prior CTI's and they can still translate stuff. If you can, go on the BUPERS web page and get the detailer's email for theintel community, DO NOT BELIEVE A WORD OUT OF THE RECRUITER'S MOUTH. I know for a fact he is lieing out of his ass. Some of the places she could be stationed could be places like, Fort Gordon (GA), Mildenhaul (London), Bahrain, I think Brunswick is still open, Kadena (Japan). They are going to a shorter list of bases and are detaching from these onto ships, subs, planes and God knows where else. Hope this helps. I flew with a lot of them onboard my plane during the war.

 

[kingsize]

Recruiters are generally full of ********************.
I actually went into a recruiters office just for fun one day to see what they could tell me about becoming a pilot. Mind you, this was a few months before my commissioning and graduation from college, and I already had a pilot training slot lined up. I told the recruiter that I was nearly finished with my bachelors and wanted to see what opportunities there were for flying. He told me it was near impossible, and that most likely I was medically unqualified, and that I should get realistic and sign up for one of the great enlisted jobs available.

Bottom line: Your friend has her bachelors degree. She can become an officer in the reserves, guard, or active duty. She would be doing herself a disservice if she enlisted with all her qualifications.

 

[HappyBear]

Hey Kow,
If she is applying for OCS, she will enlist as an OCUI/E-5 before coming to P'Cola. With that being said, she should not (and better not) have to enlist prior to submitting an Officer program application package. Any recruiter that tells her otherwise is lying. It works this way (or so it did when I applied):
1. She submits her package to the recruiter (should be an Officer recruiter)
2. She gets selected
3. She enlists as OCUI/E-5 with a community specific contract (such as our SNA contract) that states specific actions should she not make it through OCS, Intel school, etc.
4. After completing OCS, she will get a DD-214 discharging her from the Navy (Enlisted), reason for discharge will be to accept appt. as commissioned officer in same service
5. She takes Oath of Office + accepts appt. as Ensign
Hope this clears up any questions.
Fly Safe,
HB

 

[danish22]

Don't trust the recruiter. He or she's just trying to fill the quota for the month. When I finished high school I'll never forget the Marine Corps recruiter calling me up and telling me that the best thing I could do was to enlist in the Marines. I told him I wanted to fly and that I was going to the Air Force Academy. He told me that going to the Air Force Academy to fly was a huge mistake and that if I'd enlist in the Marines I could work my way to OTS and then get to flight school that way. He said I stood a much better chance to fly in the Marines. God Bless the Marines...I've worked with you in the past and you guys are great...but I'm glad I stuck with plan A.

 

[T1bubba]

To my knowledge there aren't any Navy Reserve intel units in AZ, but if she's willing to commute to San Diego or Aurora, CO there are units there.

Either way have her call the Naval Reserve Intelligence Command at 800 544-9962 for the straight scoop.