Rating Requirements

All military jobs have requirements that need to be met before you get them. Some are stricter than others. Note: the recruiter will surely leave out some/most of the requirements needed. They almost always work the ASVAB score angle. Every recruiter I talked with (Army, Air Force, Navy, Coast Guard) said that I qualified for EVERY enlisted job they had based on my ASVAB score. Most of the times you won’t find out about the medical, financial, or legal requirements until you get to MEPS (Military Entrance Processing Command) or even basic training. My recruiter didn’t know or didn’t tell me that my minor legal background or credit history would disqualify me from the top 5 jobs on my list. Luckily I found this out before I signed anything. At basic, we had multiple people in our division lose their ratings (job or school guarantee) for not meeting requirements that their recruiters didn’t check. You may have a chance to pick something else, but most wound up undesignated (at the Navy’s mercy). If I were to lose my AC (air traffic control) rating, I have no idea what I would do. So, in lieu of what I’ve covered, the major requirements for air traffic control in the Navy are:

1. Medical: First is eyesight. You cannot have worse than 20/100 correctable vision and must not have any color blindness. They are pretty strict on medical in general due to the high responsibility and high amount of stress involved in the work. At basic you will be designated a “special physical.” They just perform a more extensive medical check on you including an EKG.
2. Financial: Ugly financial history or current financial status is the number one disqualifier for security clearances in the military. Not all air traffic controllers require a security clearance, but you may be limited on where you can be stationed.
3. Legal: Certain civil violations will disqualify you from this and other ratings in the Navy. For air traffic control, I think the more common disqualifiers are DUIs/DWIs. However, speeding tickets, etc are fine - I had plenty.
4. ASVAB score: A recruiter would surely be able to tell you this one. I would guess that minimum would be between 60 and 70 - but again I'm not sure.  **EDIT 7/14/2011*** This score is not a flat number.  The ASVAB includes multiple categories and there minimum score requirements for each category.

Remember these when talking to a recruiter about any job. Requirements vary. And keep in mind: you can be dropped from AC school for poor performance, inspection failures, and other reasons that seem insignificant. The key is to stay focused and not let failure be an option.