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.

Basic Training Summary

Now that I'm finished with boot camp, I can look back and say "that was easy." And really, it was. The hardest part for me was being separated from loved ones and not being able to do the things I enjoy.

I'm not saying I loved it and would be happy to go through it again. I won't lie to you - it sucked. Recruits are completey blocked from the outside world except for bits of news you receive in letters from home. The first couple of weeks are the worst. The RDC's (recruit division commanders) will yell a lot and make you feel really stupid. However, they're not allowed to hit you and most of them don't swear much. It's just starts out tough to get you accustomed to military lifestyle. It eases up after the first two weeks and you find yourself in a routine. Be ready for a lot of down time and waiting around. Always remember the military motto: "Hurry up and wait!"

Here are some specifics on what you actually do in boot camp. They recently built a lot of new "ships" (living quarters). Hopefully you are lucky enough to end up in one. The old ships do not have air conditioning and they smell funny. Everyone asks about the food. It's not bad, but it's not great. You eat three meals a day which are always welcome no matter what's on the menu. You quickly find that the meals break up the day and the galley staff are probably the only smiling faces you'll see for a while. Things become more interesting and you even have some fun toward the end of basic. And I'm sure everyone would agree that the best part of boot camp is Liberty Weekend once you're finished. I highly recommend going into Chicago and especially Navy Pier. We received lots of praise while walking along the pier - plus it's a blast.

Leaving for Basic

I'll spare the details on preperations I had to make before leaving, but at 25 years old, I had a lot to take care of in comparison to someone leaving straight out of high school. I'm both excited and nervous for what's to come. I'm not really sure what to expect. I'll be isolated from the rest of the world for about 8 weeks. Navy basic training is located in Great Lakes, Illinois. I fly with a small group of other Navy recruits. The hardest part is leaving family and friends behind knowing that it will be a long time before I get to see them all again - especially my wife. My next update won't be for a couple of months, so stay tuned...

New Contract: Air Traffic Control

Yesterday I received a call from the recruiter's office. They had a list of jobs that needed to be filled by next month. A similar list is e-mailed out to all of the recruiters across the country each month. The openings are created by people who signed up but ended up being disqualified or dropping out. They asked me to come in and take a look to see if I would like to change my rating. I agreed because I didn't really want the AV rating in the first place.

After reviewing the list, I found only one job that cought my eye: air traffic control. However, they only had one spot to fill, and like I said - this list is sent to all recruiters nationwide. I put my name down, not really expecting anything. Today my recruiter called and said he had a new contract for me to sign. I'm leaving for basic training on June 2nd! I now have less than a month to prepare!

Signing My Life Away

Well, today I did the unthinkable. After all the criticism I gave my friends in high school for joining the military, I just signed my own life over to uncle sam. I'm currently signed up for the av rating: aviation electronics. This means I will be working on the high-tech equipment in the cockpit. I'm not scheduled to leave for basic training until February 2006. This isn't really the rating I was hoping for, so I may be looking to change. We'll see what the future brings.