Becoming A Soldier

Wow so I started this blog a few months before I turned 18 with the intention of joining the Air Force. I’m 20 now and about to leave for the Army!

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Branch Change

I considered deleting this blog and starting a new one, but I decided that’s hardly necessary since I have 3 followers and only a few posts.

Since my interests have changed I went with the Army rather than the Air Force. My MOS is Mental Health Specialist (68X). I leave for BT on April 30th for my 4-year enlistment. I’m currently finishing up my semester at school and just trying to prepare.

I don’t really care to advertise much about this blog. I mostly just want it for my personal jss but I’m open to my thoughts being read by others. So if you’re here then enjoy I guess!

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Thinking about changing your last name?

This isn't going to be relevant to many people but if you're thinking about changing your last name, do it before you join. (But don't rush into a marriage or anything. That's the worst reason to do it.) Like for me, I just don't like my last name. So I'm going to change it beforehand because it'd be a bitch to do while enlisted and I don't feel like waiting until after because then I'm going to have a lot more official things to worry about changing compared to now. But then again I have two months until I'm 18 so I hardly have any official documents. But main point, they call you by your last name for the most part in the military so make sure you have one you don't mind hearing a million times. (Same applies for any other part of your name. Only difference is you won't be called by it.)

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Can you get into the Air Force with the CHSPE certificate?

This is a question I tried to find the answer to on Google but unfortunately didn’t have much luck. So I thought I’d help other people out by saying that you actually CAN get in with the certificate. The following is the AFQT qualifying score for the Air Force that I got from my 2015 ASVAB test book:

“Air Force - minimum AFQT score of 36. Those who have earned their high school equivalency degree by taking the GED test or another equivalent test should have a minimum score of 65 to join or complete 15 hours of college credit.”

When I first read this I was worried my CHSPE certificate would be treated as equivalent to the GED but I talked to my recruiter and found out it won’t. So I only have to get an AFQT score of 36 (though my goal is much higher than that). If you have your GED then you need at least a score of 65 OR complete 15 college credits.

The other branches have similar rules and I’ll share those later if anyone wants.

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Bad phone quality video of me shooting a shotgun for the first time. Yes I realize my stance is absolutely horrible but I have hardly any experience with guns. I just asked my dad to take me to the shooting range so I can warm up to it and know what to expect when we work with guns in boot camp. I also shot some other ones too but this is the only video I got. Enjoy I guess haha

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I have a recruiter now!

So I met with my recruiter for the first time on Wednesday July 22nd. I didn't really prepare any questions (which I definitely recommend you do!) but I did get some answers. We mostly talked about the ASVAB, military jobs, and college. I also asked some basic stuff about boot camp. What I learned: If you can get at least a 50 on the AFQT portion of the test (which is math and English, or more specifically: Word Knowledge, Paragraph Comprehension, Arithmetic Reasoning, and Mathematical Knowledge) then you're doing pretty good. The jobs that are more in the mechanical and electrical areas tend to require higher scores. I can post a more in depth post about the ASVAB later. For jobs, if you qualify for the ones you want, you'll have to give a list of your top 8 choices before you go to boot camp. You'll probably get your first or second choice but you should still do your research on all of them! Most people already know this, but you get college credits during boot camp, tech school, and so on. Lastly, I just asked for a list of things to bring to boot camp (which I can also post later). Sorry if this didn't help anyone. I mostly just needed to start this blog off with something.