Quote:
Originally Posted by iintc22
Hello,
I was in the Army for a little under two years and was discharged for misconduct. After several recruiters and years of trying to get back in, last year I got a misconduct waiver approved and re-enlisted onto active duty. Though I passed at MEPS, I failed the hearing test at 30th AG and was medically discharged within a month. I am currently trying to re-enlist again, my goal is to become a Special Forces soldier. I came to this site to learn as much as I can and to seek a mentor.
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In response to your PM (not sure if you got my response there due to latency issues on my computer):
I served all my regular Army time before I went SF. I had a three year break in service and when I came back in on active duty they re-classed me from the Infantry to the Transportation Core. Umm, yeah that. I guess at the time the Transportation Core were getting blown up with IEDs causing a deficit in all MOSs. When I came back in my sole purpose was to go SF, the MOS change didn’t exempt me from attending SFAS…and the rest is history.
As for your question about how commands view guys going over to the SOF side of the house…depends on the command. In the Infantry I saw a lot of my peers get black listed by the units; platoon leadership would keep them busy with details as much as possible reducing their personal time to train up. This made some really late nights for most guys. However, this wasn’t the case for me, since I was re-classed to a soft skill MOS and being the only Infantry guy in the unit coupled with extreme motivation to not serve the rest of my career in that God forsaken MOS-I out performed everybody in the unit, won a bunch of awards for them and also became the lead master trainer for all BN Infantry skill level tasks/training. The latter put me in good graces with the BC and CSM, additionally I scored over 300 on the PT test extended scale allowing me to be able to conduct my own training during morning PT instead of doing unit exercises. So within less than a year in the unit I passed selection, while awaiting orders for SFQC the unit just basically left me alone. From what I’ve seen and heard my case wasn’t the norm. Most (defiantly not all) guys that try out for SF tend to be high unit performers and leaders. Senior NCOs and CMDRs don’t like to lose their talent or experienced guys so they make life a lot harder. Some are just jealous or emotional due to maybe having tried out themselves and getting non-selected, some feel you are betraying the unit by wanting to leave or possibly just being too afraid to even try out themselves (fear of failure).
Just to note; commanders cannot stop someone from attending SFAS unless they are deployed/deploying or have an extenuating circumstance. Once you get a go from an SF recruiter and get orders to attend SFAS the rest is on you. You can let the chain of command know what your intentions are out of curtesy but they can’t stop you just because they don’t want you to leave the unit. Again if this happens, it might be a battle and not an easy process to overcome with the unit but not impossible.
Lastly, when I came back in on active status an 18X program was not available for me as well. In hindsight this was a good thing. SOPC is a great course for physical conditioning-most guys that go through it are PT/ruck marching studs. I did know a few prior service guys that got into the program, but hated it being older more experienced guys with families because they were always under cadre control (resembling the basic training environment). For example, the after our class was selected and we got back to main post all the SOPC guys had to go back to the barracks and clean for a GI inspection while all the regular Army dudes got to go out and celebrate and smash beers together.
Anyway, wish you the best of luck on your journey through your own circumstances-just make wise, informed decisions.