Well, i'm gonna finish up high school while studying hard for the ASVAB and getting in shape. I need to get over 110 on the test to become a Warrant Officer because I want to fly a chopper.

I know it won't be easy, but I really want this, so I'm sure i can do it. Any advice you can give would be greatly appreciated. I need all of it I can get. So anyway, wish me luck!

-Jake

_________________
"I don't care how good you are, how fast you are. You ain't good enough no lessin' you got the soul." -Hubert Sumlin

Did you take the F.A.S.T. test yet? If not, go to the library and find as many books on flying helicopters as you can and read them all. That's what I did, and I passed the test with one of the highest scores they had ever seen.

Good luck to you.

not yet. i'm waiting to talk to a recruiter for a while, but i am going to study a lot. i know a lot about flight anyway, i've been a player of flight simulators for a long time, and they're very realistic. but i'm still going to study. i'm getting a couple of ASVAB practice books, but i'll look up and probably order some AFAST ones too.

thanks for the advice man.

-Jake

_________________
"I don't care how good you are, how fast you are. You ain't good enough no lessin' you got the soul." -Hubert Sumlin

Don't count on your recruiter for everything either. Most of them don't know all of the regs for warrant officer acceptance and could easily mess things up for you. If you are told something that does not sound right or think they are wrong on anything don't hessitate to ask for a review or clarification from someone higher up.

I don't know what those acronyms mean, however wish you good luck.

ASVAB-Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery
F.A.S.T.-Flight Aptitude Selection Test (also called AFAST-Alternate Flight Aptitude Selection Test)

Best of luck to you. Thats a very admirable thing you're doing.

_________________
"My mind is a raging torrent, flooded with rivulets of thought cascading into a waterfall of creative alternatives." Blazing Saddles...

When I was in the Service, Warrant Officers were chosen from among the Enlisted personnel who had many years of experience in a rather singular, most in demand skill. Others would come into the service already having this kind of background and even at that, this wasn't an automatic entitlement by any means. In your particular situation, fresh out of HS and with (I presume) marginal or no helicopter flying skills, I don't see the criterion being there at all. As far as the ASVAB goes, unless you get some kind of pre-enlistment contract guarantying your MOS, regardless of what you scored highest on or even want, the Army is going to put you where they need you the most at that time. I urgently recommend you verify your information as recruiters flat out lie. As a matter of fact, your first hour of your first day in BCT, a DI will be more than happy to tell you this rather forcefully, sarcastically and with all belittlement. Further, they will reinforce this on you too that in the military, there is no such thing as you going to speak to 'someone' about a 'misunderstanding'. As my DI once said, the military is a place where you give up all your civil rights to fight for the preservation of everyone else's.

Think real hard about all this.

- "Martian" 2LT Armor/Cav (Ret'd)

_________________
You dig?

Okay here is my advice from a previous Navy sub officer ...

1) You are a young man with time wholly on your side. Stay single for quite a while (feel completely free to play the field at will, though -- wink, wink). The military is very tough on young, married couples. Your life will be so much simpler, and you have nothing but time (especially as a guy) a little later on to get married and have a family.

2) Military people pay the state income tax of the state they are a legal resident of regardless of where they are stationed. They do this to simplify your life when doing taxes, as it is always to the same state. HOWEVER -- there are states that have no state income tax (mainly Texas & Florida). Therefore the minute you get stationed in one of these states, immediately establish legal state residency (drivers license, voting, etc) so you can switch to paying the state income tax to that state instead -- which is $0 ... for the rest of your entire time in the military.

3) The military allows one "home of record" move where you can move anything to/from the city where you entered the military from. A lot of people use it early on and regret it. Save it for when you get out of the military. By then you could be married with a family and stationed in Spain. Having the military move you, your family, and all your stuff back to your original home town may come in handy in a big way...

4) Good luck ... and I sincerely thank you for your service.

_________________
Laughing out loud with fear and hope, I have a desperate plan ...

Congrats on this decision and also thank you for your decision to serve our country.

I wish I had gone into the Air Force years ago or into OCS. Not too late now, I just think I lack the commitment at this point.

Good luck!

_________________
I got a black cat bone, I got a mojo too.

I admire your resolve and wish you the best. Personally, as retired Navy officer, I question why anyone would join the Army, as they get the worst assignments and worst living conditions. Hey, but someone has to do it.

I will give you the same advice I give everyone in the same circumstances.
1. To echo Martian - recruiters lie. They do it for a living and they are very good at it. Question and double check everything they say and get everything promised to you in writing. Period.

2. Keep your head up, your eyes and ears open and your mouth shut.

3. Never volunteer for anything.

Good luck.

_________________
Ignorance IS bliss - and I am the happiest person here!

jr91, best of luck in everything you do Bro! I was USAF so I gotta ask; have you thought about the USAF? They always need good people and they have those screamin' jet helicopters, then you could earn some money, do a great thing for your country, learn cool new stuff and go really really fast! Sound good?

_________________
you can save the world with your guitar one love song at a time it's just better, more fun, easier with a fender solid body electric guitar or electric bass guitar.

At the end of a 5-mile march, with full combat load, our D.I. asked for 2 volunteers. Nobody stepped forward or even raised thier hand so he picked his volunteers himself and told them to get in the back of the deuce-n-half waiting on the road.
Those 2 volunteers got a ride back to the base. The rest of us walked.

RIP

_________________

That's not funny. As a matter of fact, it's downright disrespectfull and in very bad taste.