A Marine with a question

Good Morning everybody:

I need some help, wondering if someone can help me. My husband is 29 years old he took his ASVAB almost two years ago now and went in the dep program last July to ship out this past December. He has a college degree from overseas which has been reclassified according to the U.S standards and was considered as a 4 year degree. He also speak 4 languages
fluently Arabic happens to be one of them. His recruiter for a lack of better word screwed us, my husband had a charge on his record a misdemeanor for not paying a hotel bill. It was a whole misunderstanding the bill was paid and my husband did not serve parole or time in jail. His uncle had put him up in a hotel on his own credit card when the card was maxed out the hotel wouldn’t wait for a few hours till his uncle came over to put a different method of payment.

Needless to say, after they called the police his uncle had shown up paid the bill for him but since my husband was charged he paid a $200 fine. The bill was $600 so the Marine Corp considers this a felony because it is more than $500. My husband and I told the recruiter about it before hand but he instructed in fact yelled at my husband every time we would bring it up and told him not to say anything to the people at MEPS. After my husband signed his contract as expected it showed up on the background check, the recruiter told us not to worry about it and that he had gotten the waiver because it was easier asking for a waiver being
in the program than being form the outside of the program. Due to my husband’s resilient attitude and determination RSS said they would consider giving him the waiver if he would retake the ASVAB to score 50 or higher because he has to be an “A”. He took the test last month but scored 39 so now they said he has to wait till August before he can take it again although he passed. Our neighbor an Army recruiter said that Army
regulation is he can take it every 30 days as long as he passes the test.

So if he goes and takes the test for the Army but then tells the Army he changed his mind can he ask the Corp to retrieve his score from the Army if he scores more than 50? Since he took it under Army rules and not Marine rules? He scored a first class PFT he needed a weight waiver because he was 10 pounds over but now he doesn’t need it because he lost the weight. He wants to be a grunt, so should he take the test with the Army and then go to the Corp or should he wait till August? Is any one here a recruiter who can help he is willing to travel any where in the
country. The people at the RSS respect him a lot especially the
Sergeant Major because he is so determined he even did better than most 17 year old in dep as well as some of the recruiters. He is now studying for his Masters in Military Studies at the American Military University in VA. Any suggestions?

Thank you
Semper FI

Those recruiters probably just want to give him enough time to maybe study some or prepare to take the test again. If I'm not mistaking you can take the ASVAB whenever as long as it is in a monitored situation. I would just go on the internet and find dates and locations that the ASVAB is given and just make appointments. I would bet they want him to study. Really a 39 isn't too good to get on the ASVAB especially with a college degree. He could do A LOT better and be able to probably get a better MOS if he'd just prepare for it and score higher. Usually anything above an 80 gives you a choice for just about anything. From what I've been told about the ASVAB from army recruits .. it has extra sections and the information is different although they are scored the same .. the ARMY has a lot more parts than Marines. I would say taking the ASVAB for the Army would be a waste of time because they are the same. He would score the same if not a lil higher unless he just screwed up on the first one. I would say get an ASVAB study book and let him brush up on some of that information and then ask the recruiter if he could take the practice ASVAB and they will show his progress. Then once he get so high on the practice test they'll probably send him to take it.... which could be before August.

Once an applicant takes his/her first test, 30 calendar days must pass before eligible for retest. Once tested a second time, an applicant must wait six months to retest. Each additional test is a six month wait from the date of the previous test.

As for the waiver aspect:

The recruiter should have never coached or instructed your husband to hide the police charge. A waiver is easily gotten with some appropriate planning. Getting in and then coming back as a possible match on background investigations makes one look untrustworthy. Not a good trait or characteristic. Especially when one now has to explain the truth in order to get a waiver. Hard to tell what is truth and what is not at that point when interviewing someone for a waiver.

Now, as for the Army. I have always been suspect of their motives. I trust Army recruiters as far as I can throw one.

Have you or your husband told this story to anyone who is in a position to help you? Someone outside the military, but who has a means to get answers? Maybe someone who is elected to represent you can help.

Sixguns,

Help me out on this.

I have a problem accepting a Sgt. Major at an RSS.

I spent two years on the first "District Contact Teams" (74-75), eight states (actually six, the boss took Hawaii away from me, so I made him take Alaska).

I had only one recruiter fired for cause, an E-8 who retired on the job before he submitted his retirement papers. He thought he outlasted an overseas twilight tour, I proved to him that he was wrong. I also took steps to protect the careers of the two E-5's he caused to be fired out from under him.

O.K., back to the subject.

MY advise would be for him to go to the RS, (I assume it's in Atlanta) and talk to the 1stSgt or Sgt. Major there. If he's got a case, they will make it for him.

But in MY experience, cutting corners was a "today" thing, this month's quota, NEVER for poolees.

Something, or somebody is out of whack.

In MY time, in the 12th District, I would have looked into it, checked it out, and filed my report.

Knowing ME, they knew they had a problem on their hands if I felt a situation warrented attention and it wasn't taken care of.

That was MY job.

Making friends was secondary, Influencing people was Primary, Earle Nightingale and Dale Carnegie be damned.

Each of the 48 RSs has a SgtMaj. as the senior enlisted leader. It seems rather excessive because of the unit size and number of presonnel at an RS. Because of the unit mission and size, I think most MGySgt. or MSgt. RIs can be dual hatted as both trainer and senior enlisted advisor. The RS SgtMaj is there to perform administrative functions while the 8412s/RIs are there to provide experience, training and continuity at the command. I had some great sergeants major. The Sergeant Major's key role at the RS is the command recruiting program and oversight of the pool program. It can be a full time job in just those two areas.

P.S. The RS SgtMaj. gets SDA pay too!!!!

Thank you for the reply everybody, we talked to the Sgt. Maj and he has assured my husband that if he gets a 50 or higher 80-90% the waiver will be approved. RSS wanted to take actions agaisnt the recruiter who did this but he had already been transfered to Hawaii.

They are all very supportive and my husband has been studying to get a higher score he decided not to lsiten to the Army recruiter he said the same thing he doesn't trust them The Army recruiter was getting nasty with my husband for saying he will do what the Sgt. Maj at the RSS told him which is studying and go in the Marine Corp to follow the foot steps of his cousin and his wife.

The Army recruiter used inapproriate language with my husband and made some unnecessary comments about the Corp and me being a former Marine. I thought my husband was going to kick that recruiter on his butt from the look on his face. But he kept his cool and said Sir. You have two seconds to get out of my face or you will see how future Marines get when they are ****ed. They guy almost ran I thought it was funny. My husband has been PTing and studying every day he wants this really bad he is a Marine in everything he does all that is missing is him going through boot camp and graduating.

Thank you all for your help and advice, unfortunately elected officials can not do any thing we tried. We will just follow the Sgt. Maj unless someone in here is a recruiter or Sgt.Mj of an RSS somewhere where they are willing to talk to him now to see if they can do anything to help. We will wait till he can retake the test and get his 50 or higher.

It doesnt matter who he test for, the test is valid and can be pulled by any service.

Also, go spend $20 and get the ASVAB book. Dont waste you time with the one that has 7 subjects.... get the one with 4 subjects... the key four that you need to raise the score...forgive me for not rembering the exact terms, but they are:

--Paragraph conmprehension
--Vacabulary
--Arithmatic reasoning - the word problems
--General Math....

OTOH, if he scores too high from what he had, they will make him take it one more time on the spot a - confirmation test - and that is the score he will keep.

Good Luck!

Top

The most important subject matter is the English and Math sections:

Paragraph Comprehension
Word Knowledge (Vocabulary)
Arithmetic Reasoning
Mathematics COmprehension

Don't worry about the retest if he scores too high. This would only happen if the variant was equal ormore than 20 points. Usually, studying for a period of six months or less will not make you pop high enough to need a confirmation test.

Your husband is right to stick to his guns and pursue his dream of becoming a Marine. He has now seen first-hand how Army recruiters will do or say anything to get someone enlisted. Better to find that out now.

I wish your husband great success in completing the requirements to become a Marine.

We got the book, the only chalange he has is with Math because he studied Math in a different language in German and in Arabic so he has to translate some of the terms such as the english system to the metric system so he understands some of the questions which takes up a lot of time when he is taking the test.

The good thing is he did his PFT at headquarters again last week, he scored even better than last time he did it. Last time he did 3 miles in 20 miuntes and 34 seconds 5 pull ups and 100 crunshes. Last week he improved his run to 19 minutes and 40 seconds for a 3 mile run and 7 pull ups and 100 crunshes. I say pretty good for a 29 year old. Thank you everybody for your encouragment and answering my questions.