Please help an Air Force guy

Not if the stimulus package gets through congress..

 

Military tuition assistance will not pay for your CDL training anymore. It used to, but that stopped over a year ago. You can used your GI Bill to pay for training or some states have grants that will pay for it and you will not have to touch your GI Bill, but it will usually be a 10 week long course through a community college or something similar. If you want to use your GI Bill there are several companies that run apprenticeship programs that will pay for training and supliment your income with the GI Bill for the first few years.

The sleep apnea may keep you out of a truck.

 

If you have GI bill use it on worthwhile schooling. Something in healthcare would probably be better than trucking.

 

They might want to double check that. Certificate by VA definition is education below an associates and is usually classroom stuff like Microsoft certification. I've never seen CDL qualify under that. I am Army and our programs are similar. We also get $9000/ year for education, but like I said it doesn't cover CDL training anymore, mostly because CDL schools are not accredited institutes of higher learning. If you go through a college to get it it's a different story but like I said that could be a 10 week long course. And in GA it would be covered under one of the grants here were I wouldn't even need to touch military money.

If they let it go, more power to you. I'm going off of what I was told last year, and I am actually stationed on an Air Force Base.

 

L.B.

Army must have a different set of rules. TA can be used to get a CDL. I am in the Navy and have my Tuition Assistance and GI Bill Top Up lined up. The school I am going to is private AND accredited. Since TA would not cover all of the tuition, I used MGIB Top Up to pay the difference.

To the OP.... Personally...I would not use my GI Bill benefits as a source of income under any of the so called "Appreticeship" programs. Also, since you were active duty during 9/11, you should be able to convert over to the Post 9/11 GI Bill. A much better version, IMHO. That is what I intend to do this August.

Good luck to you.

R/

Frat

 

The sleep apnea will show up in the DOT medical exam.

You can drive OTR with sleep apnea if you are "under current and effective treatment". This means you need a CPAP machine with use compliance data capabilities. It will keep track of how much you use the CPAP so the doctor can review it.

There are some companies that want NOTHING to do with a driver with sleep apnea and will find excuses not to hire them. Other companies have sleep apnea testing and treatment programs.

Look over the threads or do a search of the threads for "sleep apnea" and you will get an idea of which companies you might be better off applying to.

The other problem is that no one is hiring right now due to the economy.

 

Not true. Many CDL schools are accredited. The school I teach for is ACCSCT accredited which is recognized by the US dept. of Education. Most of our students are active military receiving tuition assistance.

 

I would highly suggest contacting Roehl Transport. They have a Veteran's program where they'll train you, pay you a salary and then run the #### out of you. The upside to that will be the experience because of the miles and some decent compensation. Once you get 1 - 2 years behind you, you could write your own ticket down in TX.

You'll have to talk to them about the medical stuff, but if you can get DOT certified, I'm sure you can get a truck with an APU to run a C-pak unit if need be. I think it could be what you have been looking for. Good Luck!

 

Most private trucking/training academies have job placement upon graduating which can be 4-6 weeks depending on the individual academy. I live in Virginia and Alliance has a school about 50 miles from me. I would guess if you go online and look up schools in TX you won't have any trouble enrolling from AK as classes cycle every 4-6 weeks anyway. This way you can submit the necessary paperwork on your end there to secure financing. And when it comes to job placement veterans have preference too