Unable to join any CDL school due to bad employment history

I mostly agree. I only brought it up because I don't think it's a good idea to join the military solely for education or jobs training. Think about those people who enlisted in the National Guard on 09/10/2001 so they could get their college paid for.

I'm not saying that someone who signs up for a secretarial position today is gonna get thrown into infantry tomorrow, I'm just pointing out that the "contract" enlistees sign doesn't carry much water in a civilian court when it comes to the military's obligations to the soldier. Most of what a soldier does is outside the jurisdiction of civilian courts, so a "contract" with the military shouldn't be viewed the same way as a contract with Swift.

If the OP were to walk away from a contract with a trucking company because he didn't feel they were living up to their end of the bargain, they're not gonna send deputies to pick him up. If he were to walk away from the military for the same reason, no judge is gonna side with him because the Army had him doing too many non-driving tasks, or because he wasn't driving the kind of truck he thought he would.

 

Like I said. I am not going to argue or debate the point. All I know is during my 5 years in the Air Force (I extended a year) I came across maybe a thousand people. Starting at Lackland AFB then on to Chanute AFB and on to my duty Station I never once saw or spoke to someone that was not doing their guaranteed job unless they themselves gave it up. That is all I can go by.

 

Fair enough

 

Its not a requirement or insurance, but risk. The carrier is risking thousands of dollars in the recruitment and training of the applicant. If I see too many jobs in a short period or a lot of unemployment periods in recent years longer than work periods, its too great of a risk for me to spend that money and put someone in a truck that has a history of leaving employers after a few months.

That's how I got my CDL. US Army 88M, 1994-2014.

Incorrect. FSR2S means with a valid test score, the Army applicant can have the MOS guaranteed in the contract before even going to MEPS. They have 72 hours to take the physical and sign the contract before the training seat is released for another applicant to choose. This isn't the Marine Corps we're talking about.

Indeed. See above.

Not 100%. There are still "Undesignated Seaman" enlistments for those who scored too low to qualify for available training seats.

An 88M is going to be assigned to driving trucks. The Army never has enough of them. I spent 20 years in short-staffed units hauling Abrams tanks around on HETs, line-hauling flatbeds with the M915s, and off-road flatbedding with the M931s/M1088s. If you join the Army as MOS 88M, you will be sent to the US Army Trucking School at Ft Leonard Wood, Mo, for 5 weeks and 4 days of training, starting with classroom, covering HAZMAT, Tankers, and Doubles, and then hitting the maneuver pad for weeks doing all the same skills training/testing that a civilian school would do, only for a longer period of time to add in convoy and combat operational driver's training. You would then be sent to a transportation company of the Army's choosing (unless you got station of choice in your contract), where you would go through additional training at that unit for the specific model of vehicle they operate.

In addition, the Army is not meeting enlistment requirements for the year, so they are offering a $35,000 bonus to those who ship out within the next 45 days to basic training.

 

Correct, but can still become a Seabee or any other rating without schooling, through OJT and then testing.

 

Isn't it pretty common, these days, to sign a contract in the recruiting office specifying the MOS, etc before you even head to Uncle Sam's resort property and teambuilding effort?

 

I will defer to your experience in the first part. I was just thinking about that last part. I don't think any of the US DoD is meeting recruiting goals right now. My Son in Law will be assuming command of one of the Battalion's in the 101st sometime after the first of the year. He told me back in May that one of the Brigades was not at full strength and several were dangerously close to being badly undermanned. So far the troops are leaving after discharge at around the same rate as the new ones who come in from training. I remember reading somewhere that the Army has dropped or soon will drop requiring an HS diploma.

 

Yup. You can even reserve the job from home with the Recruiter, then take the physical and sign the contract for the slot within 72 hours. Makes the process a lot more comfortable for high school seniors with their parents right there in the loop.

 

The issue came from the 35,000 excess troops lost to the COIVD Vax mandate.

Yes, the Army allowed non-grads to join last month. Once the word went out, it took less than 48 hours for all of those slots to be filled, so they aren't allowing any more.

 

Back in the 70s as I understood it, if you scored high enough on the AFQT aspect of the ASVAB test the Air Force would allow you to join without an HS diploma, BUT you had to get a GED within a set time frame. I wonder if the Army is doing something like this here!

 

Similar, yes. There has always been a cap on the number of GEDs allowed as well, 2% maximum. It goes lower when enlistments are up, but it caps out when enlistments are down. When they are way behind, the non-grad category opens up, the last time that occurred prior to last month was in 2005 when the Iraq surge was announced.