18-X Shipping Question

[Hachiman]

I'm set to go down on Monday to enlist with the 18-X option, hoping to leave at the end of this summer. However, I was called by my recruiter this afternoon and was told that the only date for 18-X to ship out would be July 9th. I'm curious if anyone knows if that's true, or is that an arbitrary date that he made up or what. Should I hold out for the dates I want or should I just take what I can get? Appreciate any input.

[Hachiman]

No answer to my original question, but maybe I'll have some luck with round two. The Army is not helping me out as far as the dates I want and continuing to try and push some other MOS's on me. I'm curious if I were to jump over to another branch of service - Navy, for example - would I have to go through all of the paper work and waiver processes that I did for Army, or is that stuff service wide? Hopefully someone might have some light to shed on this issue for me. Thanks.

[SN]

You wanna be SF, ship on Jul 9.
You want the summer off, pick another MOS.
Personally I don't think you'd make it through the SF pipe.
Do me a small favor, don't talk to an AF recruiter.

[Hachiman]

I understand where you're coming from with that response. I don't want to sound like a whiner, but in an attempt to explain myself I'd like to say that I cannot ship earlier than late summer because of family/school. I've been going through the recruiting process since January and it's only now at the end of May that I've finally been allowed to go down to MEPS and enlist. There was a major delay in the paper work at medical, the recruiters told me. I need more than a month to get my situation at home settled with lease, family, etc. I realize how whiny that sounds, and I apologize if I'm wasting anyone's time. Thanks.

[SF_BHT]

Son.... Weigh your options and make the first of a lot of hard decisions if you will go down this path. Recruiters are serving the needs of the military. you may have to wait until another much later date to ship due to the pipeline. The path to becoming a street civilian to a operational 18 series soldier is long and you will be challenged at all cross roads. Life serving your country and the force will require you to make many personnel and family sacrifices. Good luck.

[snaquebite]

Try the Civil Air Patrol...they'll let you pick whatever date you want to join.

[Kalanis]

Will they give me the MOS I want as well?