Preparing before you join the military is a great way to set yourself up for success once you take that oath.
To start your military career right from Day One, there are some vitally important factors for you to consider so you can be successful in your initial training as well as your follow-on or advanced training. This advice is for anyone planning to join any military service.
5. Start talking to recruiters a year out.
If you are considering enlisting or joining an officer commissioning program, make a plan to go and speak to all the service recruiters. If you are set on the Marines, go and explore your options with the Army, Navy, Coast Guard and the Air Force anyway. If you are just interested in the Air Force, then talk to the Army, Marines, Coast Guard and the Navy. At this point, you “don’t know what you don’t know.”
Speaking to recruiters from all military services will give you a very good idea of the full range of positions, training, and signing bonuses that are available to you. At any point in joining the military, there is a spectrum of opportunities that are and are not available based on the current size of the respective services. Speaking to all the recruiters gives you a good idea of what is truly available.
4. Drugs, legal violations, some tattoos, obesity and fitness ruin people’s military dreams.
There is a large group of people that want desperately to join the military but cannot due to violations of the military service standards that bar them from entering service.
As a broad rule, the use of illegal drugs; legal convictions of criminal activity; some tattoo’s on the face, neck, or hands; personal weight levels above the service standard; and the inability to successfully complete a basic physical fitness test are what remove candidates from consideration for military service.
The best advice is to avoid any and all activities that will disqualify you from military service.
3. Get in good overall shape.
Your goal for fitness and bodyweight should be to get in the best overall shape that you can.
You want to balance strength training and cardiovascular fitness because too much strength training could hurt your run times and too much running may leave you susceptible to injury and could even cause you to fail the push-ups or pull-ups to military standard. There are a number of excellent fitness programs that you can pursue.
2. Do well on your high school GPA/ graduate.
After the fitness disqualifications to military service, a lack of a high school degree with a decent GPA is next. A high school degree and a good GPA that will help you do well on the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery (ASVAB) – a test that partially controls what military specialties that you can sign up to perform.
1. Prepare for times when military service is awful.
At my first duty station in Korea, the January weather was so cold that the water buffalos froze inside of heated tents, which made serving hot food impossible. We had limited MREs because they were all in the Middle East so we ate beef jerky or nothing because the peanut butter sandwiches froze. It was a horrible time in the field.
You can do all the physical preparations you want, but your mind has to be prepared to suffer — and suffer mightily. Military recruits that are not prepared to suffer and to perform their best while suffering are challenged to complete a term of military service.
Talking early to recruiters, staying away from activities that disqualify you for military service, being in good shape, possessing a completed high school degree and having your attitude focused on surpassing suffering while still serving well is how you succeed.
Have a successful military career and have fun.
This content provided courtesy of USAA.
Chad Storlie is the author of two books, Combat Leader to Corporate Leader and Battlefield to Business Success. Chad is a retired US Army Special Forces Lieutenant Colonel with 20+ years of Active and Reserve service in infantry, Special Forces, and joint headquarters units. He served in Iraq, Bosnia, Korea, and throughout the United States.