NOTE: To all individuals contemplating an 18X contract - AD or ARNG

[Philkilla]

Here is my input on this up until my status in the Q course:

I am prior service and I was told when I re-enlisted I WOULD NOT get a bonus. I didn't really care,I was just happy enough to get the 18X contract.

SOPC is a bit of a smoker, but you do get a lot of good training and familiarization with the lay of the land .

I was informed by some PAC personnel upon in-process of SOPC that prior service 18X's ARE in fact entitled to a bonus if you enlisted before September of 2008. If this has changed or not, I do not know. The only stipulation was you had to get selected to get the bonus, where as the brand new recruits got theirs before even going to SOPC!

It's not about the money, and if it is for you, don't bother ingesting anything I have typed.

My opinion though, absorb all the training you can; it will help out in the long run. Just take care of yourself.

[amatlis]

So, I promised to post an update once I got more information. Sadly, it took 2.5 months of literally calling my recruiter multiple times per day, every single day, until I was finally able to just get in the door at MEPS. By that time I was so deliriously happy to be there, I completely forgot to ask about bonuses. It wasn't until I was waiting to be sworn in, sitting in the main lobby next to some 17 y/o Kurt Cobain look-alike who only signed for infantry because his ASVAB was too low for anything else, that I suddenly thought to myself, "Shit! Bonuses!" I guess, when you're afraid you won't even get the chance to try out for special forces, money no longer becomes a concern. I asked Kurt Cobain if he got any money, and he mumbled something incoherent which I took to be a no. I asked some of my other fellow recruits (most of them about half my age - and who could have been my own children if I had had less discretion when I was young). They all said no.

So, final answer: No Bonuses! Just swearing the oath, noticing that one of the flags has a surprisingly accurate depiction of a woman's breast, and being incredibly happy to be starting a new journey at ground zero with people half your age who scored really badly on the asvab. On a side note, I expected the asvab to be retardedly easy, but it was actually quite difficult. As an electrical engineer, I was a little embarrassed, after taking a practice exam at home, to have to go online to google "long division".... Ooops! If you haven't taken tests in a while, it doesn't hurt to do a little review. And the asvab some weird topics on it!

WV vs MD: (I was originally going with WV because I had a mentor there and I liked what I saw, but WV wouldn't give me a contract for 11B->18E. I had to go either 11B->18B or 25U-radio->18B. I wanted 18E because I'm an electrical engineer, but I also really wanted to go to infantry school at Ft Benning). I decided to suck it up and go 11B->18B, because the only thing that really mattered to me was getting a chance to try-out for special forces. In the end, the choice to switch to Maryland was made for me because my WV recruiter suddenly dropped off the face of the earth and refused to return any of my emails or messages. After hearing nothing for a month, I switched to Maryland where everyone gets 11B as their first MOS.

Getting a waiver for ACL Surgery: I can't speak to what other MEPS doctors are like, but rumors about the Baltimore meps doc being a Nazi turned out to be completely true. I had to go through endless cycles of gathering documentation from my doctors, calling my recruiter repeatedly to ask if he sent them, finding out he lost them, sending them again, calling him endlessly again only to find out the meps doctor had asked for more documentation, gathering more information, not being able to reach my recruiter, finding out he was on vacation or sick all week (multiple times), finally hearing that meps had lost my documents and had no record of me (after 2 months), and finally somehow magically getting a date at MEPS after 2.5 months. When I finally got to MEPS, the chief medical officer was a mean SOB. He sent me home the first day because my recruiter had used white-out to fix a date instead of redoing the entire form. He sent one kid home for having too much ear wax. He yelled at recruits and got furious at us for not understanding exactly what he wanted. I sat in one doctor's office for 15 minutes waiting to get my physical done while three doctors bitched about what a total asshole the chief medical officer was. So, I don't know what other State's meps are like, but Baltimore MEPS = Not a fun time.

Signing the Contract: I just want to say a few words about the contract because it is an extremely non-transparent process and quite stressful when you're being rushed and have no idea what's going on. I was told by my recruiter that A) I could do a split enlistment (where I come back after OSUT+Airborne, work a few months at my job, and ship to Selection later with better benefits such as off-base housing and a stipend) and B) that my recruiter would be there to explain the contract to me. Of course, neither of those things turned out to be true. After two days of going through station after station at MEPS, I finally ended up in front of this enormously fat civilian named Stacks with a neck fatter than his head who looked like a stack of pancakes or a dead ringer for Jabba the Hutt. Without any explanation, he asks me to start signing forms. I start signing, and then I go, "Whoah, this looks like the contract!" He says, "No, it's the annex to the contract." So, I look at it more carefully, and it says things like "Do you understand the sexual harassment policy, the drug and alcohol policy, the sure pay policy, bla bla bla". But then, before that, it also says "Do you acknowledge that your are committing to 8 years, and do you understand that you are enlisting as an 11B infantryman." It sure damn looks like a contract! Nowhere does it say anything about going to Ft Bragg or going to SOPC and Selection. So, I ask him, "Does it specify that in the actual contract?" And he says, "No, the contract has nothing but your start date and the number of years you are signing for." I ask him about the split contract, and he says there is no split contract. I ask him where will my contract say I'm going to Ft Bragg, and he says "No where." I ask him, how do know I'm not signing a straight contract for Infantry and nothing else, and he points to a code on the form that says "Para: 114y" and tells me that means I'm slotted for 18xray. At that point, I tell him I'm really not comfortable signing something that I don't understand, and that I'd like to have my recruiter present so he can explain what I'm signing. Jabba the Hutt starts bitching at me that he's not going to sit there and explain every word and paragraph, and that my recruiter is an ass-hole who doesn't understand anything about contracts, and that he's not going to have the recruiter present, playing games with him, while the contract is being signed.

I was pretty pissed off at that point. Everyone always tells you, "make sure everything is in writing on the contract." But nothing about the contract looked anything at all like what it was supposed to say. I finally argued with Stacks until he got my recruiter on the line. Stacks called him an idiot who didn't understand the contract process and told him to stop telling recruits lies. Then my recruiter's boss called and Stacks told him the same story. Long story short, I talked to other soldiers at MEPS who told me Stacks was legit and knew what he was doing and that the recruiters don't understand the contract process. It's apparently the same contract that all the Maryland Rep-63's are signing, and the recruiters just don't understand the details. The "Para: 114y" code does, in fact, indicate you are slotted for 18xray, but the unit decides which 18 series. The other indication you have that you are not just signing an infantry contract is that the contract states you are being assigned to Det 2HQ 2nd BN 20th. Supposedly, another indication is that you are being activated for 72 weeks, but I have yet to find that anywhere in my contract.

Overall, the contract is not an easy document to understand. When I pointed out to Stacks that I didn't just buy a house without reading all the documents, he laughed at me and said "Bullshit!! I didn't read my documents when I bought my house and you didn't either!" And I said, "Uh... actually, I did. I don't just sign documents without knowing what they say." In the end, he finally got tired of my stubborn persistence, and I got him to write into my contract on line 32) Specific Option/Program Enlisted For, "After training at Ft Benning, Applicant to go on to Selection at Ft Bragg". I felt that was enough of a victory, so I finally signed the contract and felt good about it.

I apologize for the length of my post, but I hope it proves helpful to other candidates trying to understand the system. The bottom line is you have to effectively do the recruiter's job for him. Do not expect he is doing his job or understands the contract process. Be proactive and get all your doctor's notes from your file and scan them into your computer. Be prepared to send them multiple times and expect that your recruiter may not actually be sending them, even if he said he did or thinks he did - or if he sent them, MEPS may be losing them. Don't think you can leave a message and expect a response. Be prepared to rapid-dial your recruiter's cell phone 5-10 times in a row until he finally gets annoyed enough to answer you. Oh, and don't take it personally that no one seems to care about you or take your situation seriously. It's a recession economy with everyone trying to enter the military, and the Guard is currently over capacity. The recruiters are having no problem meeting their quotas and they have too many people to deal with. You will have to work extra hard to get yourself in the door. Please feel free to ask me questions about MEPS or dealing with the recruiters, and I will answer as best I can.

P.S. I don't mean to hammer my recruiter. He's a good guy. He did, in fact, do a lot of work for me, and MEPS is genuinely hard to deal with, and he has a lot of people to process. I just wish he would have taken 5 seconds out of his day sometimes to respond to my messages when I had no idea what was going on.

*I ship Jan 12, 2010*

[deepblack 18x]

I got ZERO bonus, but that had nothing to do with my decision at all. I thought there would be a bonus but it had nothing to do with me wanting 18x. I was kinda happy to learn that I didnt get a bonus, cause I figured this would weed out some of the guys looking for a payday.

[Batt]

I can tell you that as an ex-Army recruiter, that bonuses, school dates et al are fleeting. I have seen with my own eyes, an applicant walk into an office one morning sit down and grab a 63B job (Light wheel vehicle Mechanic) with a 15,000 dollar bonus. Later that same day another applicant was in looking at the same exact job the only difference is that it had no bonus at all. The army places and removes bonuses as they see fit. You have to understand that that everything we do is at “The Needs of the Army”. This means that when the Army is done offering bonuses for a job then they will pull those bonuses off the table.
As has been stated here, if you are looking at a bonus as the driving factor in your decision to go SF then you are already in the wrong field. If however you are offered a bonus then by all means ensure that you get the best deal possible. I used to tell all of my applicants that there is no way I could lie to them as all the information they need is online. This is a very true statement and you will see it again and again being said here on this forum. Go online and do research. Don’t trust your “buddy who knows a guy” or some TV show you watched once. Get out and make some phone calls, get on the internet, go to multiple recruiters and see what they tell you, Take charge of your career from day one.
Further, for those of you who are in the processes of enlistment right now, I can tell you that the Army uses a program called FSR2 (Future Soldier Reservation Request) At least they did 2 years ago. This is a real time enlistment tool that allows your recruiter to “see” all of the Jobs, bonuses, school dates, ship dates, and seats available to an applicant. This is based on factors such as ASVAB line scores (Not your overall score), age, law history, med history etc. All of these things play a factor in your options to enlist. The only issue with this is that EVERY recruiter nationwide can see the same thing and it’s a first come first serve deal, so go get yours.

[crimson ghost]

Originally Posted by amatlis

MEPS is genuinely hard to deal with

Wait until you get to reception...

[ZonieDiver]

Originally Posted by crimson ghost

Wait until you get to reception...

Wait til you get to actual SF training!

[Scimitar]

I'm guessing you could add in here..."Wait to you get to A'stan".

[Lsquared]

Hello everyone,

I went today and reserved my 18x contract and, as of now it, looks like I'm only going to get $1000 bonus. I scored well on the asvab and have 100+ college credit hours. Should I not be getting at least the 4-6k that is associated with having 60+ college hours? I'm not concerned with it not being as much as some of the other 18x contracts because I am happy with having the contract available to me, but I an concerned about the credit hour bonus. Is this a concern I should try to correct or is this just the way things are right now? Note that the only reason I am asking is because my friend at Fort Lewis received zero bonus when another ranger received 40k for the exact contract. He expressed his concern in making sure I get what I deserve. I appreciate your thoughts on the situation.

LL

[ZonieDiver]

"caveat emptor"
"what the market will bear"
YMMV

[Richard]

RE: enlistment bonuses - - I got a draft notice and then - upon conscription - an opportunity to be discharged and enlist as an RA volunteer for SF - that was bonus enough for me.

However - YMMV - and so it goes...

Richard's $.02

[Lsquared]

I was more refering to the HIGRAD bonus specifically, which I thought was more standardized but... I guess not. I'm happy to have the contract I have. My shipout date is at the end of July so it'll allow me to do a few triathlons I kind of wanted to do this summer. I'll be going to MEPS and signing it on Wednesday....

Thank you for your thoughts.

[Atomsk]

@Lsquared: It seems as though though the Army is cutting back on the amount of bonuses. I enlisted as an 18-X Monday, and my bonus was $3k; $2K for the job, and another $1K for my college credit. That being said it's not an issue, they're offering me additional money for something that I want to do; a bonus is just that.

[Marvin Blank]

Awwww.....Jesus Tap-Dancing Christ....

Can we have a single thread on this website without ten of us posting about how "It's not about the money!" and "If you are only concerned with the money you shouldn't be here!!"

We got it. They got it. If they don't, they never will, and they wont make it through anyways. So who cares? The money will either help the Q course student live a little better, or will help the former student and current 82nd Private buy a gun to shoot himself with.

The first post has a "I know it's not about the money, BUT here is some info for you guys so you don't get screwed".

After that, was there any reason for ANY of us to make any comments about it "Not being about the money"? He put the disclaimer in, so the thread should NOW BE ABOUT THE MONEY, as it was intended. I joined cause I wanted to be and do all the things that being in SF means. I would have done it for free. That being said, I got screwed out of $8000 additional because I didn't know any better. YES, I got $12000, which is more than many, but that IS IRRELEVANT. That $8000 would have made life easier on me.

So PLEASE, as long as someone throws the disclaimer in the first post, just contribute to the thread or leave it alone.

[Scimitar]

Jesus Tap-dancing Christ

LOL, havn't heard that one before.

Cheers Marvin

S

[tom kelly]

I would like to know where any of it is or matters for the following SF soldiers that I know?
Ricardo Davis: date of loss: 03/20/1969; Date of casualty:07/11/1974, STATUS: Presumptive finding of Death: BNR.
James Gabriel: Executed while POW: 04/08/1962
Wayne Marchand: Executed while POW: 04/08/1962
Herbert Francis Hardy: KIA: 03/04/1964
George Underwood: KIA 07/23/1964
William Toth: KIA: 10/27/1964
Dave Morgan: KIA: 09/23/1964
Donald J. Fawcett: KIA: 07/23/1966
Richard E. Pegram: KIA: 08/23/1968
All were members of C Company 1st SFG(Abn) Machinato, Okinawa
R I P brothers, tom kelly