Joining AF if unmarried, with a dependent, non-custody

[flyboy53]

I have a "family" member, who is currently 20, and has a 2 year old son. He is not married, and does not have custody of the child, but pays child support.

Any advice/input is appreciated.

Talk to multiple recruiters. Recruiters do not know everything. Talk to the USAF recruiter at office "A" then jump in the car and drive to USAF recruiter at office "B". Most recruiters know the easy stuff, 18 and a HS diploma, you are good to go. Come in and tell them anything unusual and the majority gets flustered.

Another thing have him go to MEPS with an adult. I was there with my oldest daughter and 399 other recruits and only two other adults came to see what type of a contract their child will get.

MEPS has nothing to do with enlistment criteria. They are a joint-service command that specializes in testing, physicalling and processing individuals for initial active duty service.

You have a dependency criteria question, you ask the recuriter to get a clarification from his supervisor or up his chain of command. As a former recruiter (I wore a recruiting service hubcap for seven and a half years before retiring), I can tell you that dependency issues are the things of waivers that go up the chain of command for approval. I knew of some waivers that actually went as high as the Office of the Secretary of the Air Force.

You also don't go shopping around between recruiters of the same service. You might be painfully suprised to learn that they may have the same flight chief of supervisor, and may even be in the same squadron or group. Recruiters are trained to represent their military service and they have a frame of reference based on their own experiences, which is a good thing.

Dependency criteria, however, is a Department of Defense-wide policy based on what difficulties occur during mobilizations or casualties. The simplist solution here is for your family member to petition the family court and make things official. You have approached this dialog from the perspective of the family member and his goals, you're forgetting about the child in the middle and whether he may some day be a victim.

I can tell you, as a former recruiter, that the recruiter talking to your family member IS taking that child into consideration and being honest with what has to happen.

[Майор Хаткевич]

I'm not ignoring the child, I'm just addressing the issue head on. I'm baffled by his status with the mother and the child. They are either "not together" or apparently planning on getting married "someday". As someone who will be family as soon as I get married, I'd rather he had it all down on paper, but who knows. The Army recruiter is working with him, and he's going to MEPS this coming week. I've been passing along the advice from this thread, so he should at least be a bit more informed than he was.

[Spaceman3750]

Another thing have him go to MEPS with an adult. I was there with my oldest daughter and 399 other recruits and only two other adults came to see what type of a contract their child will get.

At the point they decide to enlist they are "adults". Their contract is their problem, not mommy and daddy - are their parents going to tag along to make sure the TIs aren't mean to them at Lackland too?

[Private Investigator]

Another thing have him go to MEPS with an adult. I was there with my oldest daughter and 399 other recruits and only two other adults came to see what type of a contract their child will get.

At the point they decide to enlist they are "adults". Their contract is their problem, not mommy and daddy -

Never been in the military huh?

One young man said my recruiter said I am going to school to be an electrician, the processor said, "thats later, first you will go infantry as that is open today otherwise we can not get you in line for electrician." Now does that make sense? An 18 year old will believe that and say, "YES SIR!"

BTW, my ex was Recruiter of the Year and got the Commendation Medal for it at Recruiting Station Chicago.

[lordmonar]

PI....are you saying recruiters lie to recruits?!?! 

I tell everyone who is instresting in enlisting......pick the job you want....tell the guy a MEPS.....if it is not open....walk out.

[flyboy53]

PI....are you saying recruiters lie to recruits?!?! 

I tell everyone who is instresting in enlisting......pick the job you want....tell the guy a MEPS.....if it is not open....walk out.

I won't dignify the first response, so PI and usafaux here's a little education for you about what a recruiter has to do...and this information is generally based on the Air Force.

Recruiters start by pre-qualifing an applicant based on basic critera just to get them through the door, so to say, and that includes basic stuff like dependency issues, trouble with the law and previous re-enlistment codes from other sevices. This is because all of that may require various waivers, which take time and are no guarantee that the applicant will even be accepted for enlistment or commissioning processing.

Did you know that a recruiter makes about 100 applicant contacts for every one individual who eventually enlists...kind of puts a whole new meaning about the "best and the brightest" our nation sends in harms way, doesn't it.

Active duty recruiters generally recruit by what's available in the week group that the applicant processes through MEPS or, in the case of the Guard and Reserve, by what specific vacancies exist on the unit manning document that the recruiter is essentially trying to fill. This aspect of an enlistment is further complicated by ASVAB, security clearance, and Physical Profile requirements for specific jobs.

If someone is processing for active duty, (and I'm speaking specficially what happens in the Air Force) they are given the option to pick a job several times while processing through MEPS and this is done by a recruiter who is acting as a career counselor. If the individual doesn't pick a job, he or she enters the military in an open contract and is given one more opportunity at basic to either select a job (which is generally what is left over from that week group) or apply for a special job/duty assignemnt....which used to be things like broadcaster, linguist, chaplain's assistant or pararescue.

If they don't pick a job or qualify for things like pararescue, they fulfill the needs of the Air Force and are given one of the week group vacancies that remain. NO ONE IS PINNING THEM TO A WALL AND TELLING THEM THEY HAVE TO ENLIST THEN. They can wait until the job is available. Physicals and ASVAB scores are good for several months. They can even initiate a request to process for another service.

In the case of a reservist or guardsman, they already have a specific job at enlistment and may have already met their supervisor or toured their duty section. You do know, an applicant can request to meet the individual, which most supervisors generally prefer because they don't want to babysit slugs.

In my own case, I entered the  Air Force to be a broadcaster and flunked the voice audition in basic training because I had a cold. I got orders for the Air Force Security Police Academy, later got injured in the line of duty, and ended up in Public Affairs anyway. The joke being that, I was originally destined for nuclear weapons security and as a deployable M-60 machinegun team member. Although I became medically disqualified, that background continued to follow me thoughtout my Air Force career and made me invaluable to security forces and public affairs and later even as a recruiter.

It's almost like I am forever and first a Security Forces member despite my limited time in the career field and what career broadening I later took, and I will never regret that.