Youngest Daughter Heading to MEPS

[John Morris]

Our youngest girl is taking a big test today, she's heading down to MEPS to sit for a Cryptologist/Linguistics test for the US Army, yep, she's getting serious, and ready to serve, so very proud of our baby girl.

I hope and pray that she does well, this is the MOS she wants, with a rich career after service.

 

I am apprehensive as most parents would be, but very proud. Our plans have not aligned with her plans after High School, we had a dream of all our kids furthering their education after HS, but our youngest daughter has her own dreams, I am a bit quicker at accepting her road she's heading down, but mama is having a bit of a hard time in all of this. But all in all, when our kid finally gets it all squared away, and mama and me are sitting in front of her basic training graduating class, I know mama will be very proud of our warrior girl. I know I am already!

 

Here is our younger daughter Tiffany day of HS graduation, just a short 2 month ago.

 

She's trading in her heels and makeup for BDU's and adventure!

Cryptologic Linguist (35P)

WWW.GOARMY.COM

---

Ideal for multilingual Soldiers, Cryptologic Linguists analyze foreign communications & extract insights to inform Army...

 

[lew]

53 minutes ago, John Morris said:

we had a dream of all our kids furthering their education after HS,

I'd say that's just what she is doing and for free!

[Gene Howe]

Fantastic! Great career field. 

 

[John Morris]

16 minutes ago, lew said:

I'd say that's just what she is doing and for free!

You bet Lew!

[JIMMIEM]

@John,

She is furthering her education.  There's something special about those with a military background.  They seem to have a special maturity about them.  College can be done at any time.  You and your wife have done a great job....be proud.

She does have it squared away!

Edited July 22, 2019 by JIMMIEM
add info

[p_toad]

Looks like the two of you done good.   Give her your love and support and turn her loose on the world.

[John Morris]

Great news guys, she texted us a couple hours ago and said she passed the test! It's a hard test guys, and she did it! One step closer to a 35P!

[Gunny]

13 hours ago, John Morris said:

but mama is having a bit of a hard time in all of this.

I can imagine, according to my Daughter my ex is suffering badly from our son going to Merchant Marine Academy.

 

I'm with you though, hate to see them grow up and move on, but ya gotta let them spread the wings and fly.

 

Hopefully he doesn't have the same insanity streak I did at his age.  Jumping out of airplanes, blowing things up and all.  

[John Morris]

@Woodbutcherbynight, that is pretty danged awesome, Merchant Marine Academy! Congrats man!

 

[Smallpatch]

Not a man about the world John so I wonder what the letters stand for but am happy she is getting to do something she is looking forward to doing..

 A grand daughter as soon as she got out of high school  got her Registered Nursing licenses and has a kinda of an unusual work situation. She gets contracts from different hospitals for 6 months at a time working in the emergency rooms. First one was in New Orleans, then in north Texas and now in Taos, nm.. Wife talked her into getting into nursing and boy is she ever happy for she is getting to see lots of different things..  But the main thing that made me feel proud,,,,,, she saved her money and paid cash for a new SUV...…..I've not ever been around young kids who paid cash for their car, old or new...

 

[Gene Howe]

John, is your daughter fluent in other than English and Spanish? 

[John Morris]

1 hour ago, Gene Howe said:

John, is your daughter fluent in other than English and Spanish? 

Gene, she's not even fluent in Spanish, she can understand it very well, after all she's had a Spanish speaking mom yelling at her all this time in Spanish, typically followed up by a flying sandal across the room aimed squarely at her forehead. So ya, she understands Spanish alright.

 

Her recruiter dropped her off at home last night after their long trip down south to the San Diego MEPS, and our daughter was very happy, she scored pretty high, which means she'll be assigned a language that is at a level of higher difficulty to learn.

According to her score, the Army will target her talents to learn languages, Dari/Persian Farsi, Hebrew, Hindi, Russian, Serbian/Croatian, Tagalog, Thai, Turkish, Uzbek, Urdu.

She ranks in the Category III languages as listed below. These are the more complicated languages, and ya, Dad's chest is popping out! In my heart I am glad she did not rank Category IV, she'd be dealing with our current Arabic hot zones in the sandbox if she did, I understand danger is the middle name of any military branch, but for my own sanity, I like the idea of at least a minimized risk for our daughter.

 

For an example of Category languages:

 

Category I language: 95 or higher (French, Italian, Portuguese, and Spanish)

Category II language: 100 or higher (German, Indonesian)

Category III language: 105 or higher (Hebrew, Hindi, Persian Farsi, Dari, Punjabi, Russian, Serbian/Croatian, Tagalog, Thai, Turkish, Uzbek, and Urdu)

Category IV language: 110 or higher (Modern Standard Arabic, Iraqi Arabic, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Levantine Arabic and Pashto)

 

Even if she did speak fluent Spanish, with her higher score, she would be trained in the Category III languages. Now all that being said, even though she qualifies for Cat III languages, it all depends on the Army's needs, they could down grade her (doubtful) but if she shows promise at the language school, they could also upgrade her to Cat IV again depending on their needs.

 

This is all very exciting for her, and us. After basic she'll go to a pretty neat location to learn her language, Monterey CA. Defense Language Institute. Sounds pretty sophisticated don't it?

https://www.dliflc.edu/

I believe it's run by the Air Force, and used by all branches.

 

[Gene Howe]

That sounds like she'll have a very exciting and interesting enlistment. Cat III languages will serve her well for the future. Military or otherwise. 

After I graduated with a degree in communication sciences, the AF tried to get me to reenlist for a similar program. A language school was mentioned. Don't remember if it was Monterrey, or not.  But, 6 years in the AF was enough. Besides, we had jobs waiting in AZ.

Edited July 23, 2019 by Gene Howe

[John Morris]

3 minutes ago, Gene Howe said:

But, 6 years in the AF was enough.  

Did they have re-enlist bonuses back then Gene?

[steven newman]

Afraid I learned mine "OJT"   on the job....learned enough to cuss someone out, when they did something "Ty-Wee Steve" didn't like...

 

Wish her the best of luck, John.

[John Morris]

2 minutes ago, steven newman said:

Wish her the best of luck, John.

Thank you sir Steve, appreciate it greatly, I'll pass it on to her, and all the wishes here, thanks!

[Gene Howe]

2 minutes ago, John Morris said:

Did they have re-enlist bonuses back then Gene?

Nope. But they did offer to bring me in at E6. I thought a master's degree would rate an O3, at least.

[steven newman]

Now-a-days, you need a master's degree before you can get to 0-4 grade...

[Artie]

Congratulations to your daughter, and to Mom and Dad. As one who never had a realistic chance at college, I don’t buy into the “You Must go to college” mantra that seems to permeate our society today. Doesn’t mean college isn’t a great fit for for many of our youth, just that there are different paths to a happy and successful life.  

[John Morris]

8 minutes ago, Artie said:

I don’t buy into the “You Must go to college” mantra that seems to permeate our society today.

I don't either Artie, trade schools are completely under rated unfortunately, our schools systems push very hard for the college route, that is their bench mark for successful teaching K-12. I never went to college, as a matter of fact, if it wasn't for Wood, Metal, Drafting and Auto shop classes in High School, I never would of showed up.

Mike Rowe, is our hero in our home.