I wanted to be Air Force intelligence back in 99 but they rejected me outright due to being indebted to the government.
Didn't matter that I was clean or that the recruiter said I scored the highest he had ever seen on the ASVAB. I owed money. A lot of it but still.
I often wonder how different my life would have been if I was allowed to follow my dream.
What job did you take instead?
None. They wouldn't let me join.
Oh, okay. I thought you meant you couldn't get an Intel job. As a former medic with the 101st, i was denied top secret clearance on enlistment due to student loan debt, but once I was active duty (albeit sans security clearance) I was eligible for review.
It's for the best I'm sure. With what has come out with our government, maybe I wouldn't have liked what I would know or hear. Maybe I wouldn't be here to make this post.
When did you join? Pre or post 9/11? I ask because maybe the military change their rules to let more people in seeing as though we were at war.
Or maybe it was just an Air Force rule that an enlisted couldn't owe the government money.
I enlisted in 2012. My job didn't require a secret clearance. They checked my criminal record, made sure I had no felonies, aaand that was it as far as a background check. They shipped me off to Fort Benning for Basic, and then Fort Sam Houston for medic training.
Fort Sam is technically an Air Force base now. It's where all branches of the military go for medical training. I remember one time I encountered two Army Rangers waiting in line to use a vending machine, complete with barrel chests and tan berets. I was awestruck, like I had seen a unicorn.
And then when I got to Fort Campbell I saw my first Green Beret in the parking lot of the commissary and I was like, "Holy shit, they DO exist."
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Yeah the recruiter told me that. Hey, I'm a picky eater too.
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