Air Force Prior Service?

SGT Private RallyPoint Member — Wed, 27 Feb 2019 16:30:45 -0500

My guard contract ends in October of 2020 and I'm looking into my options. I know that I want to switch to active duty for pretty much any branch (probably not the Marines). I'm looking heavily into just going Active Duty army, since I'm already in that branch. However, I'm lightly looking into trying to get a TACP position within the air force. I've heard it's almost impossible to get prior service in the air force, but I was wondering if they have the same rules for prior service when it comes to special forces tryouts. Anything helps!

Response by Sgt Private RallyPoint Member made Feb 27 at 2019 4:41 PM

Sgt Private RallyPoint Member — Wed, 27 Feb 2019 16:41:42 -0500

SGT Private RallyPoint Member As a Combat Medic you could be a Navy Corpsman. I would narrow your focus down to what MOS you want and then talk to a Recruiter(s).

https://www.thebalancecareers.com/prior-service-enlistments-3354052

Is It Possible to Enlist Again If You Have Prior Service?

A veteran with prior service may want to rejoin the Military or enlist in a different branch. However, it's not as easy as you might think.

Response by Capt Daniel Goodman made Feb 27 at 2019 4:59 PM

Capt Daniel Goodman — Wed, 27 Feb 2019 16:59:58 -0500

http://www.ocsfoundation.org

Purely as a thought, though I entirely follow what you'd said, have you done associates? Bachelors? Any grad level stuff at all yet? Obviously, if you went warrant or commissioned, your prior time would of course count...when I'd been at USAF OTS, there were many, many others I knew while I was there, I was at the Lackland one, not the Maxwell one that exists now, who were prior active, Guard, Reserve, Guard Tech, Reserve Tech, all of them were there, from all svcs...one guy had even been prior Navy wearing enlisted sub dolphins...if you can, try to elaborate on what you've done for school thus far, grades, GPAs, flight interests, I saw you're on the clinical side...would you want to stay clinical? Move to another area? If so, what MOS types? AFSC types? Naval or USCG rates? I saw you didn't want USMC, however, if you ever rethink that, aside from NROTC, there's also the lesser known USMC platoon leaders course (PLC), as well as USPHS, with their Jr and Sr COSTEP, which is the USPHS analogue to ROTCs and USMC PLC...I'd also seen a good deal on here about ROTCs being able to be used for grad school...if you could give more of an idea as to your range of interests and/or ambitions, it'd just help all of us suggest various possibilities for you, that was all I'm trying to say, no rush, whenever convenient, I just have an interest in such career/educ topics...the site here isn't all-inclusive, it doesn't cover Army WOCS, or any of the direct commission indoc OIS type programs, however, the forum pages go into the five major OCS programs, though the Guard state-level OCS programs are also left out as well, from what I remember....

OCS Foundation

SERVICES FOR: Candidates Alumni Officer Families

Response by Capt Daniel Goodman made Feb 27 at 2019 5:02 PM

Capt Daniel Goodman — Wed, 27 Feb 2019 17:02:11 -0500

I just saw you'd said TACP, sorry, I'd missed that at first...what equivalents have you looked at in other svcs thus far? How far would you be willing to go to consider other fields, if you couldn't go TACP, as I'd asked before, so far as you could elaborate on that at all? Your question was quite interesting, certainly....

Response by SGT(P) Ethan Groves made Oct 17 at 2019 2:58 AM

SGT(P) Ethan Groves — Thu, 17 Oct 2019 02:58:55 -0400

Its extremely difficult and time consuming... it took me over a year to even get a new MEPS physical because they had to review 230+ Army records from PHAs and 2808s 2807s SF500s etc...then it took 4 months to hear back from that.

Once I qualified by MEPS I worked with a recruiter for one more month before the air force PDQ'd me on their own regs because I had the nerve to go to the TMC for a headache in 2016. Some Hack Army Nurse diagnosed me with severe chronic daily headaches in Kuwait. He was not even familiar with the diagnostic criteria for such a diagnosis.

Also, any medical waivers you have in the army...consider them null and void. I had a waiver for ADHD and served 6 years without having taken any ADHD meds in 8 years. The Air Force was PDQ'd me for that as well. Spent 400 out of pocket to get evaluated by a psychiatrist to evaluate me to tell me what I already know...I dont have ADHD. There was also one time on my post deployment medical screen where I said i had not been getting much sleep and BOOM!!! insomnia.... Air Force sees that and PDQ (had the Psychiatrist evaluate me for that as well) it turned out to be the standard expected amount of sleep seen by service members in deployment and was not inhibiting to performance or deployment duties.... I've been waiting for over 2 weeks for a waiver after spending about 900 dollars out of pocket to see a Neurologist and psychiatrist to get a clear evaluation. (moral of this is NEVER EVER EVER GET SEEN BY A MILITARY DOCTOR)

I Ets'd in June of 2018 and im still not in.... I also tried the SF route at first and my recruiter just stopped talking to me.

A few tips.

1. a MEPS physical is good for all branches. it took me making a friend who was an air guard recruiter to get my MEPS physical so i could take it to active duty. That's because the AD wont send you to MEPS until you have a job slotted and qualify.

2. if your recruiter falls through don't be afraid to shop around and find one who takes you seriously.