Hello All. I am fresh out of college but am a little older than most graduates at 31. I took time off after high school and worked and traveled. I graduated with top honors with a BA in Political Science and a GPA of 3.6 and am a member of two national honor groups (not trying to toot my own horn but thought that this might help in terms of my options). Anyway, I am highly, highly interested in working in the field of intelligence. With bravado aside please, which branch offers the best in terms of intel school and experience? What about active compared to reserves? Also what about enlisting compared to trying the Officer route? Please be honest and sincere I really am looking for some help. Thank you and God Bless

Your best bet is to contact a recruiter by e-mail, going in, or phone? I think there is actually a place somewhere else on this site that you can direct questions to recruiters. Not that that was not a good question.

Here's my 2 cents. You will always get more practical hands on experience as enlisted, as officers are the "management" side of the military. As far as which branch, well all branches have excellent intel services. Each one kind of has there own specialties though. I would say that the Army's focus is on human intel, not sure about the Air Force or Navy. Maybe someone else can help with that. Your civilian accomplishments are great, but you still have to prove yourself once you put the uniform on. If you decide to go enlisted your degree will help get you promoted when you enlist. Typically the Army will provide a tougher physical challenge than the Air Force or Navy, but to each his own.

quote:

Originally posted by louie_vil_slugger:
Hello All. I am fresh out of college but am a little older than most graduates at 31. I took time off after high school and worked and traveled. I graduated with top honors with a BA in Political Science and a GPA of 3.6 and am a member of two national honor groups (not trying to toot my own horn but thought that this might help in terms of my options). Anyway, I am highly, highly interested in working in the field of intelligence. With bravado aside please, which branch offers the best in terms of intel school and experience? What about active compared to reserves? Also what about enlisting compared to trying the Officer route? Please be honest and sincere I really am looking for some help. Thank you and God Bless

You need to contact a recruiter, that is
more personal than this forum.You might not like
intel at all.

Hah! The recruiter is the last person you want to talk to! Mine was an artillery guy who didn't know his head from his @$$ and spent more time trying to get underage kids drunk so he could buddy buddy up with them. He told me only what he'd heard and couldn't do anything but tell me how cool it would be doing all that spy stuff.

Research what job you want and which service offers the job. Talk to people who liked it, and people who hated it. If two service branches offer the same job, compare the merits of each service. Oh there's so many differences.

Finally, if your gut tells you that something is fishy, it probably is. Remember the recruiter is not your advocate. He's looking to sell you into taking the job that earns him the most points possible towards meeting his monthly qouta. MI guys are worth a lot of points, some specialties more than others.

Terminal_Hawaii
NCO's Lead the Way!

Navy Or Airforce, If you want to talk with someone in Navy Intel let me know and I'll connect you.

R

IS2 Seals

As a former NCO and Commissioned Officer in Military Intelligence, I recommend enlisting as a 96B if you like to do battle and order of battle analysis. If you are good at languages or computers get into signal's intelligence.

I started out enlisted (with a MA in History) and got my commission later. I enjoyed both realms. As both a NCO and as an officer you will have a chance of serving in the S-2 sections of combat arms units, especially if you are a 96B enlisted. Sigint enlisted are assigned to MI units.

I just signed a 5 year 98XL contract yesterday. After DLI I believe I get to pick or am assigned to 98C or 98G. I think I will pick 98C, it sounds pretty cool.

If you are going to be stratgic, 98c is def the way to go, i'm currently a 98g at a strategic unit, and i've done more exciting things before, trust me, if you want to do tactical side, go 98g, go airborne and you can get attached to different sf groups depending on what language you get, in my case, ill probably put in my 4187 for jump school in next couple of months. If you are extremely anylitical just go 98c, but, as you mentioned you might not have a choice, 2 of my friends got switched from golf to charlie while at dli.

I must admit it's good to see 2 ppl say that 98C is the way to go. My cousin, SGT Amanda Pinson, was a 98C with the 101st Airborne. She always loved her job, but couldn't ever say much about what she was working on, for obvious reasons.

Hey Slugger,
I think UFIS said it best. Figure out your area of interest. Remember "most" intel positions in a service will relate to what they do: USMC-local situational awareness; Army-theater awareness; Navy-shore projection; AF-air oriented. Of course all services have overlapping areas; there are just fewer slots if you're in the wrong service; same goes for Civil Service. With Poly Sci, have you explored CIA or one of the other beltway agencies? They would have more political positions, and still offer top-notch employees the same schools as the military.

Personnaly, I would go officer rout. You'll get a wider breadth of experience, and a better bird's eye view of the whole operation. Enlisted is great if you want to specialize.

Reserves is hard on "normal" family life. It is more time consuming that one weekend a month. There's just as much opportunity as active duty, except, you need time from your normal life/job to participate. If you choose reserves go "IMA" (Army or AF have this option, I don't believe the others do). IMA slots have extremely flexible drill schedules. Traditional slots are scheduled monthly. Personnally I would start with active duty. The active duty mind set makes everything unified. The citizen-solder concept may scatter goals.

Other things to consider, listeners will have hearing loss; database entry is tedious at best; and field work may be Bondish, but he's never married for long.

Good Luck!

From what I've seen, Navy is the branch to pursue if you really want to be involved in intelligence/information operations. I'm an Army guy, and I've found my way to becoming very involved in the intelligence community, but I think it's a harder road than some I could've taken, especially since I'm enlisted.

slugger
For your background, try the Agency. Recruiters are always on campus.
end

The last four post were very helpful to me. I'm considering navy and army intel as well as the civilian agencies. I'm female and was an American History & Literature major with top grades and scores. You can't tell me which to choose I know b/c it's an individual choice, but can you touch on more details army vs. navy (i'm not sure what "shore projections" mean) and the difference both short, long term and benefits of civilian and military intel. I'd be interested int he officer vs. enlisted route. Also, I'm considering law school this fall. Would that be a useful degree or better off learning while in the military/agency or earning a region-specific degree? Thanks.

....take yer'self a gander at "Quantico, Va." and then ask the same question(s)---you can even pick-up a few bucks part-time over at Langley, or better yet...*aol...

Granted lou, at 31...yer' gettin' in the game a little later--and I'm only referring to the other "opt."---as a United States Marine, you'll have boot camp "covered" if you should decide to participate in any other nation's military first hand...for instance as an advisor etc...

It's a small world after all...

JG
ps...oh yeah, read Gen. Smedley Butler's little eye opener..."War Is A Racket"

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/search-handle-url/ind...ults-process=default

pssst!...take a look at that book by Jules Archer...the third one down...

.."politics"...

My 2 cents as an older college graduate who enlisted at age 28 in the Navy. A disclaimer that now I'm 31, glad I enlisted, but simultaneously somewhat frustrated at the lack of options available to enlisted folks while they're active duty, regardless of branch.

1) I think you should go officer. Army/Marines will take you with little fanfare now - of course you risk (a) not getting your community choice with the Army and (b) getting shot up/killed more so than in the other services. Flip side is that it's dangerous, yes, but no WWI or WWII. Plus the field experience would be invaluable no matter what you do.
2) Also consider the other services: Navy, Air Force, Coast Guard. CG and Navy have Direct Commission programs for Intel officers, but degree requirements are a little more stringent.
3) If you enlist, go Air Force. The commitment is only 4 years active: when you're older, the shorter the commitment the better, so that you can be more flexible with your options since timing and age restrictions with officer programs and civilian agencies become a big deal once you start hitting 34, 35 and older.
4) If you enlist Army, you might get away with a 4-year commitment, but you'll probably be stuck with E-4 for a long time: they have too many people, especially as 98G's, so they can't promote them to E-5 and up. Navy is decent (what I am), but if you choose linguist or another AIT school (Advanced something Training) they'll stick you with a 5-6 year active commitment. Like I said, that's a pain in the butt for you if you have to wait until 37,38 years old before you can make your next move, though you could apply for Navy OCS in the middle of your enlistment.
5) If I had known earlier, I would have tried more programs with civilian agencies. NSA and FBI have some good intern/analyst programs where you'll start off kind of low paygrade (GS-7 or so) but move up quickly. In the intel world you'll probably work with plenty of military guys anyway, doing the same job, without all the restrictions on your behavior and mustering times etc. Those military rules & restrictions can be a big pain in the butt for us older folk who are more used to managing our own lives.

Well that was a lot. To recap, I'd say definitely go officer if you do the military side - the enlisted experience thing is nice to have, but most important is if you're a good officer or not, and that's up to you to decide regardless of experience. If you decide to stay civilian, which offers more flexibility, go to an NSA/FBI/DIA/Homeland Security/civvie Coast Guard job fair, and ask about analytical/linguist-type internship programs. CIA of course is the holy grail of intel, but they're also the most selective - get your foot in the door with one of the other agencies, and then try to transfer to CIA in a few years. Good luck.

If you want to go CIA, DIA, or any of the other alphabet agencies...my advice to a 31 year old would be DO NOT JOIN THE MILITARY AT THIS AGE. I am 34, and a few years ago, considered doing what you are doing..I spoke to recruiters in most of the agencies..and believe me, you having your Poly sci degree with a high GPA doesnt mean **** to them..they need people with HARD TARGET LANGUAGE SKILLS...ARABIC, CHINESE, PERSIAN/FARSI. The ability to read, write, converse. DLI is good, but your 31 man..too old. your best bet is to contact the agencies right away..forget military, and get cracking on your language skills ASAP. Get into an immersion program. The cut off for CIA is 35. If you join military now..you will be deployed for ever.. ARABIC/PERSIAN/CHINESE/KOREAN..GET CRACKING.

For me, being able to see and nearly get into a fight with a ~~~ OK IMAN enough with the name calling ~~~in Germany has always been a thrill in Worms Germany. Then, to contact my congressman, Leo Ryan, to have him ask the Army why the heck did they send me to Germany in the first place just to find out that I lied to join! It's one thing to lie to the Army, but you know, I'd have been laughed out of the recruiting office if I'd of asked them to send me to Signal School, and of course, given me a Secret Clearance. You see, for me to again ask my congressman to open yet another investigation which I now contend got him murdered by the post removed that shot him dead the night before the gay preacher Jim Jones murdered more than 900 straight members of the Peoples Temple. To have a job, as a nurse's assistant where a CNA walked up to me one day to congratulate me on getting some $60,000,000 from Kaiser Hospital and ARA Living Centers if and only if Local 250 forgot me! Oh, contact the state of New York, just before 9/11 and see all the crying about being broke. I helped their cities, counties and state to rise from the ashes, as two Republicans will run against Hillary for the White House. Even poor old Augusta, poor boy, with its more than $100,000,000 in the red, but within a month of my financial advice, they were $17,000,000 in the black!

UNCLE SAM AIN'T RELEASED ME YET!

mainedawg
moderator

This message has been edited. Last edited by: mainedawg,

quote:

Originally posted by 14742900:
The last four post were very helpful to me. I'm considering navy and army intel as well as the civilian agencies. I'm female and was an American History & Literature major with top grades and scores. You can't tell me which to choose I know b/c it's an individual choice, but can you touch on more details army vs. navy (i'm not sure what "shore projections" mean) and the difference both short, long term and benefits of civilian and military intel. I'd be interested int he officer vs. enlisted route. Also, I'm considering law school this fall. Would that be a useful degree or better off learning while in the military/agency or earning a region-specific degree? Thanks.

I hope this post is not too late to help you, but here is my perspective after 22 years in Naval Intel:
1. The Navy does regular deployments, but not generally as long as Army/USMC
2. I guess what that person meant concerning "shore projection" is amphibious operations (like the landings in Normandy and Inchon). This also includes non-combatant evacuation operations (saving civilians in a hotspot) and surgical strikes by landing Marines by helicopter and landing craft. The Navy does much more than this: sea control (keeping an eye on ships) and strike operations (missile, bomb attacks).
3. many civilian intel people have military experience. Might be a good idea to start military, then get out and become a contractor or GS employee
4. I'm biased because I'm a retired officer, but it's overall a better career path. You get leadership/management experience right away, rather than having to slowly work your way to it. It also, frankly, pays more and, unfortunately, generally gets more recognition. Most of the actual hands-on work, though, is done by enlisted. This means that, in the Navy, the enlisted have to do all the dirty work--swabbing the deck and cleaning the heads (we don't have contract janitors at sea!).
5. good idea to wait until you're in the military or after to go back to school--the GI bill and tuition assistance will go a long way toward paying for it.

quote:

Originally posted by foolab:
If you want to go CIA, DIA, or any of the other alphabet agencies...my advice to a 31 year old would be DO NOT JOIN THE MILITARY AT THIS AGE. I am 34, and a few years ago, considered doing what you are doing..I spoke to recruiters in most of the agencies..and believe me, you having your Poly sci degree with a high GPA doesnt mean **** to them..they need people with HARD TARGET LANGUAGE SKILLS...ARABIC, CHINESE, PERSIAN/FARSI. The ability to read, write, converse. DLI is good, but your 31 man..too old. your best bet is to contact the agencies right away..forget military, and get cracking on your language skills ASAP. Get into an immersion program. The cut off for CIA is 35. If you join military now..you will be deployed for ever.. ARABIC/PERSIAN/CHINESE/KOREAN..GET CRACKING.

Some of this is true. The military and agencies are definitely looking for language skills and techies. However, you can do just fine in the military starting at the age of 31. You can even get good language/technical skills while in the military, then go to the agencies.

One more late response....you may want to consider the Air National Guard as an option. Each wing has several intelligence NCOs and officer positions. There are also several new intelligence units coming on-line which are technology focused. If you go enlisted, you will get to spend more time doing analysis, As an officer, you will get to start off doing analysis but eventually you will move on to more supervisory responsibilities. Hope this helps.

this forum has helped a lot.

I am a college soph and a double major in International Studies & Russian. I attended UC Berkeley over summer '07 to do a 10-wk intensive (crams the entire 1st yr of study into