I have been out of the Air Force for 20 years and will turn 45 in May. Is there alot of 45 and over at WTC or will I be one of the oldest? Going in as a E4 will I be a squad leader?
At WTC it's up to the Cadre who is a Squad Leader. At your first unit it's not necessarily dependent on rank E4 or E5 can be a squad leader.
If I was in your boots though I would hang out as a E4 in your first unit for a few months before pushing to be squad leader. Remember you have to learn the Army culture AND you have to be proficient in your Army skill level.
Hate to say it but Army Initial Entry and Re-entry training only trains you to skill level 1 possibly 2......you have to be at skill level 4 as a E4 I believe. So you have some catching up to do with your MOS training once you get to your first unit, your not going to be fully trained.
Probably not a whole lot behind but, IMO with a new unit orientation thats a lot. Learn the culture, learn 2 skill levels as fast as you can then try for squad leader. So my advice is to cool it for at least 4-6 months on the E5 or squad leader stuff.
It's OK if you want to try it out at WTC because thats a training environment....no biggie, your gone in 45 days. At your first unit your going to be there for years. You don't want to mess up that first impression.
As for being old in your 40's as squad leader, my Squad Leader at 2AD in 1984 was 43 or 44 and he was a E5 that enlisted after a break in service from Vietnam. From what I hear it's pretty common now even in Infantry units they have a few 40+ year olds in each platoon.
This how is worked at my Fort Sill class, June 2007, third class through Sill WTC. The Cadre will split up the company of soldiers into platoons, ours was done alphabetically, without NCOs included. Then they add in the E5 NCOs to even it up, then the E6 and E7 if there are any. I would like to say they place a good prior Army NCO behind a platoon sergeant that is an E6 from non-army, but that is not what happened to us. We had 2 E7s each was platoon sergeant, each had an E6 as asst. One E6 was former Navy like me, one was former active army SF. This dude was as high speed as they come.
Then, in my platoon, it was me a former Navy E6 out for 20 years age 45 then, with a former Navy Seal E6 who due to going AD lost his E6 to E5. Both the Seal and the SF guy are now back in SF.
So, they will use rank appropriately at first, then replace you if they think its needed. As an E6 you wont drop below squad leader. There will be tons of E5s so its doubtful an E4 will be squad leader at first. I had a former Marine E4, who was busted to E1 for some reason came back in and was at WTC and he ended up one of my squad leaders in the end and he was awesome. I wish I could have got E2 for him.
I would not say there are "a lot" of 45 and older, but you will not be the oldest there. It's a pretty good mix in my class so far but still more late 20's to early 30's than over 40. I'm the oldest (I think) at 50 but there are a few 45+.
As was stated, you need to learn the Army way of doing things. Being prior AF myself, I can tell you it's a lot to learn. It's not hard if you apply yourself, but, it's still quite a bit different.
There are a number of other threads on here related to what goes on at the class that you can read through to get a better fell too.
Originally posted by ShosMeister: I would not say there are "a lot" of 45 and older, but you will not be the oldest there. It's a pretty good mix in my class so far but still more late 20's to early 30's than over 40. I'm the oldest (I think) at 50 but there are a few 45+.
As was stated, you need to learn the Army way of doing things. Being prior AF myself, I can tell you it's a lot to learn. It's not hard if you apply yourself, but, it's still quite a bit different.
There are a number of other threads on here related to what goes on at the class that you can read through to get a better fell too.
