Alright...I finally have orders to DLI. I have to report NLT 15 Sept.

Now,from previous discussions with other DLI vets and of those currently there (ie cs2cti), I was led to believe that I would most likely be placed in a language class upon arrival. However, my orders actually include a class number and start and grad dates. My research has been narrowed down to two possible language courses......Farsi and Russian. Both have report dates of 17 Sept and are both only 48 weeks long, which is roughly the length of my orders. There is only a class number which I cannot nail down.

My question is to mainly cs2cti, if he is still out there. Will I still get language placed upon arrival or do you think my orders are for a specific language?

Congrats USAR for getting out of TPU. Good luck, and thanks again for all your help.

I still have my orders and they say that my grad date is exactly 1 year from my arrival date, but I'm in Arabic which is 63 weeks. I don't think that the grad date really means anything. I would guess that you still have all languages open to you.

Your class date a number don't mean anything...I had them on my orders way back in the 1990s, and it actually said Russian on my orders. The CTI quota manager will actually place you in a slot once you get do DLI, based on what's available but will take your preference into account as far as possible.

quote:

Originally posted by martini_elf:
Congrats USAR for getting out of TPU. Good luck, and thanks again for all your help.

Good luck to you martini. You have a heck of a frustrating ride once you get here. get your classes out of the way quickly so they can put in for your request for orders to your school. The staff here won't submit you for orders til all of your classes are finished. And then you have to wait...wait...wait! Just make sure you get "gained" by the Navy as quickly as possible so you can get an ID card and switched over in DEERS. it also effects you getting paid. You will have to be on the ball for it and stay on these people. THey say they are here to help you. But in reality, they whine and ***** that they are sooooooo busy all the time that they can't help you or don't have the time to help you. You may have to "discreetly" go over heads and do "end arounds" to get what you need in a timely matter. Just do it and don't worry about the repercussions. If you have questions, just ask some of the guys who have been there for a couple of months. CTT1 should still be here next week when you get in. He is a little quirky but he may be able to help you. There are plenty who have been there longer who can help you too. Just ask someone what the real deal is and you will get some good help. Just don't take the staff's word for anything....OK?!
And good luck....

CTISN Coombs

This message has been edited. Last edited by: GerryRM3,

Well, sorry for not responding (end of semester, all that). How's thing's going now? Seems like Spanish might not work out, eh?

Looks like no Spanish. Not because he doesnt want to. It's just the timing. I couldnt get orders out here in time to get into the 6 Sept class and I am waaaaaayyyyyy to early fo the Nov 29th class. Chief stuck me back into Arabic, but we had a sit-down on Friday morning and I expressed how I REALLY do not want to be back in Arabic again. I gave up three paygrades in the Army to come into the Navy for another language. If I'd wanted to stay in Arabic and be stationed at an Army post, I'd had gone active duty Army and kept my E6.
Anyways, I was taken off the board fo Arabic and I think (and hope) he is switching me to Chinese. I'd rather much live in Hawaii. So we should see this coming week.

By the way CS2, i have been looking around for you since I got here and havent seen hide nor hair of you. Where you been? Work and then home? Speaking of which, I think i will be bringing my family out here at the end of the Xmas exodus and I am trying to weigh my options as far as Ord vs living on the economy out in Marina or Salinas, or somewhere. But not much luck so far. Any help would be appreciated. I have checked out Ord and I dont like the idea of losing all my BAH, but for simplicity's sake, it seems the easiest option. After rent and paying utilities outside of Ord, it doesnt seem like I will save anything anyways. So, Ord is loking better and better....not to mention the simpler choice. What say you?

This message has been edited. Last edited by: GerryRM3,

1. OPSEC

2. Please do not identify people by name here. If you don't care that someone know your name, fine, but it isn't cool to associate names and ranks in this line of work.

3. Relating to #1 - Say I were an agent of a foreign power that spoke another language than English (say China), and I wanted to know where the USN was focusing its resources in terms of linguistic training. Since the chances are pretty good I already know what the "C" in CT stands for, and what Navy linguists do, do you think this message board would be a good resource for me? Do you think this would affect military/intelligence planning? Do you think it is a good idea to correlate duty stations with languages? This place is an OPSEC nightmare!

You guys are a lot more active on this forum than I am, and I don't mean to bust on you, but you should know better.

Ack.. that OPSEC thing again... maybe I should've stayed a cook j/k

Nov 29th? That's only 2 months... I waited almost that long to start my Chinese class, and many people waited MUCH longer. (if you ask around, you'll find a lot of [primarily booter] people sat in X div for 2-3 months before class) What's the deal with that?

As far as housing: If you can get into a new house, take it. It's FAR better than anyone enlisted can hope to afford on the economy. The old housing aint great, and looks like a dump on the outside, but the truth is, anything with more than 1 bedroom and under $2k around here does too. Fact is, even in the old housing, the inside is nice and relatively spacious. You'll get used to everything being smaller and more expensive. Like I said, you may be able to get into new housing (there's more available for E-4 & below than for E-5's like me) - and that aint bad at all.

Salinas is too far unless you 1) ride a motorcycle and 2) don't mind getting up at 5:30 and getting home at 1700 every day -- and then the savings really isn't that great unless your wife works in Salinas. Gas is about the same and the commissary is generally far cheaper than regular grocery stores. Besides, there is a huge new shopping center opening up right behind Ft. Ord housing. Has a Best Buy, Target (that makes 2 here), Kohls, etc. and supposedly a new movie theatre. Almost all of it will be opening in the next month or so (my wife and I are extremely excited!) This new shopping center is already going a long way toward raising my quality of life here.

As far as living out here, you're right - it's almost impossible to find anything livable for E-5 & below's BAH.

Of course, there's always the trailer park on Coe St.... right behind those massive ritzy houses

As for me, I don't go to the CIDD very often -- usually only on Thursdays. Our school is all the way down the hill by Soldier's Field (which, btw, is not sensitive information...), and I have a phone-in muster, so have little reason to show up there except Thurs and duty section muster. If you end up in Chinese, we'll likely meet during PT. Otherwise, I'm one of like 2 CS2's on the base, so it shouldn't be too hard to find me -- you already know the other one.

I ended up getting Arabic again. Ugh! I think it was a conspiracy to put me back in that language. I kicked and screamed but all I got was that they are "setting me up for success".

Oh well! Can't beat the system.

Setting you up for success my ***! Just a month and a half and you could be in Chinese. I'm surprised they didn't work w/ you. Next time you see those bastards, tell them CS2CTI is looking for a Chinese study partner who DOESN'T live in the barracks. Maybe someone i can hitch a ride w/ from Ft. Ord

Oh well. No use beating that dead horse. So, well maybe you wont get IA'd back to Iraq - just hang out in Augusta for a while. Can't be too bad. It's cheaper than here, but has just as prominent (if not better) golf courses . And you're less than 2 hours from one of this nation's greatest cities: Atlanta. And it's cheap.. .did I mention that? Sometimes I envy the Arabic types for that. Hawaii will be nice but I'm afraid I wont be able to afford to live there on enlisted pay unless my wife gets lucky and finds a great paying job that doesn't require college

can't say as the golf courses are of any interest to me. I am not a golfer. I'll worry about getting orders to Iraq when I get there. As for the economy, the research i have done makes it seem very comparable to San Antonio. So it should be nice. I just want my family to enjoy being there.

As for the Arabic, I am almost done wih Sound and Script (thank God) as I am sooo bored. I am trying to maintain a balance of participation in class so that I, 1) don't fall asleep in class and 2) don't come across as a know-it-all. But it's difficult.

The newest issue is that I have been given 30 days to get a place off-base. The problem is that I don't want to. My wife and I decided that it was the best interest, for all of us, financially, that the remain in Texas til after I graduate. This means that I am making some money off BAH so that I can bills etc on an E3 pay. Now they want to cause me problems by telling me to get off post. This command has been a thorn in my side since I got here. It could definitely be worse, but I was hoping for SOME consideration for being prior service. I guess I underestimated them. I dunno....maybe something good will come of this.