Expert: Rod Powers - 12/13/2007

Question
I have a few questions about re-classing. I've been in air defense now for about 4 months or so. And i am currently not enjoying it at all, not to mention that this MOS is going to be of no use in the civilian sector when i get out. So my question to you is..Can i reclass with less than a year in my current MOS, and if so how do i go about doing it? I'm currently stationed in Germany, and i have absolutly no desire in staying in this MOS. Like i said before, there is no use for this in the civilian world when i ETS. Thanks a lot

Answer
Hi Garrett,

I'm afraid I've got bad news for you. The Army doesn't much care whether or not your enjoy your MOS, or not. It's the MOS you selected upon enlistment. The answer is pretty much "no." You won't be able to reclass with less than a year in your current MOS.

They also don't give much of a damn whether you suddenly discovered that your MOS is not of much use in the civilian sector, and you finally discovered that it's not the purpose of the Army to train you for a high paying civilian job. I'm sorry, but it's not.

The Army (like the other Military Services) spends a lot of money to train individuals into specific jobs that the service needs. As such, when they spend that money on training, they want their bucks worth for the time and training (not to mention the PCS costs they spent to assign you overseas to an Air Defense Slot in Germany, based on your MOS).

If you "reclass," the Army is again going to spend "big bucks" in re-training and reassigning you. Before they agree to that, they are going to want to ensure they get their money's worth. That means, before the Army will authorize you to "reclass," you would (1) have to be in a MOS that the Army considers "overmanned," (2), have to "reclass" into an MOS that the Army considers "undermanned," and (3) have to agree to re-enlist. (Again, the Army is going to want it's "money's worth") when/if they spend money on re-training you).

Before the Army is going to approve "re-training," they are most likely going to require you to be within a year of current ETS, and agree to re-enlist, if re-training is approved. I'm sorry, but the Army (nor any of the services) are not in the business of spending thousands of bucks to train you into a job, just so you can immediately get out and get a high-paying civilian job, based on that training. You're going to have to spend at least a full enlistment period (minimum of two to four years, depending on the job/training), after any such training, in order for the Army to get their "payback."

For details, see my Army Re-training pages at: http://usmilitary.about.com/od/armytrng/a/retrainingops.htm

For more information about the United States Military, feel free to visit my U.S. Military Information site at: http://usmilitary.about.com

Hope this helps!

Rod Powers
http://usmilitary.about.com