Military scholarship apprehensiveness - suggestions needed

[anonymous2012]

I've been following this forum for a while but I didn't see anything related to my situation so I signed up finally.

I recently became a US citizen and am currently enrolled in a private school. Military has been in my family for generations. My father who retired as a LtGen, said it would be honorable to serve in the US Army/Navy/AF, and he said I should do it.

My whole family is back in the middle east. And without giving out too much personal information want to know how appropriate it will be if I applied for the HPSP program but still went back abroad to visit my family? Would that jeopardize my position as an officer in the US military? Would my father's retired rank in a foreign military hurt my promotion or make it difficult to get leave to visit them? The relations b/w the US and my native country have been shaky and lately they've been "ok", but they've never seen eye to eye and things could boil over.

Any suggestions? Questions? Thoughts?

Thank you in advance.

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[krmower]

I've been following this forum for a while but I didn't see anything related to my situation so I signed up finally.

I recently became a US citizen and am currently enrolled in a private school. Military has been in my family for generations. My father who retired as a LtGen, said it would be honorable to serve in the US Army/Navy/AF, and he said I should do it.

My whole family is back in the middle east. And without giving out too much personal information want to know how appropriate it will be if I applied for the HPSP program but still went back abroad to visit my family? Would that jeopardize my position as an officer in the US military? Would my father's retired rank in a foreign military hurt my promotion or make it difficult to get leave to visit them? The relations b/w the US and my native country have been shaky and lately they've been "ok", but they've never seen eye to eye and things could boil over.

Any suggestions? Questions? Thoughts?

Thank you in advance.

No It won't. One of my best friends that I was stationed with was born in Iraq and his family left when he was 2 months old to come to the states. He voted in the Iraqi elections a few years back, and has taken a family trip to Jordan to visit relatives. If you want to email or talk to him let me know and I'll hook you up.

 

[KOM]

Something to keep in mind - depending on what languages you speak, that may put you in a situation where you're more likely to deploy.

My wife speaks French and Arabic and we decided that she shouldn't join specifically because they were SO interested in getting her to sign upon learning that fact.

 

[krmower]

Something to keep in mind - depending on what languages you speak, that may put you in a situation where you're more likely to deploy.

My wife speaks French and Arabic and we decided that she shouldn't join specifically because they were SO interested in getting her to sign upon learning that fact.

I disagree. In some jobs in the Army that could be the case - or in other Services, but not in the the Army Dental Corps. The dentists that I do know that speak Arabic have not deployed. I speak a language and have never deployed to that country - even when there was a disaster there and could have been very valuable.

Also if you don't want the Army to know you speak a language, don't take the defense language proficiency test each year, and it will never show up that you speak a language (if you do that though, you will also lose out on the language bonus that you can get (up to $300-400/month).

 

[KOM]

I disagree. In some jobs in the Army that could be the case - or in other Services, but not in the the Army Dental Corps. The dentists that I do know that speak Arabic have not deployed.

Well, there's no question about it as far as medical school graduates are concerned (especially in the army from what I've been told), but perhaps dentistry is a different story. I guess the key would be to simply not declare that you speak a certain language...not sure if there would be any consequences in doing that however.

 

[krmower]

Well, there's no question about it as far as medical school graduates are concerned (especially in the army from what I've been told), but perhaps dentistry is a different story. I guess the key would be to simply not declare that you speak a certain language...not sure if there would be any consequences in doing that however.

There is not a location that you "declare" additional languages when you sign up on an application. The only way it shows up is if you take language tests for the bonus money.

 

[KOM]

There is not a location that you "declare" additional languages when you sign up on an application. The only way it shows up is if you take language tests for the bonus money.

Foreign names, naturalization numbers/paperwork, etc - not difficult to piece together.

 

[soswank]

KOM: I am not an expert nor am I in the military, but I take offence to the term "Foreign name", naturalized means full US citizen. I recently became a US citizen and I take honor in that.

Regarding the op: I can understand your frustrations, I too am ethically from the Middle East. But US is my home, and I feel that the military doens't really trick people. They give you simple choices. Like krmower said, you can choose to declare it or not, but do remember that when you fill out the military forms they are expecting you to tell them the truth. And part of the application does ask if you're proficient in languages other than English. Good luck.

 

[KOM]

KOM: I am not an expert nor am I in the military, but I take offence to the term "Foreign name", naturalized means full US citizen. I recently became a US citizen and I take honor in that.

HAHA. Wow, you're taking this way out of context and for what reason I don't know.

My wife became a citizen not to long ago as well, so you're barking up the wrong tree.

By foreign names I simply meant if you're named Mohamed, Mehdi, Fatema there's a decent chance you have Arab roots and speak Arabic. If you're named Jose, Eduardo, Hernando there's a good chance you have Latin roots and speak Spanish.

Likewise, if you're named Mike, Joe, Bob, or Peter there's a good chance you speak English wouldn't you say?

If you're that worried and overly-sensitive about it, perhaps you'd like the synonym "exotic" instead of "foreign"? Grow up.

 

[soswank]

HAHA. Wow, you're taking this way out of context and for what reason I don't know.

My wife became a citizen not to long ago as well, so you're barking up the wrong tree.

By foreign names I simply meant if you're named Mohamed, Mehdi, Fatema there's a decent chance you have Arab roots and speak Arabic. If you're named Jose, Eduardo, Hernando there's a good chance you have Latin roots and speak Spanish.

Likewise, if you're named Mike, Joe, Bob, or Peter there's a good chance you speak English wouldn't you say?

If you're that worried and overly-sensitive about it, perhaps you'd like the synonym "exotic" instead of "foreign"? Grow up.

I was going to reply back with my explanation but I learned a lesson a long time ago that arguing with a person over the Internet is like winning gold medal at the special Olympics without any disability. Let's not hijack this thread. Thank you for your criticism.

 

[KOM]

I was going to reply back with my explanation but I learned a lesson a long time ago that arguing with a person over the Internet is like winning gold medal at the special Olympics without any disability. Let's not hijack this thread. Thank you for your criticism.

Yeah, except in this case you wouldn't win any medal. Unless it's for a "Special Event" that you conjured up out of thin air...then you might win gold.


To the OP - there's absolutely no problem in returning to your foreign country. If relations are shaky I'd think twice before wearing your uniform out on the streets or a great big American flag on your T-shirt though.

Make sure you look into travel restrictions while you're on the 45 day active duty tour for the HPSP. I'm not certain on what this entails, but have heard mention of it. Perhaps someone else could chime in.

 

[DR Dentist 09]

45 day active duty tour for dentistry in the AF just requires that you not travel outside of the country, there are no "duty locations" where one needs to report. I have heard from colleagues that this is the same for Navy and Army but I am not sure about that as I am not familiar with those programs/