Military Education
About a year ago, I had an epiphany: I’ve been in the Army for 12 years and I’ve given away over $54,000!!
Every active duty Soldier is entitled – yes, ENTITLED – to $4,500 per fiscal year in tuition assistance. The maximum amount paid for tuition assistance is 100% for tuition and fees as long as it doesn’t exceed $250 per credit hour. Almost every college in and around military installations meets those guidelines for education. Yet, for 12 years, I neglected to make time to earn my degree.
After realizing that I hadn’t taken advantage of over $54,000 worth of benefits, I immediately enrolled in the University of Maryland University College (UMUC). Adding up my military experience and training and the CLEP/DANTES tests I’ve taken, I have 69 credit hours. Only nine of those hours come from classroom/internet instruction. I’m only three classes away from my Associates Degree and more than halfway towards my Bachelors Degree.
You hear a lot from the anti-war, anti-military crowd about how the military breaks promises to Soldiers when it comes to military education. The fact is that EVERY Soldier has the opportunity to go to college. Most just don’t take advantage of it. That was me for a very long time. As a matter of fact, the only reason I even took the CLEP tests was that I needed the points for promotion. So, I took (and passed) CLEP tests on Civil War History, English, Math, and Spanish. BOOM! 12 credit hours right there = 18 promotion points just like that. Then I took a speech class on post and BOOM! another 5 promotion points. I also took endless correspondence courses until I got promoted.
When I signed into my new unit, I was greeted by my supply sergeant, SSG Drerup. SSG Drerup is the consummate education advocate. One day, we were talking as she was headed to the education center and she asked me if I had a degree yet. I told her I did not and she about hit the roof. “No First Sergeant of mine is going to go around without a degree.” “But, I have 69 credit hours!” I retorted. “Do you have a degree?” she shot back. “Um, no.” “Well, I’ll hook ya up.” And off she went to the education center. I went back to work.
When she came back, she told me where the education center was and said that she told the counselors to be expecting me. I have ONE WEEK to get my butt over there and sign up for some classes. My supply sergeant had just ordered her First Sergeant to get his education. And I wasn’t going to disobey that order. A few days later, just prior to her imposed deadline, I forced myself away from my desk and headed for the education center to make an appointment. Today, I happily reported to her that my mission was accomplished. I’ll be taking two classes next semester and one class the next to obtain my Associates Degree in Business Management at Columbia University.
One of my frustrations with some Soldiers these days is apathy. When I was coming up through the ranks, I busted my tail to earn promotion points. I worked hard to raise my PT test score which increased my promotion points. I volunteered for Soldier and NCO of the month boards and worked my way up until I was winning post boards. By winning Soldier and NCO of the Quarter boards, I was given Army Achievement Awards – 15 points each!! I didn’t win the first time I went, but I kept going until I did. Then I was unstoppable. By the time I had to attend my SSG promotion board, all the leaders sitting on the board had seen me numerous times and knew that I had already been chosen as the Post NCO of the Quarter. My promotion board lasted about 2 minutes and got the maximum points. I didn’t have to answer any questions; I just presented my bio and was dismissed.
Soldiers these days seem to have a sense of entitlement when it comes to promotion. They don’t feel like they should have to work for it. When I got promoted to SGT, I had 647 points out of 800. And I worked hard for that. When I got promoted to SSG, I had 738 points. The Army’s cutoff scores for promotion were always high, so I had to do what I could to ensure that my points were as high as possible. Let me put this in context. The Army changes the points needed for promotion in a particular MOS monthly depending on how many additional Soldiers in that given rank are needed. The more NCOs needed in a month, the lower the score will be to pick up more of them. For my MOS, the cutoff score for December promotions was 547 for my MOS. That’s ONLY 547 points needed out of 800 to get promoted. In contrast, a Spanish linguist needs 798 points and an Avenger crewmember only needs 350.
To put that into perspective, let’s take your average Soldier’s “free points” (that is, those points you get just from normal Army stuff). A Soldier that scores expert on his M4, scores a paltry 225 points on the APFT, only gets 20 points in each category for duty performance (5 categories with a maximum 30 points in each area = 150 points), only has one AAM and one Good Conduct Medal, may or may not have the Warrior Leader’s Course (formerly PLDC), no civilian education, and only scores 120 points on his promotion board will easily have 277 points.
Now if that Soldier were to take five college classes and earn 15 semester hours, raise his PT score 30 points, max out the duty performance categories (which most Soldiers do anyway), get selected as the Brigade Soldiers/NCO of the Quarter and thereby earn another AAM in the process, and achieve a 145 on the promotion board (not hard to do at all) that Soldier would automatically have 413 points. A Soldier like me with 69 semester hours would have almost 500 points. Keep in mind, these are very minimal examples and they’re practically freebies.
I’ve always told my Soldiers that a good NCO does not wait for the points to drop to them. A good NCO goes where the points are. For the past nine months, our MOS has averaged about 550 points for promotion to SGT. If a Soldier doesn’t have at least that many, I don’t want to hear any whining. It just tells me that the Soldier doesn’t care enough to go the extra mile to get promoted. If he’s not willing to go above and beyond to get promoted, how can he lead Soldiers to excel?
SSG Drerup didn’t hesitate. She didn’t give me a chance to get comfortable and didn’t have time for college. She ensured that I remembered my goals and continued advancing towards my degree. SSG Drerup is an example of a good NCO. We have to take care of our own. Officers are given many opportunities to attend school during their careers. For many, the Army actually pays for and sends them to get their Masters Degree. NCOs don’t get this opportunity. Sometimes, us senior NCOs need to be brought back to earth and reminded of our roots.
Soldiers and NCOs who don’t take advantage of the many Army education programs have no one to blame but themselves. So, I don’t want to hear on the steps of the Congress or on the picket lines in front of recruiting offices how the military lies to Soldiers about education benefits. It’s a lie!
