What Is It Like Being a CTI In the Navy?

SPC July Macias — Sun, 03 Oct 2021 11:57:43 -0400

My GT is 120, and have a near perfect DLAB score. Would they let me pick the language that I'll be studying; or how does this work? Would any of you be willing to share your experiences as a CTI in the Navy? I would love to learn more about this occupation. - Thanks

Response by SFC Private RallyPoint Member made Oct 3 at 2021 5:52 PM

SFC Private RallyPoint Member — Sun, 03 Oct 2021 17:52:39 -0400

I have a couple associates who are linguists in the AF. One picked her language as she had some prior skill with it. The other passed the DLAB but had no bilingual background and was assigned her language.

Response by MSG Thomas Currie made Oct 4 at 2021 4:05 PM

MSG Thomas Currie — Mon, 04 Oct 2021 16:05:13 -0400

I can't guarantee the exact process of Navy linguists, but I can guarantee that the #1 absolute factor is, always has been, and always will be "the needs of the service" -- you are never going to be trained in any language that your service doesn't see a "need" for. For any service "need" is generally figured on the number of slots identified for that skill and the projected number of personnel with that skill.

With your test scores, I would expect that you would have some input towards what language you would study, but almost certainly will not have a completely free choice. You could email [login to see] for more information.

Response by CPO Matthew Bigelow made Nov 11 at 2021 1:47 PM

CPO Matthew Bigelow — Thu, 11 Nov 2021 13:47:05 -0500

It really depends. If you have a nearly perfect DLAB, and you have language experience in the lvl 3 and 4 language categories, you might be given a choice of those, but you might not. Sometimes bullets just have to get filled, and you may be stuck in a particular language because all the other language bullets are filled.

When I was there, back in '87, I was offered anything but cat 1 languages (Spanish, French, etc.). I stated wanted wither Chinese, Russian or Arabic - I got Arabic.

But, as has been said before, it is always the needs of the Navy. Period.