Posted on Oct 29, 2020
What should I do if my MOS is not being utilized or valued in my current unit?
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For some background information I was stationed at my current unit in a preventive medicine slot, and have been here a year. The problem here is that there is no preventive medicine mission, so instead they have me helping the 68R or Food inspectors. That is all fine and good and I can understand that and understand helping out at times due to to low manpower, however the leadership here expects me to act in a complete food inspector capacity, where they want to try to write a SOP that justifies this and have me go to the ICTL trainings for the Romeo's, when I have not done any of my own MOS training for this full year. Upon talking with my first line who is also the NCOIC for the branch at present, she has informed me that "eventually" things will be taken care of. As a promotable it's disenhartening to be waiting on points and potentially become a SGT in an MOS that I will know nothing about, and be tragically behind on my training or any activity regarding my MOS if this is to keep up for the two remaining years I have in this unit. All advice is appreciated, thank you in advance!
Japan
Advice
68S: Preventive Medicine Specialist
Posted 4 y ago
Responses: 14
Send me an email.....time now....to [login to see] with as much details as you can in the email and I will answer as best I can.
FYSA, I am currently in Kuwait (9 hours ahead of MST), so my response time will be limited based on my mission(s) here. But I promise that I will respond as soon as I can.
FYSA, I am currently in Kuwait (9 hours ahead of MST), so my response time will be limited based on my mission(s) here. But I promise that I will respond as soon as I can.
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The truth about support MOS's is that you're critical skill is only critical about 10% of your time is dedicated towards the performance of that skill. You are a Soldier first and a 68S second. Your primary job is to support the mission and some small portion of your time will be spent doing your MOS to support the mission. The rest of your time will be spent doing whatever Soldier task or additional duty the unit requires. Combat arms don't enlist to be training room NCOs, or Key Control, or to do Staff Duty and CQ, Barracks manager, Motorcycle Safety NCO, Unit Movement Officer, HAZMAT, arms room, or any other of hundreds of additional duties required for the unit to function. Without them the unit doesn't function and the mission doesn't get completed. Your job in the Army is not to be a 68S its to be a Soldier who does 68S duties when needed.
As you progress in rank you will he placed into more and more positions that are rank immaterial. Your primary job is to be an NCO and take care of Soldiers. As for not knowing your job, knowing your MOS is mostly an E4/E5 task and there are manuals for any questions you have. Your job will be to manage other Soldiers and train them to do their jobs. Most importantly your job will be to help them fix their problems and teach them how to help their Soldiers so the same.
As you progress in rank you will he placed into more and more positions that are rank immaterial. Your primary job is to be an NCO and take care of Soldiers. As for not knowing your job, knowing your MOS is mostly an E4/E5 task and there are manuals for any questions you have. Your job will be to manage other Soldiers and train them to do their jobs. Most importantly your job will be to help them fix their problems and teach them how to help their Soldiers so the same.
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SSG Eddie Helmling
no our critical skill are critical 100% of the time we may only be called on 10% but we have to know and be able to do our jobs went called just like combat MOS 23:59:30 you are just walking in the woods but for 30 sec you have to do and do NOW...
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SFC (Join to see)
SSG Eddie Helmling what you've just said makes no sense, both because of its grammar and punctuation but also because of what I believe is the intendedessage you're attempting to state.
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SGM Brian Carter
These technical MOSs can often be one soldier deep positions with a junior NCO only responsible for the mission and himself. That said, in my career from PVT to SGM (the Army had three 91S SGM position and I went straight to the senior position) i had the mindset to be the best at whatever job I had and always sought out the hardest - even outside of my MOS. As you progress and your responsibilities do include supervision, make sure you are the best leader you can be. Make your soldiers want to be the best at their job, regardless of what it is. NCOERs do not say she worked out of her MOS. They say his responsibilities were x, y, and z and she did them with no motivation. Or her responsibilities were x, y, and z and she did a great job and should have more responsibilities at a higher rank.
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Capt Jeff S.
I think the SPC is worried that without experience and further training in her MOS, her career will be marginalized. Her concerns are legitimate. Normally when people receive schooling they work in that profession for a time and build up their experience. In their next assignment, they go on to do other things and then return to continue applying their skills in their MOS.
I don't know how the Army does things but in the Marines, typically you are sent to Bootcamp and following Bootcamp, you go to your schools and then to the Fleet Marine Force (FMF) where you work in your MOS and are trained by seniors in that MOS. During that time you may be called to Mess Duty or to work in some other capacity but those are short duration and seldom last more than a month. Most of your first tour is spent working in your MOS. During your first or second tour, you may go to NCO school and that gives you leadership training that is not specific to any MOS but to your development as a military professional. It is generally during your second or third enlistment that you might get called away to do something else -- and in the USMC there is a push to get people to go to either the Drill Field or to Recruiting Duty. It's been 20 years so my memory is a little bit vague but I believe we called those B Billets.
As an aside, some want to go and most would liken the experience to a cold shower. You don't want to do it but you're glad when it's over. You really don't have a choice. If you are one of those that receive orders, you are expected to go and do your best. Not everyone makes it through DI School. They simply aren't cut out for it. It's not a career-ender, but if you succeed, your career will take off. Likewise with recruiting. The military seldom asks you to do something you haven't been properly trained and given the tools to do. There are some who really enjoy recruiting and they make it a career. Most do their time and look forward to returning to the FMF.
The more time you spend in the service, the less actual hands-on work you do as you transition from worker bee to a leader. And in the leadership pyramid, it's smaller at the top so people attrite as you get closer to the top. The base is very wide and flat and most that serve in the military don't turn it into a career and leave for various reasons. Many voluntarily leave because they have learned marketable skills and feel led to go back to the private sector. The cream is what floats to the top. The weakest performers don't get promoted and are eventually forced out.
For those at the bottom of the pyramid who have aspirations of making it a career, it is important to establish credibility in their MOS or they may not find themselves competitive in their field, at which point they may get forced out. And this I believe is what the SPC is trying to avoid.
I don't know how the Army does things but in the Marines, typically you are sent to Bootcamp and following Bootcamp, you go to your schools and then to the Fleet Marine Force (FMF) where you work in your MOS and are trained by seniors in that MOS. During that time you may be called to Mess Duty or to work in some other capacity but those are short duration and seldom last more than a month. Most of your first tour is spent working in your MOS. During your first or second tour, you may go to NCO school and that gives you leadership training that is not specific to any MOS but to your development as a military professional. It is generally during your second or third enlistment that you might get called away to do something else -- and in the USMC there is a push to get people to go to either the Drill Field or to Recruiting Duty. It's been 20 years so my memory is a little bit vague but I believe we called those B Billets.
As an aside, some want to go and most would liken the experience to a cold shower. You don't want to do it but you're glad when it's over. You really don't have a choice. If you are one of those that receive orders, you are expected to go and do your best. Not everyone makes it through DI School. They simply aren't cut out for it. It's not a career-ender, but if you succeed, your career will take off. Likewise with recruiting. The military seldom asks you to do something you haven't been properly trained and given the tools to do. There are some who really enjoy recruiting and they make it a career. Most do their time and look forward to returning to the FMF.
The more time you spend in the service, the less actual hands-on work you do as you transition from worker bee to a leader. And in the leadership pyramid, it's smaller at the top so people attrite as you get closer to the top. The base is very wide and flat and most that serve in the military don't turn it into a career and leave for various reasons. Many voluntarily leave because they have learned marketable skills and feel led to go back to the private sector. The cream is what floats to the top. The weakest performers don't get promoted and are eventually forced out.
For those at the bottom of the pyramid who have aspirations of making it a career, it is important to establish credibility in their MOS or they may not find themselves competitive in their field, at which point they may get forced out. And this I believe is what the SPC is trying to avoid.
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I was in a job where we intercepted Morse Signals from other nations. Morse Code was 99% of the time used on the shortwave bands which meant that those signals could carried hundreds if not thousands of miles from the transmitter. We all used to ask about the rationale of when we went tactical CEWI units. Our equipment was not the type that we could hear those types of signals & we did it it pretty close to the front. Finally somebody figured out that the Pentagon saw radio intercept operator & thought we could just as easily do the jobs of the operators who spent a year learning a target language. We just filled in slots that could not be filled with linguists. Like we could just switch from knowing Morse Code & just intercept Korean or Russian. Never expect logic from the Army.
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