My name is Charlie. I am 17 years old and I am going to be a senior in high school this year. I have only recently begun looking into a career in the military. For a long time I have wanted to pursue a career in government service, though I was never sure in exactly what particular field. I have a strong interest in the Middle East and over this past year I've done research into different government careers I could someday pursue. The field of Intelligence particularly caught my eye. In school I am deeply committed to learning French, which I have been for a few years and recently Arabic, both of which would help me in an intelligence career.
As I read more and more about our situation in Iraq, Afghanistan and the global war on terrorism from Southeast Asia to the Middle East, the more I want to serve my country in these respects. I've spent alot of time researching different opportunities available to me with such agencies as the CIA, NSA and DIA that would accompany a college education. I have invested alot of time in preparing for college, however alot of the schools I am looking at are very hard to get into, as are these programs.
This lead me to look into the military as another option when graduating high school. From what I've seen I would be most interested in enlisting as a 97E/35M, Human Intelligence Collector, which lead me to this website (found this website from a reference on the goarmy.com forums). I've lurked around this website for the past few weeks, soaking up the FAQ, reading advice on physical training*, and getting a sense of what Rangers are about.
While I cannot say that I am deadset on joining the Army, or becoming a Ranger for that matter, I could one day well be and I know where to come to seek advice/information.
Thank you Rangers and Veterans for maintaing this website as it is a great resource to many and for your service to this country. I will now STFU and get back to "reading." (replace this with "Xbox" if you must
)*I have never been a very athletic person (run Cross Country, play lacrosse casually) and from what I've read about the physical and mental requirements of becoming a ranger I would have ALOT of work to do (more so for push ups than anything else). Currently I am devoting a strong effort towards Cross Country, now in our preseason, to get into better running shape. I appreciate the great amount of physical training advice Rangers and Veterans have put forth on this website and I will be utilizing it to become better at push ups, situps, etc.
