Is a military career possible for someone with Asperger's?

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auntblabby
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08 Aug 2010, 10:31 am

XFilesGeek wrote:
1. I make eye contact now (If you try not making eye contact when a military training leader is screaming at you, you'll regret it).


when i was in the army, if somebody in command was screaming at you, you were supposed to be "locked heels" in the position of attention with your eyes straight forward and NOT making eye contact with the screaming supervisor which would have been considered a challenge to their authority. if you made the mistake of looking them in the eye, you could expect a quick "WTF are you looking at, [expletive] PRIVATE?!"



XFilesGeek
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09 Aug 2010, 4:08 am

auntblabby wrote:
XFilesGeek wrote:
1. I make eye contact now (If you try not making eye contact when a military training leader is screaming at you, you'll regret it).


when i was in the army, if somebody in command was screaming at you, you were supposed to be "locked heels" in the position of attention with your eyes straight forward and NOT making eye contact with the screaming supervisor which would have been considered a challenge to their authority. if you made the mistake of looking them in the eye, you could expect a quick "WTF are you looking at, [expletive] PRIVATE?!"


In the Air Force, we're not allowed to swear at people while yelling.

Different cultures.



auntblabby
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10 Aug 2010, 12:57 am

XFilesGeek wrote:
In the Air Force, we're not allowed to swear at people while yelling.
Different cultures.


i'll say :roll:
in the army [back in the stoned age, at least] physical punishment was still meted out, in the form of "gomer pyle, drop and give me 50, numbnuts!"



Hanotaux
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10 Aug 2010, 11:42 am

I don't think the military is a good place for someone with AS, espeically if you are crappy at working with machines or you have lousy fine-motor skills. In today's Army, when you finally go to your regular unit, almost no matter what your job is, you will likely be assigned some sort of PMCS(preventative maintenance checks and duties) for unit vehicle(s). Its all motorized in todays army, so you better be able to do engines, nuts and bolts, and all of that. I say this because this was my downfall in the Army............ I was undiagnosed and I have awful fine motor skills. I also know nothing about engines and cars, and try as I might, I could not learn at all. Mechanical stuff is just a mystery for me.

Its kind of the same vein as you have to be able to clean your rifle and take it apart, and also master several other weapons like a 50-cal. My fine motor skills suck and I couldn't really manipulate the weapons well or reassemble/disassemble them. Also, I twitch, tick, and feel the need to move alot, so I couldn't stay still enough to be a good enough shot to qualify.

I could handle the physical part OK. I could do the pushups and that. I was good about coming in every day and staying out of trouble but I couldn't do the jobs they asked me to do like working on the vehicles. I also messed up alot with drill/ceremonies, and addressing officers and stuff like that. It wasn't really good for me. I didn't 'click' with anyone else in my unit either. They all were pretty much only in to cars and drinking, and other boring regular-guy stuff. It didn't really work out.

The thing is that I don't/didn't have any skills that I brought to the table to allow me to succeed in the Army.

I think you could make it if you had mechanical aptitude and was one of those guys who was awesome with computers or something like that. If you are a books/vocabulary/history AS guy, the army is probably not for you. Once you get out of basic training-AIT, it sort of becomes just like the regular world and any other job and you have to hyper-compete with everyone else. Pretty much all of the NTs will be more capable than you and rise faster than you and leave you in the dust, it seems like. You have to play just a hard-core social game and petty politics with the other guys in your unit. It sucks for someone with AS.