quote:
Originally posted by 3-2CavTrooper:
I'd love to see some comparisons to the rest of the intelligence community and how much intermixing of jobs there is.
96Bs run the reports, but they do that based off the reports 97E (and the map/signal guys) give them. Sitting around in an S2 shop doing reports seems sort of tedious, so how much writing reports is a 97E gonna be doing?
One of the things that makes 97E look interesting is the language training/use, but that's not guaranteed anymore. Why not just go for a linguist (MOS 09 or something?), as I'm imagine interrogations is the main use for them since the 97Es aren't getting the languages. Or do you use entirely civilian translators?
What about counter-intel? I know my unit is designed to have MTOEd 4 97Es per line platoon. As a scout unit they wanted to combine standard recon ops with humint ops, but due to the # of 97Es available they were putting 97Bs in the line platoons until just recently when they seemed to have given up on the idea. Are the two jobs as inter-changeable as they seem? Question people to find out if they have intel we don't want them to have or question people to find out if they have intel we want.
I guess the army is going entirely to HCTs (We still call them THT in my unit)? Are all HCTs at batallion level? What are you assigned to when in the rear? Intel bat and then parceled out upon deployment? Are HCTs always working the 2 shops or are they sometimes broken down to work with companies or platoons?
I've been thinking about 97E as a job where I could be more mentally challenged but not get too far away from the action. Its intel so you'd think it would be mentally challenging, but I'm a little concerned all it is would be the asking of PIR over and over again in a multitude of ways. My unit happens to be very good this time about developing PIR I think, but last deployment it was always nothing more than where are the bad guys, where are the bombs.
Sorry I didn't see this post before...
1) You will be writing a ton of reports. People think 35M is all Hollywood when in fact it's very paperwork intensive. If you are assigned in an interrogation position, you have interrogation plans, knowledgeability briefs, interrogation reports, draft intelligence reports, and serious incident reports. If you are assigned as an HCT you have just as many.
2) We use mostly civilian translators. 09L are native linguists only. If you don't natively speak Arabic, for example, you can't become a 09L.
3) CI and HUMINT Collectors are very similar jobs. The big difference is we can do EVERYTHING a CI person does except conduct SAEDA investigations. They can do HCT work but are not allowed to interrogate. Also, you must be an E5 or above now to reclass into 35L. There are NO E4 and below positions open anymore and they eventually will phase all E4s into 35M if they don't get promoted by a certain date (I think it's FY09).
4) HCTs can be any level just like THT. We don't call them THT anymore although some people still do. When you are in the rear you are mainly training for your next deployment because as MI we cannot collect/interrogate/run US citizens as sources or detainees.
5) HUMINT is all about questioning, building rapport, and supporting the line units, not just asking the same stuff over and over. It's amazing and rewarding work, in my opinion, that leaves you a TON of options at starting salaries easily between 77 - 104k per year with the DIA or CIA when you get out. Or as a civilian contractor, you can easily make 192k or more as a civilian interrogator in Iraq or around 210k in the Horn of Africa.
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