Looks Like I struck a Nerve with the HM3 FTS community..”GOOD”
November 18, 2008 by Da-Chief
Filed under Corpsman.com News, Doc in the Advancement Box, Military Information, Navy News, Ships Library
Here is the email I recieved.. I will block the name as… It was sent direct to me. Kudo’s to him for starting this conversation, he has “GUMPTION” not smart’s but Gumption.. I will post his email then I will post my response..
Da-Chief,
Not to sound rude, and correct me if i’m wrong, but I beleive you made a major unfounded insult to the FTS community with the following post:
“I am really “DISSAPPOINTED” in my FTS Brethren.. Other then the HM1’s, The biggest Majority of Folks are in the E-5 Range for FTS, “ONLY 38 PASSED THE EXAM??????”!!!”!”!”!”
It is time to open the books folks!! You should be scoring as high as your A/D brothers and sisters. You bring shame upon the FTS HM community by not studying for the advancement exam as well as to yourself.
Good Luck Folks!
Da-Chief”
If you look at the spreadsheet on the advancement site you would see that 37 people took the exam and every single one of us passed. So, I’m pretty sure we studied for the exam. I would appreciate it if you would re-examine your post and try to be a little more accurate next time before you start saying we are bringing shame to the community. How about addressing the 53 HM2 failures in the USN community?
We should be building each other up, not tearing them down.
Very Respectfully,
Ok Fine.. I just wish the newer sailors would get facts prior to shooting with their Pea-guns.. here is my response.:
Ok so your telling me there are only “38” HM3’s who took the exam??
WRONG, buddy, get your facts straight yourself..
HM2 is the biggest RATE and Rank in the FTS program, There are more then 38 Folks who took the exam for HM2.
Please, Please Come to me when you know what your talking about.
I was in the FTS program for 24 years. I “DO” know what I am talking about and have served in NOLA at HQ etc… I have many Friends who are HM3’s in the program, and there are more then 38 who took the exam…
You see I am a proponent of the FTS program, But if this keeps up I can imagine, and probably will see the program abolished just for USN.
Here is the Breakdown shipmate..
Out of the entire TAR FTS program, only “38” passed the test.. of which only 15 were advanced. Look I cannot say anything about the reason for the low numbers for the actual folks getting Advanced, what I can tell you is that there were more “A LOT” more than 38 Folks taking the HM2 Exam.
Give a Phone call to the Enlisted Leaders Office.. If you want I will get you the phone number, I correspond with them weekly.
D/C
So you see, I struck a nerve, I honest to god hope so. For “YEARS” When I served with folks at a joint USN/FTS Command, We would see USN folks not get advanced who were scoring “60’s” and above and we had folks in the FTS program getting advanced with 37’s, or low 40’s.
If it were up to me, I would have the FTS folks have to meet the same cut off as the A/D folks. This way we know, especially now that they can’t sit on their keesters only at a Reserve Center, That they will know what to do and hit the ground running if they are deployed.
FTS Sailors are “SAILORS” and should act like our A/D counterparts.
JMHO
D/C
I agree on the unified cutoff. I remember taking my E6 exam the first time. I scored just under the advancement score so was PNA, while my best friend, a TAR FTS HM2, scored 16 points below me and was advanced. The anger still catches me when I think about it. We worked side by side, doing the exact same job in the aviation exam section. One Navy, one advancement.
Excellent post and I concur, the same cutting score should be applied across the board for AD, Reserve, FTS or otherwise.
Well I really don't know a whole lot about the FTS community, but I do know one thing I have a bunch of them in the school that I am currently attending. 2 words not impressed. I have a HM1 more senior to me and she is a FTS, just the other day she came to me a senior HM2 asked how to fill out a leave chit, and a special request chit. I mean if you are going to wear the HM Rate then you need to be held to the same standards that the AD Folks are.
I'm just a measly HN, been in 1 year and some change, but after seeing those last few comments it brings a question up with everyone talking about the “same cutting score”. It seems to me like what the Navy does is come up with a percentage they need advanced FIRST, review all the tests, then make the “cutting score” whatever the lowest score was of the top whatever percentage to be advanced. IE, say its 25 percent, and the very bottom of that 25 percent was a score of 100. That'd be the cutting score, that way they get the percentage they need, and everyone knows what score they'd need to be in that top 25. So if they were to throw in the FTS with the active duty determining that score, that'd be less AD USN advanced, cause now we are actually competing with FTS. Wouldn't it? Unless of course everyone is assuming that the FTS would all score lower than the AD USN. So if that's the case, its better this way…more FTS advanced, and more AD USN advanced, cause we're treated in two separate catagories, sinc the quotas would pretty much NEED to be different for AD USN and FTS
Well I really don't know a whole lot about the FTS community, but I do know one thing I have a bunch of them in the school that I am currently attending. 2 words not impressed. I have a HM1 more senior to me and she is a FTS, just the other day she came to me a senior HM2 asked how to fill out a leave chit, and a special request chit. I mean if you are going to wear the HM Rate then you need to be held to the same standards that the AD Folks are.
I'm just a measly HN, been in 1 year and some change, but after seeing those last few comments it brings a question up with everyone talking about the “same cutting score”. It seems to me like what the Navy does is come up with a percentage they need advanced FIRST, review all the tests, then make the “cutting score” whatever the lowest score was of the top whatever percentage to be advanced. IE, say its 25 percent, and the very bottom of that 25 percent was a score of 100. That'd be the cutting score, that way they get the percentage they need, and everyone knows what score they'd need to be in that top 25. So if they were to throw in the FTS with the active duty determining that score, that'd be less AD USN advanced, cause now we are actually competing with FTS. Wouldn't it? Unless of course everyone is assuming that the FTS would all score lower than the AD USN. So if that's the case, its better this way…more FTS advanced, and more AD USN advanced, cause we're treated in two separate catagories, sinc the quotas would pretty much NEED to be different for AD USN and FTS