Soldiers trying to enlist into the United States Army have a lot of hurdles to jump before they can be considered as a recruit for the Active, Reserve or National Guard compotents. One of many tests any military recruit will be required to take is the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery (ASVAB) test administered by the United States military to determine a potential enlistee’s career field opportunities.

Recently at Joint Base Balad, Iraq Blackjack Education Center, Soldiers were offered a chance to improve their ASVAB score by taking a four week course designed to help them improve in the sections most Soldiers are weakest in.

“There were three main areas covered in the class: arithmetic reasoning, word knowledge and reading comprehension,” said MAJ David W. Freberg, Logistic Project Officer for Task Force 34. “Most of the class was focused on the math part, which consisted of fractions, decimals, averages, proportions, distances and interest.”

The class was not required, but was offered to the Soldiers, Airmen and Navy men on Joint Base Balad to help them advance in their military careers.

“Most of the students were trying to improve their General Technical (GT) scores, so they could put in their packets for a commissioning program or for warrant officer school,” said MAJ Freberg, a native of Kannapolis, NC. “Also, several wanted to change to a military occupational specialist (MOS) that required a higher GT score.”

“I think it’s beneficial to go through the class, because it is a self improvement class in many aspects, you can get your scores up to where you want it to be, you get five promotion points for taking the course, and it shows your leadership that you’re willing to do self improvement on your own time,” said SPC Allen Rolfes, Heavy Vehicle Operator, A Co., 834th Aviation Support Battalion. “Showing them that you’re willing to learn and better yourself as a Soldier for your own reasons and to help make the Army better as a whole.”

Regardless of the reason for the military member to be a part of the course, the end result was the same: to set the students up for success regardless of rank, service and job.

“The biggest challenge was how long some of these students were away from the classroom,” Freberg said. “Some of these students had not done much formal math for up to 15 years. My job was to knock off the rust for most of them and just polish up the others.”

“A lot of the students, like me, left high school a while ago and we have not dealt with Mathematics for a while,” said SGT Olutayo Ogundare, Human Resource Sergeant for Task Force 34 Headquarters Company. “It was a great refresher program which helped in sharpening my thinking skills especially for Soldiers like me who are very rusty in their Arithmetic Reasoning skills.”

NOTE: ASVAB improvement classes are ongoing. For those stationed at Joint Base Balad, contact the JBB Blackjack Education Center for more information about the classes.

SGT Lynette Hoke, Public Affairs Journalist
20 Nov., 2008