My son was depped in last year in August. He scored around 89 on the ASVAB and wanted to join as SWCC or MA. I'm not sure what his recruiter told him while standing there at MEPS, but he ended up in PACT. I was really scared for him not getting what he wanted. He went to RTC in January 2014. He graduated in March. He stayed on base in Illinois in PACT-A school until May. Then he was sent to Naval Base San Diego and deployed on a frigate a few days later. He will be coming home again after Christmas, but it was a quick transition that we weren't really aware of. January in bootcamp, March in A-school, May on a ship and deployed thousands of miles away.
This is really luck of the draw. Some Sailors will deploy immediately, some won't deploy for a year or more. It just depends on where their ship is in it's cycle.
As far as I know from his experience, your ASVAB doesn't matter after you go to MEPS and get assigned a rate.
Your son has a pretty decent score, which is why it probably wasn't a limiting factor for him. During this first deployment, in the beginning he was assigned to scrape paint and reorganize equipment, etc. But the idea for a PACT-SN is to work in the different ratings on the ship they are eligible to strike for. So once they were underway, he was assigned to the CS rating and served food and took orders for the officers and cleaned up.
Nearly every Sailor in the Navy will do about 3 month's with the CSs. It is called cranking. Basically, there are jobs required of the CSs (helping in the galley, washing dishes, being the wardroom attendant) that they simply can't cover due to manning, so all junior Sailors take a turn helping out (usually in their first 6 months or so). It wasn't what he wanted to do, he was awake first and slept last on the ship for months. He was also passed over for ashore volunteer opportunities due to his responsibility to the CS rate.
After his 3 month stint as CS, he was SURE that wasn't for him. He was again assigned to just scraping paint and standing watch. (Get ready to stand watch. There will be a LOT of that.) But in November he was told he needed to chose from these four rates, LS, GM, CS and BM. Having known he didn't like CS or BM, he was choosing between LS and GM. I haven't understood why he had to chose then, or why he couldn't chose MA like he wanted
MA is not a rate one can typically strike for, but I guess we'll get he whole story when he gets home. He is happy about it though. He really wanted to work with weapons, so I guess he'll be happy with that.
One thing I do what to express; he is happy in the Navy. He enjoyed most of the time in boot camp; his division earned the CNO flag. He's enjoyed deployment and the places he's seen. He said that if it weren't for being away from home, it would be the perfect job. But we all expected that. He's mention on more than one occasion that it really is more of a mental adjustment than anything. It is what you put into it. He was looking for a once in a lifetime experience and found that in the Navy.
Good luck to you and thank you all so much for your service. Know that your sacrifice is incredibly appreciated.
Dawn