In the military, there is your primary job called your Military Occupational Specialty or MOS in the Army and Marine Corps. Other branches call them ratings or specialty codes. Service members also have the ability to pick up Additional Skill Identifiers or ASI. These are additional skills or training that usually require some form of training. Here's the full list of ASI, covering everything from Black Belt in Lean Six Sigma (LSS) to Patriot Master Gunner to Guidance Counselor (which is really a quasi-recruiter role): https://www.armyprt.com/us-army/army-mos-list/army-asi-list/ There are also SQI (Special Qualification Identifiers.) SQI are similar to ASI but you must be in a specific MOS to qualify for them, rather than being based solely on the training you've done. Anyway, that brings me to the purpose of the thread: there is an ASI for "Field Historian." The reference to needing 18 history credits is interesting, because at first blush I assumed those would be the 18 graduate credits typically required to teach in a subject area. But reading the regs it seems to mean 18 credits of RA credit in History, plus the completion of A625, the "Field / Unit Historian Distance Learning Course" which provides instruction in the specific tasks required of a historian. https://history.army.mil/training-education/A625/index.html I recently entered an essay contest around the struggles in military recruiting. One way to solve the crisis is to help people understand the various options that the military provides people who are in (such as being a taught a language on the government's dime, getting a degree or learning virtually any skill you might want to know), rather than focusing solely on the GI Bill and what having completed your service looks like.
