re: Getting an 18 year old started in life & military

My son went through something similar (not the ASVAB scores part). My belief is that his problem was primarily one of immaturity and laziness. He told us that he was "tired of school" when he was still in high school. While he was in high school he worked at fast food restaurants. After he graduated from high school he was still living at home and working low-end jobs. He continued on that path for another year or 2 and then decided that he wanted to go into the Air Force. He went into the Air Force and after he completed his basic training he was a very different person. I told my wife that he "grew up" (maturity and responsibility) during his basic training. He started in aircraft maintenance and also started working on a college degree. He has since had a job/career change in the Air Force and is now in computer networking. He will also be graduating with his college degree in a few months. Being in the Air Force has worked out extremely well for my son. However, we never pushed him because we knew that he would need to make those decisions for himself. We just told him that we would support him and we just served as a sounding board. Good luck!