Thanks to Essential Education

I had very low student discipline while attending high school although I had a high IQ, so I was told. Put off doing the required home work. But I was attentive in the classroom & read all the required books. My test scores were always high, top 10%, but the missing home work was a major factor in my failing nearly every subject for the first two semesters.

In my second year I changed and started studing in earnest but it was too late. Because I was so far behind at the end of my 2nd year I was expelled. Being now just turning 17-years old, I felt that I had made some major mistakes and the military would give me the second chance. My entry tests, academic, physical etc were all very high, so I was admitted. Later I was told that the tests were high enough for OCS admission, but I lacked some requirements such as; not being 18 1/2 years old and not having a HS diploma; this was in 1956.

I was getting regular promotions ahead of others, E3 in 10-months & E4 8-monthes later plus while a E3 I was a squad leader with some of the squad that out-ranked (E4s & E3s) me. I immediately proceeded with acquiring my GED diploma which I accomplished with a high score, top 10% then started taking “home” accredited study courses. All these had supervised (Officer and/or NCO) tests to assure non-cheating. Some were through The United States Coast Guard Academy (Navigation & Math) and others from USAFI.

When I became 18 1/2 with a GED certificate and some college, I applied for OCS (my CO recommended me) and was turned down, the requirements had been raised to two years of college, bummer. So now I continued with my studies, when I finally got my two years of credits, they had yet again raised the requirements to a full four year degree. By this time I was at the end of my enlistment and decided to not re-enlist.

Later during the Vietnam war the OCS requirements had fallen to a HS diploma and for battle field commissions to less than that. Upon discharge, I continued taking classes at night and also took two-years full time in addition along with additional engineering courses and supplemented with some non-accredited home study courses. I now have aprox 270-credit hours of which aprox 235-hours are accredited of which half of those are actual class room time.

I have a good reputation in my industry (Structural Engineering & Metal Fabrication) and never have a find it difficult to get a job, always being contacted by businesses that heard about me. And this was thanks to the GED test. Considering that the average high school grad and 25% of the college grads cannot pass the GED test, it should say a lot.