Thinking about serving in the military. Any tips or things I should know?

Greg said:
You are right come to think of it,but pretty sure he was a Lt Colonel..This was a really small post in Northern Germany and it was just one division. The commander of the post was a one star,and his XO must gave been a full bird Colonel.

Colonel Fry was his name.
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I wasn't trying to pole holes in your story......Details just stick out to me sometimes.
 
whacko said:
I wasn't trying to pole holes in your story......Details just stick out to me sometimes.
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Ahh no problem man,made me start trying to look shit up lol..Not much about the 2nd Armored Div in Garlstedt Germany on the internet,just some pictures but no past commanders.

He may have even been the division XO under the Brig General,I seem to recall BN XO for some reason.
 
One of the best things I ever did...served with some really great people and got to do some cool stuff. It's not for everyone, but it's a great experience. Boot camp isn't that bad and it goes by before you know it.
 
People will say, "Thank you for your service"
At first it's like a nickname you did not want - painful to hear
But over time, you learn to accept it and appreciate those that say it to you.

Provided you actually serve in an honorable way and portray yourself in a respectful way. Guessing by the way you asked for advice I'm sure you'll do fine.

Good luck and keep us posted - I wish you well.
 
Sprocket said:
People will say, "Thank you for your service"
At first it's like a nickname you did not want - painful to hear
But over time, you learn to accept it and appreciate those that say it to you.

Provided you actually serve in an honorable way and portray yourself in a respectful way. Guessing by the way you asked for advice I'm sure you'll do fine.

Good luck and keep us posted - I wish you well.
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Read his other thread he started about WWIII. It’s been linked in this thread at least 10x as a warning to others.

ETA: Come to think of it, it’s because of idiots like him posting insane diatribes online that we’re now getting this Red Flag/ERPO shit stuffed down our throats.
 
^^^ To be fair I don’t think he was hiding it too much, with a white nation tattoo on his arm and telling everybody about it on his third post or something, but ya I hear what you’re saying.
 
Bonesinium said:
Unfortunately the pussification of America has reached the military, and basic training is now a joke. So no, it's nothing even remotely like Full Metal Jacket. It's more like Ernest in the Army.

As for your job, that's up to you. What do you want to do? What branch(es) are you interested in? Don't accept a contract without a guaranteed job of your liking.

Who pays for your stuff? You do. Not sure what your confusion is there. Not trying to be mean, but personal finances are things you deal with personally, and service in the military doesn't have much to do with it.
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Changes they are a coming.
A new Army PT test is on its way. This is not a drill.
 
Pafanasiev said:
You obviously disrespected him... in some armies you could get shot!

So, technically you owe your life fo UCMJ
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niedermeyer1.jpg


ETA:
I once searched the Intarwebs for fragging stories.
Most of the anecdotes I found were actually just
tales of passive aggression resulting in attitude-readjusting injuries.
Akin to:
Poor leader is yelling at his troops yet again while walking backwards.
<Descending whistle noise>
<Splash>
"Watch out for that missing manhole cover, sir".​
​
 
whacko said:
My advice is try it while your young. Even if it's the national guard. In the guard if you make rank as enlisted man (make it to e7) and do 20 to 25 years the retirement is worthwhile. Although as a reservist you won't be able to collect that retirement until your 60......it's still something to add to your retirement plan. I did 25 satisfactory years toward retirement including 2 deployments to iraq. When I reach 60 my monthly retirement check will be about $1400.....I voluntarily retired as a major in December (did 12 enlisted and the rest as an officer). Between my guard retirement and a paid off house my retirement plan is going well! The deployments and time away for officer training was not easy.....but well worth the efforts in the long run.


For what it's worth.....the national guard is not what it was in 1990 when I joined. Back then the funding was low.....shitty equipment.....terrible annual trainings that were limited to 2 weeks down at camp Edwards or Devens. Low discipline levels back then too. While the discipline levels are still a bit lower than active duty now.......the funding is better because the guard became an operational force post 9-11 and the funding had to get better. If you go national guard plan on at least one year long deployment during a 20 year career.....maybe two. Even with the Afghanistan and Iraq draw downs the guard is still being relied on for operational deployments. An infantry unit just left mass for Africa this week for a year long deployment.

Another piece of advice....no matter what the recruiters in the guard tell you.....don't join the guard thinking you'll try it and if you like it you'll just go active duty later. The guard does not have to release you to go active duty. As a guard enlisted member you are assessed as an operational asset to that agency and they do not have to release you from your national guard enlistment to let you go active duty. It's not as easy as it sounds to go from guard to active duty.
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were you in that BN that sent company to Africa?
 
centermass181 said:
were you in that BN that sent company to Africa?
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Yup.

FSC commander......Was the best job I ever had. I was a lucky commander because I had a great 1st sergeant......One that gave 110%.....Which is about 90% of the battle in creating a good company in the army......Good NCOs. I also understood the concept that the NCOs run the company. Officers manage it. I always told my officers that your job is to provide the when where and why of a mission...Let the NCOs provide who how and what is needed to get it done.

Before that command I was deployed as company xo for an engineer bn fsc

I was commander of the infantry fsc for 3.5 years. Then went to a bn staff.....For 9 months......Then went to another company command of a trans unit for 2 more years.....Then made major and went to state headquarters......Headquarters ruined me dude. I was happy working with soldiers......Field grade rank sucked for me. I'm not a politician and I'm not a spreadsheet guy. I made shit happen with a stubby pencil and a notebook while wearing a Kevlar and carrying a rifle......That was logistics to me. I voluntarily retired because I started to hate my job.......That's when it's time to go. Was told by the hhd admin that I was the only major he ever saw request retirement while sitting on a freshly printed 2 year retention memo! I t was just time to hang the boots on the wire for me.
 
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whacko said:
Yup.

FSC commander......Was the best job I ever had. I was a lucky commander because I had a great 1st sergeant......One that gave 110%.....Which is about 90% of the battle in creating a good company in the army......Good NCOs. I also understood the concept that the NCOs run the company. Officers manage it. I always told my officers that your job is to provide the when where and why of a mission...Let the NCOs provide who how and what is needed to get it done.

Before that command I was deployed as company xo for an engineer bn fsc

I was commander of the infantry fsc for 3.5 years. Then went to a bn staff.....For 9 months......Then went to another company command of a trans unit for 2 more years.....Then made major and went to state headquarters......Headquarters ruined me dude. I was happy working with soldiers......Field grade rank sucked for me. I'm not a politician and I'm not a spreadsheet guy. I made shit happen with a stubby pencil and a notebook while wearing a Kevlar and carrying a rifle......That was logistics to me. I voluntarily retired because I started to hate my job.......That's when it's time to go. Was told by the hhd admin that I was the only major he ever saw request retirement while sitting on a freshly printed 2 year retention memo! I t was just time to hang the boots on the wire for me.
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Your resume was sounding like MAJ Rooney- and I thought it was weird he was in here.
Big Greek was the 1SG in question? Great guy
 
rwl1955 said:
Correct, you can go Regular Infantry, Ranger Battalion, SF and Delta. Army is much larger than USMC so more opportunities if you want to be a high speed Rambo. We are still fighting wars and SpecOps guys are getting deployed constantly. Co-workers son joined the Marines 2 yrs ago, he's sitting in Hawaii "training".
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crazymjb said:
The Marine Corps is a smaller branch no doubt, but by proportion I'm sure the numbers in combat arms is similar. Anecdotes about where your friends kids are are useless.

My biggest concern is the OP seems to not have a great grasp on reality based on a previous thread. While there are plenty of eccentric people in the military, they generally don't excel.
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The Marines are no where near the same combat arms numbers as the Army. We Have 3 Active duty divisions roughly 120000 strong. The army has over 30 divisions at about 500000 strong.
 
centermass181 said:
Your resume was sounding like MAJ Rooney- and I thought it was weird he was in here.
Big Greek was the 1SG in question? Great guy
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I think we're taking a out two different battalions. I was with the 182......I just re read the article about the Africa deployment and that was the 181. My bad brother.

Oh.....And big Greek......Yes I know Lou. He was an e4 when I was an e3 in charlie 1-104 infantry back in the early 1990s. Great guy.
 
SgtHal75 said:
The Marines are no where near the same combat arms numbers as the Army. We Have 3 Active duty divisions roughly 120000 strong. The army has over 30 divisions at about 500000 strong.
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He's talking proportions not total. If you read our banter back and forth we mention 5 support for every combat arms. He agreed and said it's 20% of the Marines is combat arms the rest support.
 
whacko said:
He's talking proportions not total. If you read our banter back and forth we mention 5 support for every combat arms. He agreed and said it's 20% of the Marines is combat arms the rest support.
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Yup. Tooth to tail.

I read once that the actual number of 11-series active duty soldiers in the entire army would just about fill the Meadowlands. I have no way of knowing whether that’s true, but it sounds right to me.

Bearing in mind a lot of dismounted fighting gets done by 12s, 19s, 91s, 13s, and (of course) 18s seeking TDY.
 
Picton said:
Yup. Tooth to tail.

I read once that the actual number of 11-series active duty soldiers in the entire army would just about fill the Meadowlands. I have no way of knowing whether that’s true, but it sounds right to me.

Bearing in mind a lot of dismounted fighting gets done by 12s, 19s, 91s, 13s, and (of course) 18s seeking TDY.
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88s (trans) did their share of closing with the enemy in Iraq too. Present company included. Certainly not the primary function.....But shit happens.
 
SgtHal75 said:
The Marines are no where near the same combat arms numbers as the Army. We Have 3 Active duty divisions roughly 120000 strong. The army has over 30 divisions at about 500000 strong.
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I'm tracking. I'm simply saying by proportion the combat arms options are similar. If you get an infantry contract you get an infantry contract. Like the Army, the USMC will give you a contract for the opportunity to "try" at recon. That said, regular battalion Recon is not part of SOCOM like the ranger regiment is. But like the rangers, one is more likely to wash out than make it through. You also can't get a raider contract out the door like you can with the 18X program for green berets. So in that regard, you're right.

I'd consider any of the "field" logistics/support units to be somewhere between grunts and POGS. My wife was 3531 (Motor-T operator) in a truck company in the USMC. Her unit saw more combat than we did doing log runs through indian country in 2011. Even very pogy pogs in an infantry battalion are more likely to see combat than in other Marine units (except admin lol). We had an optics technician for the SABRE system (USMC TOW system) who basically was just a rifleman on our deployment.

Mike
 
I’m surprised this thread isn’t locked yet. Spending that much time and energy on a non-green member’s vacuous post? After the first page or two a new thread should have been started for military commiserations. C’mon guys.....
 
namedpipes said:
What is "WN"? All a google search turns up is something about Russian midget pron. Not kidding! It's really in the result set.
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whacko said:
White nationalist. Aka Nazi.....formerly skinhead .
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Two updates, having reviewed the posts in this thread, I encourage the OP to go ahead and join the military, preferabbly the Marines. It will be a genuinely education experience for him [lmao]

Second, PH really DOES have "WN" aka "Russian Midget" porn on it. Need eye bleach.
 
I went USAF right after high school. Less than a month after graduation I was on my way to Lackland AFB. Of course I owned nothing but the clothes in my bureau.
Air Force is the hardest branch to get into but the easiest basic training to get through. The most technical of the branches. Gamers who are good at flight games have a good shot at drone programs too.
Whatever branch you choose, thank you for your service.
I met a swimmer at the Y who was getting ready to head off to Coast Guard rescue swimmer training after he completes basic. Met another swimmer who was a Marine Corp swim instructor. Dude was a powerful swimmer.
There are many ways to serve.
 
crazymjb said:
I'm tracking. I'm simply saying by proportion the combat arms options are similar. If you get an infantry contract you get an infantry contract. Like the Army, the USMC will give you a contract for the opportunity to "try" at recon. That said, regular battalion Recon is not part of SOCOM like the ranger regiment is. But like the rangers, one is more likely to wash out than make it through. You also can't get a raider contract out the door like you can with the 18X program for green berets. So in that regard, you're right.

I'd consider any of the "field" logistics/support units to be somewhere between grunts and POGS. My wife was 3531 (Motor-T operator) in a truck company in the USMC. Her unit saw more combat than we did doing log runs through indian country in 2011. Even very pogy pogs in an infantry battalion are more likely to see combat than in other Marine units (except admin lol). We had an optics technician for the SABRE system (USMC TOW system) who basically was just a rifleman on our deployment.

Mike
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Back when I joined during Desert Storm I could get a Infantry contract with the Army and get Jump School, Ranger School and a spot at SF selection in my Contract, and then all the other schools the army has, from the recruiter. The Marines had just Infantry and then come the words “you can do all that in the Corps too and look at our pretty Dress Blue uniforms”. I don’t know anything about Raiders or “Recon tryouts” nowadays. Back then if Recon had a tryout, great....if they didn’t, oh well. My first 3 years in the Corps I saw only 1 Recon tryout and by then I was counting the seconds until I was transferred to Camp Couch.
 
The army will send you to flight school out of high school though, so there's that. Somehow doubt the OP would qualify though.

Yeah the USMC doesn't like to give people schools. Easiest way to be high-speed from the infantry is probably to try out for STA. I'm pretty sure the army still has Ranger, SF, and airborne incentives they can throw in an enlistment contract. Doesn't guarantee you will graduate any schools, and even less likely you will make it through RASP or SFAS.
 
crazymjb said:
The army will send you to flight school out of high school though, so there's that. Somehow doubt the OP would qualify though.

Yeah the USMC doesn't like to give people schools. Easiest way to be high-speed from the infantry is probably to try out for STA. I'm pretty sure the army still has Ranger, SF, and airborne incentives they can throw in an enlistment contract. Doesn't guarantee you will graduate any schools, and even less likely you will make it through RASP or SFAS.
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crazymjb said:
The army will send you to flight school out of high school though, so there's that. Somehow doubt the OP would qualify though.

Yeah the USMC doesn't like to give people schools. Easiest way to be high-speed from the infantry is probably to try out for STA. I'm pretty sure the army still has Ranger, SF, and airborne incentives they can throw in an enlistment contract. Doesn't guarantee you will graduate any schools, and even less likely you will make it through RASP or SFAS.
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Right, u have to pass the school. My brother discovered his fear of hieghts at jump school, lol! He then got orders to a line company.
 

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