anybody been in the military?

[Bigpops]

Ruffdog - If we had someone that wasn't pulling his weight and watching our backs we would send them on string patrol.

String patrol is a night operation you just tie a string to their back belt loop and send them on their way. When the string goes limp you know they found the enemy.

Now its been a few years but back when it was hard not to do the right thing and when you didn't even your buddies came down on you, so it can work.

Roger, I'm all about squarring folks away as needed. I tell ya, a lot of times the problem is people dont take the time to "un-fork" folks. BTW- Good work.

Ruffdog, you make a good point.

Most of us commenting now had careers, or at least some serious time in. We may look back and see things a little differently than what was reality....ask our parents! I thought I had the world figured out until I joined up and had my first duty station...and met my first CMC! He was something else. (Long story, best told over a beer..or 10)

Lets give the guy a break. Perhaps he just has a poor way of expressing himself on this forum. We all had buddies that were on a one way ticket to the BIGHOUSE that turned out to be awesome service members. Perhaps this could be his ticket to something great.

[M ammo]

Just to be the OLD NCO I once was, now an old fat retired guy,,,, I know FullAUTO ( we are going to have Lunch today in fact)and He could be right,,

But As Long as you’re not a total dumb ass, and you have a good Attitude,

I'd take you in my section, and I'd get you up to speed,,, you’d be OK. Or your life would Suck,, until you got your stuff together,,,, and were a member of the team, (our section family)

Believe me I had some very interesting troop's in my section, over the years,,

Many of them called me Dad,, as I was their Illegitimate father. Being an NCO,,, many of them have grown up,, and are still in the ARMY,,, and now have their own Illegitimate KIDS, (I.E. Troops), As they are now NCO’s

The Army can be easy, as a new troop,,, Be in the right uniform, at the right place, at the right time.

And do your job. DO more than what you are told,, you are all grown up,, learn your job know it and do it.

[Dan Hefta]

I've re-thought this.

I think go Army.

Salvation Army.

MOS-bell ringer

Maintenance-bell, one moving part

Tripod w/bucket, few moving parts.

Be.........about all that you can be.

Dave

That turned into a mountain dew out the nose moment!

That is good.

+1 Post of the day!! I needed a good laugh.

[Field]

thanks i really appreciate all the input

[Bigpops]

Field - I just watched your youtube videos. You have some very good shooting skills. That being said, I strongly feel your original post was just goofing around with words.

You could not get to your shooting level at 23 (correct?) without some disipline and dedication. You also appear to be in good shape. Get your mind right, look into the different services. I am confident you will find something to peak your interest. Perhaps find something where you can use your USPSA skills?

Just take it serious.

[RufDog]

Field - I just watched your youtube videos. You have some very good shooting skills. That being said, I strongly feel your original post was just goofing around with words.

You could not get to your shooting level at 23 (correct?) without some disipline and dedication. You also appear to be in good shape. Get your mind right, look into the different services. I am confident you will find something to peak your interest. Perhaps find something where you can use your USPSA skills?

Just take it serious.

now that's some good constructive encouragement

[Mark K]

Man I wanted to say, "no comment"!!! But I can't.

But I just can't say what I want without probably getting banned from the forum.

The military already has it's hands full. Go elsewhere.

Kevin,

My thoughts exactly.

[RufDog]

A lot of things come down to caring or a connection to what you're doing. Its harder to do a good job at something you're impartial to. Often times in the military, not caring (or expressing it) isnt an option. A simple matter of knowing people are directly depending on you generally changes your perspective.

-Ruf

[G-ManBart]

I mean i like shooting guns, working out , running around and ive had a couple people ask me if ive been in the military before this i figure this is a good avenue for me.

You should know in advance that while you'll be able to work out pretty much every day (after basic), you won't do much shooting, and it's the ruck march to get to the range, the ruck march back from the range, and then the two hours of cleaning guns afterwards that sort of changes the experience.

It varies considerably, but for many specialties/branches, you'll spend the vast majority of your time doing stuff you think is a total waste of time. "Hey, the General's aide just called and everybody needs to get out to X and pick weeds and pull grass from the cracks in the sidewalk." That's not even a "bad" example. You start off as nothing and none of your prior life counts for anything. You then shut up, listen up, do it to the letter, and maybe eventually earn respect. If you don't respect the other guy, you won't want to put your life in their hands, and vice-versa. R<

[abn-rgr]

The military is about as easy as it comes. Someone already said it. Do what you are told, be on time, and be squared away. Its simple. Give the guy a chance. Ive had several soldiers over the years that were total S*#T bags until they were squared away by a good NCO. Keep your eyes open and your mouth shut and you will be fine.

[Field]

I am confident you will find something to peak your interest. Perhaps find something where you can use your USPSA skills?

this is one uncertainty i have with the whole thing and this could be very important is getting the right job position/occuptation to begin with. there seems to be alot of options its kind of overwhelming.

[Precision40]

My advice would be to find a Reserve unit and join that. Right now is NOT a good time to be in the military, especially Army or the Corps.

You get ALL the education benefits but only have to do 1 weekend per month and the annual training.

Use their money and go to College. Don't Fk around being a pee-on for 4-6 yrs. Face it, your first term in the military, your not going to be doing anthing of any great importance and you certainly won't have any seniority to do as you please. If you do Reserves, in 4-5 years you'll be getting your degree when you would normally just be getting off of Active duty.

Best of luck whichever you choose.

[M ammo]

Reserve unit .... that used to be the case,, but the N.G. and Reserves have been,, busy the past 8 years,,

Yup it was me who said,, Be in the right uniform, at the right place, at the right time, AND DO YOUR JOB,

Oh ya I had some yuc,, yuc's in the past,, it is up to you,, do your job and you will be fine,

In many cases your Fellow Solders will help keep you stright,, (reason, if your not pulling you fair share, you are screwing your buddy,, your buddy and the rest of your section has a way of getting you up and pulling your weight) the PC term Team Building.

[JimmyZip]

I mean i like shooting guns, working out , running around and ive had a couple people ask me if ive been in the military before this i figure this is a good avenue for me.

You should know in advance that while you'll be able to work out pretty much every day (after basic), you won't do much shooting, and it's the ruck march to get to the range, the ruck march back from the range, and then the two hours of cleaning guns afterwards that sort of changes the experience.

It varies considerably, but for many specialties/branches, you'll spend the vast majority of your time doing stuff you think is a total waste of time. "Hey, the General's aide just called and everybody needs to get out to X and pick weeds and pull grass from the cracks in the sidewalk." That's not even a "bad" example. You start off as nothing and none of your prior life counts for anything. You then shut up, listen up, do it to the letter, and maybe eventually earn respect. If you don't respect the other guy, you won't want to put your life in their hands, and vice-versa. R<

So true! You will have cleaned your weapon many times before even getting a chance to shoot it. I can't remember the author who said that after such drudgery with a rifle, the soldiers wouldn't care if it dispensed soft serve ice cream!

[Field]

So true! You will have cleaned your weapon many times before even getting a chance to shoot it. I can't remember the author who said that after such drudgery with a rifle, the soldiers wouldn't care if it dispensed soft serve ice cream!

well what about if you had a job as an armorer or something like that?

[SA Friday]

Based on your initial post, one of two possible paths will happen if you join the military. 1) You will have an epiphany in basic training and get your mind right, or

2) You will fake the change and force someone to try and fix you mind or kick you out.

The first path is what one would hope happens, but the second path happens all too much. If you choose the second path, prepare for some serious hurt. Units just don't have the time to fix kids that can't get their minds on the right path at the moment. More times than not, it's easier to just wait a little while and when you screw up, they hammer you.

For every one hour of enjoyed labor in the military, you will spend at least 8 hours doing something that you detest. Our culture has a tendency to glamourize the military experience. Movies and TV shows make it look cool and exciting. Well, it's not. It's indentured servitude, you are under contract. It pays well, but only after serving for more than 10 years. Before that, expect a regular income, but nothing to write home about.

So, the military might be the wake up you need. Then again the military might just break you for life. Ultimately, it will come down to if you are going to act like you related in your orignal post, or if you're going to embrace the suck.

[Chills1994]

jeeeshh.....where to start?

my first initial visceral reaction is to give the OP the benefit of the doubt. I ran into and heard about plenty of airman and soldiers who did really dumb crap. about the 1995 time frame the air force was issuing out government American Express cards. they were meant to be used only for expenses incurred while on TDY (like a military version of a business trip). we had a few airman at one base who thought they could go down to the local motorcycle dealership and buy a new Ninja or CBR with their .gov AMEX cards. Wrong!

so as far as the maturity level that came across in the OP I am not too concerned.

as far as advice goes....do NOT take anything the recruiter says as the truth. only believe anything you see in a written hard copy contract. otherwise do NOT sign a thing. afaik, recruiters still have a quota or points system that they are under that they have to meet.

if you do decide to enlist, try to move to illinois and establish residencey here, first. then once you are out of the military, honorably, you will be able to utilize both your GI Bill benefits and the illinois veterans grant at any illinois state school.

there were two often repeated maxims I heard from the NCO's I worked with.

10% of the people cause 90% of your problems.

there are two types of problems: WILL problems and SKILLS problems

sooooo....don't be in that 10% of people who have will problems.

otherwise have a good, proactive attitude (will) and your leadership will move heaven and earth for you so that you get the proper skills....whether that is sniper school, the combat control team/PJ training pipeline, ranger school, a commissioning program, something like the air force's palace chase program, physician's assistant school...etc....etc.

if I were to go back in time and do things over again, I would have gone the medical or computers/IT route. tons of well paying jobs for IT guys who have maintained their security clearances.

oh...one parting comment....the last thing any boss wants to hear come out of a subordinate's mouth....especially in the military....is "I dunno"...

[Field]

if I were to go back in time and do things over again, I would have gone the medical or computers/IT route. tons of well paying jobs for IT guys who have maintained their security clearances.

what did you do the first time around?

[Chills1994]

not to toot my own horn...but since you asked...I went to and graduated from the Air Force Academy. up til about '91 if you were medically qualified and graduated from the Zoo you still got a pilot training slot supposedly guaranteed.

desert shield/storm was 1990/91. bill clinton won the election in 1992. and the military budgets got slashed, so there went our pilot training slots.

it was actually in the summer of 92 way prior to the election that the Powers That Be announced that our UPT slots were getting slashed.

well, my classmates and I were all two years in with only two years to go, so with the exception of just one person we all stuck it out. only 225 of my classmates got UPT slots whereas say like the class of 90 or 91 got 600 to 800 pilot slots out of a class of about 1,000 , each.

I could barely make it through freshman year calculus at least at USAFA....so that nixed any notion of being an engineer...aero....astro...civil...mechanical....

I had also won a 3.5 year AFROTC scholarship for EE to Embry-Riddle at Prescott, AZ. And a 4 year Army ROTC scholarship for AE at ERAU in Daytona Beach, Florida. my congressman also gave me the option of West Point when he told me he was nominating me for the Zoo. I always wanted to fly...so...I picked the Zoo.

history and poli sci and management were out because it involved a lot reading and I thought those majors were too "fuzzy".

so I picked the middle road which was human factors engineering. not quite tech like some engineering discipline but not completely fuzzy either. it involved a lot of statistics and critical thought, which I find very helpful everday still. not a day goes by that on the TV news the anchor man will say something to the effect of "in a study released today, it was shown that doing X reduced the occurence of Y". HFE was under the control of the psych department .

the only classes I ever got A's in were aerospace physiology and biology....so looking back now I wish I had tried the pre-med route. the air force (aka mama blue) sent a few of my clAssmates that I knew through med school on the taxpayer's nickel.

I graduated in exactly four years with 192.5 credits. no that isn't a typo. even as a psych major I still had to complete EE, AE, astro, physics, chemistry, and thermo classes. I got to do some interesting stuff during the summer months: air assault school, RECONDO, free fall parachuting, and SERE.

basically, I major'ed in graduation when I was there. anything psychology related in the civilian sector is a mix of over-credentialed and under paid...until you can start billing insurance. I tried to go to grad school a few years ago. out of twenty or thirty professors in the civilian school's psych department, only four made more than $50k a year. and....AND!!! all the prof's had PhD's.

my real air force career was a joke. I think I was just pigeon-holed until the air force had made its moves to get rid of me and a lot of my other non-flying classmates. one year they announced that they were merging career fields. then the next year mama blue sai that they only had room for say 2/3rds the people they had in this new merged career field. then the next year they announced that senior enlisted folks were taking over our jobs. I took the money and ran. hence my advice to you above to get everything in writing....contractually.

a friend/neighbor down the street did his twenty years in the air force. he got out as a master sergeant. while he was still in he used the air force's tuition assistance program to work on a degree in IT. it was through Webster...which is how a lot of officers get an MBA. my buddy's clearances were still good and got hired back on with a civilian contractor doing networking and code writing/programming. about 2 years after getting out, he was making three times his enlisted pay.

so that is why I said I wish I had done something IT-wise, also.

my brother was enlisted in the army. he was a tank turret mechanic, so you have to pick something that will be marketable or in demand in the civilian world.

[mpeltier]

Chills, after all that, what did you actually do in the airforce...for example, if I were asked what I did I would simply say I was an MOS 11C mortarman, my duty station was a mechanized Infantry batalion.

Field, I say go for it...when I joined at least 1/2 the guys going thru basic were twice as bad as you came across in your post, the other 1/2 were just as bad, including me. The experiance is eye opening but worth it. It tends to make a man out of you, in most cases. I think some folks just forget or don't realize what it was like to be so young and all knowing. The military will square you away.

By the way, my best friend joined with me, he was a total major screw up in high school and was always in trouble. I kept him out or prevented him from getting into alot more. He joined the Marines,(we both were going Army, but he switched for some reason) and at one point he actually ended up on presidential duty, they don't just pick anyone for that.

[dqshooter]

Can't help it have to say something. I spent 21 years in the USAF(ret 2006) and work for the DOD as a Aircraft logistics contractor. Do me and the rest of the country a favor stay out of the military. If you make mistakes like you discribed in the Mil. people die and it is always the good one's not the tools causing the accidents. Although I guess the Mil. needs bullet catchers. You will hate it, it personnally sounds like you do not have enough self dicipline to be in the Mil. That's probably not what you want to hear, but that's how it is.

It is sad to think this is the personallity that is gravitating to the military lately, I see it everyday, ineptitude and mediocrity is the norm not the exception and that is from the top on down. I support the Mil and god bless the people that serve. It is not just a job, you can't call in sick, you work long hours and you had better have some didication, it is a way of life and all of you are right that the millitary will change you for the better, it may just be to late for you to change you ways. Man up, take responsibility for your mistakes and move on. Let us all know when you get fired again.

[Duane Thomas]

Closed.