This makes sense since I went to basic 10 years ago, and from what I've heard, Drill Sergeants have softened up a bit and are even told not to curse. My understanding was that the personal insults were for comedy relief, and also to teach us how to be thick skinned and brush it off when people give us shit. A lot of those situations in my post may seem pretty harsh, but most of the time when Drill Sergeants said things like that, everyone was struggling not to laugh. For example, when the D.S. was giving the private a hard time about his girlfriend's picture, he was just giving him shit, and we all knew that, including him. I remember everyone was cracking up when that happened. They were hard on us and gave us some pretty wicked insults, but we all had a mutual respect for each other and all of us privates knew it wasn't personal.
I enlisted because the combination of my horrible college GPA and a couple minor criminal incidents made it unlikely I'd have been accepted for OCS off the street, and because I figured a few years of enlisted experience would make me a better officer down the road when I do go that route. The pay, lifestyle, etc. as an officer is certainly better but there are advantages to the enlisted route as well. That's not to say he shouldn't explore the OCS route, as you said, but enlisting even with a degree is certainly a viable option. Especially for the MOS he's looking at--I'm currently in 35M AIT, and I'd say 10-15% of the people here have degrees and probably around 75% have at least some college.
This is an amazingly good interview with an Australian soldier. 95% of what is said is universal to soldiering everywhere. We essentially never get to see anything like this at all in the media. There is an extended 16 min version of the interview here for anyone interested http://hungrybeast.abc.net.au/stories/dust-mud-shit-extended-interview
27 more days and I leave for Basic with the army. I will be heading to Ft. Knox for 18 weeks then Ft. Benning for airborne. My MOS will be Calvary Scout (19D). Anyone have tips/suggestions/stories about Knox or army basic in general I'd love to hear 'em. I have a feeling these last few weeks are going to fly by.
My question is whether you guys think I should sell my car or not. I ship for basic on 3/9 and immediately go to AIT for 6 months. I can't see needing a vehicle for that period of time, but when I get to my first duty station, wherever it may be, I think I may want it. I'm just not sure if it would be valuable to hang on to and continue to make payments on. However, it's almost paid off and I would feel stupid if I had to buy another car in a year. Does anybody have any input?
Shut your mouth. Don't be first, don't be last, and don't be fat. All the other sage advice you might get about basic boils down to those four principles. Depends on how big your enlistment bonus is. If you're smart you'll put that money towards your car instead of buying a flatscreen and an Xbox like every other dumbass.
I hope this isn't too far off topic for this thread. I had an ad posted on a web site for a Ham Radio that I am selling. I was contacted by a US citizen who is a civilian working for the US Army as a part of Task Force Falcon at Camp Bondsteel in Kosovo. He doesn't have a paypal account, so I told him to send me a Cashier's Check or Money Order. He seems to be rather new on the base. What kind of banking facilities are available on an overseas US Army Base (particularly this one)? I'm trying to make his life easy and also protect myself from getting ripped off. Thank you.
Me: USN, PO3, CM3 (SCW) to be exact. Stationed: Gulfport, MS, NMCB 133, Alfa Co. Deploying to Afgan, 6-9mo, come mid January.
Can someone tell me what drives kids right out of high school who go into the armed forces to get married in mere months? It baffles me how many guys from my high school alone who have done/ are doing this right now.
Because your question isn't as clear as it could be and I'm bored I'll answer it. If you mean why do they marry a girl they dated in high school the answer is simple they are in love or think they are and have found a job where they may never be rich but they should never be poor and can provide for a family. Now if you mean join then find someone and then get married, well some people think they make more money being married, which in a way I guess you do take home more, however unless its a contract marriage, where you agree to get married slip him or her a little cash on the side but you both live the single life, I don't really see how you would be making more at the end.
I saw this happen a lot when I was in basic and AIT. I remember when I was in reception at Ft. Knox and some kid walked out of the phone booth, exclaiming "She said yes guys! She said yes!" We weren't even in basic training yet and he already asked his girl to marry him. Fast forward to 6 weeks later and he was sitting on the floor crying with a letter in his hand. He had just found out his fiance had been fucking his best friend the entire time. "I don't understand how he could do that to me! He told me he would look out for her while I was gone!" Yeah, he looked out for her alright. That's just one example of numerous dipshits who made the same mistake in a 3 month period of time. Probably the first reason why they do this is stupidity. Eighteen year olds basically have no life experience, so when they get out of high school and move out of mom and dad's place, they think they're responsible grown ups all of a sudden, who are fully capable of doing grown up things, like marrying their girlfriend of 2 months. Another reason is sort of related to the first reason. It seems like when some people get into life changing situations (especially young people) they tend to make impulsive decisions. Enlisting in the military and going to boot camp is a big deal to pretty much anyone who does it, but for someone in their mid to late twenties, it's seen more as more of a career change than anything. When you're an eighteen year old kid on the other hand, it's a big fucking deal! It's the biggest thing you've ever done in your life! You've never left home for more than a week, let alone 3 months in a different state with people you don't even know! This is serious shit here! I'm really an adult now! I should ask Sally to marry me! I'll buy her that $200 ring I saw at the PX! How exciting! This is gonna be awesome! I'm so happy!
Nice to see this thread made the transition. Im Air Traffic Controller in the Air Force for 15 years. I was a Civil Engineer for 3 years and then I cross-trained.
I'll bite on this too. I saw a large number of people marry directly after basic training. There were numerous perks afforded to married personnel over single. No dorm rooms, you and the wife/husband got a cush base housing place, or were alloted money to live offbase. Married members were given preference over others and allowed to drive earlier in some scenarios, or allowed to ride in POVs while others had to march in formation to class. Also, i've seen people get married to get joint assignments. If you and E-3 Tiffany both are a certain AFSC/MOS and one of you gets a sweet assignment to Hawaii or wherever, you stand a pretty decent chance of applying for joint-assignments and going with your significant other. If you live overseas and you're < E4 99% of the time you'll be living in the dorms. That means no COLA, no BAS, no OHA, nothing. If you get married suddenly you're living in a huge place, making money, not subject to dorm inspections or any of that bullshit, plus the COLA in some areas is way high. I've only seen a few of these "techschool" marriages work before. Usually they fall apart. If you're referring to people who marry their highschool sweetheart, i think a lot of it boils down to the fact they're about to leave home for a really long time, and in some cases not coming back for years. I think it's a last ditch effort to lock down some pussy.
I went to the mall yesterday and talked to a Navy recruiter for enlisted. I scored a 90 on the HSVAB. They said that I could probably go into Nuke as an E3, and my 2.9 gpa probably excludes me from being an officer. My mom called a client who was in the navy and he said that if I signed up there is no gurantee that I would go to Nuke, and I could be stuck doing grunt work for 4 years. Does anybody have any advice? And my degree is a B.S. in Geography from UGA.
I'm actually in the same boat, does anyone here have any experience in this kind program? It seems from what the recruiters and everyone says to be almost a free ticket into a great career in an interesting field, is that possible? If anyone has any advice/experience I would really appreciate it.
I'm new here, but figured I'd post my creds. Short story: 10 yrs National Guard Medic (68W) SSG, currently on tour #2 in Iraq. Slightly longer: Joined as a split-op junior year of high school (dumb idea). Was pulled half-way through college for Iraq. Finished college. Volunteered for Iraq again, currently accepted to M.A. program (non-medical) when I redeploy. I've been heavily recruited to do ROTC, OCS and even direct commission, but have chose to stay enlisted for the time being. If anybody has any questions about the whole Officer v. Enlisted thing I might be able to provide some insight from Guard NCO's perspective.
To every Soldier, Sailor, Marine and Airman out there on Christmas Eve (and any other time); a heartfelt thank you! God bless you all. Keep getting the job done and come home safe! I'd like to buy a few logs of Copenhagen and send it over to Iraq/Afghanistan. Can anyone suggest an address where it could go and has a decent chance of reaching a few deserving service men?
From the reseach I have done, here is what I have gathered: -nuke school is HARD, and the job that comes with it is tedious. My recruiter said that it is a 9-5, Monday to Friday job. Everything I have read though says otherwise. -Nuke school will provide you with good job opportunities later on. That is all I know right now. Hopefully someone who knows more will weigh in.
Most of the guys I knew who got married straight out of boot had never had a girlfriend before in their life. Couple that with girls who are outnumbered 10-1 and are also generally not the prom queen, and you have a loneliness cocktail just waiting to produce ugly babies. Also this: Well said, my friend. Well said.