Joining The Army

[JunkyII]

At the end of summer I will be enlisting in the Army and I know many of you are in or been in the U.S. Army, and im just lookin for advice on jobs or locations to choose

[Fruda]

Wrong board (this stuff goes in O'Club), but eh.

All I can say is, good luck, and don't get yourself killed. I've got a friend who recently joined the Marines, and I told him the same.

[JunkyII]

o sry

[Bosco123]

I personally, am getting myself ready for the Airforce. I am in Army ROTC in high school, but it is not what I am looking for. I want a cross between landing on a carrier and on the ground, and for a long time I was crossed between the Airforce and Marines. This is pretty obvious, but I am looking to be a pilot. If you go on the the Army website, they have all of the job offers there.

<S>

[MajIssue]

At the end of summer I will be enlisting in the Army and I know many of you are in or been in the U.S. Army, and im just lookin for advice on jobs or locations to choose

You have three catagories:
1. Combat Arms... Infantry, Armor, Artillary or Cavalry (had to sneak the last one in as a former trooper in the 11th ACR)
You will most likely do a tour in the "sandbox" if you are in one of those branches. You will spend alot of time in the "field" training,  when you are not deployed.
2. Combat Support... Engineers, Communications, ADA, and many others. In these branches you will spend alot of time training in the field as well, (but not quite as much as the combat arms) and also will spend a tour or two deployed 10-12 time zones away.
3. Combat Service Support... Admin, Logistics and everything else that doesn't fit into catagories 1 and 2. These branches are your basic rear area troops that don't spend as much time deployed and rarely go to the field.

The combat arms are the guys that do the lions share of the fighting. They are the warriors and the rest of the Army supports THEM.

As for locations, I liked overseas assignments best. I did a tour in Korea, and one in Europe. Both were with Combat Arms Units. I had a blast in both places. My unit in Korea was one of the best I served with and my unit in Germany was one of the worst! My experiences with Stateside units was mixed, But I did like Fort Carson, CO and Fort Lewis, WA. I did not enjoy Fort Polk, LA or Fort Hood, TX as much as Carson and Lewis, but part of that might be because I'm a west coast guy... 95 degrees and 90% humidity didn't agree with me.

Good luck in the Army! Start running and dooing pushups NOW! Try to get in good enough shape so that you can do about 100 pushups, and run 2 miles in 16 minutes. Also Fall is a good time for Basic Training... You will find out why later  

[Dichotomy]

Good luck Junky.  My 15 yo is planning on doing the same thing when he graduates.

[VonMessa]

May I suggest..................



Followed by some of this...............




(even though everyone gets to wear the black beret now)       

[navajoboy]

Junky!

Good luck with the Army. My family has a long tradition of military service dating back to beyond 1492 and the defense of our home land we call the United States. The newest edition is my little cousin who graduated high school last year and is currently in Iraq with the Army. Sadly he says that Iraq is better then the Navajo Reservations..  i'll let you readers figure that one out..

anyways..

Thanks for your service <S>
Yours and everyone else whom served or going to serve.

Navajo

 

[USRanger]

I could recommend a certain MOS(job), but I may be a little biased.

[Dichotomy]

Recommend away Ranger.  We're looking at linguist but I'm open to suggestions.  Wife was a med tech, Brother in Law 1 is a Korean Linguist, Brother in Law 2 has two tours in the sandbox and is now stationed at Ft. Hood doing some kind of training.

[Rollins]

I could recommend a certain MOS(job), but I may be a little biased.

I wonder what you'd be leaning toward...

[SoonerMP]

I enlisted in 2000 as a Military Policeman (go figure). Served 4 years active duty and enjoyed most of the time I was in. You need to decide if you really want to go active or possibly go reserve and get some college under your belt at the same time which is what I am doing now. They both have their benefits it just comes down to how much you want to commit.

That being said, as far as basic training goes... you shouldn't have a problem. Like MAJissue said, start training now and take a training slot in the fall. I did mine during the summer at Ft. Leonardwood, MO and thought I had reached the threshold of hell around late July and early August.

Rules to follow in basic:

1. Be on time
2. Do what they say, when they say it
3. Don't be the guy who gets in trouble
4. Enjoy yourself

The trick to basic is to take it seriously but also enjoy it. It can be the best of times mixed in with some crappy details but hey, thats the Army. Depending on the job you choose you will get to play with some of the most expensive and fun toys the government has. When you are finished training you get to call yourself a soldier. And that is a title that no one can take away from you.

I always like to hear about new people wanting to join. It shows that some people still have the guts to serve their country.


So, <S> to you sir, congratulations and if you have any more questions feel free to PM myself or MAJissue. We would be happy to tell you what your recruiter has forgotten to tell you!

[Blooz]

[Halo46]

Thanks for deciding to serve. As a former Army Drill Sergeant, I would suggest listening. Hear what everyone is being yelled at for and don't do that. Listen to the little details that your Drill Sergeants and instructors talk about. Get the soldiers handbook from your recruiter if possible and begin to memorize as much of it as you can. Job choice is personal, what appeals to you? I let someone change my mind and did not enjoy my job, but loved the Army. Attention to the small details is important, from basic military tasks to the wear of your uniform (unbuttoned buttons usually mean lots of pushups  ). Take it serious, but have fun, it is cool to do a lot of the things you get to do in the Army. Being in great shape is not so important as you have the time to do it in training (it does make it easier though). However, don't be so out of shape that you can not meet the Army standards within the basic/AIT time frames. I know I was told "don't volunteer for anything" before I enlisted, but that backfires too often as those who didn't raise their hands usually got a worse duty or smoked for not volunteering fast enough  . Showing initiative goes a long way.

Once you are settled into your first assignment, start your schooling. Take any and all training you are ever offered, and get as many correspondence and college courses you can knocked out. You may find you're interested in going green to gold later on. Good luck. 

Edit: Locations, well some are better than others, it is what you make of them that counts. I liked overseas assignments a lot. Korea and Panama where my favorites. Germany was nice too with many historical sites. It was cool that one of my coworkers, a local national, had been a child in Schweinfurt during WW2, he showed me a lot of photos of the raids, we missed a whole lot... Stateside, the bases were all pretty much the same to me. It depends on your hobbies and such and what is available in the neighborhood. Most posts are near smaller towns, thus limiting activities. Basically the unit is what made a place fun for me or not.

[VWE]

Ordnance Corp is the way to go, my MOS is 94M. Though you'll have to have a minimum GT score of 110 and endure a school just over a year long. I fix and maintain both air search and artillery/rocket finding radars, currently less than 300 active 94M in the whole Army so its quite an exclusive job to do. Also one of the highest paying jobs outside of the military doing your exact same job without putting your life on the line for that extra pay.