People in/was in Armed Service. *update*

Liked:
-Shooting on the government's dime
-Blowing things up
-Doing the job in the real world, rather than watching it on TV
-Most of the people I met
-Extra pay from drills
-Being the baddest platoon in the battalion (Scout Platoon!)
-Learning weapon handling from the best in the business. Hunter's safety courses have nothing on what the military will teach you about firearm safety!
-Got to do my time in between trips to the sandbox. Timing really is everything
-How the Army was prior to 1996. There were a lot of good times in those earlier years.

Disliked:
-Some of the jerks I met, most of whom I found were paper-pushers
-Conforming to the military method. At first this wasn't bad, but near the end of my 6 years, it was awfully tough
-Having to be gone from home for two or more weeks each summer. Again, not bad at first, really sucked once I had a family of my own
-Being stuck following orders of people I didn't and couldn't respect. Some of the officers in the military are really useless lumps of flesh. See: Animal House, Niedermeyer
-The Army's whims. They were really baffling sometimes
-Never getting to do what I was trained for "for real". In spite of how great it is that I didn't have to go to Iraq, I've seen buddies that have, and some who were there both in 1990 and with today's situation. I feel a twinge of guilt that I'm not there with them... these are the guys I trained with.
-What the Army became around 1996. The Guard became an awful lot like the Reserves around 96

Addendum:
I started out my military service in the Army Reserve, figuring that it'd be easy to go active from there if I really enjoyed it. When I found a Guard unit that was much closer, I asked to transfer to them, because my car wasn't up to the drive every month. The paper-pushers stalled for 5 months, finally transferring me after an Annual Training session. They tried one last stab, though, claiming I'd been issued two complete sets of field gear that would have to be turned in. I'd been issued ONE set. Moving on, I found the Guard appealing because the platoon was MUCH more closely-knit than my Reserve unit was. The Guard was like a sociable club with guns and camoflauge, whereas the Reserve was like the Army but only on the weekend. That's not to say that the Guard couldn't get the job done - we consistantly scored higher in our skills tests than some active-duty guys, and much higher than other Guard and Reserve units. Other things that appealed to me about the Guard is that the government can only activate Guard units at the battalion level. If you're going to war, you're going with the guys you've trained with. In the Reserves, you can show up to a drill, and they can call off three names and tell you that you've been activated, pack your stuff, have fun in Afghanistan. Another thing that was great about the Guard was the local-real-world mission. Disaster relief and such. We had a train derail near here once, carrying something that was toxic and nasty. Town had to be evacuated. The unit asked for volunteers to drive our APC's into the town, ferrying people in to retrieve their pets, their checkbooks, whatever they didn't grab on the way out a few days earlier. We were asked because we were in the area, and had the vehicles... ones that could withstand an explosion or chemical event. Our entire platoon volunteered, and 6 of them got to go help. That's a feel-good hero-type mission.

However, in the end of THAT, the paper-pushers caught up with me again. When you enlist in the Reserve or Guard, you have a 6/2 contract. 6 years of doing drills, 2 years in the Inactive Ready Reserve. When I transfered from the Reserve to the Guard, I specifically made sure my contract stated that the 6/2 was to remain in place, and time served in the Reserve counted toward the 6. At my last required drill, I went to the personnel sergeant to re-up. I'd been going back and forth on the decision, but finally decided that I had a real shot finally of making sergeant myself, and I really could have used the $3000 bonus. Anyway, the guy told me I still had 2 years left on my contract. They weren't going to honor the specific clause I'd had put into the paperwork. If memory serves, I told him to perform an anatomically-impossible self-fulfilling carnal feat, and walked out of his office. Went back to my platoon, talked to the rest of my guys, including my platoon sergeant and our LT. They all told me I was right in telling the guy to fudge himself, and that they would have done the same. So, I "retired" from the military after 6 years.

Also, to explain the above "1996" issue: When I got into the Guard, it was a lot of fun. The platoon partied together anywhere we were. We'd slip out to the training base in packs of 3 vehicles, following non-convoy routes, and show up two hours before the convoy with the rest of the company. Nobody messed with the Scouts, because it was known that people who tried to do that wound up duct-taped to trees, and their grid coordinates would be left on their pillows for their platoon sergeant to find in the morning. Around 96, the battalion really cracked down on our wildness. We were ordered to convoy at 45mph with the company. No beer on the training base. The company party was the only social event that was to be acceptable, and that event sucked bad. Basically, it became just like the Reserves had been. Attitudes suffered, and our test results dropped. It's not that we weren't training as much or as hard, but we weren't having nearly as much fun doing it all. The leadership never really recognized that they'd effectively killed our team spirit, and it showed in our performances.

Sorry for the long ramble, but this is one of those life choices that you don't always get to see the full picture on until you've signed your papers. It's a great choice, if you can do it. Not everyone is cut out to be a soldier. We only graduated 2 out of every 3 guys who started with us at Knox.

EDIT - One more VERY important bit of info: Keep every piece of paper you get from the government. Payslips (LES), supply forms, everything. You never know when you'll need to back up your story with proof. I knew a guy who had 20 years in, went to retire, and was told he'd only been in for 18. His payslips showed he'd been in for 20, but the Army hadn't kept all their copies. He had, and was able to retire. Had he not had those, he'd have had to put in another two years. ALSO, get everything in writing. Remember, your recruiter is a salesman, and doesn't really have YOUR best interest in mind. If they need combat engineers, they'll try to work you toward that sometimes. Tell you how great this MOS or that MOS is. Choose the job you'd want to do if you had to do it for real. And get it in writing.

Edited by Pump Scout - 03 March 2006 at 9:24am

being to short? thats BS, he was imposing personal opinions, unless your legaly a midget.

31B, same MOS me and my brother choose. what kind of signing bonus are you looking at? ASVAB scores (just the line score)?

you might wanna look into the national guard, right now in arizona reserves are giving out 7k signing bonuses, national guard is giving out 20k, thats i think is worth looking at.

you'll probley be at Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri. keep me posted if you go threw with it, my ship day in june 20th.

^ Yea thats alot of the reason why I'm joining, I wont be doing anything for the next 4 years, and I'm kinda broke to pay for schooling myself(want to get my BS in Criminal Justice), I want to become a Cop and by doing this It would probably be really good to have Military Training on my resumé, and I think it would be pretty cool to be an MP as well 

Edited by Panda Man - 03 March 2006 at 1:32am

Yea, latley I've been talking to some Army Recruiters and I've basically signed on, all I have to do is get my physical, and make sure my background doesn't have anything shady on it.

Anyways... I'll probably joining the Reserve, and I was just wondering, what some of you you guys liked and some things you didn't like about it.


Edited by Panda Man - 21 March 2006 at 5:46pm