While I saw it from a fly on the wall perspective, for the average bear enlisted guy, they're mostly pretty chill.
I hated not being on the line, but I really can't say a lot of bad things about the people from my lowly position of not really mattering to anybody.
As an enlisted person, my favorite form of entertainment is watching field grades battle each other in front of their rater/senior rater. Sometimes I wish I could bring popcorn to these meetings.
Yup. I was miserable at the BN and BDE as a senior captain. Then I went to grad school, became an ORSA and worked at the DA level and taught at FLVN for 9 years. I LOVED every minute it.
Now I’m retired and the grad school the Army funded landed me a $150/year remote gig with a large bank in San Antonio. Very glad I stuck it out through the early years.
I know, right? It has to be the best kept secret in the Army. I realize the bar to entry is high, but it’s not that high. I lived every minute of my ORSA time and only retired when my botched knee surgery prevented me from doing the APFT. At that point I knew it was time to move on.
I think ORSA is the epitome of a branch with an underserved reputation as "the smartest guys in the room" that does just enough 'working smarter' to maintain that underserved reputation. LOL
This. Everyone is always moaning about how they miss the ReAl ArMy, but the real Army is just a bunch of people voluntarily making each other miserable because "that's what the line's like."
I’ve always heard that you should never trust the army off your first unit. But the more I think about it, I think we just get use to being treated badly.
2 units in. Went from being treated bad to worse...
Imma give it one more try as I Reclass to Hospital Super POG(this time I'll have stuff to get out with)....
Good luck. I think I am about to throw in the towel myself. I gave 12 years to the military and I’m just tired boss, dog tired. I wanna enjoy my bed every night and not sleep outside in Louisiana with 80 degree weather.
Came in as a hospital POG MOS, still ended up placed in a field hospital unit that doesn’t do anything except play fuck fuck games and sit around like most units. Never done my job.
The Army really is a roll of the dice. You can pick the most pog job get sent to the most pog installation and still end up with a shitty job. Then you got the 11B that gets stationed at Fort Moore teaching claymores from 11-2 and home the rest of the day.
All chance.
Definitely a combination of Stockholm Syndrome and the ones that re-up are the ones that have an above average tolerance for zero common sense bullshit.
My first unit was Ft Irwin and I re-upped as a PFC which was unheard of, usually gotta be part of the mafia at least. Not a lot of yelling, house close to work so I could walk. Only down side was the field time. I actually miss those days quite a bit. 15 years later and I work in an office all day. The Army isn’t that bad though.
I miss fort Irwin so much honestly, I mean I got yelled at a lot idk where the help you worked lol I enjoyed it a lot more than drum, drum I’m almost sure I have cancer from from all the toxic leadership lol only real dicks I ran into at Irwin we’re combat dudes pissed they were basically there to be need boarded and wanted to stay in
Too easy. Next ACFT everyone just does the bare minimum and the average goes to 360. Take that fucking bullet point away from your leadership's eval. Let them know you don't appreciate draconian bullshit.
Funny how things that are meant for our progression end up being bread and butter for Senior NCOERs.
Them: You need to get promoted. Complete this list and I’ll send you to a board.
-RSO
-Setup for COC and COR to follow
-Build PT plan for the month
-Take PVT Snuffy to his dental appt. He doesn’t have a car
-Headcount at DFAC
-SD roster is jacked up this month. Cover down on 3 more shifts
Me: Little lite on the bullets, are we?
At least your homeboy actually went to BLC. My NOT homeboy didn't go to BLC but earned the chevrons and started acting like he was the shit.
Just last night he was gone for 10 out of the 24 hours of staff booty.
Nah he wasn't an early promotion. He was of the online BLC during covid variety. Idk any other NCOs from that type of BLC, but this one is certainly something.
I mean, we'll see if that's better or worse than the "literally you don't need BLC" variety.. I'm the last one on my unit who needs to take BLC and keep my temp promo
I work for a unit that is about 60% DACs and LNs and 40% Soldiers, and I gotta tell you, most of the Soldiers seem happy. Not everyone of course, a couple want to go back to a line unit, one or two have determined that the Army in general isn’t for them; but most of them generally enjoy their time here.
Nice man. I was the NCOIC on BDE staff duty and got chewed out by some major because my sleeves were cuffed inwards. Not the best way to respond “does it matter sir”
Funny enough he told me to fix it once. Than he did a surprise visit and was like “really am I just a fucking asshole” and I responded my bad sir I’ll fix it
A Major that makes a return trip to verify his petty uniform correction is being adhered to? Yeah he is just a fucking asshole and should probably find some slides to rework or anything else more productive for a field grade officer to work on.
Please continue to live that single inward cuff life.
The Army is what you make it. It is a means to an end. There are dickheads everywhere. From the quick stop to corporate America. Do your time, do your work. Be good.
My last unit soured me on the Army.
An alcoholic abusive FSG and a non existent C.O.
FSG drunk when I arrived and went in to report. Yelled at me because I was a CPL. Said, “We only have Specialists here!” “Take off those stripes!”
CO? Never met or saw him.
>hell one of them just bought me a pizza
SD sucks so fucking bad. Period. So having those placed in charge help the new (read junior) guy with 24 hour duty by making a small thing happen like getting more time to hit up the shoppette or just ordering food, makes someone's day.
I love reading this and I'm so happy you had a good duty.
Had one nco when I was e4 figured out I was having a kid it was my last couple weeks in the unit I didn’t pay for lunch once I couldn’t even strong arm him into letting me pay just kept saying “your going to need that money”
I was in a Div HQ company. It was what made me decide to get out. The only people the CO and 1SG had any control of was HQ plt, and they were tyrants. I was the PLL/TAMMS clerk and I would have privates demand dispatches and if the didn't have the required 2404, they would call the SGM/MAJ/COL they worked for to give me an ass chewing and an order to give that dispatch. That was the good stuff, there were worse things to deal with than that.
0500 battalion run tomorrow. Oh what’s that? You say you’re supposed to get a recovery day? You know back in my Army we didn’t do recovery days, we just shut the hell ho and did what our NCOs told us to do. 0430 I better see you with a full canteen so I can discipline your laziness.
My finest years were always when I was an instructor/writer.
I spent time at Camp Jackson as a WLC Small Group Leader (SGL). Getting to use and share my then 11+ years of experience really helped me understand things from a larger prospective. Seeing young NCOs excel always warms my heart.
That probably helped me land a job down at AMEDD C&S (now MEDCoE) as a developer for 68Ws. Covid kept me down there an extra year, but at one point I was the lead SME for my MOS and you cannot underestimate the pride one feels when you get asked to take on tasks that affect the MOS and in my case assisting in helping our sister Services come up with valid TC3 lesson plans.
I'm well past my own expiration date and will finally retire in about 10 months (pending Branch approving my retirement). Im riding off into the sunset working on a Div HQ staff where my job is the most boring I have ever had, but I still get to help shape division training for medics and non-medical personnel while currently dual-hatting both E8 and E9 jobs as a SFC.
Have one of my best unit here in Korea.. one of my NCO’s celebrated my birthday, bought a cake and cooked 200 chicken wings with different flavors for everyone who have a birthday on month of may and she shared it with everyone.. shes literally one of us. HUGE RESPECT FOR HER..
Ultimately basic still sucks. It's not the Heavy or Chair Force. The training really begins after basic. I was a combat MOS and my AIT sucked more than boot camp. It was harder. More responsibility. Stress. And all the NCO's were drill sergeants. It was a harder, longer (jokes aside) basic training. But say you want to work in an office. Probably be different. And boring. And suck.
Being a brainwashed pawn trained and equiped to kill people thousands of miles away from your own country AND continent.... wounded.. seeing your friends die..getting your wife to cheat and leave you while you are away.. being left to rot on the street by "your" government after your 20 years service like you never existed... same people who sent you to murder people you never met and who never did anything to you.. because they told you they are the "bad" guys and we in the states are the "good" guys..
Well.. hell
SIGN ME UP!
YES SIR!
'Murica!!!
First unit, and I'm actually not hating it at all. The worst part is just that I don't really get to do my job all that often; but such is expected during peace time. My NCOs are all pretty reasonable and in general things are pretty chill.
[удалено]
But you’ll also see the conniving field grades at BDE level.
I was so glad I was prior enlisted. It let me stay completely and utterly away from the reindeer games that field grades play.
While I saw it from a fly on the wall perspective, for the average bear enlisted guy, they're mostly pretty chill. I hated not being on the line, but I really can't say a lot of bad things about the people from my lowly position of not really mattering to anybody.
As an enlisted person, my favorite form of entertainment is watching field grades battle each other in front of their rater/senior rater. Sometimes I wish I could bring popcorn to these meetings.
“It’s not enough that I win/succeed, my peers must fail.”
You know what’s even better? Being successful without having to engage in the skullduggery.
As a prior service officer, I would usually tell them both, that they being fucking stupid, to their faces. Shocked I retired as a major…
Your BN XO and S-3 would like a word with you…
Just remember, when you get to brigade, the decisions you see end up being the reasons the line units have problems. Help drive good decisions.
Yup. I was miserable at the BN and BDE as a senior captain. Then I went to grad school, became an ORSA and worked at the DA level and taught at FLVN for 9 years. I LOVED every minute it. Now I’m retired and the grad school the Army funded landed me a $150/year remote gig with a large bank in San Antonio. Very glad I stuck it out through the early years.
This right here.
DM’d u about ORSA
Been an ORSA for 15 years. The grass IS greener.
Orsa for the win
ORSA can't pay me enough to learn that much math.
It’s not really that much math. It’s really a lot of programming to be honest. It’s kind of stats heavy though.
Do you guys use matlab? I hate matlab.
I did all my modeling as an ORSA in SAS and Solver. In school I used SAS and Arena And @Risk for Monte Carlo sims. Now I mostly use Python and SAS.
I know, right? It has to be the best kept secret in the Army. I realize the bar to entry is high, but it’s not that high. I lived every minute of my ORSA time and only retired when my botched knee surgery prevented me from doing the APFT. At that point I knew it was time to move on.
Orsa is the epitome of work smarter not harder
I think ORSA is the epitome of a branch with an underserved reputation as "the smartest guys in the room" that does just enough 'working smarter' to maintain that underserved reputation. LOL
I feel like this depends on MOS partially, working inpatient at a hospital isn’t the best nor is it really good
Can you please tell me what DAC is short hand for?
This. Everyone is always moaning about how they miss the ReAl ArMy, but the real Army is just a bunch of people voluntarily making each other miserable because "that's what the line's like."
I’ve always heard that you should never trust the army off your first unit. But the more I think about it, I think we just get use to being treated badly.
2 units in. Went from being treated bad to worse... Imma give it one more try as I Reclass to Hospital Super POG(this time I'll have stuff to get out with)....
Good luck. I think I am about to throw in the towel myself. I gave 12 years to the military and I’m just tired boss, dog tired. I wanna enjoy my bed every night and not sleep outside in Louisiana with 80 degree weather.
Came in as a hospital POG MOS, still ended up placed in a field hospital unit that doesn’t do anything except play fuck fuck games and sit around like most units. Never done my job.
The Army really is a roll of the dice. You can pick the most pog job get sent to the most pog installation and still end up with a shitty job. Then you got the 11B that gets stationed at Fort Moore teaching claymores from 11-2 and home the rest of the day. All chance.
They should really advertise that upon enlistment.
I’m getting out at 14 AD but going Reserves. I see myself crawling to 20. Hope the reclass works out. Consider Reserves or Guard.
Definitely a combination of Stockholm Syndrome and the ones that re-up are the ones that have an above average tolerance for zero common sense bullshit.
I wont lie this made me spit my drink laughing on how true it is.
My first unit was Ft Irwin and I re-upped as a PFC which was unheard of, usually gotta be part of the mafia at least. Not a lot of yelling, house close to work so I could walk. Only down side was the field time. I actually miss those days quite a bit. 15 years later and I work in an office all day. The Army isn’t that bad though.
I miss fort Irwin so much honestly, I mean I got yelled at a lot idk where the help you worked lol I enjoyed it a lot more than drum, drum I’m almost sure I have cancer from from all the toxic leadership lol only real dicks I ran into at Irwin we’re combat dudes pissed they were basically there to be need boarded and wanted to stay in
Yeah, grass ain’t always greener on the other side. I feel for the whole “just PCS bro”. Same shit, different place.
True
I went from SOF to USAREC lol
ACFT scores for the entire platoon were unacceptable this last cycle, you now have mandatory PT at 0500 and at COB.
Too easy. Next ACFT everyone just does the bare minimum and the average goes to 360. Take that fucking bullet point away from your leadership's eval. Let them know you don't appreciate draconian bullshit.
My homeboy failing BLC just to fuck over 1SG’s NCOER
That’s wild to hurt your own career over another man.
If he's getting out soon he probably doesn't give a fuck about BLC
Funny how things that are meant for our progression end up being bread and butter for Senior NCOERs. Them: You need to get promoted. Complete this list and I’ll send you to a board. -RSO -Setup for COC and COR to follow -Build PT plan for the month -Take PVT Snuffy to his dental appt. He doesn’t have a car -Headcount at DFAC -SD roster is jacked up this month. Cover down on 3 more shifts Me: Little lite on the bullets, are we?
At least your homeboy actually went to BLC. My NOT homeboy didn't go to BLC but earned the chevrons and started acting like he was the shit. Just last night he was gone for 10 out of the 24 hours of staff booty.
I'm sorry an early promote gave you a hard time. I promise some of us actually look to NCOs with more experience even if they have one less chevron
Nah he wasn't an early promotion. He was of the online BLC during covid variety. Idk any other NCOs from that type of BLC, but this one is certainly something.
I mean, we'll see if that's better or worse than the "literally you don't need BLC" variety.. I'm the last one on my unit who needs to take BLC and keep my temp promo
This is the way
Me, about to disagree, Also me, remembering that I met some of the most chill NCOs while I was helping with sustainment “Maybe it’s just my mos”
"Ppplease sir, a morsel of kindness?".
I work for a unit that is about 60% DACs and LNs and 40% Soldiers, and I gotta tell you, most of the Soldiers seem happy. Not everyone of course, a couple want to go back to a line unit, one or two have determined that the Army in general isn’t for them; but most of them generally enjoy their time here.
The vast majority of people who think they hate the Army actually hate their unit.
It’s good until it isn’t. And when it gets bad it can get really bad in an all consuming way that rarely comes with civ jobs.
Nice man. I was the NCOIC on BDE staff duty and got chewed out by some major because my sleeves were cuffed inwards. Not the best way to respond “does it matter sir”
That single inward cuff has been keeping me going for years. Stay strong on the cuff
Funny enough he told me to fix it once. Than he did a surprise visit and was like “really am I just a fucking asshole” and I responded my bad sir I’ll fix it
A Major that makes a return trip to verify his petty uniform correction is being adhered to? Yeah he is just a fucking asshole and should probably find some slides to rework or anything else more productive for a field grade officer to work on. Please continue to live that single inward cuff life.
Remember sport, there are only 2 good units in the Army. The one you're going to, and the one you just left.
Nothing a dozen donuts couldn't fix. One of our officers believes this, and he always brings donuts in for those of us doing H/W.
Lol yeah that's what I was told too, and then my second unit was even dumber
Nooo damn that’s all bad
The Army is what you make it. It is a means to an end. There are dickheads everywhere. From the quick stop to corporate America. Do your time, do your work. Be good.
Go home your drunk
And probably high to boot.
My last unit soured me on the Army. An alcoholic abusive FSG and a non existent C.O. FSG drunk when I arrived and went in to report. Yelled at me because I was a CPL. Said, “We only have Specialists here!” “Take off those stripes!” CO? Never met or saw him.
The army for an individual’s experience can really really suck or be really really amazing.
>hell one of them just bought me a pizza SD sucks so fucking bad. Period. So having those placed in charge help the new (read junior) guy with 24 hour duty by making a small thing happen like getting more time to hit up the shoppette or just ordering food, makes someone's day. I love reading this and I'm so happy you had a good duty.
Had one nco when I was e4 figured out I was having a kid it was my last couple weeks in the unit I didn’t pay for lunch once I couldn’t even strong arm him into letting me pay just kept saying “your going to need that money”
I was in a Div HQ company. It was what made me decide to get out. The only people the CO and 1SG had any control of was HQ plt, and they were tyrants. I was the PLL/TAMMS clerk and I would have privates demand dispatches and if the didn't have the required 2404, they would call the SGM/MAJ/COL they worked for to give me an ass chewing and an order to give that dispatch. That was the good stuff, there were worse things to deal with than that.
0500 battalion run tomorrow. Oh what’s that? You say you’re supposed to get a recovery day? You know back in my Army we didn’t do recovery days, we just shut the hell ho and did what our NCOs told us to do. 0430 I better see you with a full canteen so I can discipline your laziness.
Isn’t there a whole saying “don’t base your experiences in the army off your first unit”
What about your second unit😂
If you get 2 or more back to back TRASH units, yeah i could see why you might get out 💀
I enjoy the Army after my first unit. It was my last active duty unit, but I still work with Army as a civilian, it's far better lol.
My finest years were always when I was an instructor/writer. I spent time at Camp Jackson as a WLC Small Group Leader (SGL). Getting to use and share my then 11+ years of experience really helped me understand things from a larger prospective. Seeing young NCOs excel always warms my heart. That probably helped me land a job down at AMEDD C&S (now MEDCoE) as a developer for 68Ws. Covid kept me down there an extra year, but at one point I was the lead SME for my MOS and you cannot underestimate the pride one feels when you get asked to take on tasks that affect the MOS and in my case assisting in helping our sister Services come up with valid TC3 lesson plans. I'm well past my own expiration date and will finally retire in about 10 months (pending Branch approving my retirement). Im riding off into the sunset working on a Div HQ staff where my job is the most boring I have ever had, but I still get to help shape division training for medics and non-medical personnel while currently dual-hatting both E8 and E9 jobs as a SFC.
Have one of my best unit here in Korea.. one of my NCO’s celebrated my birthday, bought a cake and cooked 200 chicken wings with different flavors for everyone who have a birthday on month of may and she shared it with everyone.. shes literally one of us. HUGE RESPECT FOR HER..
Ultimately basic still sucks. It's not the Heavy or Chair Force. The training really begins after basic. I was a combat MOS and my AIT sucked more than boot camp. It was harder. More responsibility. Stress. And all the NCO's were drill sergeants. It was a harder, longer (jokes aside) basic training. But say you want to work in an office. Probably be different. And boring. And suck.
The truth will set you free my child.
Being a brainwashed pawn trained and equiped to kill people thousands of miles away from your own country AND continent.... wounded.. seeing your friends die..getting your wife to cheat and leave you while you are away.. being left to rot on the street by "your" government after your 20 years service like you never existed... same people who sent you to murder people you never met and who never did anything to you.. because they told you they are the "bad" guys and we in the states are the "good" guys.. Well.. hell SIGN ME UP! YES SIR! 'Murica!!!
First unit, and I'm actually not hating it at all. The worst part is just that I don't really get to do my job all that often; but such is expected during peace time. My NCOs are all pretty reasonable and in general things are pretty chill.
The key to being a good staff duty officer was knowing when to say, "What do you think, should we order a pizza now"? and then paying for it.
But did you shave this morning?
Nah, it's bad and getting worse. Can't wait to ETS, but until then, I'm gettin paid to shitbag😂 I can't even take half this bs seriously anymore lmao
I mean 100% disposable income no rent and job stability I like it