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CHICKEN SHOES posted:I think if youre ADA you end up in either Sill, Busan, Okinawa or Qatar or something Here's me responding to a really old post: 14E is at like 40K bonuses now or some dumb thing. 14, 25, 35, and some others have a ton of bonuses for both high and low score people. Places one could serve in 14 series vary, but for E/T/H: Bliss, Sill, Hood, Bragg, Campbell, Korea, Japan, Middle East (not so much Iraq/Afghanistan), Europe. 14P is pretty much Korea, Campbell, Bragg, some Europe, and rotations to the Iraq/Afghanistan land. 14G is anywhere with a divsion, so who knows, you might not serve in an actual air defense unit until staff or senior NCO, maybe.
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Sep 17, 2017 17:43
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Dick Burglar posted:
It would be helpful to know why you are considering it, what you hope to gain, what your life situation is right now, etc before someone can give decent advice aside from a knee-jerk "never join" and a dumb and/or sadistic "DO IT NOW"
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Oct 14, 2017 14:27
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Dick Burglar posted:I'm 31 now and I have wanted to do something in the military since I was a teenager, but things always seemed to fall through. I completed paramedic school at end of 2016 and decided it wasn't really what I wanted to do, and I didn't think I'd be able to do firefighter or LEO for reasons. I decided to aim for med school instead, and that way I could join the reserves as a mil doc. I was disappointed that I'd be unable to do anything as a first responder, though, because I really liked the general idea, just not as a paramedic. But now I've come to realize that I don't want to be in school til I'm 40. So I'm working on getting on the LEO path instead. As a result I won't be able to go in as a mil doc obviously, so I'm exploring the option of going in as an officer of some other sort instead. Huh. Kind of hard to get a read on that and what you're after, which seems to be your problem in general: you're not quite sure what you're after. Being a guard officer might not be the worst in your case. When you said you didn't think you could do firefighter or LEO for "reasons," did you just mean recreational drug use in your past? Cause if you meant physical capability reasons, you don't want to be an officer in the Army and probably not one in the military writ large. The military understands that people get hurt and older as they are in longer, but they're not keen on 2LT broke-dick showing up. Also, if you're unmarried and you would like to become married, and you go active, you're in for a real trip. A lot of bases are located in places where you can find plenty of dates, but not a whole helluva lot of marriage prospects. And a person in their thirties is less likely to just go along with military life than someone who's been acclimatized to it since their 20s.
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Oct 15, 2017 12:22
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The Army Reserve is largely a ton of support roles that are required to get to major combat (logisticians, sustainers, transport, medical, etc) because when you can't just keep a massive army all day every day, you put sustainment on reserve status and keep combat arms in the force, as much as you reasonably can.
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Oct 16, 2017 00:13
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Vahakyla posted:68W AIT is the dumbest loving thing with 4-5 hours of sleep a night, no freedom, a good lenght of several months, treated like poo poo, and spending several hours a day marching back and forth to a dining facility and back. The companies are unmanageable size in 300-400 dudes of total, if one fucks up, all of you get woken up at night to do pushups, which happens all the time. You get constantly punished, and while you do learn cool poo poo in the 7 hours of classroom you have every day, the rest of the day is filled with total and absolute retardation. At least once a week the first formation is at 0245 for a stupid rear end competition run or other event, with a bed time still the same as other days. Formations even on the weekends, and only during last few weeks you might get to go to San Antonio with a battlebuddy and a glow belt, but even then you'll probably get recalled back when one person does something dumb, and if you don't make it back on time for whatever arbitary timeline they give, you get punished, so never go too far or do anything too fun. Vahakyla, please don't post up paraphrased communiques I sent you trying to change your mind before you enlisted. Or at least cite with Turabian or Chicago style.
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Oct 18, 2017 21:52
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Viva Miriya posted:On that note is there anyone here who was a Infantry PL? I wanna talk to them about their job. Here are literally all the infantry PLs I can recall knowing, summed up (I didn't know that many, cause I'm not infantry, and I'm not a military socialite) 1. Quit the military about as soon as he could have. 2. Went SF, probably would've quit otherwise. 3. Went SF, certainly would've quit otherwise. 4. Transferred to a functional area as far from infantry as you can get. 5. See 4. 6. Dead. 7. Kicked out for DUI. 8. Branch Transferred. 9. Is Mustang* *I don't REALLY know Mustang, but w/e.
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Nov 15, 2017 22:55
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I don't really, except for reading about a retired C-2 Greyhound pilot whose name I can't recall anymore who described it as No Organization At All.
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Dec 14, 2017 22:56
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DoktorLoken posted:The likelyhood of you staying until 20 years is not high. Half of GiP probably thought they'd stay for 20 early in their careers until they hit a wall and noped the gently caress out. Go for the BRS so you walk away with something. I’d say anyone less than halfway to retirement already should do this.
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Jan 8, 2018 19:59
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GreglFaggins posted:Any South Carolina guard here? I don't know who to avoid, but here's something that's down there: SCNG has the 263rd AAMDC (Army Air And Missile Defense Command). It is technically combat arms, but it's not grunt poo poo. There should be 14G and 14S slots a-plenty down there. Members of 263rd AAMDC can expect rotations to the national capital region as well as shorter activations for presidential packages when the president travels to set up things like sentinel radars, Avengers, or just to tie in to other radar networks. They also support some stuff like rotations to Europe or, to a lesser extent, rotations to Iraq/Afghanistan to do C-RAM.
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Jan 19, 2018 02:11
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GreglFaggins posted:I spoke to someone I went to OCS with that went from SC Guard to active duty and this was the first thing she suggested as well, so this kind of firms that up. Also, when I traveled down there last, I was impressed by their level of automations, equipment, and facilities. It's good to work directly for DC. Having a computer for every person is pretty nice when trying to burn time at drill, I imagine. The Unholy Ghost posted:If I have a choice between enlisting in the Air Force, or becoming a commissioned officer in the Army (coming in with a bachelor's degree), what's better? If you have to ask, just enlist so that you have someone to tell you when to wake up and how to make your bed and where to poo poo.
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Jan 23, 2018 01:59
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Worked with a guy who said he joined, because his family wouldn't respect him if he didn't do a tour in the Army. I asked if they'd be upset that he was getting out after serving his minimum term, and he said they also wouldn't respect him if he stayed in past getting college paid for. I think that family had something figured out. Shame kids into getting free college through service, mostly O's, then immediately get the gently caress out of the military forever.
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Feb 23, 2018 14:01
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 You get a new one of these with each chevron.
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Feb 26, 2018 14:45
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Ziji posted:Anyone have any experience going through the Career Skills Program (CSP)? Might be a better question for the Vets resources thread, but it's that program they offer where your last 180 days in the military you can go through a course (i.e. Welding certification, CDL classes, etc) using your GI Bill. I'm on Fort Carson and they offer a few really good courses for IT poo poo like the MSSA and a Cybersecurity academy but have heard that it is nigh impossible to get the paperwork approved to attend. I am generally curious about any resources available on AD while I transition out as well if anyone has any insight on that. It depends on your base/leadership/qualifications, but I had several people do that before they left, and if I recall correctly it either only required my signature or the BN CDR's signature maybe, as long as you qualified for the program, though the pre-reqs for the programs I was signing off on were pretty low, as it was mostly HVAC install/repair, CDL, or electric repair 101 type stuff. It didn't fully exempt people from showing up at the unit, but I was giving significant time away from the unit to them, obviously. Often 4 hours/day with some days being all-day affairs or requiring civilian clothing be worn.
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Apr 26, 2018 13:02
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Mustang posted:If you have 60 days of leave and want to take 60 days of ETS leave, can your BDE Commander deny it and force you to sell off your accrued leave? Yes. It's often seen as a dick move, but yes. Two months of ETS leave means that HRC counts the billet as filled and will not seek a replacement until the end of the leave period. Sometimes that means they START to fill billets via personnel requisitions only starting when the person falls off the books. So if a bunch of people around the same time are doing 2 months of leave, it can leave a commander with unfilled shortages for months. I haven't seen it get so bad that a unit forced all leave sold off, with the exception of some chapters and UCMJ issue folks. But I have seen a BDE commander deem that 2-4 weeks was the ETS max without extenuating circumstances, only allowing 60+ days for people retiring, because they'd already given 20 years to the military or were medically retiring. This was when the unit was manned at something like 50-60% on critical MOS's, and HRC was refusing to fill even those shortages until ETS leave personnel fell off the books. Several times I've seen 30 days used as the general rule with 60 being for special cases and outright denial only being for people leaving on very bad terms.
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Nov 7, 2018 15:48
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Godholio posted:Absolutely don't lie. You were a dependent. The military has your medical records already. Knew a cadet when I was in school who kept just saying weird stuff and doing really unwise/weird things. Turned out his O-6 dad had deliberately tried to hide a learning disability, going as far as having him essentially "un/re-diagnosed" in high school as having no learning disability. The cadet was a nice guy, but very clearly needed help to be successful in college. He was dropped from the ROTC program, and I don't know if he ended up finishing college. Once he got dropped from ROTC, he and his parents went all in on "sorry, university, but actually he needs help with stuff." Who knows how many years of assistance this kid missed out on because his dad needed a legacy officer son so bad?
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Mar 10, 2020 12:42
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Godholio posted:The DOD has his records. Not necessarily. The DOD had his records, but may have lost them in a warehouse fire. China has his records.
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Mar 11, 2020 03:40
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Kraftwerk posted:Also I noticed the US army offers tons of bonuses for anti-air artillery related jobs like Patriot missiles and avengers. Is this a really lovely job for the US? There are a couple of reasons the Army offers a huge bonus for going air defense artillery. Here are the basic ones that don't immediately point to your soul being crushed: -Most all of these jobs require a minimum of SECRET clearance, so that's a discriminator -High GT score required (not so much for Avenger or Patriot launcher operators, but very much so for the people doing datalinks, radars, engagement control). -When you have a news cycle about how Iran and Korea are going to nuke everyone with missiles, people don't want to sign up. Never mind that such stories are often pretty bullshit. Those three alone mean that people applying need to have decent intelligence and a clean(ish) background, and people who have that can probably go to college etc if they have the money or loans. Hence the big bonuses. Here are some of the other reasons that air defense artillery is handing out big bonuses: -Shift work forever. Doing 24-hour shifts (really more like 28+ hour shifts with commute and handover) is completely normal -Patriot certification is not so much hard as it is very easy to fail. You make one data entry wrong out of 10,000 keystrokes and miss it? You failed, stay at site, see you in 3 days to do it again. -Patriot certification gets sidelined by frequent maintenance issues. Radar broke? Sucks to be you, now sit in the field until it's fixed and then try to certify again. -Patriot should expect to certify roughly every 3-4 months (certification takes a couple weeks unless you're super on top of your poo poo despite the drill itself taking maybe 10-16 hours start to finish). -AIT is kind of long for Patriot engagement controllers (14E). About 6 months of AIT. So to collect on that bonus you've gotta commit to BCT plus ~6 months of trainee status before you get to a unit. 14T/G/H/P/S (14S is national guard only) T is Patriot launchers, G is data links and Sentinel radars and most often assigned to short-ranged air defense or your typical brigade combat teams, H is either space or Patriot early warning and datalinks or both, P is Avenger / C-RAM. 14S is national guard Avengers. -Patriot deployment to the Middle East has soared in the last 19 months or so. Outside of Desert Storm or OIF 1, we are at an all-time high for Patriot deployment to the Middle East. Units are approaching a 1:1 ratio of deployment to dwell. And when I say unit, I mean the unit designation. It's entirely possible that you could deploy with one unit, then move units, only to find you're in a unit about to deploy again. There will be pressure for such people to sign a waiver allowing them to go overseas again. This pressure increases exponentially if you're an officer, and it's a very big deal still if you're an NCO, especially if you've proven yourself capable. A Specialist saying "gently caress that" is pretty normal. But the day your dwell is up, which is 1:1, expect to go to the middle east as a late deployer and join your unit. Patriot deployments are longer than regular Army deployments at the moment, though there is desire to change this (12 months vs 6 or 9 months). -Patriot outside of FORSCOM and the middle east? Well, you're either in Korea, Japan, or Germany. Germany typically owns for junior folks. It's kind of busy and a pain in the rear end the more senior you get as you get sucked up into planning a bunch of NATO stuff and so on. Korea and Japan: YMMV. I've not done those tours, but I've heard everything from how it was amazing and awesome to stories of "we got locked on sight until a kid killed himself" stories. -As a defensive system, Patriot units are expected to maintain VERY high levels of readiness and maintenance and certification, but they will only ever actually fire a shot if things go hot. That is tedious for a lot of people -This can change rapidly, but promotion rates to FGO are bad. It used to be like 88%, but lately it's been about 60-65% to O-4, so it can be rough trying to be air defense as a "do 20 and get that retirement" gig -Air Defense has a reputation for being very technical, leadership flipping out over tiny little infractions and delinquencies, and micro-managing stuff. That reputation is not entirely unearned. -Outside of basic soldier poo poo like "react to contact" or whatever, it's very difficult to do squad/platoon level training unless you're in SHORAD, and even then not so much. What does a Patriot Launcher platoon do for platoon-level training? Set up launchers that don't do poo poo without the fire control platoon attached? So training is highly collectivized in a way that's simply required, but can lead to a lot of hurry up and wait if one portion or the other of the collective apparatus is broken/late/whatever. -Enlisted retention loving sucks. It's way below Army averages, so there's a constant churn of brand new first-termers showing up as the previous one-termer leaves, having fulfilled their obligation to get their bonus and GI Bill and being of intelligence and background such that they can get into a state school with no issue. The good stuff: -You mostly drive places rather than walk. -Air conditioning is common -If you're broke-brained, the technical aspects and constant tactics updates are interesting. poo poo's weird right now! -It's an MOS that's been male/female for a long time, so less super-sexist bullshit -You tend to be (but not always, especially in the last year or so) at a decent sized base or logistical center where there are some amenities and likely wifi/internet. (shortcut: Just join the air force) -High cash bonuses for enlistment/reenlistment -If you do have a really good tactics unit, you can get away with some small amount of murder. If you crush evaluations, readiness drills, etc, you'll get a lot of leeway to avoid all the lovely details. -Depending on the track you take, you can get a ton of joint exercise or basing experience as an NCO or officer. I spent like half of a year TDY to do long-hours but interesting/cool missions with the Marines, Navy, and Air Force, mostly to good locations on the coast (all over the Gulf Coast and Eastern seaboard) or to bad locations with a very fun and cool mission (MCAS Yuma). edit: That was a lot of words, but I forgot to add this ini: Unless you're like mega OOHRAH and really want to join the whitest, most male portion of the whole-rear end military, why would you call out USMC Infantry in particular?
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Sep 20, 2020 23:57
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https://twitter.com/dodfinred/status/1471194532809428993?s=21
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Dec 15, 2021 21:34
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Mustang posted:Rent is going up in Seattle but they keep dropping BAH? What's the logic? Looking at the last 20 years, including 2022, no? JBLM BAH rates have gone up steadily with 2 years where it dipped, but it’s higher than it has ever been.
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Dec 15, 2021 22:16
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https://www.seattletimes.com/business/real-estate/seattle-rents-fell-in-2020-while-renters-in-outlying-areas-saw-costs-climb/?amp=1 https://www.seattlepi.com/realestate/amp/How-has-Seattle-rent-changed-over-the-past-four-15118166.php I dunno. Maybe you live in a trendier neighborhood?
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Dec 15, 2021 22:55
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EvenWorseOpinions posted:So I'm getting bugged by army recruiters that they're waiving more medical history, at this point I'm well enough established in a career I like that I'd only join if I could be guaranteed to go to flight school. Honestly, if you feel well enough established in your career and you're already looking at the Army lowering standards a bunch due to recruiting efforts to get in at all, I wouldn't join! The odds that some officer or NCO is going to really care that you joined with medical waivers is middling to very low. And you can always get hosed over. If you were posting saying you were dead-end doing nothing and looking for any way at all to restart, eh, it's a risk, but it can set you up with benefits. But if you're otherwise pretty good in your career and presumably older than the average person plus whatever medical history? Probably a bad idea to join. (the forum stance is still that it is always a bad idea anyway, right?)
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Jan 31, 2023 01:47
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