|
"Career"
|
#
?
Sep 9, 2015 03:54
|
|
|
|
| # ? Jun 7, 2024 18:10 |
|
|
Mustang posted:How much influence does a PL have to try and stop their platoon from being hosed with to such an extent? I'm assuming not much as a 2LT but I'd like to keep the misery to a minimum if I can. From my experience, a lot of it depends on your company commander. I watched as my PL friends in other companies with good commanders (who deflected a lot of bullshit from battalion and up) get away with a lot of stuff and did really good things with their platoons. My commander didn't give two fucks about anything other than his OER and drove the morale of the company into the ground.
|
|
#
?
Sep 9, 2015 04:02
|
|
|
Obstacle2 posted:I'm familiar with the story, when I heard about it it didn't surprise me. Hazing was always rampant and awful in 1-24. I left before the brigades deployment to Afghanistan but I was with them in Iraq. There was basically no accountability for any NCOs. Our S3 SGM was simply moved after being caught drinking in some female E4's barracks room. Your S3 SGM got moved to brigade S3, to be the CHOPs SGM. I can't remember his name, but I've heard that exact story. I made it a point to crop dust that rear end in a top hat every chance I could with the most foul gas that a steady diet of MREs and clif bars could produce, and I could hear him yelling down the hall at his minion E7 "HEY SARGE, DID YOU poo poo YOURSELF AT YOUR DESK AGAIN?!" The arctic family time fuckery was entrenched in 1-5, until someone called IG on the BC for it. 2 of his company commanders were west point buddies and would cover for each other, one CO was a weakling that went along with those 2, and the HHC commander was too busy railing 2LTs from BSB to care. e: Mustang, I don't mean to come off as bitterly cynical as I probably do about being an officer...but that's the reality of it. Most officers aren't malicious, they're just stupid/inexperienced; west pointers somehow combine the worst attributes of both sides of that into a single package, then worm their way into command and senior staff positions where they get to perpetuate the cycle all over again. Icon Of Sin fucked around with this message at 04:12 on Sep 9, 2015 |
|
#
?
Sep 9, 2015 04:04
|
|
|
Man I really don't want to be cynical, but I am. The Army is a massive organization, so there's got to be cool parts of it out there with competent people who care about doing a good job, taking care of their people, and also making a career out of it. But holy poo poo, that's not been my experience at all. I guess the one caveat is that I'm in the reserve, but in Afghanistan I saw that poo poo in the reserve, guard, and active component so I'm convinced it's a total Army thing.
|
|
#
?
Sep 9, 2015 04:22
|
|
|
The Rat posted:I was in that unit back when it was the 172nd SBCT, what with the whole extension and all that nonsense. Of course like 95% of dudes left after that deployment, either from PCS or ETS, so I had no idea it got that bad. The ones that stayed constantly reminded everyone else how much better it was as the 172nd, but having been part of both it was the 5% that stayed that tended to be the shittiest when it came to treating people poorly.
|
|
#
?
Sep 9, 2015 04:29
|
|
|
Not especially surprising. I think only one or two dudes from my platoon stayed. I was A/4-23.
|
|
#
?
Sep 9, 2015 04:34
|
|
|
The Rat posted:Not especially surprising. I think only one or two dudes from my platoon stayed. I was A/4-23. In case anyone thinks I'm full of it with the cages. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f2eHPgD7dK0 Man being infantry was a blast.
|
|
#
?
Sep 9, 2015 04:41
|
|
|
The Rat posted:I am so, so grateful that I'm out of the loving Army.
|
|
#
?
Sep 9, 2015 04:57
|
|
|
Mustang posted:How much influence does a PL have to try and stop their platoon from being hosed with to such an extent? I'm assuming not much as a 2LT but I'd like to keep the misery to a minimum if I can. Your ability to get anything done comes almost entirely from knowing regs, doctrine, policy letters, etc. so that you can call people out when they are doing the wrong thing, or more often, too lazy to do the right thing. A lot of NCOs and even some other officers will try and blow you off as being naive if you insist on doing things by the book, but if it's in print you can't be wrong. It takes a lot more than just deciding that you're going to be "one of the good ones." It takes a lot of homework too. Even then, you just can't beat the culture of a lovely unit.
|
|
#
?
Sep 9, 2015 05:19
|
|
|
Obstacle2 posted:In case anyone thinks I'm full of it with the cages. What was the rational on this? I mean I get that its insane but what did they think they were accomplishing?
|
|
#
?
Sep 9, 2015 05:27
|
|
|
Bogarts posted:What was the rational on this? I mean I get that its insane but what did they think they were accomplishing? There was no rationale. There was nothing to do and we weren't allowed to leave the company area. Obstacle2 fucked around with this message at 05:35 on Sep 9, 2015 |
|
#
?
Sep 9, 2015 05:27
|
|
|
I was pretty miserable at my last duty station, but my current one is a lot better so far. It doesn't take much effort to figure out why--it barely feels like I'm in the Army at this point. I haven't been to a formation, stood at attention/parade rest, or done organized PRT in about 2 months. The only Army people I interact with is a single NCO and one soldier, both of which are ETSing fairly soon, and they're both pretty chill. Heck, there was some restructuring fairly recently, and I'm not even sure what company I'm in anymore, but it doesn't matter. Without a doubt, the best way to do Army is by not doing Army. I still have to wear the pajamas, but I'm treated like a human being and it's pretty sad that it came as a shock to me when I realized it.
|
|
#
?
Sep 9, 2015 07:11
|
|
|
Somehow I'm not surprised at the army being compared to a prison sentence, now
|
|
#
?
Sep 9, 2015 07:16
|
|
|
Teflon Don posted:Somehow I'm not surprised at the army being compared to a prison sentence, now I really believe I got the short end of the stick. I want to believe people can have positive experiences in the army. I certainly didn't, and wasn't willing to take the chance that another unit would be the same as the one I left so I got out. I'd probably have killed myself if I had to do another three years like that.
|
|
#
?
Sep 9, 2015 08:06
|
|
|
As bad as some of the places I have been... I've never been told to wait in a loving cage. Jesus gently caress.
|
|
#
?
Sep 9, 2015 10:25
|
|
|
The thing about the military is to remember this one thing: 99% of the dudes standing to the left and right of you would sell you out down the river, up to and including your life, to get an extra rank, or even just a bullet point on an NCOER/OER.
|
|
#
?
Sep 9, 2015 11:13
|
|
|
Yeah living in cages all day is pretty loving army even for the army. Seems like something you'd only hear about in a legend, like what a power hungry staff duty made a group of extra duty soldiers do until he got fired or promoted or whatever.
|
|
#
?
Sep 9, 2015 11:55
|
|
|
not caring here posted:The thing about the military is to remember this one thing: 99% of the dudes standing to the left and right of you would sell you out down the river, up to and including your life, to get an extra rank, or even just a bullet point on an NCOER/OER. Here is my experience. Garrison life, and even much of the time spent on bigger FOBs, was bullshit. Nobody cared, and the meaninglessness of time there was unwritten shared knowledge. But there was a line. Before that line everyone hated each other and would be entirely interested in going to the ground over the most pointless argument. And beyond that line, I can think of very few men who weren't ready and willing to drag my rear end to safety if I were shot and vice versa, as an example. The guys who we suspected weren't on the same page? We didn't like them.
|
|
#
?
Sep 9, 2015 14:07
|
|
|
The Rat posted:I am so, so grateful that I'm out of the loving Army. Seriously. And Alaska used to be tight as gently caress. I got to 2-1 at the end of 2002 and just barely caught our last trip to Japan. 2-1 used to go to Japan or Thailand regularly for "training" and you'd do some training, but it was mostly just chillin and slamin brews. The base we were on in Japan had a place you could buy beer and some dudes in my squad bought a few cases and stashed them under the plywood floor of our tent. It was beautiful. Got drunk for the first time in Japan as a bright eyed 17 year old who was definitely going to make the army a career. Even back then people were talking about the good old days where no one really gave a poo poo and the 172nd was known as the hunting and fishing brigade because that's where people wanted to go to finish out their careers far away from big army and just chill. I had a taste of that throughout 2003, but once we started the transition from light to stryker everything went to poo poo and apparently it has continued to go downhill. RIP in piss 2-1 or 1-24 or whatever the gently caress
|
|
#
?
Sep 9, 2015 16:46
|
|
|
RichieHimself posted:Seriously. And Alaska used to be tight as gently caress. I heard rumors of this golden age, along with "training missions" to Australia that amounted to about the same thing you're talking about. It was all gone by late '09, when I first got there. They wanted us to keep up with the light arctic infantry theme (all of the companies still had their skis, snowshoes, and 10-man arctic tents in varying states of disrepair) so we did a bunch of cold weather training, but they also wanted us to be a stryker unit with week-long gunneries down at fort greeley and motorpool mondays every. goddamn. week. I loved how a stryker could be deadlined by missing the interface bolt (jesus pin) that linked it up to a 50 cal, but that same bolt wasn't needed at all if that vehicle had a Mk 19 assigned to it (like half our strykers were). It's only about an inch and a half long, too. Guess which part went missing the most 
|
|
#
?
Sep 9, 2015 19:22
|
|
|
RichieHimself posted:Seriously. And Alaska used to be tight as gently caress. Yeah I heard a lot of people talk about that was how it was. I think we knew some of the same people, I came in to 2-1 right after the long rear end Iraq deployment the 172nd went on and was absconded to S3 along with the rest of the newest privates. Admittedly sitting in cages in a line company was still better than being in HQ.
|
|
#
?
Sep 9, 2015 21:58
|
|
|
Icon Of Sin posted:They wanted us to keep up with the light arctic infantry theme (all of the companies still had their skis, snowshoes, and 10-man arctic tents in varying states of disrepair) so we did a bunch of cold weather training, but they also wanted us to be a stryker unit with week-long gunneries down at fort greeley and motorpool mondays every. goddamn. week. gently caress you for reminding me of this. The yearly ALIT training was the worst but people seemed to treat it like it was the most god damned important thing we did all year. I sent a soldier to go have dinner with his wife while we were setting up the tents since he'd been in Alaska for 4 years who gives a poo poo. And some E7 tore into me asking me who the gently caress I thought I was excusing a solider from this training. I said "his squad leader?" and he just stormed off in a huff.
|
|
#
?
Sep 9, 2015 22:01
|
|
|
Obstacle2 posted:In case anyone thinks I'm full of it with the cages. I've done some stupid poo poo as an infantryman but this is the most bamboozling thing ever This is the stuff of legend, you should have sent that video to the pentagon or something like those dudes at Bragg did with the moldy barracks.
|
|
#
?
Sep 9, 2015 22:23
|
|
|
Obstacle2 posted:There was no rationale. There was nothing to do and we weren't allowed to leave the company area. This would not have happened when I was a 1SG. Or if it did, the person responsible would have physically had their rear end(es) kicked.
|
|
#
?
Sep 9, 2015 22:31
|
|
Cat Army
|
During a visit to one of my old brain doctors, he asked me what my experience of being in the military has been like, due to being older than your average Joe and having already formed opinions and personality in a different culture devoid of wild military influence across the other side of the planet. Basically someone as objective as possible considering they are currently wearing a uniform. I told him that it was a cross between the Stanford Prison Experiment, and the Milgram Experiment. The only difference being that if it was his experiment for his thesis he'd be in the electric chair right now. He chuckled uncomfortably, and very rarely asked me about it again. I still stand by my answer, and if you doubt it, then read stories about soldiers being kept in cages whilst the keepers jerk off about it.
|
|
#
?
Sep 9, 2015 22:54
|
|
|
I remember watching season 2 of OitNB while I was sitting in demob and finding myself identifying with the characters and their situation.
|
|
#
?
Sep 9, 2015 23:36
|
|
|
psydude posted:I remember watching season 2 of OitNB while I was sitting in demob and finding myself identifying with the characters and their situation. During mobilization, I had a BUB slide where I briefed the similarities between the FOB and being in prison. At first everyone was laughing; by the end they were all looking at each other like "poo poo he's right!"
|
|
#
?
Sep 10, 2015 00:25
|
|
|
Coming in with prior real world experience does give you an interesting perspective on the military bullshit. I had a senior NCO talk to me the other day about making a career out of the army and one of the main reasons he was giving me was "if you get out, you'll have to start over in life." I guess I can see what he was saying, assuming I came in at 18 and the army literally was all I knew of "professional" adult life, but I just don't agree with that assessment. I'm also not someone who has sunk in 8 years already, so it isn't like starting over in the civilian world is going to cost me much. I've already got a BA, going to use the sweet GI Bill to augment that, so I feel like getting out will advance me further than staying in and moving up the ranks. Some people love the army. I'm not one of them. tl;dr gently caress the army
|
|
#
?
Sep 10, 2015 01:51
|
|
|
Emily trying to get out currently. The cage stories  no loving way would I do that now. Earlier yes, but as I've seen the "light" so to speak, nothing is going to break my resolve for getting out. My biggest hinderance to coming to the decision to push medboard was after 8+ years in, I was fairly institutionalized. Like a lot of soldiers who don't know it yet.
|
|
#
?
Sep 10, 2015 04:15
|
|
|
Aranan posted:Coming in with prior real world experience does give you an interesting perspective on the military bullshit. I had a senior NCO talk to me the other day about making a career out of the army and one of the main reasons he was giving me was "if you get out, you'll have to start over in life." I mean its this weird thing that no one really acknowledges. So you stay in 20 years. You get out at 38-40 years old with very few translatable skills. My first First Sergeant ended up being the one that collected my gear at CIF as a civilian. Whoopie, what a lot of good that did him.
|
|
#
?
Sep 10, 2015 04:18
|
|
|
You can always do like some of my customers do and become a government employee so you can continue to be a complete prick to everyone who works for you because you're essentially unfireable and also the government basically only hires veterans these days, so it's not like your employees will know that their supervisor isn't supposed to be a complete and total piece of poo poo.
|
|
#
?
Sep 10, 2015 04:20
|
|
|
Obstacle2 posted:I mean its this weird thing that no one really acknowledges. So you stay in 20 years. You get out at 38-40 years old with very few translatable skills. My first First Sergeant ended up being the one that collected my gear at CIF as a civilian. Whoopie, what a lot of good that did him. If you've been in the army for longer than a single tour (sometimes even just one tour) odds are you've got something about you that's physically broken. So you've got few skills and you're liable to be on the verge of being decrepit at age 40...the green weenie always gets one last pump in you. Besides that, a senior NCO saying "you'll have to start over in life" reminds me of a duffelblog article (proving again that they aren't satire, they're a loving oracle and we should've listened). http://www.duffelblog.com/2013/11/first-sergeant-ged-tells-corporal-hell-never-make-outside/
|
|
#
?
Sep 10, 2015 04:25
|
|
|
Icon Of Sin posted:If you've been in the army for longer than a single tour (sometimes even just one tour) odds are you've got something about you that's physically broken. So you've got few skills and you're liable to be on the verge of being decrepit at age 40...the green weenie always gets one last pump in you. Besides that, a senior NCO saying "you'll have to start over in life" reminds me of a duffelblog article (proving again that they aren't satire, they're a loving oracle and we should've listened). Please exclude aviation units from this blanket statement
|
|
#
?
Sep 10, 2015 04:31
|
|
|
Obstacle2 posted:I really believe I got the short end of the stick. I want to believe people can have positive experiences in the army. I certainly didn't, and wasn't willing to take the chance that another unit would be the same as the one I left so I got out. I'd probably have killed myself if I had to do another three years like that. This month is my 3 year mark. I'd say I've had it pretty good but I'm also getting out. 18 months at DLI in Monterey, California and the last year in Wiesbaden, Germany. 6 months at FT. Jackson BCT and Goodfellow AFB TRADOC hell which weren't so great but whatever. Organized PT exemptions almost throughout my 3 years (DLI and my units here). I was able to work on a mission here for 6 months which was nice. Now as things have changed, I'm basically left alone as they don't know what to do with a linguist. So I run the battalion language program and help out supply. I wear civvies and drive to Ramstein at least once a week for equipment transfers and turn-ins. My NCO is pregnant so I have a lot of leeway. Very cush job. I've basically fallen through the cracks and intend to stay there. Not on a meal card either. I have a little over a year and a half to ETS. Hopefully I spend them here in Germany and then head directly to grad school. So yeah, for the most part, it's worked out. But threads on here always remind me how easily it couldn't have. I know a linguist in a class or two behind that went from Goodfellow to being a gate guard at Ft. Gordon. And here I am going to Prague and Brussels in the last month. Roll of the dice... The MILPER for OCS FY2016 came out a few days ago. I did read through it. A lot of these folks tell me to go do it. But yeah, not happening. Not in this Army.
|
|
#
?
Sep 10, 2015 15:03
|
|
|
Obstacle2 posted:In case anyone thinks I'm full of it with the cages. Wow.
|
|
#
?
Sep 10, 2015 15:51
|
|
|
Obstacle2 posted:In case anyone thinks I'm full of it with the cages. What the actual gently caress
|
|
#
?
Sep 10, 2015 16:10
|
|
|
Terrible Robot posted:What the actual gently caress Even after I left the line as an FSO, I saw this poo poo all the time. What fancypants units were you guys in that your days weren't filled with this poo poo just to pass the time. "waiting on the word" was the post-lunch motto for 90% of my time in garrison
|
|
#
?
Sep 10, 2015 16:57
|
|
|
I don't want to think about the thousands of hours wasted on standing by for release, when the one loving thing you look forward to is hearing "release by platoon" during the duty day. The worst culprit being "no one is released until all the day's work is complete." especially when the hang up is on loving mechanics, connex fuckery, or BN staff on Friday releases. I remember being in formation for three hours in high 90 temps on Ft.Hood for a 40 minute award ceremony and a safety brief from the BN commander, several people got heat stroke. gently caress the worst CAV mentality that is set into officers there. The best poo poo was being a barracks rat and just loving off to play video games standing by for text for when formation rolled around.
|
|
#
?
Sep 10, 2015 18:19
|
|
|
So uh, what's the atmosphere like in 2nd ID like at Lewis? I always hear a lot of stories about Hood but rarely anything about Lewis.
|
|
#
?
Sep 10, 2015 19:36
|
|
|
|
| # ? Jun 7, 2024 18:10 |
|
|
Mustang posted:So uh, what's the atmosphere like in 2nd ID like at Lewis? HahahahahahahaHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
|
|
#
?
Sep 10, 2015 19:37
|
|
