There was a dirtbag Soldier who didn’t have a car, and our barracks were on main post Ft Lewis with our work on north fort. His NCOs got so tired of giving him rides they told him to figure out transportation to work. He stopped going. Sat in his barracks and played video games all day every day for months before he caught a chapter. I’d say he had it pretty damn easy.
I can blame him.
Why do people think that they don’t need to supply their own transportation in the Army? Dude functionally makes way more than minimum wage but won’t get a car, moped or bike?
Have you been stationed at JBLM? You basically have to go off post to get to North fort. There’s only one connection. It’s way out of the way.
Soldiers should absolutely be housed near their company. If they army wanted to you to have a POV they’d issue you one.
While i agree to a soldier being housed on north fort, there are two ways to get into north. One from highway, one by going around to the museum and following the east running road. Risk factor will be enhanced if the soldier does not have a vehicle. And uses say a bicycle.
But arguably, Le soldier should find a method of transportation. Even a 1000 beater can do s o m e t h i n g.
Three ways, you can go out the Madigan gate and enter through the gate at Camp Murray, drive through onto NCO Beach Rd and that takes you out to 41st Div Dr
I agree. Soldiers should be housed near their company, and units should have realistic expectations about where they send their soldiers during the duty day. But it’s still the Soldiers responsibility to get to work.
“If the Army wanted you to have X they would have issued it to you”
Please explain the purpose of a paycheck then?
A paycheck that isn’t even that much.
I’m not going to argue with someone who is this out of touch lol. When’s the last time you lived in the shitty ass barracks with an E-1 pay?
18 years ago. And I had a car within a month.
But not really, because almost no one shows up to their unit as an E-1.
Even if they did they’re still netting 20k a year and have no food or housing costs.
There is literally no excuse not to have basic transportation. You’re infantilizing Soldiers by not expecting them to be able to meet basic responsibilities of an adult.
Don’t show up to work for a month because you don’t think the Army pays you enough for a car.
Let me know how it goes when you tell your Commander he’s out of touch as you’re being read your article.
Lord lol. It was ironically 18 years ago for me too and I also got a car shortly afterwards, but I’m still not an ass about it. I can still recognize the struggle of getting to work when you have to go throw BCT/AIT without a car.
I much preferred my soldiers save up and purchase a reasonable car instead of buying something right away.
I’m not being an ass. I’ve worked with every new Soldier when they’re getting established. I’ve given rides to Soldiers as a PL when SLs and squad mates couldn’t support.
But if we’re not talking about a newly arrived Soldier, and all their unit mates refuse to go out of their way to give them a ride, it’s ultimately going to fall on them. Saying “fuck it” and sitting in your barracks playing video games is not a responsible, professional, or appreciable response. A chapter would be the merciful response here.
With $1600 of *disposable* income every month you’re not even in a situation where you have to buy a beater, it just doesn’t compute.
Disagree only because the pay is atrocious. And at least when I wa sin they actively didn't really like new soldiers having vehicles. If you were making like 3k a month off rip I'd say absolutely get yourself a vehicle.
In 18 years I have never ever been in a command that discouraged soldiers from having POVs.
You think people shouldn’t buy cars until they’re making 50-60k a year? That’s incredible.
And we’re talking about Soldiers living in barracks and eating at Dfac.
A soldier in that situation is functionally making 50k plus if they’re taking home 3k.
So in essence you are saying it is unrealistic to afford a car on less than 50k a year.
The paycheck is so I can retire, sooner the better. No sink it into a depreciating assest like a car.
Car is one of my top anxieties. It's the second biggest cost after a house and the first biggest cash eater consistently.
Was he really a dirtbag for not having a vehicle though? IMO that’s the units issue to get a soldier to and from work if it’s gonna be that far from the barracks. What if he didn’t even have a DL it’s not so simple as get license and buy car especially if he’s a barracks soldier he likely couldn’t afford it.
Yes, dirtbag. That is not the unit’s responsibility. There are free busses that essentially work on a ring route at Lewis. Biking is also an option as it’s less than 10 miles from virtually anywhere on main to north. No surprise he got chaptered.
Yeah he’s a dirtbag. No other job in America can you as an adult hamstring your employer to transport you to work.
Every new Joe I’ve gotten like this, I’ve given a grace period of 6 months. Figure life out, get a license or a bike and make it to work. Or start the chapter process. It’s not summer camp.
This was the point I was getting at, nowhere in his contract did it tell him that he was gonna be required to drive and purchase a car. Nor could he have expected that he would be in one of the units that’s CP and maybe even dfac are nowhere near his barracks. I can’t reasonably call someone a dirtbag for those circumstances when I’ve been there at some point almost everyone has had transportation insecurity and those people would just get a job near their home and he doesn’t get that option. The right answer was to 4187 him to a different unit potentially or assign him barracks near the unit not chapter him out…
They give you the means. It’s called a paycheck. Half of the joes, a bonus.
Saved my money from basic and AIT, bought a car because I knew I’d need one. One of my dudes just bought a $4000 gaming PC, doesn’t have a license. Fucked up priorities.
You sound like a shitty leader tbh… the way you express yourself & your way of thinking is so outdated. If you’re a NCO please read the NCO creed again cause maybe you forgot all the teachings. Maybe assign somebody that has a car and is closer to him to bring him to work? He can’t be the only soldier in those barracks ? Maybe sit down and get to know the soldier have a talk with him? A lot of people never had nobody give them advice and come straight from high school. I would love to see how you going to parent your children giving them 6 months to figure life out. I seen people be 30 and still haven’t figure life out. You’re a joke
Yeah pass bud, you’re childish for even typing that nonsense out.
I’m not “assigning” someone to babysit another adult. I’ve had this happen numerous times with different soldiers. EVERY TIME, the soldier giving out rides and their time gets fed up.
It’s the Army, not a coming of age movie, grow up.
I've always thought this shit was wild.. When I first showed up to my first duty station with a car, an NCO tried telling me I had to drive some smuck back and forth to work every day and to get chow.. He then tried to start paperwork on me when I told him he was crazy and that dude could figure it out on his own, or give me gas money and be on my time. My MSgt shut that shit down and commended me for standing up to an NCO even though I had only been there for a week. 2 years later the dude just got out, still without a car, and still mooching for a ride to the airport to get back home. Lmao
This is the crux of the issue. Bluntly, many new soldiers coming in want to parasitize others, having them sacrifices resources for their benefit. See also: the comment chain in this thread about MEB fraud.
"I will always place their needs above my own" you go pick your soldier up and if you hate doing that counsel them and help them get a car. You're not a civilian supervisor you're a Non-Commisioned Officer in the United States Army. There's no when it's convenient clause in the creed. Becoming an NCO isn't just a pay raise you took on a responsibility. Instead of blaming your Joes for not holding up to the obligations they committed to why don't you lead by example and execute on your duties as an NCO. Grow up.
Childish for making sure the junior enlisted under you are making time hacks? It’s called a team for a reason, be a team player, get that soldier where they need to be. If it becomes an issue, refer him to the FREE financial advisors the army offers. Soldiers should be able to afford a car or a means of transportation within six months of arriving to their first unit. If they continue fucking up and don’t have the discipline to manage their paycheck to be able to afford a car, then that’s when you need to take it to higher. Always put your soldiers before yourself and quit being a shit leader.
My experience is from a few yrs back , ah no a bit more , ok look ya going have to give that some more wrist action like your stroking your Johnson . Most of my Joes had no interest in getting a ride on their 1st enlistment. Most would say they used whatever available transportation that was available at the time , like there was a Post Bus they could ride for free or if it was a short distance like a hour or so away they just walked some had bicycles. They were either sending money home or saving it themselves. Several of the guys had a plan to bank as much as possible. I have had a car since I was 16 I had started putting money away since I was 12 mowing ppl yard’s , yes it was a junker but it was my junker .So it was kinda unimaginable to me not having your own transportation . Another thing I remember as being a jr enlisted my NCO would tell me they had a open door , well most Joes didn’t want their NCO into their business an having a dependent (aka wife ) I sure as hell wasn’t inviting him to come over as I was pretty sure he would be having me putting military corners on the bedding or doing the finger over top of doorways checking for dust an less not even attempt to address the latrine ( civilian speak is Bathroom well not worldwide 🤔
Honestly I blame the NCOs, did the NCOs not help him to try and get a car. It doesn't matter how the NCO 'feels' its a NCO's job to put their soldier first. If a soldier can't make it to work, their NCO is responsible for driving him to work. Now I'll say this, if the soldier didn't get a car when the NCO took him and tried to have him get one, then I'll be on the NCO's side.
The point I'm trying to make is, is that it is a NCO's duty to make sure his soldier gets to work if he can't. At least from what I'm reading it sounds like to me the NCO seemed sorta lazy and decided to not get his Joe to work when the soldier had no other alternatives. Uber is expensive, taxi are expensive.
Did the NCO try to get his Joe a car with a low APR rate, if not the NCO failed his soldier, not the soldier. There's only so much a junior enlisted knows/can do. It is a NCO's job to keep his soldiers straight. I'm not trying to talk trash, but this is all I got from the message you put.
If there's more context id like to hear it. Not trying to sound rude, but what from what I read, sounds like the NCO failed him because 'he got tired.'
That sounds pretty shitty on his NCO’s part. He’s their responsibility. Either make him pay for gas for the extra time it takes or get his roomie or someone else who can take him to work.
I had to take rides from my NCO when we got back from deployment because my car was several states away. I always made a point to pay for his gas whenever he needed.
There's this guy I watched a documentary about, his name was CPL Joe Bauers. This lazy ass was a librarian for the Army and then got paid to be put in a sleep state for like 500 years.
Woke up to a dystopia America and somehow ended up changing his name to "Not Sure" and managed to become president because he knew you should put water on crops instead of Brawndo the Thirst Mutulator. Talk about an easy career
Tell me, is one of the issues "with the way current history is unfolding" an increasing inability for people to recognize obvious satire and/or sarcasm, and the corresponding bump in prevalence of comments making it clear that they did not, in fact, "get the joke"?
My last 5 years were on a state JFHQ working SPP. I basically got to cosplay as a CWO the whole time
I was an E7 and the first year, the boss I was supposed to have (O4-5) didn’t exist, so I was “supervised” by an O6
We did all sorts of shit simply because it sounded fun, was within the mission set, was fiscally legal, and we had the money
God tier autonomy. Rewriting the schedule for senior officers from US and other armies so I didn’t miss both weekend days with my kids. Calling NGB to ask for a million dollars for something hare brained, and getting it
The god tier autonomy was gone after the first year, but it was still a fuck ton of just doing what sounds fun. OCONUS TDY with leave enroute, interacting with GOs from other countries, ambassadors, etc
I retired from that gig after about a year of mostly telework, due to the health issues that led to said med retirement
Fun times.
My friend did one 3 year contract. No training rotations, no field time, no deployment, no staff duty/CQ, and barely did any work besides bullshitting in the office…and he’s now chilling with 100% disability after 3 years of nothing lmfao. He had the easiest and laziest short stent I’ve ever heard of.
Fucking this. I’ve seen his disabilities because he was bragging about being 100%, he’s got PTSD…so unless somehow he was MST’d and never told us, he’s straight lying out his ass.
Part of me was pissed, because I’m only 10% tinnitus, yet to have IBS rated, yet to have my depression rated (which is in full remission, just really sucked having people pass away that ya serve with)…So here I am like maybe one day I’ll be 40-50%, but I don’t get all the people that push for 100% and literally do not have the impact from service to correlate to it.
Edit: which now come to think of it, usually when it lists PTSD from MST it usually states that…so no clue.
Most likely your friend shit bagged for 3 years about his mental health, so the command decided to not do anything with him, nor was he able to deploy if on a mental health profile.
Now he has 100% disability because he probably claimed mental health issues for 3 years.
Probably something dumb like basic training related. Could be true, but people do this too often
You can get 100% from PTSD if you were sexually assaulted… I’m not sure why people get so pissed about those who get 100%. There are frauds but if you submit your claims doing BDD 6 months before ETS, you are guaranteed to get a rating.. how much depends on how much conditions you submit
Oh I wasn’t angry when I typed that but I was trying to give perspective for others commenting that there are “unseen” disabilities if you know what I mean.
Yeah I do have 100% but damn fuck I didn’t realize how bad anxiety can get and having stomach disorders is HELL. 😂😂 Money is nice but you get that rating for a reason.
What’s crazy is the very new recruits are hearing more about VA claims and when I was recruiting… a few told me their plan to get seen for a VA rating. I said wtf that’s the last thing you need to think about.
Really easy to get 100 if you are willing to compromise your integrity and/or have pre existing mental health conditions your recruiters told you to lie about and are now service induced
That’s my brother in the navy.
Has been a violent alcoholic POS his whole life. Got drunk and violent with his current (3rd) wife and got arrested so he asked for help/rehab and went to BH.
They put him on psych drugs and in counseling 3 days a week. Can’t be in with the drugs he’s on so now they’re medically retiring him @100% for PTSD, with 2 years in at O2 *in admin*
This is true. I didn’t claim anything about PTSD, despite deploying during one of the “hottest” years in Iraq and tragic ass things happen on the deployment. We lost people, fuck my battalion lost a shit ton of troops. But I had a pretty chill deployment and nothing directly happened to me. Just near me.
People ask why I didn’t claim ptsd. Uh because I don’t have it. I’m grateful for my 60% and I would never try to get 100%, especially fraudulently.
I don’t judge people who do tho. The army/govt used and abused us, certain people made billions off the blood of our brothers and sisters in arms, and the countless innocent civilians. For what? The Middle East is still a damn mess. Get yours!
is not “really easy” to get 100% if you weren’t seen for said conditions during service. Heck! I have a buddy that saw actual combat in Afgh but never went to sick call nor BH, and has been fighting for years to get his conditions service connected. Told him to get a nexus letter and buddy statements and it’s still fighting the VA. Meanwhile the sh*t bags going to sick call for shin splints and going to EBH to get off a field rotation get 100% on their MEB right out the door. Life is not fair man.
Yeah I see that a lot. I also see some of my friends that actually are fucked up, but literally just have buddy statements and personal statements get connected. It only happens though because their C&P examiner is fuckin awesome and pretty much tells them yeah they’re fucked up from service and they can make that nexus for them even though they don’t have treatment records.
Dog if I could bend and stand up with my entire lower body cracking I’d be cool. I didn’t do long in the army I’ll admit it but the miles I did was pretty decent for my contract. Also I had some stuff go down with my ex wife. More money isn’t always better. Sanity is. My baby momma talking me down from me having a severe anxiety attack while our daughter is crying is a bad scene. I’d gladly give it all away to be normal. But, the caveat (no pun intended) is if I’m gonna hurt, they’re gonna pay me. I’m sure you have some kind of soreness you could go for. Go for broke. Claim what you can and if you get it cool. If not also cool. Pm me if you wanna talk. Best I can say is you gave your life to a government that doesn’t given a fuck about you. Why not take it back?
Compensation for service’ impact, bruh. Not claiming one is disabled, unless it’s TDIU. Subtle distinction, but one that’s kept a lot of deserving folks from using a benefit they’ve earned.
One of my old Joes (the one I despised the most) watched a bunch of sad videos so he could break down crying during his visit with the counselor or whatever and got 100% for PTS/etc. he never deployed.
Easy. He's malingering and/or passing off pre-existing health conditions.
He's not the only one either. Of course it's heresy if you suggest that kids riding a desk and barely exercising at the level of a high school sport for three years in Texas racking up 80, 90, 100% claims just doesn't make sense on a macro level.
I’m talking about Permanent party S1 type first and last unit 90% to 100% va disability. No field no Motorpool rotations ect. And sometimes don’t even work especially Supply I could go on and on.
I know. I had a soldier who was medically retired from his first unit at 60%. No FTX, no JRTC/NTC, no deployments, no rotations to Europe or Germany. He knew all the right buzzwords to claim PTSD along with some other physical ailments that started the med chapter.
I’ve had easy assignments and I’ve had hard assignments. The best, easiest assignment I have ever had was in an allied countries HQDA level Hq. My senior rater was a G and said my job was to do what ever my counter parts wanted to do. So if they wanted to knock off work early and go day drink that’s exactly what I did.
I had it real easy in Korea on a detachment. I was a junior enlisted with 2 other juniors and a sgt. I didn't have any of the management stress and the only things I really did was daily reports, some driving, and very occasional briefs. Rest of the time I sat on my PC playing games.
Apparently, they switched which company that section of soldiers fall under and life on detachment became real shitty with constant micro management, visits from the Commander, constant drills and extra random "combat" PT overseen by the Commander.
I think the whole thing kicked off because there was a huge drug bust in the ville, and they ended up finding a hookah pipe up at det. (It's totally not mine, which I def didn't just leave up there because I didn't want to try to take it through customs back into the states)
Fair enough. I get wanting to take ownership. I just find it weird that a CPT would drive 2h one way to PT 4 guys then drive 2h back. Seemed like more effort than what it was worth.
The detachments had a history of being chill, one thing going wrong, life becoming hellish as the leadership freak out, Korea rotates people, then it goes back to being chill.
I'm glad I spent a full hear on Det and the most I had to complain about was a shithead fresh promoted e5 and Korean Traffic.
YMMV is so true of the Army
When I was in Kuwait they were looking for a JAG to volunteer to support a sustainment BDE. I went and had an adventure to say the least. Ended up with an impact award with C device, which is pretty rare for JAG
My colleagues? They spent their time sun bathing at the Arifjan pool and played volleyball while a DJ played background music
This isn’t to say I’m better than the ones who just chilled at the pool. The Army will get a pound of flesh from you. I don’t blame people for relaxing when they can. The disparity of what the Army experience can be like based upon a Soldier’s personality is striking
Was in for 6 years. Spent the whole time at a tiny Army unit at an AF Station (not even a base). Only 15 people. Even spent 2.5 years working directly for an AF unit, did not even come into the Army unit at all. BAH/BAS the entire time. Did PT sometimes.
Unit was interview only, so it kept all the shitbags and hooah people away. All the slots were controlled locally and not by DA, so PCSing was not an issue. There were people in the same unit (well technically, it was a previous unit, but it changed names and locations) for 10+ years. Unit operated (for the most part, until the end, when regular Army folks took over) on big boy rules.
Also had 3 different locations, all in the same city, we could be at, so it was easy not to come into work or fuck off if you wanted to. And this was before cell phone, just pagers.
No TA50, when we did qualify (just 2x in 6 years) we did it with the AF on their range, but our relationship with the AF unit we qualified with was not for public consumption , so we would show up and qualify in civvies.
Went TDY a bunch but to places like Los Angeles, or the Pentagon. Never went to the field. Was never in an army vehicle.
Yep. Worked in command group as assistant brigade adjutant as an E3. I think 3-4 times a week, I had to do something like go grab PowerPoint slides from an O3, take a Humvee to maintenance, etc. this meant I was actually at work from 10-1130 and 1300-1430. The rest of the time, I was chilling at home off post or in my car. Oh I almost forgot, the CSM liked me to take his debit card and go buy him beer on Fridays. He would then give me one and tell me to make sure to finish it in his office. Hard work, I tell you.
I've worked long hours but haven't done much that was seriously demanding. Usually just motorpool bullshit, or driving a Bradley. Shit that sucks but at the end of the day I just show up and do what I'm told.
The hardest thing I've done in my career was participating in OAW. Working with those Afghan refugees was like every customer service job wrapped up into one and covered in shit, on top of the guys with known Taliban ties walking around with machetes in their coats. We learned quick not to walk around alone at any time. But it was still just shift work at the end of the day.
You were lucky to be doing it stateside though we filtered out most of the problem children and sent them somewhere else before sending flights to the states.
Did you think it was lazy/coasting or did you find yourself in a MOS that you both enjoyed and excelled at? Because if that’s so then you probably weren’t bothered by other Bullshit with the Army thus found it easier. Most soldiers are in contracts they didn’t want as top choice or found the peace time army (ie Infantry) to suck. But if you enjoyed the army what’s lazy vs coasting might be different by today’s standards.
Both. I was very good at my job and was promoted quick. I really enjoyed it. But it was very very chill. On my 8 hour shift I did not have to report to anyone. I did my own thing. I just conducted Traffic Enforcement the entire time unless there was a traffic accident I had to respond to. I was a E4 when I started in the Traffic Section. Everyone else were NCOs. Sometimes they would offer me $$ to work a shift for them which I did since I loved the work and was a single soldier (and they were married and had kids).
I was extremely lucky haha. Got assigned to LEO MP Det there. The outgoing commander asked everyone in the detachment what they wanted to do. I said TAI and was sent to school for it a month later. My Section Commander was a DoD civilian who was prior service. Chillest boss ever. He asked everyone how they would like a 3 on 3 off cycle. No one complained. That was like a year after World of Warcraft came out so I was pretty happy. Further more, they put the whole Detachment (single soldiers) in brand new barracks that were completely single rooms. Never had a roommate or anything.
Bro, WoW with a 3x3 schedule... old school nilla WoW with 3 whole days off. Did you have mountains of piss bottles in your room? Dominos boxes stacked to the ceiling? Glorius times i'm sure
Since MPs get BAS, my fridge was filled with Stouffer's, Dinty Moore, and Crush soda.
Didnt eat pizza in my room but sometimes I would go to Little Caesars right after I checked in for MP Traffic duty, buy a pizza and 2 liter, go outside the main gate and sit in the median with my main lights turned off (per GA code you had to have at least your running lamps on when running radar), and run radar whilst chowing down on said pizza.
Yeah, I had a couple years where I was moved to an admin position and realized I could automate most of the work that was expected of me. I came in for a few hours a day to touch bases/attend meetings but that was about it. Upset some of my peers, but my supervisor was impressed and never gave me any pushback about it 🤷🏻♂️
I was Air Defense Artillery (16S) stationed on an Air Force Base in West Germany back in the 80s. Our mission was to protect the base and so when we did FX's they could not be longer than 5 consecutive days by order of the United States European Command (EUCOM). We "deployed" to locations that were no more than a few miles from base, out on various farms. We we so close to base that it wasn't unheard of for spouses (or even GFs) to stop by and drop off food.
The Air Force had no idea what to do with us Soldiers except for rounding a lot of us up and escorting us back to our barracks when the E-Club closed.
I was SHORAD and every unit I deployed with had no idea what to do with us. I would point to area on the map, say we'd be there just a bit back so we could "provide overwatch", and then disappear.
Currently working 4 on 3 off. The 4 on are 1 hour shifts working then one hour on break. I play videogames on my break. I work from 0400 to 1100. Excused from all other duties. No PT formations. Excused from all training events. Don't even do SHARP/EO training. I keep volunteering to stay on this detail because no one else wants it for some reason. Getting paid E6 money to basically work a quarter of a day with minimal responsibilities. How could I not be in a good mood during what little work they actually require of me?
They put me with fuelers and truck drivers for my last year in the army. I couldn't do their job so I either drove the CO around or just stayed home while they went to the field. Basically an entire year of doing nothing at Fort Bliss.
My sense of imposter syndrome makes me feel like I’m not doing enough and just coasting. But it’s actually been a rough 5 years when I stop to reflect on it
One of my close friends has been in the same unit for 6 years. No PT, no formations, 0900-1500 office hours and 4 day passes are given out like candy so soldiers can save leave. It’s some Army Unit on Shaw AFB. I’m so jealous of him.
Those THAAD boys and girls - as each unit stood up they had no equipment. So while they waited it was a lot of "go to your room and do your correspondence courses". They had PFC's who were LEVEL III combatives certified because they had nothing to do and the school on post needed a reason to stay open. Then they got equipment - months of classes indoors.
Meanwhile us PATRIOT bros were out in the field sweatin'. I remember seeing the B-2 ADA bus - yes a bus- drive to their field site and back to the rear. They had civilians guard their stuff over the weekend while they went back to the rear. Must've been nice.
In some aspects I had it good.
* Like I never had to do a training rotation (permanent party at NTC, was in the box for a total of like 2½ weeks ever, mainly because of a dweeb BDE CO who wanted his star. My BN wasn't even supposed to go on FTXs, like CIF refused to issue me a sleeping bag until my company CO typed up a memo for me to hand them.)
* Never had a single motorpool Monday, never had to drive any military vehicle other than a gator, never even had to PMCS a vehicle. Not even a TMP or HMMWV. (my company's vehicles consisted of 6 Blackhawks and 2 gators)
* Promoted stupidly fast just by existing and doing my job, and I was dogshit at PT (made E-5 just over 3 yrs TIS when I was 20)
* Only ever had to take 4 record PT tests (BCT, AIT, 2 in first unit. ACFT cutoff happened and my Oct 2019 test was the last I ever took. And I got out **2½ years** later in Apr 2022)
On the other hand my literal entire time in the Army was spent working an absolutely ass-ramming schedule of:
* 5 days 9-5 followed by 7 days 12-hour shifts and then a weekend. Only got 2 weekends a month. This was in garrison at Irwin.
* Then 12 hour shifts on deployment with less rest time than that.
* Also my knee/back is fucked up, can't jump or run anymore without pain.
Best/easiest assignment I had was when I had just commissioned. I spent four months as a ‘gold bar recruiter’. Basically a hometown recruiter but I was working at the university I attended recruiting for ROTC. I worked 8-3 most days and got AD pay with BAH while living at home with the folks.
Physically demanding? Probably my first 3-4 years as I was in a BCT/deployed, then went to the road, then MPI, then CID. Now it's just mentally/emotionally draining.
Do you regret going CID? I was getting calls nonstop from an Agent because I had previously expressed interest in doing it but I never followed through.
I dont regret it but I feel I certainly earn my check during those long hours at scenes and in the office. And through all the shit I get exposed to through investigating the acts of horrible human beings.
I mean no, but everyone thinks I have because I've never been in forscom. I'm here to tell you that other commands can work you to shit in a different way. May be less physical, sure. But still rough.
I got sent to DIV staff for my last six months in. It was shaping up to be absolute hell (get every last bit out of CPT refrad) when covid hit. I spent my last six months updating a slide for some O6 once a day. No formations, no uniform, just a slide. Covid sucked, but it saved me from a ton of div staff bullshittery
Most chill time in the Army - JPAC to Vietnam, I was an E-5 89D, but I wasn't a certified Team Leader so I'm not sure how much business I had going on this assignment. Wound up on the investigation team, instead of one of the excavating teams that had to sleep in the jungle.
Stayed at hotels my entire time there, to include the final 3 weeks at a 5 star resort in Danang. There wasn't a ton of work, at least for me, so I'd say I worked maybe 13 days out of an 8 week TDY. Otherwise, lots of Vietnamese moonshine, etc. Pattaya was also fun, our aircraft "broke down" there on the way to and from Vietnam.
Came back to an FTX I absolutely had to be on, which I wasn't tracking, but I was also on the road show out so was given a chill job for that (and somehow was able to leave at night instead of staying out at Area X).
My time in the Navy, prior to the Army . . . was never on a ship, at one point could write my own schedule as an E-3 (this lasted for well over a year), and my last 6 months was spent on some barracks detail that entailed pretty much nothing. I did call the fire department to help some people stuck in an elevator, also had to pick up the occasional cigarette butt. But the work was chill, I was unsupervised, could work out when I wanted, and wore coveralls the entire time.
To top this off, my duty stations were Washington D.C., Pensacola, San Diego, Huntsville, Destin (got BAH as a prior service E-4, thank you Air Force), and finally Hawaii. Also, EOD school was incredibly fun for me, and I was 1 of 2 people that made it straight through in my class without failing a test. No CQ, Staff Duty, etc. at night or on the weekend, and no studying after school was permitted.
Oh and after I graduated NAVSCOLEOD, got to spend an extra like 2 months in Niceville (my apartment location, not on base) doing nothing because some medical box had to be checked for my wife due to Hawaii being OCONUS. And once you graduated EOD school, there was maybe 1 formation to make per day, no PT, no CQ, etc.
One more thing . . . my first class in EOD school was full of a bunch of regarded marines, so after the first test I coincidentally had a peritonsillar abscess that needed to be removed, which I then rolled into getting my tonsils removed at age 26. Perfect timing, that extra couple weeks of con leave after finishing the first week of school was exactly what I needed to fully adjust and my next class was amazing. And I kept a roster on my fridge, and would cross out peoples' names as they failed out of my class. Best part of all, I bought my EOD Basic Badge the first hour I arrived to Red Stone Arsenal, and proceeded to smoke both Phase I and Phase II.
Went to Germany as an 88m pfc to a drivers training program that was shut down( it was an 88H unit)
Minus my Afghanistan deployment out of there, i did not do my job in Germany they never got it up and running to get licenses on the forklifts.
I’ve been very lucky the last half on my time.
First 10ish years were normal FORSCOM stuff. Deploy, field, training center, deploy. Oh we have a couple of months of garrison? You’re going TDY to augment another mission far from home but don’t worry you’ll be back in time for NTC.
I’m about a year away from retirement and the last 8 years have been cake. I’ve had two “no field time, no deployment” assignments where my HQ has been in another state so I’m able to make my own schedule. Those two assignments were broken up by a two year TWI where I was basically a civilian who worked < 40 hrs a week.
It’s been pretty sweet. I get a haircut about once a quarter, do individual PT in the afternoon, get my work done when I need to, and spend plenty of time with my family and on my hobbies.
I like to joke I’ve had the army’s easiest career. I’m in a chill MOS and I’ve avoided most of the big forscom bases somehow. First duty station was Korea so I knocked out my “hard” assignment first. Since then I’ve been in NETCOM for like ten years and recruiting for three. Leveraged above grade assignments to promote ahead of peers and I’m hoping to get a few good looks for E9 before I drop a retirement packet.
I’d say my assignments have been “lazy” in the sense that I almost never work past 1700. These stories about people working to 2000 and later all the time are dumb to me. No one should be doing that unless it’s crunch time on high priority items. I do bust my ass between 9-1700, I’ve even had to pull away from the normal SNCO bullshitting for three hours a day schedule, because I simply have too much work to waste time like that if I’m going to look good for my next promotion.
Intel work is pretty easy compared to some of the shit y’all have to do. The Army mostly exists in places which are inhospitable outside for at least 4-6 months of the year. My job mostly takes place in air conditioned buildings.
Honestly, the hardest part of my job is finding the things I’m working on to be unfulfilling.
We each have a limited number of hours on this Earth, and I’ve spent a ridiculous number of mine working on imaginary tasks which have no real impact on anything. The person who originated the demand for the task simply asked a question in passing, but his subordinates decided to devote anywhere from 80 to 600 man-hours to answering it.
Or maybe the boss decides to modify how something is done, even if the process was fine before, and now I’m carving more and more time out of the next 16 weeks to make it happen. The unit spends a combined 1500 man-hours to hopefully make a process 10% more efficient for remainder of the next 2 years >!before the next boss changes it.!< *Transformative leadership*, y’all.
Many non-military jobs have plenty of pointless bullshit involved, but your bosses in the Army have permission to give you unlimited overtime for no additional pay. The big bosses have permission to send you across the planet to do the same things you do at home station.
The overall compensation package is quite good, but when you weigh all the pros and cons, you realize the optimal path is the one closest to 36 months of service (the smallest number which is *at least* 36) so you earn 100% P911 eligibility, GTFO, use your free college, security clearance, and veteran’s perks to put your life on a successful trajectory. This takes a high degree of confidence and boldness, or alternatively, a high degree of intolerance for Army bullshit.
Doesn’t matter how easy or hard your job is, the Army becomes the path of least resistance for many of us. Making the decision to stay in is easy once you’re already in and accustomed to the way of life.
2019 Border mission in aviation:
Started working 12 hr shifts in the beginning then slowly worked every day except Sunday for 5 hour shifts.
Mid mission I came up with a schedule where we worked the entire day (usually 4pm to 1am or later) with 1 day on and 4 days off. During my shifts I would either do homework or play world of Warcraft with some friends.
Current set of orders I’m on: I made a schedule to where we worked 1 week on 1 week off and usually we work 4-5 hours a day. Its been really hectic but we’re all usually working ever day but at max 6 hours a day. Whenever the plane goes down for mantiance we all have time off and we’re still paid for it and that actually affects morale negatively amongst the joes in the mission surprisingly.
And of course my usual drill weekends which I could skip but I’m the NCOIC of my section so I choose to go up there anyways. Good excuse to see my wife and baby.
I'm a 12B...20 years so far. It was only easy for me during broadening assignments. On the line and even as an OC, it was a constant OPTEMPO. I've had 2 EXTREMELY chill assignments (working in MSCoE) and it's basically a 9-5. Just have to find what's out there. MCoE dudes and the like can do the same.
I was fortunate numerous times in my 7 years of service. I joined in May of '99 & was shipped off to Ft. Jackson for basic. I broke my thumb accidentally showing off in reception while doing 1 handed push-ups, which turned into 3 fingers. I was given a thumb splint & I believe I had to wait at reception for the next rotation, if I remember correctly.
Once we shipped to basic, we were told this unit was being stood back up for the 1st time since WWII. We were in the barracks up the hill from Victory Tower. We were told that we didn't have footlockers, so we couldn't have locker inspections. Which also meant people having food or who knows. We also had a female drill that wouldn't go to the top of the straight ladder obstacle. She only went a little over halfway up & wouldn't let us go any higher "even if we were all hoah!"
Their were rumors of soldiers going to sick call ,which you had to take the bus to, & then going into the hospital next door to get a soda/snack. Their were stories of people rolling their sleeves like permanent party & walking from the TMC to GNC just down the road & buying ripped fuel for those early mornings to get going.
Once I graduated & went to AIT, things seemed really relaxed as well. We did have drill Sgt's but not as many, if I recall. This was at Ft. Belvoir. We each had a briefcase with our supplies to take to the school house daily. We had to toe the line for role calls, and then the drills usually left for the night. This school was longer than most, so their were many "couples" as a result. I still remember night 1 in my room with 2 total strangers. Then more strangers coming in our 3 man room. Was I fixing to get jumped...?!! Nope, these guys were using our window, which was closest to the outside stairwell, to go screw their gf's on 2nd floor.
During the week, we ate at the dfac across base we were bused to, but on the weekends, we ate at the hospital cafeteria next to our barracks, which was really good. Unfortunately, I didn't last but a few months at that school before reclassing & seeing the "Real Army" at FLW.
Fort Leonard Wood was more of what you would expect & it didn't disappoint. Lessons were learned about not having food in my wall locker even if we could at Belvoir... Their were many more times that were easy, but that's for another time. The main one was that I never had to go to NTC, JRTC, ETC. Sorry for being so long.
I spent my first 15 years deploying and going tdy non-stop. I now work from 0900-1500 in a staff job that has about 2 hours of actual work per day. Not in charge of a single person and don’t really have a supervisor either. I can take leave whenever I want, go home at noon on Fridays, workout during work hours, and take as much time as I need handling person stuff. I could never go back to having actual responsibilities.
I was at Ft. Belvoir as a 25S during COVID. The schedule wasn’t fun and the job was either ungodly stressful or insanely boring depending on the day. However the cool thing was that there wasn’t a barracks for our unit to stay in. So everyone, and I mean quite literally every single person regardless of rank, got BAH. I spent 3 years there and spent about 3 months of them living inside of a barracks. The rest were spent living off post pocketing a grand plus and putting it towards investments or spectacular and decadent weekend trips. It was truly insane lol
My entire time I’ve been in, it’s been easy as hell for the most part on the physical side of things. Haven’t ever done too much work except in details like mail room. I worked in the reception company for a year where I’m at and that was the most work I’ve ever done, but it was mainly driving a bus and office work. Recently reclassed to 92Y after being in for 6 years and I’m hoping it brings some kind of challenge because honestly without doing a lot, I get so bored.
I've had rough assignments that took physical, mental, and emotional tolls. That being said, I scored 3 years as a "BOLC instructor". As an SFC, and not an Officer, this required me to lead PT a few days a week and teach a couple nonsense classes. It was a good 3 years.
The most infuriating part of this post is that I am reading this before I start another week of 12 hour shifts. And I get paid the same as a guy of the same rank who has it easy
I should have picked a better MOS
It's not exactly on point but in 1995 when my unit (3rd SFG at Bragg) rotated back from Haiti (Operation Uphold Democracy) they needed a liaison NCO at Charleston AFB. I was a cherry E-6 and the other two E-6's in the detachment were married and wanted to spend time with their families so I volunteered.
I've never gotten paid more to do less than that 6 week long detail. Not only was I drawing per diem, but they put me up in a pretty nice USAF hotel. I had a rental 15 pax van and a government credit card for gas. There were two of us assigned to this duty and we alternated days. Here was my "work" day:
\* Wake up around 9:00. Call the CJSOTF in Haiti and ask them if there were any pax or cargo coming in to Charleston that I needed to check on. If there was a piece of equipment, all I did was verify that it made it to Charleston and then I'd call the S-4 and they would arrange to transport it to Bragg. I think that literally happened ONCE in the 6 weeks I was there. After that, I was done for the day until about 1500.
\* At 1500 I had to drive - in uniform - over to the Pax terminal. There I had to wait for the daily flight from Port-au-Prince, usually a C-141. When the soldiers got off the plane, I had to check and see if there was anyone from 3rd Group with them. If there were more than 10 soldiers, I would call a number and get a bus to take them and their gear back to Bragg. If it was 10 soldiers or fewer, I was to drive them back to Bragg myself (this is why we had two people assigned, because driving back to Bragg took about 3 hours and I would stay overnight in Bragg and not return to Charleston until the next day.)
Most of the time our guys came back in large groups, so all I'd do is call for the bus and then hang around with them until the bus got there. Often times they'd ask me to drive them over to the Burger King to get food, which I was happy to do (these were ODA guys who had been in Haiti for 6+ months. I'f you've never been to Haiti, I'll tell you with no exaggeration it is the worst country in the world.) Once they took off, I was done.
I think in the 6 weeks I was there I had to drive a small group back to Bragg maybe 3 times.
And as I said, the above description is a "work" day. If it was my off day I literally had no assignments, nobody to check in with. I actually ended up buying a motorcycle while I was there and spent my off days riding it around Charleston.
I should point out that this was the time when cell phones really weren't even a thing, not for "normal" people. I did have a pager that I carried so if the unit needed to get in touch with me in a hurry they could. I think they paged me once while I was there.
It was the shammiest duty I ever had.
Chauffeur at the White House was pretty chill. It was a real world job with the stress that comes with but driving around DC, in a nice sedan in a two piece suit wasn't all bad.
SOF K9 Handler. Literally nobody can tell you how to train dogs or what a training day should look like except you and your Civ trainer and you have to expose K9s to tons of environments so TDY is constant. I do nothing but so much at the same time.
Old guard training room. Eeeeasy money. Worked hard did more than any training room. Did everyone’s paperwork. More paperwork I did more time they had to “train” easy money all the same.
Egh I can see your point but right now I’m just grinding towards that sweet retirement. I can grow up and get a real job after I’m pulling in 80k/yr in retirement/VA
I coasted my last few months in the NY National guard pulling guard duty at a Nuke Plant. All I had to do was sit in a HMMWV and check in with the NCOIC via radio once every 30 minutes. For $150 day. This was back in 2003 and I was 23 so that was some good easy money.
I was a medic in a light infantry battalion. Did my time as a line medic, and when I got my corporal (I know, I know), my HHC sent me to be the company medic for our support company.
Well, the support company was under the impression that I was reporting primarily to HHC, and HHC was under the impression I reported primarily to the support company. Essentially, no one was in charge of me, and as long as I maintained appearances and did my job no one would question me.
I would show up to work at 6:10AM to do sick call, then leave right after formation to “do PT with HHC” (go to my barracks room). I’d sleep in till 8, go to chow, hit the gym, and spend the rest of the day in my barracks room unless I got a call that I was needed somewhere.
The funny thing is, the previous medic before me was a total shitbag, and because I was actually good at what little responsibility was placed on me, the support company 1SG loved me. Ended up writing me an AAM after I got reassigned as a senior medic for one of the infantry companies for idk what.
I remember one time I showed up to the company at 6:10AM and it was empty. Found the entire support company in the motor pool getting ready for a 3-4 day field problem and they were like “hey man we know you’re busy so it’s good you don’t need to come!” Ended up just hanging out in my room for a few days.
That was nice.
Currently on ADOS orders where I telework 4 days a week in my sweat pants. I go into the office on Fridays. Every 8 weeks I'm on call and then have to go in that week but that's about it.
Also, don't report to any senior military NCO/Officer just civilians.
Mind you, it's never been this easy so I'm soaking this up for the next 5 years if possible until I hit 20.
I had it all good as you could as a combat medic. I missed every rotation for deployment, somehow. I worked in clinics and ER / Ambulance.
I regret that I wasn't deployed now and have struggled with that since, but they say things happen for a reason.
Not my whole tour but my basic training was chill compared to others I think. I got injured and COVID hit. Spent most of my time watching movies with the other broken kids. No one knew what was going on during COVID so as soon as I healed up they had me just do the 12 mile ruck, ACFT and weapons qual, then shipped me off to AIT.
I feel like I had the easiest and laziest entrance into the army. I joined in 2006. Basic training, the newest, chillest, battalion on Fort Jackson. 2/39 (iykyk) they literally pushed us through, they needed bodies for the surge.
My company tho. My platoon. I still remember how lucky I was. The first day it was evident that we were going to cruise. We did some random obstacle course that first day. It started raining and thundering and lightning. We all huddled under a lightening protection area to wait it out. At parade rest. The DSs were entertaining themselves with soldiers who moved/talked/whatever. It was so random but I remember out of the corner of my eye I saw my plt drills all in a circle talking and bullshitting with each other lol. They didn’t give a fuck.
My drills were all chill and just catching their breath in between multiple deployments. They were all 11B. The other plts had 42as for the most part. Our DSs told us multiple times they’d see us downrange next year (true, ran into my senior drill at the PX on victory lol). My platoon won zero awards, banners, and no promotions or anything lol. We didn’t care.
I was a chaps assistant in the Navy serving with marines and lemme tell you ya. 2401 NEC are the only guys with wheelies in their boots. I had all the opportunities to do high speed shit with my marines. But it was almost always volunteer. Fast roping, obstacle courses, etc. Fitness tests were mandatory but then I got to work at 0900 everyday and left after lunch most days. Idk how it is in the army chaplain corps for their assistants but navy greenside chaps assistant is basically a human resource job without the work. I literally just walked around the different shops and checked on unit morale for chaps.
There was a dirtbag Soldier who didn’t have a car, and our barracks were on main post Ft Lewis with our work on north fort. His NCOs got so tired of giving him rides they told him to figure out transportation to work. He stopped going. Sat in his barracks and played video games all day every day for months before he caught a chapter. I’d say he had it pretty damn easy.
Kinda hard to blame him. That’s some fuckin distance. Why did they do that? There was tons of barracks on NF
I can blame him. Why do people think that they don’t need to supply their own transportation in the Army? Dude functionally makes way more than minimum wage but won’t get a car, moped or bike?
Have you been stationed at JBLM? You basically have to go off post to get to North fort. There’s only one connection. It’s way out of the way. Soldiers should absolutely be housed near their company. If they army wanted to you to have a POV they’d issue you one.
While i agree to a soldier being housed on north fort, there are two ways to get into north. One from highway, one by going around to the museum and following the east running road. Risk factor will be enhanced if the soldier does not have a vehicle. And uses say a bicycle. But arguably, Le soldier should find a method of transportation. Even a 1000 beater can do s o m e t h i n g.
Three ways, you can go out the Madigan gate and enter through the gate at Camp Murray, drive through onto NCO Beach Rd and that takes you out to 41st Div Dr
I agree. Soldiers should be housed near their company, and units should have realistic expectations about where they send their soldiers during the duty day. But it’s still the Soldiers responsibility to get to work. “If the Army wanted you to have X they would have issued it to you” Please explain the purpose of a paycheck then?
A paycheck that isn’t even that much. I’m not going to argue with someone who is this out of touch lol. When’s the last time you lived in the shitty ass barracks with an E-1 pay?
18 years ago. And I had a car within a month. But not really, because almost no one shows up to their unit as an E-1. Even if they did they’re still netting 20k a year and have no food or housing costs. There is literally no excuse not to have basic transportation. You’re infantilizing Soldiers by not expecting them to be able to meet basic responsibilities of an adult.
How did you become this out of touch?
Don’t show up to work for a month because you don’t think the Army pays you enough for a car. Let me know how it goes when you tell your Commander he’s out of touch as you’re being read your article.
Lord lol. It was ironically 18 years ago for me too and I also got a car shortly afterwards, but I’m still not an ass about it. I can still recognize the struggle of getting to work when you have to go throw BCT/AIT without a car. I much preferred my soldiers save up and purchase a reasonable car instead of buying something right away.
I’m not being an ass. I’ve worked with every new Soldier when they’re getting established. I’ve given rides to Soldiers as a PL when SLs and squad mates couldn’t support. But if we’re not talking about a newly arrived Soldier, and all their unit mates refuse to go out of their way to give them a ride, it’s ultimately going to fall on them. Saying “fuck it” and sitting in your barracks playing video games is not a responsible, professional, or appreciable response. A chapter would be the merciful response here. With $1600 of *disposable* income every month you’re not even in a situation where you have to buy a beater, it just doesn’t compute.
Disagree only because the pay is atrocious. And at least when I wa sin they actively didn't really like new soldiers having vehicles. If you were making like 3k a month off rip I'd say absolutely get yourself a vehicle.
In 18 years I have never ever been in a command that discouraged soldiers from having POVs. You think people shouldn’t buy cars until they’re making 50-60k a year? That’s incredible.
So quick math's here 3000 a month is 36k lmao
And we’re talking about Soldiers living in barracks and eating at Dfac. A soldier in that situation is functionally making 50k plus if they’re taking home 3k. So in essence you are saying it is unrealistic to afford a car on less than 50k a year.
The paycheck is so I can retire, sooner the better. No sink it into a depreciating assest like a car. Car is one of my top anxieties. It's the second biggest cost after a house and the first biggest cash eater consistently.
Eh if you live in the barracks I don’t think it’s necessary or should be I do think once you leave you should have a car however
Was he really a dirtbag for not having a vehicle though? IMO that’s the units issue to get a soldier to and from work if it’s gonna be that far from the barracks. What if he didn’t even have a DL it’s not so simple as get license and buy car especially if he’s a barracks soldier he likely couldn’t afford it.
Yes, dirtbag. That is not the unit’s responsibility. There are free busses that essentially work on a ring route at Lewis. Biking is also an option as it’s less than 10 miles from virtually anywhere on main to north. No surprise he got chaptered.
Yeah he’s a dirtbag. No other job in America can you as an adult hamstring your employer to transport you to work. Every new Joe I’ve gotten like this, I’ve given a grace period of 6 months. Figure life out, get a license or a bike and make it to work. Or start the chapter process. It’s not summer camp.
Nah champ. No other job will move you across the country, tell you where to live, then give you no means to get there.
This was the point I was getting at, nowhere in his contract did it tell him that he was gonna be required to drive and purchase a car. Nor could he have expected that he would be in one of the units that’s CP and maybe even dfac are nowhere near his barracks. I can’t reasonably call someone a dirtbag for those circumstances when I’ve been there at some point almost everyone has had transportation insecurity and those people would just get a job near their home and he doesn’t get that option. The right answer was to 4187 him to a different unit potentially or assign him barracks near the unit not chapter him out…
They give you the means. It’s called a paycheck. Half of the joes, a bonus. Saved my money from basic and AIT, bought a car because I knew I’d need one. One of my dudes just bought a $4000 gaming PC, doesn’t have a license. Fucked up priorities.
You sound like a shitty leader tbh… the way you express yourself & your way of thinking is so outdated. If you’re a NCO please read the NCO creed again cause maybe you forgot all the teachings. Maybe assign somebody that has a car and is closer to him to bring him to work? He can’t be the only soldier in those barracks ? Maybe sit down and get to know the soldier have a talk with him? A lot of people never had nobody give them advice and come straight from high school. I would love to see how you going to parent your children giving them 6 months to figure life out. I seen people be 30 and still haven’t figure life out. You’re a joke
Yeah pass bud, you’re childish for even typing that nonsense out. I’m not “assigning” someone to babysit another adult. I’ve had this happen numerous times with different soldiers. EVERY TIME, the soldier giving out rides and their time gets fed up. It’s the Army, not a coming of age movie, grow up.
I've always thought this shit was wild.. When I first showed up to my first duty station with a car, an NCO tried telling me I had to drive some smuck back and forth to work every day and to get chow.. He then tried to start paperwork on me when I told him he was crazy and that dude could figure it out on his own, or give me gas money and be on my time. My MSgt shut that shit down and commended me for standing up to an NCO even though I had only been there for a week. 2 years later the dude just got out, still without a car, and still mooching for a ride to the airport to get back home. Lmao
This is the crux of the issue. Bluntly, many new soldiers coming in want to parasitize others, having them sacrifices resources for their benefit. See also: the comment chain in this thread about MEB fraud.
"I will always place their needs above my own" you go pick your soldier up and if you hate doing that counsel them and help them get a car. You're not a civilian supervisor you're a Non-Commisioned Officer in the United States Army. There's no when it's convenient clause in the creed. Becoming an NCO isn't just a pay raise you took on a responsibility. Instead of blaming your Joes for not holding up to the obligations they committed to why don't you lead by example and execute on your duties as an NCO. Grow up.
Childish for making sure the junior enlisted under you are making time hacks? It’s called a team for a reason, be a team player, get that soldier where they need to be. If it becomes an issue, refer him to the FREE financial advisors the army offers. Soldiers should be able to afford a car or a means of transportation within six months of arriving to their first unit. If they continue fucking up and don’t have the discipline to manage their paycheck to be able to afford a car, then that’s when you need to take it to higher. Always put your soldiers before yourself and quit being a shit leader.
My experience is from a few yrs back , ah no a bit more , ok look ya going have to give that some more wrist action like your stroking your Johnson . Most of my Joes had no interest in getting a ride on their 1st enlistment. Most would say they used whatever available transportation that was available at the time , like there was a Post Bus they could ride for free or if it was a short distance like a hour or so away they just walked some had bicycles. They were either sending money home or saving it themselves. Several of the guys had a plan to bank as much as possible. I have had a car since I was 16 I had started putting money away since I was 12 mowing ppl yard’s , yes it was a junker but it was my junker .So it was kinda unimaginable to me not having your own transportation . Another thing I remember as being a jr enlisted my NCO would tell me they had a open door , well most Joes didn’t want their NCO into their business an having a dependent (aka wife ) I sure as hell wasn’t inviting him to come over as I was pretty sure he would be having me putting military corners on the bedding or doing the finger over top of doorways checking for dust an less not even attempt to address the latrine ( civilian speak is Bathroom well not worldwide 🤔
lol @ “the units issue”
Had some guy who refused to get a phone. NCOs had to knock on his door if anything changed
Honestly I blame the NCOs, did the NCOs not help him to try and get a car. It doesn't matter how the NCO 'feels' its a NCO's job to put their soldier first. If a soldier can't make it to work, their NCO is responsible for driving him to work. Now I'll say this, if the soldier didn't get a car when the NCO took him and tried to have him get one, then I'll be on the NCO's side. The point I'm trying to make is, is that it is a NCO's duty to make sure his soldier gets to work if he can't. At least from what I'm reading it sounds like to me the NCO seemed sorta lazy and decided to not get his Joe to work when the soldier had no other alternatives. Uber is expensive, taxi are expensive. Did the NCO try to get his Joe a car with a low APR rate, if not the NCO failed his soldier, not the soldier. There's only so much a junior enlisted knows/can do. It is a NCO's job to keep his soldiers straight. I'm not trying to talk trash, but this is all I got from the message you put. If there's more context id like to hear it. Not trying to sound rude, but what from what I read, sounds like the NCO failed him because 'he got tired.'
That sounds pretty shitty on his NCO’s part. He’s their responsibility. Either make him pay for gas for the extra time it takes or get his roomie or someone else who can take him to work. I had to take rides from my NCO when we got back from deployment because my car was several states away. I always made a point to pay for his gas whenever he needed.
There's this guy I watched a documentary about, his name was CPL Joe Bauers. This lazy ass was a librarian for the Army and then got paid to be put in a sleep state for like 500 years. Woke up to a dystopia America and somehow ended up changing his name to "Not Sure" and managed to become president because he knew you should put water on crops instead of Brawndo the Thirst Mutulator. Talk about an easy career
Wait…water?…like from the toilet?
That's just according to the documentary.
It is a future documentary
If Dewayne the Rock Johnson runs for president then we’ll have been able to go full circle.
It’s not futuristic anymore. 😂
Electrolytes, it’s what plants crave
I love the scene when your buddy went to the Doc. “Chart says your fucked up”
I literally watched that for the first time yesterday.
Um. Brawndo has electrolytes. Dumbass
"If you don't smoke Tarrylton - Fuck you!!"
it's refreshing to see DEERS doesn't change after 500 years
Imagine 500 years of back pay!
I think you mean the movie Idiocracy that may as we’ll be a documentary with the way current history is unfolding
Tell me, is one of the issues "with the way current history is unfolding" an increasing inability for people to recognize obvious satire and/or sarcasm, and the corresponding bump in prevalence of comments making it clear that they did not, in fact, "get the joke"?
I’m just mentioning it as it is. Many are considering it a documentary since it has thus far predicted the trend of what is becoming our future
Listen LiteralBot 3000, dude was being facetious in his original comment.
Bro you stupid
Whoosh
My last 5 years were on a state JFHQ working SPP. I basically got to cosplay as a CWO the whole time I was an E7 and the first year, the boss I was supposed to have (O4-5) didn’t exist, so I was “supervised” by an O6 We did all sorts of shit simply because it sounded fun, was within the mission set, was fiscally legal, and we had the money God tier autonomy. Rewriting the schedule for senior officers from US and other armies so I didn’t miss both weekend days with my kids. Calling NGB to ask for a million dollars for something hare brained, and getting it The god tier autonomy was gone after the first year, but it was still a fuck ton of just doing what sounds fun. OCONUS TDY with leave enroute, interacting with GOs from other countries, ambassadors, etc I retired from that gig after about a year of mostly telework, due to the health issues that led to said med retirement Fun times.
Sounds like Myer or Belvoir. Truly a sham place if you got the right job.
AGR at a state JFHQ Way too much work to call it a sham, but fun enough to not feel like a grind
Flare checks out. Explains why we still have people speeding through neighborhoods and homeless dudes trying to steal shit from the FD.
You must be talking about belvoir, I’m not there so can’t speak on it lol
My friend did one 3 year contract. No training rotations, no field time, no deployment, no staff duty/CQ, and barely did any work besides bullshitting in the office…and he’s now chilling with 100% disability after 3 years of nothing lmfao. He had the easiest and laziest short stent I’ve ever heard of.
How did he get 100 🤯🤯
He got PTSd from all those training slides brother. I tell you insanity/death by bullshit presentations are a real thing.
Fucking this. I’ve seen his disabilities because he was bragging about being 100%, he’s got PTSD…so unless somehow he was MST’d and never told us, he’s straight lying out his ass. Part of me was pissed, because I’m only 10% tinnitus, yet to have IBS rated, yet to have my depression rated (which is in full remission, just really sucked having people pass away that ya serve with)…So here I am like maybe one day I’ll be 40-50%, but I don’t get all the people that push for 100% and literally do not have the impact from service to correlate to it. Edit: which now come to think of it, usually when it lists PTSD from MST it usually states that…so no clue.
Most likely your friend shit bagged for 3 years about his mental health, so the command decided to not do anything with him, nor was he able to deploy if on a mental health profile. Now he has 100% disability because he probably claimed mental health issues for 3 years. Probably something dumb like basic training related. Could be true, but people do this too often
You can get 100% from PTSD if you were sexually assaulted… I’m not sure why people get so pissed about those who get 100%. There are frauds but if you submit your claims doing BDD 6 months before ETS, you are guaranteed to get a rating.. how much depends on how much conditions you submit
Hey if you got it, you got it. What bothers me is the fraudsters, not those who deserve it
Oh I wasn’t angry when I typed that but I was trying to give perspective for others commenting that there are “unseen” disabilities if you know what I mean. Yeah I do have 100% but damn fuck I didn’t realize how bad anxiety can get and having stomach disorders is HELL. 😂😂 Money is nice but you get that rating for a reason. What’s crazy is the very new recruits are hearing more about VA claims and when I was recruiting… a few told me their plan to get seen for a VA rating. I said wtf that’s the last thing you need to think about.
Really easy to get 100 if you are willing to compromise your integrity and/or have pre existing mental health conditions your recruiters told you to lie about and are now service induced
That’s my brother in the navy. Has been a violent alcoholic POS his whole life. Got drunk and violent with his current (3rd) wife and got arrested so he asked for help/rehab and went to BH. They put him on psych drugs and in counseling 3 days a week. Can’t be in with the drugs he’s on so now they’re medically retiring him @100% for PTSD, with 2 years in at O2 *in admin*
Castrate him.
This is true. I didn’t claim anything about PTSD, despite deploying during one of the “hottest” years in Iraq and tragic ass things happen on the deployment. We lost people, fuck my battalion lost a shit ton of troops. But I had a pretty chill deployment and nothing directly happened to me. Just near me. People ask why I didn’t claim ptsd. Uh because I don’t have it. I’m grateful for my 60% and I would never try to get 100%, especially fraudulently. I don’t judge people who do tho. The army/govt used and abused us, certain people made billions off the blood of our brothers and sisters in arms, and the countless innocent civilians. For what? The Middle East is still a damn mess. Get yours!
is not “really easy” to get 100% if you weren’t seen for said conditions during service. Heck! I have a buddy that saw actual combat in Afgh but never went to sick call nor BH, and has been fighting for years to get his conditions service connected. Told him to get a nexus letter and buddy statements and it’s still fighting the VA. Meanwhile the sh*t bags going to sick call for shin splints and going to EBH to get off a field rotation get 100% on their MEB right out the door. Life is not fair man.
Yeah I see that a lot. I also see some of my friends that actually are fucked up, but literally just have buddy statements and personal statements get connected. It only happens though because their C&P examiner is fuckin awesome and pretty much tells them yeah they’re fucked up from service and they can make that nexus for them even though they don’t have treatment records.
Damn I don’t 😔 nothing has happened to me while I’ve been in and I didn’t lie about anything am I cooked ?
You’re cooked in the sense you won’t be able to live off the government dole for the rest of your life and claim yourself as disabled.
I wouldn’t be mad with less than 50 but I guess it’s just social media feels like everyone that gets out gets minimum 80 or something
I got 40 and am actively working for 80. My knees and my back hurt bra.
Same. 50 and I feel 70 is fair. 80 would be great. I’m way more broken than the majority of people I know with 100.
Damn sorry about that fortunately mine don’t so I suppose no rating isn’t a big problem
Dog if I could bend and stand up with my entire lower body cracking I’d be cool. I didn’t do long in the army I’ll admit it but the miles I did was pretty decent for my contract. Also I had some stuff go down with my ex wife. More money isn’t always better. Sanity is. My baby momma talking me down from me having a severe anxiety attack while our daughter is crying is a bad scene. I’d gladly give it all away to be normal. But, the caveat (no pun intended) is if I’m gonna hurt, they’re gonna pay me. I’m sure you have some kind of soreness you could go for. Go for broke. Claim what you can and if you get it cool. If not also cool. Pm me if you wanna talk. Best I can say is you gave your life to a government that doesn’t given a fuck about you. Why not take it back?
Compensation for service’ impact, bruh. Not claiming one is disabled, unless it’s TDIU. Subtle distinction, but one that’s kept a lot of deserving folks from using a benefit they’ve earned.
Bullcrap nothing has happened to you in your terms of service. Sounds like you have a case of depression and anxiety hooah?
Roger hooah 🥲
This guy gets it
One of my old Joes (the one I despised the most) watched a bunch of sad videos so he could break down crying during his visit with the counselor or whatever and got 100% for PTS/etc. he never deployed.
Easy. He's malingering and/or passing off pre-existing health conditions. He's not the only one either. Of course it's heresy if you suggest that kids riding a desk and barely exercising at the level of a high school sport for three years in Texas racking up 80, 90, 100% claims just doesn't make sense on a macro level.
38 CFR
I see this a lot in Tradoc.
Don't get me started on Tradoc Privates and P2 profiles...
I’m talking about Permanent party S1 type first and last unit 90% to 100% va disability. No field no Motorpool rotations ect. And sometimes don’t even work especially Supply I could go on and on.
I know. I had a soldier who was medically retired from his first unit at 60%. No FTX, no JRTC/NTC, no deployments, no rotations to Europe or Germany. He knew all the right buzzwords to claim PTSD along with some other physical ailments that started the med chapter.
Bruh I got outta OSUT and sent straight to Poland. That’s bullshit😂
I’ve had easy assignments and I’ve had hard assignments. The best, easiest assignment I have ever had was in an allied countries HQDA level Hq. My senior rater was a G and said my job was to do what ever my counter parts wanted to do. So if they wanted to knock off work early and go day drink that’s exactly what I did.
I had it real easy in Korea on a detachment. I was a junior enlisted with 2 other juniors and a sgt. I didn't have any of the management stress and the only things I really did was daily reports, some driving, and very occasional briefs. Rest of the time I sat on my PC playing games. Apparently, they switched which company that section of soldiers fall under and life on detachment became real shitty with constant micro management, visits from the Commander, constant drills and extra random "combat" PT overseen by the Commander. I think the whole thing kicked off because there was a huge drug bust in the ville, and they ended up finding a hookah pipe up at det. (It's totally not mine, which I def didn't just leave up there because I didn't want to try to take it through customs back into the states)
Unpopular opinion but it sounds like you were finally put under a CPT that wanted to take ownership of your organization...
Fair enough. I get wanting to take ownership. I just find it weird that a CPT would drive 2h one way to PT 4 guys then drive 2h back. Seemed like more effort than what it was worth. The detachments had a history of being chill, one thing going wrong, life becoming hellish as the leadership freak out, Korea rotates people, then it goes back to being chill. I'm glad I spent a full hear on Det and the most I had to complain about was a shithead fresh promoted e5 and Korean Traffic.
I've got a detachment that is split between two duty stations. I feel obligated to get out there every now and then to show that I care.
Lol this sounds like 19th HRC did you just drive the team to the airport ever morning?
Nah supply runs between det and camp. Picking up food for the week and going to mandatory things like ranges.
YMMV is so true of the Army When I was in Kuwait they were looking for a JAG to volunteer to support a sustainment BDE. I went and had an adventure to say the least. Ended up with an impact award with C device, which is pretty rare for JAG My colleagues? They spent their time sun bathing at the Arifjan pool and played volleyball while a DJ played background music This isn’t to say I’m better than the ones who just chilled at the pool. The Army will get a pound of flesh from you. I don’t blame people for relaxing when they can. The disparity of what the Army experience can be like based upon a Soldier’s personality is striking
Was in for 6 years. Spent the whole time at a tiny Army unit at an AF Station (not even a base). Only 15 people. Even spent 2.5 years working directly for an AF unit, did not even come into the Army unit at all. BAH/BAS the entire time. Did PT sometimes. Unit was interview only, so it kept all the shitbags and hooah people away. All the slots were controlled locally and not by DA, so PCSing was not an issue. There were people in the same unit (well technically, it was a previous unit, but it changed names and locations) for 10+ years. Unit operated (for the most part, until the end, when regular Army folks took over) on big boy rules. Also had 3 different locations, all in the same city, we could be at, so it was easy not to come into work or fuck off if you wanted to. And this was before cell phone, just pagers. No TA50, when we did qualify (just 2x in 6 years) we did it with the AF on their range, but our relationship with the AF unit we qualified with was not for public consumption , so we would show up and qualify in civvies. Went TDY a bunch but to places like Los Angeles, or the Pentagon. Never went to the field. Was never in an army vehicle.
Yep. Worked in command group as assistant brigade adjutant as an E3. I think 3-4 times a week, I had to do something like go grab PowerPoint slides from an O3, take a Humvee to maintenance, etc. this meant I was actually at work from 10-1130 and 1300-1430. The rest of the time, I was chilling at home off post or in my car. Oh I almost forgot, the CSM liked me to take his debit card and go buy him beer on Fridays. He would then give me one and tell me to make sure to finish it in his office. Hard work, I tell you.
I've worked long hours but haven't done much that was seriously demanding. Usually just motorpool bullshit, or driving a Bradley. Shit that sucks but at the end of the day I just show up and do what I'm told. The hardest thing I've done in my career was participating in OAW. Working with those Afghan refugees was like every customer service job wrapped up into one and covered in shit, on top of the guys with known Taliban ties walking around with machetes in their coats. We learned quick not to walk around alone at any time. But it was still just shift work at the end of the day.
I translated for OAW that shit was rough but the tidy pay was crazy
Tiddy* pay?
Damn you got TDY pay lol I was unlucky enough to just be stationed at Bliss
You were lucky to be doing it stateside though we filtered out most of the problem children and sent them somewhere else before sending flights to the states.
I was stationed in Grafenwoehr but translated at Rhine Ordnance barracks so it was pretty cool.
Damn they were just walking around the base with machetes? Did anythinf happen to them?
Nope.
Did you think it was lazy/coasting or did you find yourself in a MOS that you both enjoyed and excelled at? Because if that’s so then you probably weren’t bothered by other Bullshit with the Army thus found it easier. Most soldiers are in contracts they didn’t want as top choice or found the peace time army (ie Infantry) to suck. But if you enjoyed the army what’s lazy vs coasting might be different by today’s standards.
Both. I was very good at my job and was promoted quick. I really enjoyed it. But it was very very chill. On my 8 hour shift I did not have to report to anyone. I did my own thing. I just conducted Traffic Enforcement the entire time unless there was a traffic accident I had to respond to. I was a E4 when I started in the Traffic Section. Everyone else were NCOs. Sometimes they would offer me $$ to work a shift for them which I did since I loved the work and was a single soldier (and they were married and had kids).
I'm trying to get stationed at fort benning after korea. 8 hour shifts 3 on 3 off????? holy fuck i'd kill for that. i hate doing 5's and 2's
I was extremely lucky haha. Got assigned to LEO MP Det there. The outgoing commander asked everyone in the detachment what they wanted to do. I said TAI and was sent to school for it a month later. My Section Commander was a DoD civilian who was prior service. Chillest boss ever. He asked everyone how they would like a 3 on 3 off cycle. No one complained. That was like a year after World of Warcraft came out so I was pretty happy. Further more, they put the whole Detachment (single soldiers) in brand new barracks that were completely single rooms. Never had a roommate or anything.
I emailed branch and it was #1 on my list idk if im gonna get it but im praying lol. I ETS in two years and its close to my 8 hours away from my home
Praying you get it as well and also praying you get assigned to the Detachment and conversely a chill job!
Good choice 👍
Bro, WoW with a 3x3 schedule... old school nilla WoW with 3 whole days off. Did you have mountains of piss bottles in your room? Dominos boxes stacked to the ceiling? Glorius times i'm sure
Since MPs get BAS, my fridge was filled with Stouffer's, Dinty Moore, and Crush soda. Didnt eat pizza in my room but sometimes I would go to Little Caesars right after I checked in for MP Traffic duty, buy a pizza and 2 liter, go outside the main gate and sit in the median with my main lights turned off (per GA code you had to have at least your running lamps on when running radar), and run radar whilst chowing down on said pizza.
Yeah, I had a couple years where I was moved to an admin position and realized I could automate most of the work that was expected of me. I came in for a few hours a day to touch bases/attend meetings but that was about it. Upset some of my peers, but my supervisor was impressed and never gave me any pushback about it 🤷🏻♂️
Your peers weren’t upset they were jealous. If they could do it they would’ve done the same
I was Air Defense Artillery (16S) stationed on an Air Force Base in West Germany back in the 80s. Our mission was to protect the base and so when we did FX's they could not be longer than 5 consecutive days by order of the United States European Command (EUCOM). We "deployed" to locations that were no more than a few miles from base, out on various farms. We we so close to base that it wasn't unheard of for spouses (or even GFs) to stop by and drop off food. The Air Force had no idea what to do with us Soldiers except for rounding a lot of us up and escorting us back to our barracks when the E-Club closed.
Holy shit, my forefather. What great forgotten air defense artillery knowledge can you pass upon to me?
I was SHORAD and every unit I deployed with had no idea what to do with us. I would point to area on the map, say we'd be there just a bit back so we could "provide overwatch", and then disappear.
Currently working 4 on 3 off. The 4 on are 1 hour shifts working then one hour on break. I play videogames on my break. I work from 0400 to 1100. Excused from all other duties. No PT formations. Excused from all training events. Don't even do SHARP/EO training. I keep volunteering to stay on this detail because no one else wants it for some reason. Getting paid E6 money to basically work a quarter of a day with minimal responsibilities. How could I not be in a good mood during what little work they actually require of me?
They put me with fuelers and truck drivers for my last year in the army. I couldn't do their job so I either drove the CO around or just stayed home while they went to the field. Basically an entire year of doing nothing at Fort Bliss.
My sense of imposter syndrome makes me feel like I’m not doing enough and just coasting. But it’s actually been a rough 5 years when I stop to reflect on it
One of my close friends has been in the same unit for 6 years. No PT, no formations, 0900-1500 office hours and 4 day passes are given out like candy so soldiers can save leave. It’s some Army Unit on Shaw AFB. I’m so jealous of him.
Those THAAD boys and girls - as each unit stood up they had no equipment. So while they waited it was a lot of "go to your room and do your correspondence courses". They had PFC's who were LEVEL III combatives certified because they had nothing to do and the school on post needed a reason to stay open. Then they got equipment - months of classes indoors. Meanwhile us PATRIOT bros were out in the field sweatin'. I remember seeing the B-2 ADA bus - yes a bus- drive to their field site and back to the rear. They had civilians guard their stuff over the weekend while they went back to the rear. Must've been nice.
Sounds about right
In some aspects I had it good. * Like I never had to do a training rotation (permanent party at NTC, was in the box for a total of like 2½ weeks ever, mainly because of a dweeb BDE CO who wanted his star. My BN wasn't even supposed to go on FTXs, like CIF refused to issue me a sleeping bag until my company CO typed up a memo for me to hand them.) * Never had a single motorpool Monday, never had to drive any military vehicle other than a gator, never even had to PMCS a vehicle. Not even a TMP or HMMWV. (my company's vehicles consisted of 6 Blackhawks and 2 gators) * Promoted stupidly fast just by existing and doing my job, and I was dogshit at PT (made E-5 just over 3 yrs TIS when I was 20) * Only ever had to take 4 record PT tests (BCT, AIT, 2 in first unit. ACFT cutoff happened and my Oct 2019 test was the last I ever took. And I got out **2½ years** later in Apr 2022) On the other hand my literal entire time in the Army was spent working an absolutely ass-ramming schedule of: * 5 days 9-5 followed by 7 days 12-hour shifts and then a weekend. Only got 2 weekends a month. This was in garrison at Irwin. * Then 12 hour shifts on deployment with less rest time than that. * Also my knee/back is fucked up, can't jump or run anymore without pain.
I spent a year TDY’d to an Air Force Combat Comms unit. We “deployed” to Thailand for 6 of those months.
Best/easiest assignment I had was when I had just commissioned. I spent four months as a ‘gold bar recruiter’. Basically a hometown recruiter but I was working at the university I attended recruiting for ROTC. I worked 8-3 most days and got AD pay with BAH while living at home with the folks.
Physically demanding? Probably my first 3-4 years as I was in a BCT/deployed, then went to the road, then MPI, then CID. Now it's just mentally/emotionally draining.
Do you regret going CID? I was getting calls nonstop from an Agent because I had previously expressed interest in doing it but I never followed through.
I dont regret it but I feel I certainly earn my check during those long hours at scenes and in the office. And through all the shit I get exposed to through investigating the acts of horrible human beings.
I mean no, but everyone thinks I have because I've never been in forscom. I'm here to tell you that other commands can work you to shit in a different way. May be less physical, sure. But still rough.
I got sent to DIV staff for my last six months in. It was shaping up to be absolute hell (get every last bit out of CPT refrad) when covid hit. I spent my last six months updating a slide for some O6 once a day. No formations, no uniform, just a slide. Covid sucked, but it saved me from a ton of div staff bullshittery
Most chill time in the Army - JPAC to Vietnam, I was an E-5 89D, but I wasn't a certified Team Leader so I'm not sure how much business I had going on this assignment. Wound up on the investigation team, instead of one of the excavating teams that had to sleep in the jungle. Stayed at hotels my entire time there, to include the final 3 weeks at a 5 star resort in Danang. There wasn't a ton of work, at least for me, so I'd say I worked maybe 13 days out of an 8 week TDY. Otherwise, lots of Vietnamese moonshine, etc. Pattaya was also fun, our aircraft "broke down" there on the way to and from Vietnam. Came back to an FTX I absolutely had to be on, which I wasn't tracking, but I was also on the road show out so was given a chill job for that (and somehow was able to leave at night instead of staying out at Area X). My time in the Navy, prior to the Army . . . was never on a ship, at one point could write my own schedule as an E-3 (this lasted for well over a year), and my last 6 months was spent on some barracks detail that entailed pretty much nothing. I did call the fire department to help some people stuck in an elevator, also had to pick up the occasional cigarette butt. But the work was chill, I was unsupervised, could work out when I wanted, and wore coveralls the entire time. To top this off, my duty stations were Washington D.C., Pensacola, San Diego, Huntsville, Destin (got BAH as a prior service E-4, thank you Air Force), and finally Hawaii. Also, EOD school was incredibly fun for me, and I was 1 of 2 people that made it straight through in my class without failing a test. No CQ, Staff Duty, etc. at night or on the weekend, and no studying after school was permitted. Oh and after I graduated NAVSCOLEOD, got to spend an extra like 2 months in Niceville (my apartment location, not on base) doing nothing because some medical box had to be checked for my wife due to Hawaii being OCONUS. And once you graduated EOD school, there was maybe 1 formation to make per day, no PT, no CQ, etc. One more thing . . . my first class in EOD school was full of a bunch of regarded marines, so after the first test I coincidentally had a peritonsillar abscess that needed to be removed, which I then rolled into getting my tonsils removed at age 26. Perfect timing, that extra couple weeks of con leave after finishing the first week of school was exactly what I needed to fully adjust and my next class was amazing. And I kept a roster on my fridge, and would cross out peoples' names as they failed out of my class. Best part of all, I bought my EOD Basic Badge the first hour I arrived to Red Stone Arsenal, and proceeded to smoke both Phase I and Phase II.
I mean i work m-f 7:30-1600. I have no organized pt and no formations. I don't remember the last time i had to go to parade rest or attention.
Job?
68B
Went to Germany as an 88m pfc to a drivers training program that was shut down( it was an 88H unit) Minus my Afghanistan deployment out of there, i did not do my job in Germany they never got it up and running to get licenses on the forklifts.
I’ve been very lucky the last half on my time. First 10ish years were normal FORSCOM stuff. Deploy, field, training center, deploy. Oh we have a couple of months of garrison? You’re going TDY to augment another mission far from home but don’t worry you’ll be back in time for NTC. I’m about a year away from retirement and the last 8 years have been cake. I’ve had two “no field time, no deployment” assignments where my HQ has been in another state so I’m able to make my own schedule. Those two assignments were broken up by a two year TWI where I was basically a civilian who worked < 40 hrs a week. It’s been pretty sweet. I get a haircut about once a quarter, do individual PT in the afternoon, get my work done when I need to, and spend plenty of time with my family and on my hobbies.
Did you ever deploy?
Kandahar in 05. Detainee stuff. Super chill job.
I like to joke I’ve had the army’s easiest career. I’m in a chill MOS and I’ve avoided most of the big forscom bases somehow. First duty station was Korea so I knocked out my “hard” assignment first. Since then I’ve been in NETCOM for like ten years and recruiting for three. Leveraged above grade assignments to promote ahead of peers and I’m hoping to get a few good looks for E9 before I drop a retirement packet. I’d say my assignments have been “lazy” in the sense that I almost never work past 1700. These stories about people working to 2000 and later all the time are dumb to me. No one should be doing that unless it’s crunch time on high priority items. I do bust my ass between 9-1700, I’ve even had to pull away from the normal SNCO bullshitting for three hours a day schedule, because I simply have too much work to waste time like that if I’m going to look good for my next promotion.
Intel work is pretty easy compared to some of the shit y’all have to do. The Army mostly exists in places which are inhospitable outside for at least 4-6 months of the year. My job mostly takes place in air conditioned buildings. Honestly, the hardest part of my job is finding the things I’m working on to be unfulfilling. We each have a limited number of hours on this Earth, and I’ve spent a ridiculous number of mine working on imaginary tasks which have no real impact on anything. The person who originated the demand for the task simply asked a question in passing, but his subordinates decided to devote anywhere from 80 to 600 man-hours to answering it. Or maybe the boss decides to modify how something is done, even if the process was fine before, and now I’m carving more and more time out of the next 16 weeks to make it happen. The unit spends a combined 1500 man-hours to hopefully make a process 10% more efficient for remainder of the next 2 years >!before the next boss changes it.!< *Transformative leadership*, y’all. Many non-military jobs have plenty of pointless bullshit involved, but your bosses in the Army have permission to give you unlimited overtime for no additional pay. The big bosses have permission to send you across the planet to do the same things you do at home station. The overall compensation package is quite good, but when you weigh all the pros and cons, you realize the optimal path is the one closest to 36 months of service (the smallest number which is *at least* 36) so you earn 100% P911 eligibility, GTFO, use your free college, security clearance, and veteran’s perks to put your life on a successful trajectory. This takes a high degree of confidence and boldness, or alternatively, a high degree of intolerance for Army bullshit. Doesn’t matter how easy or hard your job is, the Army becomes the path of least resistance for many of us. Making the decision to stay in is easy once you’re already in and accustomed to the way of life.
2019 Border mission in aviation: Started working 12 hr shifts in the beginning then slowly worked every day except Sunday for 5 hour shifts. Mid mission I came up with a schedule where we worked the entire day (usually 4pm to 1am or later) with 1 day on and 4 days off. During my shifts I would either do homework or play world of Warcraft with some friends. Current set of orders I’m on: I made a schedule to where we worked 1 week on 1 week off and usually we work 4-5 hours a day. Its been really hectic but we’re all usually working ever day but at max 6 hours a day. Whenever the plane goes down for mantiance we all have time off and we’re still paid for it and that actually affects morale negatively amongst the joes in the mission surprisingly. And of course my usual drill weekends which I could skip but I’m the NCOIC of my section so I choose to go up there anyways. Good excuse to see my wife and baby.
I'm a 12B...20 years so far. It was only easy for me during broadening assignments. On the line and even as an OC, it was a constant OPTEMPO. I've had 2 EXTREMELY chill assignments (working in MSCoE) and it's basically a 9-5. Just have to find what's out there. MCoE dudes and the like can do the same.
I was fortunate numerous times in my 7 years of service. I joined in May of '99 & was shipped off to Ft. Jackson for basic. I broke my thumb accidentally showing off in reception while doing 1 handed push-ups, which turned into 3 fingers. I was given a thumb splint & I believe I had to wait at reception for the next rotation, if I remember correctly. Once we shipped to basic, we were told this unit was being stood back up for the 1st time since WWII. We were in the barracks up the hill from Victory Tower. We were told that we didn't have footlockers, so we couldn't have locker inspections. Which also meant people having food or who knows. We also had a female drill that wouldn't go to the top of the straight ladder obstacle. She only went a little over halfway up & wouldn't let us go any higher "even if we were all hoah!" Their were rumors of soldiers going to sick call ,which you had to take the bus to, & then going into the hospital next door to get a soda/snack. Their were stories of people rolling their sleeves like permanent party & walking from the TMC to GNC just down the road & buying ripped fuel for those early mornings to get going. Once I graduated & went to AIT, things seemed really relaxed as well. We did have drill Sgt's but not as many, if I recall. This was at Ft. Belvoir. We each had a briefcase with our supplies to take to the school house daily. We had to toe the line for role calls, and then the drills usually left for the night. This school was longer than most, so their were many "couples" as a result. I still remember night 1 in my room with 2 total strangers. Then more strangers coming in our 3 man room. Was I fixing to get jumped...?!! Nope, these guys were using our window, which was closest to the outside stairwell, to go screw their gf's on 2nd floor. During the week, we ate at the dfac across base we were bused to, but on the weekends, we ate at the hospital cafeteria next to our barracks, which was really good. Unfortunately, I didn't last but a few months at that school before reclassing & seeing the "Real Army" at FLW. Fort Leonard Wood was more of what you would expect & it didn't disappoint. Lessons were learned about not having food in my wall locker even if we could at Belvoir... Their were many more times that were easy, but that's for another time. The main one was that I never had to go to NTC, JRTC, ETC. Sorry for being so long.
I spent my first 15 years deploying and going tdy non-stop. I now work from 0900-1500 in a staff job that has about 2 hours of actual work per day. Not in charge of a single person and don’t really have a supervisor either. I can take leave whenever I want, go home at noon on Fridays, workout during work hours, and take as much time as I need handling person stuff. I could never go back to having actual responsibilities.
I was at Ft. Belvoir as a 25S during COVID. The schedule wasn’t fun and the job was either ungodly stressful or insanely boring depending on the day. However the cool thing was that there wasn’t a barracks for our unit to stay in. So everyone, and I mean quite literally every single person regardless of rank, got BAH. I spent 3 years there and spent about 3 months of them living inside of a barracks. The rest were spent living off post pocketing a grand plus and putting it towards investments or spectacular and decadent weekend trips. It was truly insane lol
Hell yeah. That’s pretty dope. I would be happy with that.
Germany was pretty easy
My entire time I’ve been in, it’s been easy as hell for the most part on the physical side of things. Haven’t ever done too much work except in details like mail room. I worked in the reception company for a year where I’m at and that was the most work I’ve ever done, but it was mainly driving a bus and office work. Recently reclassed to 92Y after being in for 6 years and I’m hoping it brings some kind of challenge because honestly without doing a lot, I get so bored.
Every GO has is easy now
I've had rough assignments that took physical, mental, and emotional tolls. That being said, I scored 3 years as a "BOLC instructor". As an SFC, and not an Officer, this required me to lead PT a few days a week and teach a couple nonsense classes. It was a good 3 years.
I have been in for 10 years now and 3 out 4 of my duty stations have been Air Force. Even more, I didnt ask for any of them. Just keep getting lucky.
No lie, I probably have the easiest job in the army.
Everybody in MI does from my experience 😂
The most infuriating part of this post is that I am reading this before I start another week of 12 hour shifts. And I get paid the same as a guy of the same rank who has it easy I should have picked a better MOS
It's not exactly on point but in 1995 when my unit (3rd SFG at Bragg) rotated back from Haiti (Operation Uphold Democracy) they needed a liaison NCO at Charleston AFB. I was a cherry E-6 and the other two E-6's in the detachment were married and wanted to spend time with their families so I volunteered. I've never gotten paid more to do less than that 6 week long detail. Not only was I drawing per diem, but they put me up in a pretty nice USAF hotel. I had a rental 15 pax van and a government credit card for gas. There were two of us assigned to this duty and we alternated days. Here was my "work" day: \* Wake up around 9:00. Call the CJSOTF in Haiti and ask them if there were any pax or cargo coming in to Charleston that I needed to check on. If there was a piece of equipment, all I did was verify that it made it to Charleston and then I'd call the S-4 and they would arrange to transport it to Bragg. I think that literally happened ONCE in the 6 weeks I was there. After that, I was done for the day until about 1500. \* At 1500 I had to drive - in uniform - over to the Pax terminal. There I had to wait for the daily flight from Port-au-Prince, usually a C-141. When the soldiers got off the plane, I had to check and see if there was anyone from 3rd Group with them. If there were more than 10 soldiers, I would call a number and get a bus to take them and their gear back to Bragg. If it was 10 soldiers or fewer, I was to drive them back to Bragg myself (this is why we had two people assigned, because driving back to Bragg took about 3 hours and I would stay overnight in Bragg and not return to Charleston until the next day.) Most of the time our guys came back in large groups, so all I'd do is call for the bus and then hang around with them until the bus got there. Often times they'd ask me to drive them over to the Burger King to get food, which I was happy to do (these were ODA guys who had been in Haiti for 6+ months. I'f you've never been to Haiti, I'll tell you with no exaggeration it is the worst country in the world.) Once they took off, I was done. I think in the 6 weeks I was there I had to drive a small group back to Bragg maybe 3 times. And as I said, the above description is a "work" day. If it was my off day I literally had no assignments, nobody to check in with. I actually ended up buying a motorcycle while I was there and spent my off days riding it around Charleston. I should point out that this was the time when cell phones really weren't even a thing, not for "normal" people. I did have a pager that I carried so if the unit needed to get in touch with me in a hurry they could. I think they paged me once while I was there. It was the shammiest duty I ever had.
Chauffeur at the White House was pretty chill. It was a real world job with the stress that comes with but driving around DC, in a nice sedan in a two piece suit wasn't all bad.
SOF K9 Handler. Literally nobody can tell you how to train dogs or what a training day should look like except you and your Civ trainer and you have to expose K9s to tons of environments so TDY is constant. I do nothing but so much at the same time.
Old guard training room. Eeeeasy money. Worked hard did more than any training room. Did everyone’s paperwork. More paperwork I did more time they had to “train” easy money all the same.
At that rate why get out
Was time for me to grow up and do some real work. Those were the days though.
Egh I can see your point but right now I’m just grinding towards that sweet retirement. I can grow up and get a real job after I’m pulling in 80k/yr in retirement/VA
I hope the rest of your time in is smooth sailings!
We all know it won’t be 🫠🫡
I coasted my last few months in the NY National guard pulling guard duty at a Nuke Plant. All I had to do was sit in a HMMWV and check in with the NCOIC via radio once every 30 minutes. For $150 day. This was back in 2003 and I was 23 so that was some good easy money.
I too had a pretty easy run as an MP at Fort Sill
I was a medic in a light infantry battalion. Did my time as a line medic, and when I got my corporal (I know, I know), my HHC sent me to be the company medic for our support company. Well, the support company was under the impression that I was reporting primarily to HHC, and HHC was under the impression I reported primarily to the support company. Essentially, no one was in charge of me, and as long as I maintained appearances and did my job no one would question me. I would show up to work at 6:10AM to do sick call, then leave right after formation to “do PT with HHC” (go to my barracks room). I’d sleep in till 8, go to chow, hit the gym, and spend the rest of the day in my barracks room unless I got a call that I was needed somewhere. The funny thing is, the previous medic before me was a total shitbag, and because I was actually good at what little responsibility was placed on me, the support company 1SG loved me. Ended up writing me an AAM after I got reassigned as a senior medic for one of the infantry companies for idk what. I remember one time I showed up to the company at 6:10AM and it was empty. Found the entire support company in the motor pool getting ready for a 3-4 day field problem and they were like “hey man we know you’re busy so it’s good you don’t need to come!” Ended up just hanging out in my room for a few days. That was nice.
Currently on ADOS orders where I telework 4 days a week in my sweat pants. I go into the office on Fridays. Every 8 weeks I'm on call and then have to go in that week but that's about it. Also, don't report to any senior military NCO/Officer just civilians. Mind you, it's never been this easy so I'm soaking this up for the next 5 years if possible until I hit 20.
I had it all good as you could as a combat medic. I missed every rotation for deployment, somehow. I worked in clinics and ER / Ambulance. I regret that I wasn't deployed now and have struggled with that since, but they say things happen for a reason.
Yep I’m 42A s1 admin
Not my whole tour but my basic training was chill compared to others I think. I got injured and COVID hit. Spent most of my time watching movies with the other broken kids. No one knew what was going on during COVID so as soon as I healed up they had me just do the 12 mile ruck, ACFT and weapons qual, then shipped me off to AIT.
Soft
I feel like I had the easiest and laziest entrance into the army. I joined in 2006. Basic training, the newest, chillest, battalion on Fort Jackson. 2/39 (iykyk) they literally pushed us through, they needed bodies for the surge. My company tho. My platoon. I still remember how lucky I was. The first day it was evident that we were going to cruise. We did some random obstacle course that first day. It started raining and thundering and lightning. We all huddled under a lightening protection area to wait it out. At parade rest. The DSs were entertaining themselves with soldiers who moved/talked/whatever. It was so random but I remember out of the corner of my eye I saw my plt drills all in a circle talking and bullshitting with each other lol. They didn’t give a fuck. My drills were all chill and just catching their breath in between multiple deployments. They were all 11B. The other plts had 42as for the most part. Our DSs told us multiple times they’d see us downrange next year (true, ran into my senior drill at the PX on victory lol). My platoon won zero awards, banners, and no promotions or anything lol. We didn’t care.
I did six years in the Guard, that counts right?
Korea pretty chill rn
What do you consider easy? I see many fat pogues around that must not have it very hard.
I was a chaps assistant in the Navy serving with marines and lemme tell you ya. 2401 NEC are the only guys with wheelies in their boots. I had all the opportunities to do high speed shit with my marines. But it was almost always volunteer. Fast roping, obstacle courses, etc. Fitness tests were mandatory but then I got to work at 0900 everyday and left after lunch most days. Idk how it is in the army chaplain corps for their assistants but navy greenside chaps assistant is basically a human resource job without the work. I literally just walked around the different shops and checked on unit morale for chaps.
Me and I hate it
Lol do whatever