Looking to join the army, came here for some advice.

[Mushroom]

OP arguably came to the wrong place for advice.

He does not want advice, he wants to brag at how awesome he is at video games and tell people who have done it he knows more than they do.

 

[Mushroom]

I came here because I heard it was a good place for an honest assessment of my career goals.

And we are giving you an honest assessment of your goals.

Life in the military is not a joke, it is a calling and for many a career. We are trying to get you to see the reality and not this fantasy you have built up in your mind.

But good luck with that outright dismissal you have been showing. They will eat you up with an attitude like that.

 

[Mushroom]

But it's true, everything is true!

Not really. Only 1 of the 4 pictured is in the military.

 

[WinterBorn]

Wrong, the Army has not done "Open Contracts" in decades. You pick your MOS before you even sign the contract.

And with that signature the Army guarantees you will get the school you want. But no guarantee that you will work in your MOS. As long as the Army sends you to the school before the end of your first enlistment, they are covered.

 

[WinterBorn]

Just as a side note...
The navy is offering $75k for enlistment bonuses.

They have snipers as well....but just know that I had a friend who did it. Every time he came out of theater they wanted to give him a whole bunch of counseling because of the people he was ordered to shoot. And that part was rather disturbing to him....he wasn't crazy but with a bunch of therapists treating him like he was beginning to be disturbed by that. (And it's mandatory as well)

Also with the navy you can do things like air traffic control, or nuclear reactor stuff that will get you an instant civilian job should you choose to quit military duty. Electronics and communications or security or MP or seals.

Just whatever you choose....do NOT get married before you go in. Military wives are notorious for cheating on their husbands.

$75k is a lot of bread. That's almost a new truck right there. Then if you are a barracks rat you can stash plenty more.

Every sailor comes home to the boat at least once with ID, boxers and a smile. (And nothing else)

Yeah, that sounds like a good plan. I wonder if his experience playing video games will help him get through BUDS.

 

[Kruska]

Hello everyone, I am new here and am looking to join the Army. My brother has served for a long time and has done 2 tours to Iraq. I recently graduated high school and am looking to improve my skills as a fighter. I like fighting in army call of duty, it is super fun and I think I would be pretty good at it in real life. I actually am one of the best snippers on the scene and I have won so many tournaments that I drown in puss everyday. So do you reccomend any other games I should play before I sign up? does it take long to get 10th prestige in the real army? and can I call snipper?

So what does your brother tell you? he should know what being in the Armed Forces can be all about.

I take it, that you want to be a sniper? In the German, European NATO and many other nations Armed forces you would need to qualify as a member in an elite unit first.

Have you already killed an animal? via a bow, gun. or knife or even better a chicken via your own hands? after that did you take out the guts, skin it, or take of the feathers (e.g. chicken) lastly cooking or frying it - some units might ask you to eat it raw and you will not get a knife to kill or gut a respective animal. In order to be a member of an elite unit you need to be able to do that. (it's part of a one to four week survival training course - depending on the unit. Many people "born fighters" fail miserably on that part, and are then relegated to "standard units" - units those "warriors" never wanted to be.

Hope that helps a bit.

 

[WinterBorn]

What US Army snipers go through during their grueling 7-week course where half the students fail

The US Army Sniper Course is a seven-week program that teaches Army and National Guard soldiers essential skills in fieldcraft and marksmanship.

www.insider.com

According to this link, only 288 people per year are accepted into the US Army Sniper Course. And half of those will flunk out.

 

[Blues Man]

Hello everyone, I am new here and am looking to join the Army. My brother has served for a long time and has done 2 tours to Iraq. I recently graduated high school and am looking to improve my skills as a fighter. I like fighting in army call of duty, it is super fun and I think I would be pretty good at it in real life. I actually am one of the best snippers on the scene and I have won so many tournaments that I drown in puss everyday. So do you reccomend any other games I should play before I sign up? does it take long to get 10th prestige in the real army? and can I call snipper?

Yeah because real life is just like a video game.

 

[SavannahMann]

I’m not trying to be anyone’s Jester. I came here because I heard it was a good place for an honest assessment of my career goals. But yourself and other haters have merely made a mockery of my goals. I take that shit to heart, just know when I do come out as a sniper, I’ll have yourself and the other haters to thank.

Son. If we are mocking you at all, and we are a tiny bit, it is because we suspect you are just pulling our chain. Ok. Speaking for myself I hope you are having a laugh at us. On the off chance that you aren’t. I’ll answer your question.

Playing a video game is nothing like the Army, or anything. Let me tell you what an average Monday was like in the Army. I was in the 307th Engineers, 82nd Airborne Division.

Monday Morning. At 6:30 in the morning you are in formation. The First Formation is to make sure everyone is accounted for. You march to the open area, do the daily dozen. That is the warm up stretching and Calisthenics like push ups and such for strength training. Then you go for a six mile run. You run in formation. The Captain sets the pace.

At 7:30 or 07:30 in Army time, you are dismissed for clean up. You have 90 minutes to get showered, changed, eat breakfast, and make sure your room is squared away.

At 09:00 it is duty formation. There the First Sergeant will issue any orders to the company. People would be sent off for details. And then the rest would walk to the Motor Pool for Vehicle and Equipment maintenance.

You would crawl all over and under the Trucks and Trailers your squad would be assigned to. Unless you were assigned a detail. You might be mowing lawns, and forget a riding mower. You might be loading supplies from a warehouse into a truck. You might be doing a hundred odd jobs.

If you are in the Motor Pool you are checking Radios to make sure they work. You are checking everything. Then it is lunch. You head up to the DFAC that was still called a Mess Hall in my day. After lunch you have another formation where Top details out even more people. If you aren’t on any of the other details, you are back in the motor pool and are repairing anything that wasn’t perfect before lunch. Or doing scheduled maintenance like changing oil on your squad truck.

Finally at 17:00 hours it was final formation. After that you have 90 minutes for players venting chow and nothing until next mornings PT formation.

We operated on three six week schedules. For six weeks you were in Intensive Training. Here you spent a lot of time running around practicing soldier skills. Movement in the field, marches under the ruck. We had to do four 12 mile marches every year. You had three hours to march 12 miles under a weighed 35 pound ruck with helmet, rifle, gas mask, and web gear.

Sometime during the ITC you would probably hit the range to qualify with your weapons. But that wasn’t certain. We would definitely qualify at least once a year. Usually twice.

You would get a couple, perhaps three jumps. You would prep your gear, jump out of the plane over one of the Drop Zones and then spend anywhere from six hours to a couple weeks doing the exercise.

At the end of the ITC you would assume DRF. Division Ready Force. You spend the next six weeks on alert. You have to be in formation with bags packed rifle in hand in two, 4, or 6, hours from the word.

DRF means if the President gives the Order you deploy wherever right then and there.

You will run at least one probably two EDRE or Emergency Deployment Readiness Exercises. You’ll take your gear and load on a plane and run an exercise under the Observer Controllers. In my day that meant MILES gear. Laser Tag for Soldiers.

After six weeks of being on alert, assuming you didn’t screw up and get an Article 15 and Extra Duty for missing an alert. You went into support cycle.

Support cycle is nothing but details. I’m talking details every day. Shaking parachutes with the riggers. Loading equipment for air drops at the airfield. Patching potholes on the base. Standing guard on the ready to deploy equipment. Safety for ranges. And the list goes on and on.

Anything that someone can think of having you do, you’ll do.

At the end of the six week support cycle, you are back in intensive training and it starts all over again. You’ll run at least 25 miles a week. You’ll spend weeks in the field marching. You’ll spend some time running exercises.

And if you deploy? Let me tell you about that my young friend. First. You don’t get a reset. If you get hit you don’t just get a flash on the screen and a chance to pop up on the spawn point.

Battlefields have a smell. Rotting flesh. Empty bowels. Vomit. Cordite and gunpowder. Fear has a smell. All the smells are mixed together. It clings to you. You smell it on yourself days later. You smell it on yourself years later.

Flies are everywhere feasting on the blood that has been spilled. The bits of flesh that were torn from their owner.

And training is no picnic. Every single time we jumped someone would get hurt. Bill would break his leg. Craig got to be a towed jumper and after a couple weeks in the hospital was released. Sure he was fine. He just couldn’t recognize his newborn son anymore. A little brain damage.

And let’s not forget Hank. Good old Hank. He was a leap frog jumper in a mass tactical jump. He broke both legs, his hip, three ribs, an arm, dislocated his shoulder, and had a concussion that nearly killed him.

Three months later Hank returned. Just long enough to be processed out. He was a medical retirement from the Army. He could walk at least, with a little help from a cane.

And Battle? There are things called Murphys laws of combat. Where little truths are taught to you. Things like. If the enemy is in range, so are you. Incoming fire has the right of way. Never share a foxhole with someone braver than you are.

And the aches and pains that accompany you always? We were swallowing 800 milligram Motrin twice a day. We called it Paratrooper Candy.

You’ll be inoculated against every known disease. The peanut butter shot the guy mentioned earlier? Gamma globulin.

Gamma globulin - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

It sits like a lump of peanut butter in your ass cheek for a few days. It helps keep you from getting sick and helps fight off infections if you are wounded. It is given precautionary before a deployment.

I mentioned MILES gear. We used it in the old days. It is in one movie I know of.



Before the exercise you would be given a death card. This card was sealed in an envelope. It would be the wound or just KIA you were supposed to have in case the gear went off. If it beeped you turned it off. Sat down with your helmet off. And waited for the OC to come.

I opened the card one time and had gunshot to Penis as my wound. Usually it was shrapnel to some point. Gunshot to liver. Something like that.

In a video game. You are killing imaginary things. In real life. When you pull that trigger you are ending some poor bastards life.

You are upset that we mocked you. Slick, you don’t know what mocking really sounds like. You stroll into your Infantry Unit calling out that you are gonna be the sniper and they’ll mock you in ways you can’t even imagine.

Your video game heroics are not impressive Junior. Want to impress us? Stroll down to the Recruiter. Tell him you want to know what MOS you qualify for. Want to be a badass? Try Combat Engineer.



Try being the guy who crawls out between the friendly and enemy infantrymen to clear the obstacles. Bullets flying at you from both directions. Walking up to booby traps and knowing that if you make one mistake they are going to bury a coffin full of sandbags to simulate your weight since there won’t be enough of you to fill a ziplock baggie much less a body bag.

One last thing my boy. If you think Courage is the absence of fear. It isn’t. Courage is doing what needs to be done in spite of the fear. When your fear of failure is greater than your self preservation. Then you are a Soldier.

 

[Concerned American]

Wrong, the Army has not done "Open Contracts" in decades. You pick your MOS before you even sign the contract.

Yeah? And what happens if you flunk out of the school for that MOS? The military has played that game for at least sixty years that I know of. Fifty years ago, it was "Give 'em an aviation guarantee" Some third grade drop out would go in and get an aviation guarantee and a week into tech school he was sent to some grunt MOS, incapable of performing aviation duties.

 

[The Duke]

Hello everyone, I am new here and am looking to join the Army. My brother has served for a long time and has done 2 tours to Iraq. I recently graduated high school and am looking to improve my skills as a fighter. I like fighting in army call of duty, it is super fun and I think I would be pretty good at it in real life. I actually am one of the best snippers on the scene and I have won so many tournaments that I drown in puss everyday. So do you reccomend any other games I should play before I sign up? does it take long to get 10th prestige in the real army? and can I call snipper?

There are no respawn points in real life, and running around carrying 30-60 lbs is not easy.

 

[bodecea]

You don't sound like you're actually trying to get advice from anyone on here. You just sound like some petulant child who because they're good at a video game seem for some strange reason to think that they'd be a good sniper.

And...............if you were smart, you'd listen to both those who are currently active duty (and current active duty snipers would laugh straight in your face), as well as those who have been there and done that, as they have the experience of seeing these things first hand. Retirees are especially good to listen to since they had a career that spanned 20 plus years, and have seen the military go through changes and (mostly) revert back to the way they have always done things. I know that I saw some ideas that civilian leadership thought were good, saw them get implemented, and then saw them get tossed out because they were incompatible with the way the military operates. TQL in the Navy was one such program, and there are several others that I've seen go by the wayside.

Oh god! I remember TQL.......

 

[Mr Natural]

Yeah? And what happens if you flunk out of the school for that MOS? The military has played that game for at least sixty years that I know of. Fifty years ago, it was "Give 'em an aviation guarantee" Some third grade drop out would go in and get an aviation guarantee and a week into tech school he was sent to some grunt MOS, incapable of performing aviation duties.

They used to warn us in A School that if you flunked out, you’d end up being a plane captain on a carrier working 18 hour days.

 

[bodecea]

Just as a side note...
The navy is offering $75k for enlistment bonuses.

They have snipers as well....but just know that I had a friend who did it. Every time he came out of theater they wanted to give him a whole bunch of counseling because of the people he was ordered to shoot. And that part was rather disturbing to him....he wasn't crazy but with a bunch of therapists treating him like he was beginning to be disturbed by that. (And it's mandatory as well)

Also with the navy you can do things like air traffic control, or nuclear reactor stuff that will get you an instant civilian job should you choose to quit military duty. Electronics and communications or security or MP or seals.

Just whatever you choose....do NOT get married before you go in. Military wives are notorious for cheating on their husbands.

$75k is a lot of bread. That's almost a new truck right there. Then if you are a barracks rat you can stash plenty more.

Every sailor comes home to the boat at least once with ID, boxers and a smile. (And nothing else)

"nuclear reactor stuff"................

 

[JohnDB]

"nuclear reactor stuff"................

I just know that a lot of guys who worked around the reactors never were "looking" for work...I don't know what they did....nor will I pretend that I do.

 

[ABikerSailor]

They used to warn us in A School that if you flunked out, you’d end up being a plane captain on a carrier working 18 hour days.

Depends. If you are color blind, you will never be able to work in aviation for the Navy.

Most people who fail out of A school get sent to the fleet as non designated SN/FN/AN.

SN (Seaman) - you are put in Deck division and will work on basic ship maintenance (needle gunning, painting, basic seamanship).

FN (Fireman) - you will work in Engineering department as a non designated Fireman who will clean out bilges and do whatever nasty work that doesn't require much in the way of training.

AN (Airman) - you will work in Line division doing basic aircraft handling duties (chocking and chaining, washing aircraft), and if you are good enough at doing that, MAYBE you will be designated as a plane captain who is responsible for making sure the maintenance is completed on an aircraft.

 

[Oddball]

Hello everyone, I am new here and am looking to join the Army. My brother has served for a long time and has done 2 tours to Iraq. I recently graduated high school and am looking to improve my skills as a fighter. I like fighting in army call of duty, it is super fun and I think I would be pretty good at it in real life. I actually am one of the best snippers on the scene and I have won so many tournaments that I drown in puss everyday. So do you reccomend any other games I should play before I sign up? does it take long to get 10th prestige in the real army? and can I call snipper?

don't

 

[ABikerSailor]

Just as a side note...
The navy is offering $75k for enlistment bonuses.

They have snipers as well....but just know that I had a friend who did it. Every time he came out of theater they wanted to give him a whole bunch of counseling because of the people he was ordered to shoot. And that part was rather disturbing to him....he wasn't crazy but with a bunch of therapists treating him like he was beginning to be disturbed by that. (And it's mandatory as well)

Also with the navy you can do things like air traffic control, or nuclear reactor stuff that will get you an instant civilian job should you choose to quit military duty. Electronics and communications or security or MP or seals.

Just whatever you choose....do NOT get married before you go in. Military wives are notorious for cheating on their husbands.

$75k is a lot of bread. That's almost a new truck right there. Then if you are a barracks rat you can stash plenty more.

Every sailor comes home to the boat at least once with ID, boxers and a smile. (And nothing else)

Were you a recruiter at one time in your life? Because the above post sounds an awful lot like the bullshit that recruiters would tell people to try to get them to go to MEPS.

Why do I say this? Because I was the person at the MEPS who had to undo all the bullshit notions put into their head by the recruiters who just wanted to get a contract. I was LPO and Head Classifier at Amarillo MEPS.

Does the Navy offer enlistment bonuses that sound too good to be true? Yes. They do. BUT..............you have to qualify for a program that is paying those big bonuses, as well as enlist specifically for that program (subject to availability of billets). The big bonuses for enlistment were mainly for the programs that it was very hard to get into (i.e. nuclear engineer), and to qualify for those programs it was a 2 tier process. First, you had to qualify for enlistment (ASVAB, physical and civil screenings), and then, if your initial enlistment qualifications made you look like you might qualify for the more advanced programs, they would do a second screening. For the nuclear program, if you had a high enough score on the ASVAB (over 75), then we would give you a nuclear test. IF you scored high enough on the nuke test, then we would see if there was a billet available and if so, enlist you for that program with all that sweet bonus.

HOWEVER....................the bonus comes with strings attached. First, you only get part of the money upon SUCCESSFUL completion of the nuclear school (and many people wash out due to not being able to handle the academics, and it's a 2 year training pipeline), then you get half of the bonus, with the other half being paid out in yearly increments for the rest of your 6 year enlistment.

Does the Navy have snipers? Yes. They are SEALs who successfully completed training for SEALs, and were further selected and trained to become snipers. VERY few will ever get to that point, because VERY few make it through the initial training.

Air Traffic Controller or something in electronics or communications? You bet. The Navy has all of those programs, but again, just like nuclear programs, your ASVAB score has to be high enough to qualify for the program, there has to be a billet, and you have to complete training for it.

Security or MP? Yep, the Navy has those programs as well. BUT, in order to qualify for those, you must first enlist, then after you make Petty Officer Third or Second Class, you have to volunteer and be selected, then sent to training. After completion of training, then you are redesignated as an MA (Master At Arms).

If your ASVAB scores are too low, or there is no billet currently available for that particular job, you will be offered something else you might be interested in, or told you will be enlisted as non designated (SN/FN/AN), and told how to try to qualify for those programs after you complete boot camp and apprenticeship training and sent to the fleet.

As far as "coming back to the ship with only boxers, ID and a smile"? Nope. That is pure fiction, because if you come back with only boxers and an ID, you WON'T have a smile, because that means you've just gotten seriously mugged.

But, if you do have a bit of game, and know how to milk the mystique of being a US Navy Sailor, you will come back to the ship MISSING your boxers, looking fairly disheveled, with a big grin on your face.

But....................that is a rare occurrence, as on a 3-5 day port visit there generally isn't enough time to sweep some girl off her feet........................unless of course you have the opportunity to go to some of the fabled ports like Australia. Palma Mallorca and Ibiza during the summer time are also good places for that to happen because there are lots of European women on holiday (which is the equivalent of the US Spring Break).

As far as the marriage thing? If you have a good strong marriage when you go in, you might be able to stay married while you are in, but yeah, spouses cheating on their husbands while they are deployed is a sad reality. In Norfolk, we called 'em "Med Widows". I also remember that in the month or so before we deployed, there was a whole bunch of people getting married, but when we came back from cruise, there was a whole bunch of people getting divorced. Me? I got married halfway through my first enlistment, and ended up getting divorced a couple of years later. Decided to stay single until I got out (either retirement or EAOS, and I stayed until I retired), and was much happier in the Navy as a single man. Yes, there are lots of women out there that like the cachet of dating a Sailor.

 

[BackAgain]

He does not want advice, he wants to brag at how awesome he is at video games and tell people who have done it he knows more than they do.

I never served. But I have several friends who did. And one thing I’ve learned from them is that not a single bit like a video game or like the movies.

So, if OP were really asking a question, it seems like he’d be better served in listening to the vets.

 

[WorldWatcher]

Were...

ABikerSailor - think we should tell the OP not to join the military and sign up for the Air Force instead?

WW