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It doesn’t work that way. Yes you are an idiot for even considering this. Your recruiter will happily take advantage of your ignorance. There is no 18x program. What does exist is 11B (Bravo) school down in GA. It’s basic training and AIT all in one. You go there first and pass. Congrats, you are a grunt. You are “needs of the army”. Maybe just maybe, you get streamlined. So you go to airborne and don’t mess up your knees (spoiler alert: you will mess up your knees). You will have to wait for selection. Training isn’t going on year round. So you will be assigned to a basic infantry unit to call home while waiting for your TDY/ship date. I cannot stress how unglamorous a life 11 bang bangs have. However, I would rather have a conversation with any one of them than stuck up egotistical military intelligence guys who plan on joining a “3 letter agency” and yet don’t even know how to keep their weapon clean or what a firing pin is for or that they are “better” because they scored higher on the ASVAB and got a non infantry job. Wear the light blue rope proudly.
Let’s say everything goes according to plan. Congrats you passed. Welcome to the world where you are one bad commander away from being ordered to die in country for some stupid reason. And there are plenty of bad commanders.
Life is not a video game. There are people crawling on their bellies in the mud right now who hope to get where you are already. Feel free to take several steps back in your autonomy but understand the US military is terribly organized. Despite this, it is literally the best military on the face of the earth. You are in for a freaking shock of a lifetime. Enjoy cutting grass with scissors, “hurry up and wait”, piss tests at 4AM and general buffoonery despite being considered a “professional”. And at 27 you are definitely the “old man” with the highest PT standards necessary to make 100. I cannot stress enough how disorganized it all is despite what movies, video games and TV portray. But go see for yourself. Remember though, you can’t just quit. You signed a contract and there are definitely more places for you to be deployed to than what is talked about on the news. My guess is the 100% lack of self direction and autonomy will be the biggest culture shock. And boy, don’t tell anyone you had a job in the real world, the inferiority complexes are real.
same here! In my concise time in the military, I enjoyed both sides of the equation. It can be great or absolute tyranny depending on your higher-ups. It is not based "solely" on you, because you have no say in what unit you are assigned to most of the time. Nonetheless, I am glad that I served. It has changed my perspective on life and opened many doors I thought were non-existent.
Just do it. Don’t listen to these haters and these POGs.
Join the National Guard pipeline. If it works, it works. If it doesn’t, you still have a good job. If it’s war you seek, then when the great Indo-China war of Taiwanese oppression happens, you will go. I promise. And the NG will be winning that one as well.
The National Guard has 20th and 19th groups. Walk into the armory and find the recruiter. If you are in DC, the armory for 20th Group is an hour away at Gunpowder Military Reservation and the recruiters name is Ryan. If you make it, you will always have the opportunity for a deployment.
No matter what, the National Guard writ large is an Elite Community - so even if you don’t make it in SF selection, you will find a good home of oper8ors. I have E4s who are in med school right now. I have an E4 that is a manager at Deloitte. I have E7s managing 9 figure business units. And I have soldiers working for every 3 letter agency. It’s not like these dirty active duty units with bad leaders that hate their lives… we all have day jobs and most making >$100k a year. Many in the $500s+. The ones of us that are unmarried have better selections of hot, attractive mating partners. Active Doody has HORRIBLE selection wherever you get stationed. Another thing, ALL Guard members’ spouses are incredibly attractive, and all of our children love us. You will find the opposite in AD.
And as the Active Doody bois who hate The Elite Guard Community chime in, by all metrics, my National Guard infantry unit outperformed all AD bois in MND-North when we were in Iraq in 07. And I’ve never seen more soft shoe profiles than getting food at an off base subway near a large AD Infantry post - looking at you Fort Stewart.
So, OP, join. And follow The Fratty Guard on Instagram for more career advice.
PPML 1 - that’s the BDE I would expect from a fellow elite oper8or. Active Duty SF is the only AD I actually respect. Maybe sometimes I’ll acknowledge a Ranger or two, but only in instances of extreme valor. But I respect AD SF because you, too, come from an elite community - you boiz know how to punch out and go to work. And the wives comments was really about those Regular Army folks with their lack of beautiful flowing hair and beards at least 28 days a month.
Anyway, yeah you can see how upset the RA Active Doody bois get. I would be mad too if clipping grass was my full time job and then some sales guy making $500k a year comes in, outperforms me in every metric, wins my wars for me, and goes home to a beautiful wife and three exact replica sons. Meanwhile his stock vested while he was gone and has >$200k more in the bank.
As opposed to going back to Fort Riley, a divorce, estranged children and no money.
Best of luck if you do.