PittsburghAfterDark
CAGiversary!
I did a split 4/4 program. 4 years active, 4 years reserve. I did the reserve years when I was in college, active duty when I graduated.
I was in the U.S. Army, 19 Kilo (M1A2 Abrams platoon leader.) finished as an 0-3 (Captain), and saw ground combat in Iraq and Kuwait in the first Gulf War. The peace time army is a job, the yelling and screaming you see in the movies is basic training which was 8 weeks when I joined.
If you take the military screening test, ASVAB, and you do well you can pick whatever it is you want to do. If you want to train as a translator they'll send you to Coronado, CA for 52 weeks of intensive language training, you pick the language, you pick the service you want to do it for. If you want to work on precision electronics all 5 branches have slots for you. If you want to see the world, take your pick, they'll all get you somewhere.
Despite all the people here saying you'll end up in Iraq and shot it's a fact of military life that it takes 8 soldiers behind the lines to support every soldier on the line. May be trainers, cooks, supply sergeants, drivers, quartermasters etc. Even in WW II and Vietnam that rule was true.
Here's a very cool military job. I once came across a young man, 19 at the time, that was a truly incredible gunsmith. He had skills I could never have developed over time regardless of training or experience. He didn't want to drive trucks for a living or work in a warehouse, he just wanted to work on rifles day in, day out. Civillian jobs really don't let you do that.
So I hooked him up with a good recruiter, someone I knew personally from serving with them, and today he works on rifles all day. We're not talking about your average M16A2. He's doing work for the army shooting teams (Olympic type competition.) and, heh heh heh, U.S. Army sniper teams.
The military has and needs every single civillian career you can think of in its ranks. It's a myth that your recruiter is going to ramrod you into combat, infantry in Iraq. A recruiter that brings in someone with exceptional ability that tested through the roof is going to bend over backwards to fulfill the role you want to fill.
I was in the U.S. Army, 19 Kilo (M1A2 Abrams platoon leader.) finished as an 0-3 (Captain), and saw ground combat in Iraq and Kuwait in the first Gulf War. The peace time army is a job, the yelling and screaming you see in the movies is basic training which was 8 weeks when I joined.
If you take the military screening test, ASVAB, and you do well you can pick whatever it is you want to do. If you want to train as a translator they'll send you to Coronado, CA for 52 weeks of intensive language training, you pick the language, you pick the service you want to do it for. If you want to work on precision electronics all 5 branches have slots for you. If you want to see the world, take your pick, they'll all get you somewhere.
Despite all the people here saying you'll end up in Iraq and shot it's a fact of military life that it takes 8 soldiers behind the lines to support every soldier on the line. May be trainers, cooks, supply sergeants, drivers, quartermasters etc. Even in WW II and Vietnam that rule was true.
Here's a very cool military job. I once came across a young man, 19 at the time, that was a truly incredible gunsmith. He had skills I could never have developed over time regardless of training or experience. He didn't want to drive trucks for a living or work in a warehouse, he just wanted to work on rifles day in, day out. Civillian jobs really don't let you do that.
So I hooked him up with a good recruiter, someone I knew personally from serving with them, and today he works on rifles all day. We're not talking about your average M16A2. He's doing work for the army shooting teams (Olympic type competition.) and, heh heh heh, U.S. Army sniper teams.
The military has and needs every single civillian career you can think of in its ranks. It's a myth that your recruiter is going to ramrod you into combat, infantry in Iraq. A recruiter that brings in someone with exceptional ability that tested through the roof is going to bend over backwards to fulfill the role you want to fill.
