Just spoke to my father about my military future.

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UntamedAn1mal
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Just spoke to my father about my military future.

Post by UntamedAn1mal »

He told me one of his biggest regrets is not serving in the Army.

I said "Why not?"

He said "Because I'd of been good at it"

He's roughly 51 now, it's too bad he couldn't consider the Reserves because of his age.
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Mingo Kane
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Re: Just spoke to my father about my military future.

Post by Mingo Kane »

Zone, that is the finest answer about this subject posted on this board, and as we both are of the same age or close to it...I fully concur and appreciate the eloquent way you put these sentiments into words.

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Jim
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Re: Just spoke to my father about my military future.

Post by Jim »

Zone, I could not have said it better. We had good troopers in the 2-508th, but I was challenged when I was the Support Platoon Leader in 2-13th (first at vicksburg, last in Mannheim). Yeah, it was a challenge, but we tried to instill good order and discipline into our soldiers. It took many years to get us back to where we should have been all along. I thought the Army in Desert Storm was great; but today's troops are a great leap forward.
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UntamedAn1mal
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Re: Just spoke to my father about my military future.

Post by UntamedAn1mal »

Rangers,
I honestly have no idea why he didn't serve, he said at first he planned on being a Marine (Despite coming from a lineage of ARMY) but *what he told me* was when the Marine Recruiters came to his home his mom kicked them out and said "he ain't joining no military".

Or something like that, lol.

I don't know, he was more into the weight lifting era in his time.

I think there are more than said about why he didn't want to join the military. He supports my brother (Airborne Infantry) 110%.

I wonder if he could try and get into the Army Reserves at 51 (Soon to be 52)? I *THINK* the French Foreign Legion allows up to sixty, and the Canadian Territorial Forces allow up to fifty-eight.

(But he is too Patriotic to serve some other nation, damn straight). I would hope the Reserves goes up to 54+.
UntamedAn1mal
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Re: Just spoke to my father about my military future.

Post by UntamedAn1mal »

Ranger ZoneVI,

I also would like to say I read your post and it was very realistic.

I'm glad I'm in this generation, after what you told me about the 1980's.
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antmcg79
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Just spoke to my father about my military future.

Post by antmcg79 »

ZoneIV wrote:Jim....I have no doubt that today's soldiers are the finest and best trained soldiers this country has ever seen.
Ranger Zone, I'll roger that last statement and add that they're getting better everyday. Better resources and equipment, and better ways of utilizing them given the Army's firm belief in, and pursuit of advancement of our Nation's warriors through technology.

I also wanted to agree one the subject of education vs. Soldiering aptitude. While I believe there needs to be a standard for entry, I think it needs to be assessed differently. I have a major disagreement with the Army awarding college grads with SPC. Just because some guy took a bunch of classes classes in between drinking and chasing tail doesn't mean he could ruck, fire his weapon, or even fill out a range card better than a HS grad like me. He certainly doesn't deserve any more respect from the E-nothing privates with the same TIS.


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Bushwack
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Re: Just spoke to my father about my military future.

Post by Bushwack »

"I have only heard stories about the 70s from those people who were there and these stories led me to believe that this was not a great time when it came to our Military with race, drug, discipline and morale problems that were out of control. It took a while for the US Army to repair itself and regain any credibility post Vietnam whether it was Worldwide opinion or the opinion of our own country."

ZoneIV, No one could have said it better! My first enlistment was from '76 to '79, stationed in Germany. My unit (B5/6 ADA) had it all; Drugs not just weed but heroin! Race relations were a joke, which led to disipline issues or visa-a-versa, then on to low morale. Thank you to all the now FOGs that stayed in the Army to fix it! By '84 I had enough and got out.
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Jim
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Re: Just spoke to my father about my military future.

Post by Jim »

ZoneIV wrote: There will be noise on both sides of the political aisle to withdraw and I suspect there will be deep military budget cuts not too far in the future. Downsizing and reduction of money goes back throughout military history and we will be caught short once again when the next event happens.
Amen, brother. Look for this to begin within a few months. Once the presence in Iraq / A-stan are reduced, expect majior reductions within Army.
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CloakAndDagger
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Re: Just spoke to my father about my military future.

Post by CloakAndDagger »

ZoneIV wrote:In the later 80s, training got affected to the point there wasn't fuel to roll out the gates to train and there was less ammunition to shoot.
It was also bad in the mid to late 90's during the Clinton administration. In late Fiscal Year '98, Ft. Jackson even ran out of money for ammo (and the ammo, too) for Basic Training. The soldiers I went to AIT with who had just come from Ft. Jackson never got a chance to qualify on their weapon. :shock: (I went to Ft. Leonard Wood, and while we did qualify, there was a lot of, "errr... good enough... you're done," coming from the drill sergeants at the zero and pre-qual ranges.)

The newest budget crunch has already started, but it's hitting the civilian DoD workforce first. The last 3 of 5 retirees (and one transfer) in my office have not been replaced, and I even found an old office phonelist from just 8 years ago that is about twice as long as the current one.
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