I need a person from the army to give information about the army?

Question

Do you enjoy it? Is it what you wanted?

Answer 1

Depends on the day and...depends on the day.

Answer 2

my son says he loves it

basic training is boy scout camp on steroids

with machine guns!!!!

he got to blow stuff up whats not to love!!!

Answer 3

Yes and Yes......

LOL...FOA we like to call it the Boy Scouts without the adult supervision.

Answer 4

Yes, I for one think joining the Army was the best choice I've ever made! It can be a love/hate thing - like a previous poster said, "it depends on the day..." But that's the same as any job. The benefits are good, you'll make the best friends of your life, you'll have more good bosses than bad. The feeling of being a team is just amazing. h**l, the food is pretty good, too (at least at the XVIII Airborne DFAC). The living quarters can be kinda S****y, but spend some time in the field and you'll be thankful to have a roof over your head. I will tell you the discipline is stricter than in any civilian job, but all the bonuses of being a soldier more than make up for it. If you're looking for something a little cushier, the Air Force might be a better choice.

If you are thinking of joining, take a former or current soldier with you when you talk to a recruiter. They have a tendency to tell you the good points and leave out some of the bad points (mine was honest, though) and I heard some bitching from a few soldiers about "being lied to."  

If you do join, they will motivate you to get in physical shape. However, you CAN and SHOULD start training yourself. Before Basic Combat Training, work yourself up to the point where you can run 3 miles at a 6:30 pace, do at least 60 pushups and sit-ups within a 2 minute timespan. If you can reach those goals, it will be like already acing the APFT and will dramatically help you. You will find that you are in better shape than most. Less physical stress in basic training will help with the mental stress factor, which is something that will be largely beyond your control.

You likely won't get enough sleep ( I could fall asleep while ruck marching sometimes) so I would recommend depriving yourself of a lot of sleep for a while. If you do decide to do those things, stop a couple weeks before shipping out and get some good sleep while keeping up the exercise. Since you are a female, I'll say I've served with many female soldiers and I would have trusted some of them to pull the trigger before some of the guys. They were good soldiers.

Once you get through BCT and AIT (where you'll learn your job or MOS) it can be like a regular 9-5 job, depending on your Military Occupational Specialty.

If you join, be prepared to sacrifice some of your own needs for the good of your team. The military is dependent on teamwork from the lowliest of privates to the highest of Generals.

The benefits are great, too. You'll have money for school, discounts at the PX (kind of like a WalMart), training that civilians just don't get, and you will be disciplined, have more tolerance for stress and have greater endurance.

All in all, it's a great deal for those who can cut it, though I would recommend selecting Active Duty instead of Reserve or National Guard. Good luck!

Answer 5

I just served six years and got out - I actually miss it.

Before I joined, everyone looked at me and said, "you?  In the military?!" - i couldn't run, had no self discipline, I was more of an "artsy" sensitive type, blah, blah blah. I actually took a dance class in high school to get out of gym class. (However, so that I wouldn't drop dead during basic training, I started running a few weeks before I left for  basic. It helped sooooo much. In basic, you run every day, so you have nothing to do but become a good runner. You can do it!)

But I never felt more proud of anything else I've done. It was the hardest d**n thing I've ever done, but you know what?  It was worth it. I made my closest friends while I was in the military, was stationed in Europe for three years and traveled to Rome, Paris, Dublin and Amsterdam and went to school for free. I never hurt for money, and never worried about medical insurance.

Man, it was six years of my 20s, but I wouldn't trade any of it for the world.

It was more than I expected, really. Basic training sucks, technical school less, and just like in the civilian world you may end up with a crappy supervisor, but the good news there is everyone moves so often, it doesn't matter - the pain is only temporary. (As they say in the military, "pain is temporary, pride is forever.")

You'll work harder than you ever have, maybe ever will, but those are the best memories I have.

But seriously, go Air Force if you're interested in joining. Their quality of life is so much better, their deployments shorter and their bases are like resorts.

Last thought to take with you - your experience is what you make of it. There are free programs to do everything from skiing to skydiving to sculpting on every base - you just have to take advantage of it in your off time! Then again, if someone takes drugs, gets caught, get a federal drug charge and get kicked out - man, then that's what they made of it.