I went and did a jump, for fun, outside Bragg over a 96. It was like Rafe's or something like that. It was all you assholes at the field, and one of them asked me why I didn't just go recon. And I told him I can't swim for shit, and he asked me, "Why the hell did you join the Marine Corps if you can't swim? Why not Army?" Perception. Much like this thread, people grow up with different opinions on the different branches. I wanted to be a Marine sniper. That was the only reason. Read about Hathcock in high school, and was hooked. What pushed you toward Army, and what pushed you toward A-teams? If you did the 18 month or so course, then you get mad respect. Although I doubt the other way is any easier, but at least those guys have some idea of what the Army was like, already.
I had to do all the training the 18X did, minus their first couple of weeks of hell(which they certainly deserve to weed out the quitters)). It was about 18-20 months long. Honestly, the marine office was closed and the army recruiter was next door. I didn't join right away. Mainly because they were blowing smoke up my ass about how wonderful the army life was. It was funny dude, I would get [uck fay]ed up and show up over there and just laugh at those dudes. It's not a lifestyle for everyone, but it's vital to our nations survival. I just got tired of my old MOS(which i wont mention) it was time for a change when i was 4 years deep. I felt like I wasn't being challenged and if I was going to make the army a career, I needed more. I wanted to be the best.
Thanks man. Sounds like you were committed, which generally speaking, only the good ones are. The ones that work hard to test themselves, those are the guys that make it. Keep your head down man and continue the fight.
The thing about being a Green Beret is that you have to earn it. You don't spend 2 years in training, get your beret and that's it. You have to make it in regiment or they'll send your ass down the road to the 82nd or wherever the [uck fay].
I absolutely don't feel challenged at all with my role in the Army. That said, I don't feel being the super high speed, hooah hooah soldier is me. The Army is an extremely vital to our country's survival and it is doing great things for me, most notably paying my college loans off. It will also look great on my resume in 2 1/2 yrs when I ETS. but there are a billion problems with how the army is ran and how money is spent inside the military. If the american public had any idea of the wasted spending, they'd be throwing conniption fits.
I agree with you, but I also don't have time to worry about the american tax payer. I pay taxes, they can hop on a flight and come hang out with me for a couple of days, I've got spare rooms.
I'm guessing it will be either June-ish or end of year. I'm also supposed to go to the advanced school for my MOS so it all depends on the order in which it goes.
I knew several Navy SeALS over my course of duty, and still have semi-frequent contact with two I was stationed with, early on. I thought about testing for BUDS, but ultimately decided against it at the last moment, believing that two things would likely hinder my efforts there - being fat and my lack of enjoyment in performing lots of exercise. Were it not for those two "requirements" I'm pretty sure I could've made it. No BS - on our second day of bootcamp, they bring about 200 of us into this giant assembly hall for a "special forces" presentation. We sat there and watched a couple of clips on SeALS and EOD, and once done, some skinny (and thus immediately destroying my long-held and erroneous belief that spec ops guys were all Hulk) guy comes to the front and introduces himself as the BUDS liaison to our base, meaning, he was the guy who would do your initial physical fitness test. He asked for everyone in the room to stand. 200 or so people rose to their feet. He said, if you do NOT plan on testing for BUDS, please sit down. About 50 people sat down, myself included (Truth be told, I collapsed to the floor, exhausted from completing the initial order to stand). 150 remained standing. He then asked, "Of those left - remain standing if the sole purpose in joining the Navy was to be a SeAL." About 25 sat down, leaving 125 who remained standing, indicating that this was the sole reason that they joined. He then picked (at random) 5-6 of those standing to come up front with him. When they were all standing down front, he said that this was the number of people in that room who would actually graduate BUDS. He then went on to describe the rest in the most unflattering of terms, and basically told them that they were all fools, would regret joining for that reason alone, and told them that he'd see them all poolside at 6am the next morning for their initial timed swim. To be honest, I thought he was a [penis] - and briefly considered challenging him to an underwater fist fight, but I played it cool, and held back. The next morning, only about 100 or so people again identified themselves as wanting to take the swim test (meaning, his speech alone had killed half of their ill-founded dreams, already). Of those who took the swim test, only 12 or so passed it. Of those 12, I think that only 3-4 of them passed it all (a run, chin ups, other shit, IIRC). So, I guess that he was right, afterall.
I was in a class of about 560 for selection. 120ish got selected and about 20 or so made it all the way through. If it was easy everyone would do it.