Hey everyone,
I survived basic training at Fort Benning and am now at at Fort Gordon for AIT (advanced individual training as a 25U (signal support systems specialist).
Right now I'm on a computer at the rec center (it costs $7.00 per hour to use these computers), so I'm pretty limited on what I can do online. I plan on buying a laptop soon, though.
Glad you liked Benning. Too bad I didn't have an address... I live about 30 miles away from there. You'd have had another shipper sending you stuff you couldn't eat so the Drills could make you do a lot of pushups you didn't want.
Ft Gordon... couple of my old high school buddies did did their commo training there. They both got in in 1996, the year we graduated. I got in in 2001.
I outrank both of them now.
Have a blast, and remember, just because she's cute now don't mean that you'll wanna take her home to Mom!
The unprofessionalism of the National Guard just never ceased to amaze me. The whole party attitude during their summer vacation from family and jobs. After 14 years of Regular Army and having to go train guard units during the summer. Oh let me list my bitches about the Guard.
March you happy butt down to my unit and say 'unprofessional.'
You wouldn't walk out... but we'd be nice enough to carry you.
Actually, since we got that new paramedic in recently, we wouldn't need to... he could patch you up on the spot, and the nurse we got in the Marion detachment could be down in a jiffy to fix up whatever he couldn't. (DEFINITELY kidding... just wanted to let you know that intra-service rivalries are alive and well)
We have the best record of any US Army MP unit that served in OIF- 1853 combat escort missions- no casualties, no equipment losses. We are the ONLY Military Police unit that was in theater at the time that pulled that kind of record off, AFIK, and I did check as best I could.
You are confusing the term 'professional' with the term 'corncob stuck up your ass.'
The reason that are are so 'laid back' is that we are generally friends (or at least acquaintances) in the REAL WORLD- you know, the one that exists when the uniform comes off and you just turn into people. We know our strength and weaknesses BETTER than any full-time unit because we see them not only illustrated in terms of what kind of soldier an individual is, but what kind of MAN they are (or woman.)
Sure, we use first names when we aren't doing something formal... it's because 90% of us work together outside the unit, go to school together, drink together, trade girls with each other, and in general know each other as people and not just a certain number of chevrons on a guy's uniform.
If you think that makes us unprofessional, you need to look up professionalism in a dictionary and study the definition.
Professionalism means knowing your job and doing it correctly and successfully... it doesn't say that you have to do it with pomp, circumstance and meaningless bullsh*t. It merely says that you are a capable, well-trained, individual that is serious about their work and successful at it'd implementation.
If you think otherwise about our unit, as the ISG personnel that worked out of Camp Slayer, BIAP, Iraq their opinion of the 70-ish MP's for the 1166 MP CO that worked for them as escorts, doing the work of a 200 man company.
We ran some of the most dangerous roads in Iraq- I personally made 5 separate trips down 'IED Alley' (Route Irish, out the front gate of BIAP to the Green Zone) in one singe day (actually several days like that), each time with a 3-5 truck serial to guard. No one f*cked with us... but they were happy to jump on the less prepared looking regular Army units that were more stuffy and formal. Maybe they just though that we looked too 'unprofessional' in our older 1025'ss and lack of blouses and painted-on Kevlar covers. Either way, we were more successful than the Regular Army units I shared the roads with, and that is a fact.
In fact, the 82nd and us shared a lot of the same roads. We heard about those fools getting ate several times a day up because they didn't know how to treat civilians- you don't wave a gun at everyone and threaten them... lots of times kindness works better, and if it don't, you still have the gun- while we'd sail right through the same area and never get touched while still doing our job.
Sorry you had a bad time with the 'Old Guard'- but in case you haven't looked in an armory lately, we have a higher percentage of experienced NCO's, vets of all ranks, and college degrees than the Regular Army.
We are well-trained, know our sh*t, and have the campaign ribbons to prove it.
If you aren't too much of a geezer, give the Guard another look... you might be glad you did.
I just signed for hitch number two... for $10,500 after taxes.
Topic: Army National Guard (Read 10596 times)