The 'How Come It Never Goes Smooth?' Thread
POSTED BY: Zisker
UPDATED: Wednesday, April 26, 2006 11:00
VIEWED: 7256
PAGE 2 of 2
I won't say "Welcome to the military, kid!" “Just do the best job you can!” “Bloom where you’re planted” and all that other BS. It looks like you've heard it a couple of times already.
I feel your pain. ROTC is a weird animal. ROTC's job is to train officers for the military. An important responsibility. Some officers are assigned to ROTC detachments and treat it as the important job it is. Others get assigned to a ROTC det, and seem to think that it’s some sort of gorram vacation. Paperwork gets screwed up, training gets shortchanged, who cares, its just these dumb cadets' careers were screwing over, right?
Then, you go on active duty. When I was in ROTC, I pictured the active duty ranks of being filled with able-bodied, competent, willing, motivated, ambitious, let's-get-the-job-done types of people.
What I found was different. Bosses that couldn’t seem to lead their way out of a paper bag. Senior NCO's that were in such a careerist mindset that they would sell their mother into slavery for an additional pat on the head. Whole offices of folks who were ready, willing, and able to do the mission, as long as the mission happened between 0830 and 1530, and not on their lunch break, break time, or while they were conducting their unit training between 0900 and 1500.
Anyway, not sure where I’m going with this. Just that there are others out there that feel your pain.
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Sounds to me like you guys chose the wrong services... Army and it's brother the Air Force.
Navy and Marine Corps is where it's at... you get boned just as hard, but at least you're hardcore at the same time.
United States Naval Academy Class of '08
(I hate this *stupid* place)
_____________
Carry the Nuttin'
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Quote:
Originally posted by ThePistonEngine:
Sounds to me like you guys chose the wrong services... Army and it's brother the Air Force.
Navy and Marine Corps is where it's at... you get boned just as hard, but at least you're hardcore at the same time.
United States Naval Academy Class of '08
(I hate this *stupid* place)
_____________
Carry the Nuttin'
GO NAVY!!!
Nothing like getting told you might be going to the ARMPIT fo the planet...Djibouti 4TL
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NEVER, SQUID! 
Actually, my family was all enlisted Navy and they told me I was not to enlist in the Navy if I valued my kneecaps (they reminded me of that when I started thinking of enlisting when the branch results came back) . . .of course, they were "offended" that I would "degrade" myself by serving in the Army.
Truth be told, I just don't have the math mind for the Navy. And the Marines - well, it's bad enough being a female in the Army. From what I've heard, it's even worse in the Marines.
One day.
One plan.
One army of Browncoats.
On June 23rd, we aim to misbehave.
http://www.serenityday.org/
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Help Spread the Signal: http://www.geocities.com/browncoatsignalcorps
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yea officer's have much less input on what job they have and where they get sent. it's not like the enlisted guys where you can choose your job and duty station or reenlist for something i particular. if it's any consolation i've heard tons of stories just like yours where guys going through rotc, many of them prior service that were very accomplished at their prior mos, getting something totally different. also more is expected of officers. you'll find out there's a lot of 24 hr duties in the army where you have to stay up for 24 hrs straight. usually enlisted guys will get the next day off as comp time but the officer's dont. though on the flip side officer's dont have to deal with a lot of the dumb manual labor stuff joes do. this doesnt apply anymore because i gather you're a female, but i know a lot of cases where male officers who wanted combat mos's but got stuck with an admin type job would be given a chance to do a temporary tour in a combat job (ie finance officer acting as an infantry platoon leader) and at the end if the commander liked them they would be given the option to change their mos. i've only dealt with the infantry community and dont know much about the rest of the army does things but maybe there's something comparable out there
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Quote:
Originally posted by ThePistonEngine:
Sounds to me like you guys chose the wrong services... Army and it's brother the Air Force.
Navy and Marine Corps is where it's at... you get boned just as hard, but at least you're hardcore at the same time.
United States Naval Academy Class of '08
(I hate this *stupid* place)
haha...i beg to differ. both the navy and marine corps are fine organizations and the marines are great at PR but they dont have the market cornered when it comes to being hard. i've found it comes down to the unit rather than the service. there are good units and bad units in both the army and the corps. with that said, i'd put the 82nd airborne up against any unit the corps has any day
_____________
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Zisker: felt that way all my life. I won't even get into what's going on now; just suffice it to say that if I was suddenly hit with a bolt of lightning, I...
1) wouldn't be all that (dare I say shocked??) surprised
and
2) wouldn't complain much.
"Ten percent of nothin' is...let me do the math here: nothin' and then nothin', carry the nothin'..." - Jayne
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