I have been in the Army for a little over 4 years with about 10 months remaining to serve.
If you have dealings today with the US Army, with the exception of small, elite SOF units and combat arms units that are all male, is just how utterly unmilitary it is. Today's armed forces are a bizarre, dysfunctional place. There are still plenty of good men trapped in it, but their numbers are dwindling and the culture is against them.
There is a pervasive culture of laziness, very little ever gets accomplished on training days, and the simplest tasks take about twice the time they should. Every soldier throughout history experiences the joys of "hurry up and wait", but much of this dysfunction is due to sheer disorganization.
About a month ago, my battalion had to go on a two week field exercise. We are a support battalion so we rarely go to the field. Rumor was that we were only going because the battalion commander hadn't gone to the field in his three years at the unit and he needed it for a bullet point on his OER (officer evaluation report). Generally, a field exercise would be planned months in advance, but this goat rodeo was thrown together in two weeks. All this rolls down on lower enlisted.
Other points:
You will be subjected to an endless and rigorous program of politically correct indoctrination which may well break your will to live completely.
The wars are winding down and the Army is settling into a garrison life of grinding boredom.
Army girls are plain at best, butch dykes at worst and every post is a big sausagefest.
If you have dealings today with the US Army, with the exception of small, elite SOF units and combat arms units that are all male, is just how utterly unmilitary it is. Today's armed forces are a bizarre, dysfunctional place. There are still plenty of good men trapped in it, but their numbers are dwindling and the culture is against them.
There is a pervasive culture of laziness, very little ever gets accomplished on training days, and the simplest tasks take about twice the time they should. Every soldier throughout history experiences the joys of "hurry up and wait", but much of this dysfunction is due to sheer disorganization.
About a month ago, my battalion had to go on a two week field exercise. We are a support battalion so we rarely go to the field. Rumor was that we were only going because the battalion commander hadn't gone to the field in his three years at the unit and he needed it for a bullet point on his OER (officer evaluation report). Generally, a field exercise would be planned months in advance, but this goat rodeo was thrown together in two weeks. All this rolls down on lower enlisted.
Other points:
You will be subjected to an endless and rigorous program of politically correct indoctrination which may well break your will to live completely.
The wars are winding down and the Army is settling into a garrison life of grinding boredom.
Army girls are plain at best, butch dykes at worst and every post is a big sausagefest.