Joining te Army!?

**Macistani** · Posted On: 2/07/2005 10:23pm

So, I'm about 89.8% sure that I want to join ROTC/Army active duty. Anybody have insights into army life, more specifically, army life as an officer?

Also, since this is an MA board, how does it affect your MA training (excluding te obvious enhancements in Gun-fu).

Any tips or wisdom on the various "schools" and real army life that follows for a noob to military life?

**lifetime** · Posted On: 2/07/2005 10:36pm

How does one arrive at 89.8% anyway? Did you wake up one morning and think, HOLY ****, I COULD FIRE GUNS AT PEOPL and not complete that thought and end up missing a 0.2% of a conviction?

**MEGA JESUS-SAMA** · Posted On: 2/07/2005 10:40pm

There's a reason the army doesn't have a particularly awesome song written about it.

In the Navvvvy....

Like Lifetime, I also hate it when people use things like "89.76% sure...." or "2/100th of an American dollar".

**beka** · Posted On: 2/07/2005 10:57pm

When I worked a brief stint at Macy's, there was another guy who worked there, no older than 20, who said he was a special combat guy in the Army (although his man boobs were clearly visible underneath his shirt). I told him my feet hurt, and that I hated it at that wretched store. He said I should be more thankful, since he only works there because he likes it, and he has to have a special license to carry a gun and leave work early, in case he had to go on a mission. He told me that my feet hurting was NOTHING like the time he got stabbed in the chest on top of a mountain in Afganistan or some such place. I mentioned I did martial arts, and just kinda made a little bit of a "uh huh, I bet you do" look, and then preceeded to tell me that he taught some sort of super-deadly-crazy-killer-military thing, and that he was a trained killer.

But then he had to go back to the housewares department and sell someone a blender. Sure, dude.

But I'm sure if someone was *actually* in the military, they may learn a few useful techniques.

**Macistani** · Posted On: 2/07/2005 11:06pm

As far as MA goes, I was thinking along the lines of training in places like Iraq (is it easy to round up interested folks) and moving from base-to-base stateside and abroad...I'm guessing the army doesn't do a lot of H2H since they have developed the deadly iron-hand tecnique of shoot-fu and the anti-grapple known as bomb-fu.

**lifetime** · Posted On: 2/07/2005 11:21pm

Well there's strong evidence to suggest good martial arts training in Iraq.

http://www.nydailynews.com/front/sto...p-238353c.html

Apparently there's good greco-roman work as well as live training in real conditions.

**Ka-Bar** · Posted On: 2/07/2005 11:21pm

The Army of one? Nah, be one of The Few, The Proud.

The Marines!

I have no idea what Army life is like, but no matter what service you join, officer life is a lot easier that enlisted life.

**Macistani** · Posted On: 2/07/2005 11:31pm

Originally Posted by lifetime

Well there's strong evidence to suggest good martial arts training in Iraq.

http://www.nydailynews.com/front/sto...p-238353c.html

Apparently there's good greco-roman work as well as live training in real conditions.

I bet they had poor technique.

**Breakfast Fox** · Posted On: 2/08/2005 12:39am

[mini-hijack] I've heard that when you join the Marines, and are in Basic, you gotta forget everything you know. Does that mean you'll get harassed if you demonstrate more MA skills than the average bear during H2H training? [/mini-hijack]

**HoratioHooah** · Posted On: 2/08/2005 1:07am

I've been in the Army for some years now, which is undoubtedly less than some of the other Army folk here.

I am a 98G CM - a voice interceptor with an MOS identifier in Mandarin. I have never, NEVER acted in the capacity of my MOS.

The only "blemishes" on my record are a couple counselings for a messy room and not smiling enough. Yes, I have been counselled for not smiling enough.

Six months of my time was spent in Afghanistan. I was sent home early after the distal portion of my right index finger was torn off in an accident caused by some retard who wasn't paying attention to what he was doing. I used to draw and paint, and now I cannot even properly hold a pencil anymore.

Upon returning I was immediately put to work.

I cut grass, pull staff duty, and sometimes clean the gym. Occasionally heavy boxes belonging to other people will appear, and I'll have to move from point A to point B. Sometimes I'll have to run phone wire through the ceiling for someone else. It seems to me that I am being punished everyday.

I was recently informed that I must either agree to extend my contract to PCS elsewhere, or finish out the year and a half left on my contract doing what I am doing now.

I have reached the point where I feel that joining the Army has been the GREATEST mistake of my life.

I know that cases like mine are rare (my battalion seems to breed them, however), and maybe I am being whiney, but I just felt obligated to let you know that things like this do happen to some people. The fact that you intend to go in as an officer will better your chances at a decent life.