As an infantryman, how long and often can I expect to be in the field? Is it dependent on the unit I'm with, or same across the board?

This is from a thread on Reddit. I did not write it, but it seems pretty on point:

Infantry is awesome. At the end of the day, you work harder and are more disciplined, combat-competent, filthy, sweaty, exhausted, freezing, broiling, hungry than any other regular job in the military. You get to become proficient with a plethora of weapons, mind-boggling communication systems, tactical vehicles, and drilled-into-you tactics that you get to doing instinctively without even thinking about it.

Infantry sucks ass. You are treated like shit by high-level leadership. You enlisted to kick doors and shoot people in the face, but there you are picking moss out of the cracks in the garrison sidewalk because General Fucknut is coming to give a 3 hour speech about whogivesafuck. You embark on an 18-mile roadmarch; 26 miles later, your feet are hamburger and your 16-pound machine gun feels like it weighs 56 pounds. You stand guard at a weapons range in the sub-freezing temps for hours on-end, hours after the range went "cold" (no more firing), on a secure garrison, because you "train like you fight." You show up for formation in the freezing rain; one guy forgot his gloves; everybody has to take their gloves off. You get your long-awaited weekend snatched away for CQ (charge of quarters = barracks desk duty) or battalion/brigade staff duty or courtesy patrol (even though there are such things as MPs) or a work detail or because your leadership fucked up scheduling and the ONLY day open for the weapons range is on the weekend.

You deploy and live in dust-caked tents while a hundred meters away, personnel clerks and finance desk-jockeys who will never leave the FOB are living in air-conditioned housing units. You go on patrol for 6, 8, 10, 12, 24, 48 or more hours at a time, come back to the FOB and get in line for a hot meal; too bad, says the dining hall guard: your uniform is too dirty to come inside. You are moved out to a combat outpost with no running water and no electricity (other than the radios at the command post) and live there for a few weeks at a time; when you're not on-mission, you're in a guard tower, or fixing vehicles, or burning shit in oil-drums, or digging ditches, or stringing razorwire, or filling sandbags, or rolling out on QRF (quick reaction force) to help a patrol who got hit, or you're cleaning your weapon. If you have time to eat, masturbate, sleep, and wipe your asscrack off with babywipes, you do it.

You train for 14 weeks to earn those blue disks, crossed rifles and blue cord (if you're a Marine, you train for 26 weeks, and I don't know what infantry-specific accoutrements USMC infantrymen get, forgive my ignorance, fellow grunts) and train for months or even a year further at your line unit to deploy to combat. You learn how to use almost every gun we have, you learn how to drive (and maybe gun) Humvees, Bradleys, Strykers, MRAPs (unit-dependent) and practice shooting with night-vision and infrared lasers, or night-vision or thermal scopes. You and your buddies give each other IVs with night-vision in the back of a moving Bradley for combat-lifesaver training. You itch for the day you deploy, while the veterans around you roll their eyes, having already seen what you yearn for.

You get there and the enemy hides in civilian clothes; he uses women and children for human shields and spotters for mortar attacks. He kidnaps people from opposite tribes/sects and rapes women and murders children and tortures people with power drills to their kneecaps and cheeks and he cuts the tongue out of a 13 year old boy because the kid chatted with you during a halt on-mission. He kills your friends with sniper rifles and IEDs and you rarely, if ever, even see him face-to-face. You probably won't get the opportunity to kill him; rarely will you get the opportunity to even shoot at him. When you finally get that chance, you won't feel a thing. You won't be happy that he's laying there in front of you, bleeding and moaning on the pavement. You'll see dead people... civilians killed by them, killed accidentally by us, indigenous security forces (cops, military, local hired militia), bad guys... you may see people die right in front of you, within mere meters. At the end of it, you'll be dull. Numb. Desensitized. You'll wish you fired your weapon more.

You'll come home and be unable to relate to the friends and family who clapped you on the back and wished you well when you left those few short years ago. You'll know that you were the very top of the food chain; only special operations direct action teams trained more, did more, saw more, and were in more danger than you were. And your future college classmates will find out you were in the military and say things like, "Oh, my cousin is in the Navy, I think he does something with computers. He went to Iraq; it must've been SCARY." Or, "My buddy Joe joined the Army. Did you know him?" Or, "Did you KILL ANYBODY?" Or, "I support you guys, but I oppose the war. You didn't really believe in what we're doing over there, RIGHT?"

The highs are higher; relationships are more passionate (and more quickly burned out), weekends and block-leave periods are cherished, and days you somehow don't get put on the tower guard roster are things to behold.

The lows are lower; I think I already summed them up.

Caveat: tankers, scouts, combat engineers, and arty guys (the other combat-arms MOS) are cool too. And medics/corpsmen, EOD, dog handlers, psyops, civil affairs, JTACs, and pilots. I don't mean to seem like I'm marginalizing every other military MOS aside from Army/USMC infantry.

The beer I'm drinking right now is one of the best beers I've ever had. Because it's Labatt-Infantry-Blue, bitches.

Depends on the unit, your units assigned mission, and your leadership. I was OPFOR at NTC and it was 2-3 weeks a month, 11 months a year. Then there was Germany with 45 day gunneries and other missions. At Ft Carson there were 30 day+ pinion canyon rotations once or twice a year depending on NTC prep. most units are usually out a week or two.

A lot depends on the unit... a lot depends on where you are in the train->deploy->maintenance cycle... a lot depends on how ‘hot’ your unit is...

And then, you can always volunteer or extend your tour/deployment

};-)

Soooo it’s going to all be dependent on your unit. But quite frequently if your in the lower 48 like Bragg and Campbell. If your in cold weather like drum, wainwright, etc expect a lot of field time in the summer months and a few during the winter for cold weather field training.

Unit dependent

There was a field problem that started in 1942 that went all the way to 1945. if you find yourself in the field for any duration shorter than this.....you're in good shape.

All depends on the unit. Don't worry though, the field is where you will have the best time.

Three to eight months out of the year...not what you wanted to hear IM sure but count on this.

I was part of some units where 30 days (not annual total) in the field was a short rotation. And a "fun" field problem we did with 10th Mtn had us in the field, hiking up a mountain chain over 21 days with "light packs" of 65-ish pounds. Compared to the heavy packs of 90+ Welcome to the infantry.

On a personal note, divorce rates among combat MOS and veterans in general is incredibly high. That is something BOTH of you need to aware of.

Safe bet would be 220-280 in the field. Battle drill 1A for dayssssss. Especially since the only deployments now are Africa. Just train, train, EIB, train, Djibouti rotation, train, PCS, train, EIB, so on and so forth :)

It all depends on the unit. You can expect FTX's at least once a month. Then you come back refit and clean equipment. Then the next month do it again. FTX's can last a few days to 3 weeks or more. If you are ramping up to head to a training center then expect long days and hard work. At least a month at those training centers. She will have to adapt to this and accept the fact you will be training. Most command teams will allow Soldiers to come home to refit during those long training periods.

Pack your A Bag and B Bag and plan to spend some quality time snuggled up on a rock because infantry training is most realistic in the field where stress can be enduced as a norm. Personally, I recall spending entire weeks in training and coming back for a Sunday reset just to do it all over again Monday morning after PT. If it isn’t the field, it’s the range or a gunnery or mob village somewhere and either way, it’s the job.

If the wife is asking - hmmm - may want to inquire more on there. Young couple - sure, what to do with her time alone in a new area but I’m sure you’ve heard all the horror stories. But I’m sure you’re wise enough to know they’re ‘based on real events’.

When they say it "depends on your unit" Airborne Corps units deploy more often than other units as well as front line units like Korea do and say specialized mission Infantry units deploy a lot. In peacetime it was roughly 5-6 months in the field sometimes a little more, minimum about half a year. Sometimes they group it together and sometimes they spread it out over a Calendar. Yes it will be hard on the wife for you to be gone that much and she needs to be able to run things in your absence. Marital issues are a problem in the Infantry MOS because of seperation. Special Forces has it a lot harder though in the seperation and marital issues department.

Depends on unit if your light or heavy

It depends upon the unit, the readiness code of the unit and the place of the unit on the deployment schedule.
IF your unit goes out for evaluation, (They used to be called ARTEP: ARmy Training Evaluation Program, the they were EX Evals: EXternal Evaluations) and your unit fails or does poorly, or fails or does poorly at JRTC or NTC then the unit will be put in an "Intensified Training Cycle" to bring it up to standard. This may seem like a royal pain in the 4th point of contact, but you have to ask yourself one question..."Would you want to go to COMBAT with your unit exactly as it is right now?" If the answer is NO then you will WANT to go to the Field, because training makes you better. As General Patton said "A pint of sweat will save a gallon of blood!"

Most everybody hit it right, especially Sgt. Sesar - you should work on building relationships with your squad, pltoon, company, these things remember are built on trust! Unforntunately there tends to be a lot of sliders, sometimes real shit bags in infantry units, be careful.. I will say as far as time in the field, I had a CO in a Bradley unit I was 11M30 over from 11B in Friedberg Germany, the CO was a Cpt. and his brother was a mech cav CO same rank, brother was stationed not 30 km from Friedberg. The two found we found out later were in a competition as to who would make Major first, this friendly thing between two brothers caused us to have over 270+ days over all in the field, and they couldn't care less what it did to us or those that had family. Now understand that both brothers had some time in Ranger Bats, and both had a few, at least 6 yrs in SF, so either the competition would have brought all that time or just their way of seeing things as Infantry leaders. I'll say one thing more, in this modern Army, it would do you great justice to try and go to Airborne, ranger schools as a minimum and if possible SF, in these catagories you will not only make a smoother way for you as a grunt, but you will also make it easier for promotions. Don't forget college, if nothing else get a degree if you don't already have one - PLEASE!!!

As an Infantryman its your job to learn your craft and that is through being in the field. I was in the infantry for 23.5 years and I spent about 14 years deployed to where ever the army sent me.

Plan on if you're Infantry, not giving two Foxtrots where you are, when you are, but just being.

If you're active duty, be it. If you're Guard, be it. If you're Infantry, no matter if you're AD or Guard, roll with it.

You asked.
The answer: If you're AD, it is what it is is. If you're Guard, pause/suspend "normal life" and operate within an AD context.

Enjoy the fresh air "in the field", enjoy the rain, snow, sunshine or sunburn, and do what you're supposed to. Else, change MOS because 11x is not for you.

Depended on the unit. However, generally all unit has the same phases that they have to go through. There are weekly, monthly, quarterly, semi-annually, and yearly-- that's a preparation for deployment and deployment. With that there are team and squad integration training, squad qualification, platoon qualification and exercise, company maneuvering exercise, and Brigade exercise at National Training Center, Fort Irwin, CA or Joint Readiness Training Center, Ft. Polk, LA. Then, last but not least preparation for deployment and deployment and everything rinse and repeat as necessary (and it is necessary). So, all this expecting to be around 5-year cycle. However, single Soldier expecting to permanently change of duty station (PCS) to go to different Fort including overseeing station like Germany, Korea. I don't know if there are any tour of duty for Kuwait as an infantryman, at least not as E4 or below. Thou, I could be wrong about this. There are always some lucky few. So, that is how it has been. Thou, it has been awhile since I retired. But knowing the Army, it's always same different. It's like a football or any athletic unit there are individual training, section training, team rehearse, and it's show time; then do it all over again.

Whooaaa!

Your going to find out really quick just how strong your marriage really is. When I first met my wife in 1999 she was only 19 and I was skeptical. I was a young E-5 and had no idea just how long I was going to stay in. We’ve been together over 20 years now and still going strong. She bought into the way of life as she really saw just how well the military would take care of not just me but her, and my children.
I will say that if she or you get to the point where you are unhappy, try changing units. I did, went SF and it was the best decision I ever made for both my family and I. I was gone a lot but when I was home, I was home.