Do you prefer "wartime" military or "garrison" military and why?

SGT(P) Daniel McBride

There is no such thing as a "wartime military" or a "garrison military", they are the same thing. You should take care of your Soldiers in garrison the same way you take care of them in combat. You are responsible for their morale, health, and welfare 24/7.

A big reason why there is such a lack of discipline in the military is because leaders lowered standards during combat deployments. Letting Soldiers roll up their sleeves, wearing non-military scarves around their necks, unauthorized eye protection, etc.

Now, you might say well, that's just a sergeant major being a sergeant major who doesn't know what it's like in "The Stan". Well I do know and I have seen Soldiers who's arms have been burned, lose eyes, and much worse because their NCOs failed to enforce standards.

It's all about discipline, it's what sets us apart from other professions!

There shouldnt be a distinction between the two, if you are not "at war" your preparing for it which means "garrison".
People that say they are only good at "wartime" soldiering usually have some issues, same goes for those that say they rather have "garrison".
If you wear the uniform be a soldier and do your job regardless where you are.

I prefer wartime military, the only draw back is when I'm deployed I miss my family. But optempo and not dealing with Garrison drama has made my deployments worth the time I have been away from family.

SGT(P) Daniel McBride

There is not a different military just because we are involved in direct fighting or not because if you think about we are always involved in missions around the world. Now if you meant funding that is a different story because yes during active conflicts we tend to have an easier time with funding then when we not involved in active conflicts.

I also agree with CSM (Join to see) in that standards need to be enforced regardless of where you are garrison, field sites, deployed.

At least with a wartime focus we didn't have to do all the tedious training. In the past month, I've had 6 hours of SHARP, 4 hours of ASAP, two hours of suicide awareness, and hours on many other topics. I can't believe the amount of time I have to spend on these topics. That was a real shock to the system after 18 months in grad school.

Both types of environments have their pros and cons, though I would add that it is important to train as we fight. I did enjoy the deployed setting a bit more for camaraderie reasons, and because what we were doing felt so impactful and real. But I also enjoyed the garrison setting for other reasons, like being able to re-train and get our bad tactical habits back out of the way we did things.

I personally don't care what military. But I feel like the Soldiers (including on leadership) need to remember that the Soldier is always the core of things. It seems like when we are at peacetime military, the Soldiers are not training for a fight, so they get into trouble more. The leaders are not occupied with readiness in an intense ARFORGEN cycle, so they micromanage and treat the Soldiers like children....which makes the Soldiers WANT to go out and get away from them and do things that can lead to trouble.

I think that everyone needs the opportunity to screw up. If you turn it into a pattern, then you need more intensive interaction. If it continues, then you have the pattern and throw the book at them. There are exceptions to this in EXTREME cases....just like you don't need to tell people "Don't murder people," but again, leadership in peacetime, when numbers are more readily available (recruiting is much easier in peacetime for a large percentage of the population)....there is less focus on "rehabilitation" and more focus on "perfect order".

Just my thoughts. As I said....the mentality doesn't have to change, but I just hope that they don't forget the purpose of leadership: The greatest job in the Army.
v/r,
CPT Butler

I liked being in a combat zone better than in garrison for many reasons. Bear in mind, I was junior enlisted. In no particular order, indigenous KPs , house boys/gals to keep your living area squared away, no Saturday morning inspection, no PT, guard duty in a bunker and not walking a post, wear what you want ( I did not like the heavy cotton fatigue shirt in the heat, so went to local Evac and traded some "souvenirs" for ANC shirts which did not tuck in and had handy pockets on sleeve and rip stop so much cooler*), etc

* Later we got jungies so quit wearing ANC shirts and cotton fatigue trousers.

As a human intelligence collector, I don't get the opportunity to do my job much in a garrison environment, outside of a few strategic assignments that are difficult to get. I quite enjoy my job, and enjoy deployments for that reason. The higher budgets in deploying units also allow me to attend advanced training for my MOS, which I love. On the other hand, deployments and the lengthy TDY's that lead up to them are hard because I am away from my family so often. So both environments have their advantages and disadvantages.

To a good unit, they are both the same thing.