How do you describe the day to day life of a young enlisted Soldier or Officer to those who aren't in the Army themselves?

CSM Eric Olsen — Sun, 28 May 2017 22:24:48 -0400

More specifically, how about when training is slow such as during Red Cycle? This could be interesting and fun.

Response by CPT Jack Durish made May 28 at 2017 10:26 PM

CPT Jack Durish — Sun, 28 May 2017 22:26:19 -0400

I wouldn't trust words. Toss them in the deep end of the gene pool and see if they can swim with the real men and women.

Response by 2LT Private RallyPoint Member made May 28 at 2017 10:27 PM

2LT Private RallyPoint Member — Sun, 28 May 2017 22:27:16 -0400

I'd probably describe its training schedule structure. PT, Chow, Formation, Work of the Day or Sergeants Time, some Maintenance, Chow, and repeat.

Response by COL Charles Williams made May 29 at 2017 12:18 AM

COL Charles Williams — Mon, 29 May 2017 00:18:20 -0400

CSM Eric Olsen Good question.... Most will never understand... Long hard days.

Response by PFC Jonathan Albano made May 29 at 2017 12:24 AM

PFC Jonathan Albano — Mon, 29 May 2017 00:24:48 -0400

If anybody asked me about Army life, I would probably tell them "It's one of the easiest jobs one could ever ask for, and yet, it's one of the hardest jobs one can ever do." They probably would say something along the lines of "That makes no sense!" or "I don't understand." from there I would simply smile and respond "Tell me about it."

Some things in life just have to be experienced to understand.

Response by CPT Aaron Kletzing made May 29 at 2017 9:55 AM

CPT Aaron Kletzing — Mon, 29 May 2017 09:55:06 -0400

The shorter, easier days are a way to balance the very long, hard days- which are the majority. There's always opportunity to train and get better and get more physically fit. Every day is a chance for leaders to make their teams better.

Response by CPT Private RallyPoint Member made May 29 at 2017 11:17 AM

CPT Private RallyPoint Member — Mon, 29 May 2017 11:17:12 -0400

That is a hard one. I am a Platoon Trainer right now. I just say I am a Instructor. If they ask for more detail I will let them know. But it is hard to explain what we do to people. I thought it was funny to hear my daughter tell me to only shoot the bad people today when I would leave to go to work.

Response by SGT Robert Cupp made May 29 at 2017 1:20 PM

SGT Robert Cupp — Mon, 29 May 2017 13:20:35 -0400

Laying all your units BII out at 0900 then guarding it all day and finally at 1713 your platoon sergeant will tell you to just put it up because the layout will be tomorrow morning. Then at 1720 when everything is back in the connex the XO, 1sg and commander will show up and wonder why all the BII isn't laid out. Then you and 3 other people if you are lucky will quickly try to lay it all out again. The whole platoon was supposed to be there helping and at the beginning there was plenty of people there, but now the workforce has slowly diminished throughout the day and only about three people are there because they couldn't think of a good reason to disappear. The broke dicks will milk their profiles and the smokers will take 30 minute smoke breaks. Then at 1730 a mass text will go out saying that no one is released until the layout is finished. Most of the people who have been hiding all day will slowly start to trickle back in complaining everyone else has been gone all day. Everyone will be pissed off and they will put up the BII all half assed. Some of the Specialists will be muttering about comp time and not coming in for pt the next day but then they will be heartbroken when the 1sg says 0630 pt. When you are finally released everyone will haul ass away from the motor pool as quickly as possible so they don't get called back.

Response by SFC Private RallyPoint Member made May 29 at 2017 2:24 PM

SFC Private RallyPoint Member — Mon, 29 May 2017 14:24:32 -0400

You don't really. That's almost like trying to explain Auto Michanics to a Rocket scientist! The two just don't work well together. Lol

Response by CSM Eric Olsen made May 29 at 2017 4:33 PM

CSM Eric Olsen — Mon, 29 May 2017 16:33:55 -0400

The bottom line to all of this is that preventing Soldiers from sitting around wasting their time and not getting better prepared for future combat is probably the easiest problem to avoid/fix in the Army. "Battalion" and/or "brigade" will continue to take training time away from leaders for seemingly silly tasks, but I am also fully aware that simply talking to your Soldiers, always teaching them Warrior Tasks and Battle Drills (WTBDs-http://bit.ly/2rgC7tk), and signing them up for a school will always impact their careers. Why aren't we better about this across the board? Does fault redt at the platoon and company levels? Someone educate me please. SGM Private RallyPoint Member,CSM Carl Cunningham

Participation deadline approaches for WTBD list, PRT survey » TRADOC

November 9, 2016. by Stephanie Slater, U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command. Posted in Around the Command, Building The Army, Featured, Force 2025 and Beyond, Frontpage

Response by SGM Mark Magnussen made May 29 at 2017 9:11 PM

SGM Mark Magnussen — Mon, 29 May 2017 21:11:31 -0400

I like 1SG Short' response. I'd add hip pocket training on everything from crew served weapons to cleaning those weapons. Random inspections on everything from your fart sack to tent pegs.

Response by SPC Rob Lewis made May 31 at 2017 1:40 PM

SPC Rob Lewis — Wed, 31 May 2017 13:40:07 -0400

Embrace the suck....The job you will hate while doing it but, you will miss when you are out.

Response by Lt Col Jim Coe made May 31 at 2017 2:50 PM

Lt Col Jim Coe — Wed, 31 May 2017 14:50:58 -0400

Two part answer:
1. If somebody asked me about the Army, I would give them the Air Force perspective. The young Army guys I've seen, mostly airborne, train hard, fight hard, and play hard. Their senior NCOs run everything. You want a group of soldiers loaded on your airplane at 0900, you go find the Sergeant Major, politely tell him what you want, and it will happen on time. Also, they spend a lot of time waiting for stuff to happen.

2. My Air Force answer is in the form of a dialog between an imaginary me as a Captain and a PC (pure civilian) we'll call Pete.
Pete: Nice to meet you, Jim. What do you do?
Jim: I work at the air base.
Pete: What do you do there?
Jim: I'm a pilot.
Pete: Wow. That sounds exciting. Have you been to Afghanistan (Iraq, Bosnia, Somalia, Viet Nam, or where ever was in the news yesterday)?
Jim: It can be an exciting job at times, but most of it is pretty routine. No, I haven't been to Afghanistan. I teach lieutenants to fly airplanes.
Pete: Oh. I don't know if I could learn to fly.
Jim: Well, Pete, flying isn't as hard as you might think. You can drive a car, right?
Pete: Yeh, sure.
Jim: Then you've got two-thirds of flying figured out. You operate the car in two dimensions plus control speed. (If Pete's eyes start to glaze over now I try to disengage as quickly as possible.) To fly, all you need to do is learn how to control the third dimension, up and down, or altitude, and you've got the basic ability to fly an airplane.
Pete: I think I could do that.
Jim: Well, of course you drive a car on a road most of the time. There aren't paved roads in the sky and you can't pull over to the side a park if something goes wrong. Flying takes more concentration than driving. The environment you're in is changing frequently and sometimes things come at you pretty fast. Remember an airliner flys about ten times faster than a car driving on the Interstate.
Pete: That makes it sound a lot harder.
Jim: There's more to being a pilot some people expect. We take a year to make an Air Force pilot.
Pete: That seems like a long time. Is it worth it?
Jim: We think so. After a year of training the students can fly in almost any type of weather. They also know basic combat maneuvers they will need in the future. And they have learned how to think ahead of an airplane going over 500 miles per hour. They have all the basic abilities they need to be assigned to any Air Force air plane and fly safely.
Pete: Sounds like a pretty cool job.
Jim: It is. (In the 1980s I would have added, and those wings are a real chick magnet.)

Response by SPC Donn Sinclair made Jun 14 at 2019 6:57 AM

SPC Donn Sinclair — Fri, 14 Jun 2019 06:57:42 -0400

Explain it to someone who's not/never been in? If the same guy/girl asks if the water's cold, tell them there's only one way to find out.