How often do you train with other Service Branches?

SPC(P) Private RallyPoint Member — Sun, 05 Jun 2016 18:51:13 -0400

Pretty straight forward question, and do you think we as a whole can benefit from it?

Response by SSG Pete Fleming made Jun 5 at 2016 7:00 PM

SSG Pete Fleming — Sun, 05 Jun 2016 19:00:10 -0400

When I was in, I trained and worked with all branches, and even other country's militaries... and loved it!!!

Response by TSgt Alex Benningfield made Jun 5 at 2016 7:17 PM

TSgt Alex Benningfield — Sun, 05 Jun 2016 19:17:48 -0400

Sad to say only once did I have a joint training event with the Army National Guard. I think there is a lot to benefit from joint training since we all bring a different perspective on leadership, team development and technical aspects of the specific AFSC/ MOS etc

Response by SFC Everett Oliver made Jun 5 at 2016 7:54 PM

SFC Everett Oliver — Sun, 05 Jun 2016 19:54:38 -0400

Can't speak for today but 70's-early 90's we had a joint Army Marine exercise with Ft Bragg and Camp Lejune involved, And I can't remember all the exercises in Europe with the US Air Force and elements of the military from Germany, England, and others....

Response by Lt Col Private RallyPoint Member made Jun 5 at 2016 9:29 PM

Lt Col Private RallyPoint Member — Sun, 05 Jun 2016 21:29:45 -0400

All the time. Of course I am a joint plans officer. Yeah there is a lot of benefit from it. Each service can learn what makes the others tick. Gives you better SA on why certain things are happening in the real arena. As a air guy doing CAS with the ground guys. I always general idea what was going on. But once I got to talk to some of them, certain things that occurred make more sense now the I reflect on it.

Response by SN Greg Wright made Jun 5 at 2016 11:38 PM

SN Greg Wright — Sun, 05 Jun 2016 23:38:04 -0400

Well I was in the Navy and stationed on an Air Force base, so......lots. Heh.

Response by PO2 Vernon Smith made Jun 5 at 2016 11:47 PM

PO2 Vernon Smith — Sun, 05 Jun 2016 23:47:35 -0400

Training away, maybe. Prior Navy.....got discharged by them......screwed over on my retirement......started working for the Army.......LOVE it.....transferred back to the Navy. Worst decision of my life..........or was that joining in the first place?!?!

Response by SGM Joel Cook made Jun 6 at 2016 2:39 AM

SGM Joel Cook — Mon, 06 Jun 2016 02:39:24 -0400

In 27 years I trained with the Navy twice. In Iraq I also had a Joint MTOE with Air Force, Marines, Navy and Army but that was Ops not training. Both times I trained with the Navy it was training for insertions, by sea, behind enemy lines to set up commo links for upcoming Battalion Level Infantry Combat Ops. The first time as a SGT/E5 was an eye opening, seemingly career ending, catastrophicly difficult problem. I and everyone else, found out to late that the radios used by the Navy and Army are only about 90% compatible. Therefore the SOIs produced for us to use with the Navy were more than 60% unusable. The first day everything was fine but when time came to change Freqs our radios could not load the Navy numbers. Once I found that problem I went through the whole book and found bunches of unusable data that had to be worked around. My company and battalion commanders were ready to fire me because they thought I was incompatant. I had to explain the problem to my Bn SIGO over the radio, from the field, he was also unaware of it. Then he had to publish a hand written work around to fix the problems in the middle of a Bn Combat Training Exercise. The second time as a SFC, I was aware of the problem ahead of time, when no one else in the Bn was. So I was a hero, we a had a hand published work around SOI published and handed out before the exercise started. We briefed leaders and radio operators on the difficulty ahead of time. I actually got an award for the positive effect it had for preventing the same kind of problems we had when I was a SGT. So yes we can suffer or benefit from training with our sister services. I am sure there are probably other similar difficulties in inter service OPS.

Response by GySgt Private RallyPoint Member made Jun 6 at 2016 4:21 AM

GySgt Private RallyPoint Member — Mon, 06 Jun 2016 04:21:15 -0400

As a Marine, I attend schools hosted by other services all the time. It comes with the territory. I don't really know how to answer this question because it's always been this way. I would say it doesn't "hurt" training with other services.

Response by TSgt Private RallyPoint Member made Jun 6 at 2016 12:14 PM

TSgt Private RallyPoint Member — Mon, 06 Jun 2016 12:14:19 -0400

Not enough. How often do you think we should train with other branches? If it could be formalized and mandated how should we approach this type of training? My opinion is that once a unit can complete individual and collective tasks then they should complete Joint Training.

Response by PO1 Private RallyPoint Member made Jun 7 at 2016 9:07 AM

PO1 Private RallyPoint Member — Tue, 07 Jun 2016 09:07:02 -0400

I was once a Navy NCO, wearing Army ACUs, working on with Air Force aircraft with a Marine boss, for a Joint Command with a Navy boss and Army operations units, on an Air Force base that was managed by the Army. If you aren't training joint, you are unprepared.

Response by Cpl Justin Goolsby made Jun 8 at 2016 11:38 AM

Cpl Justin Goolsby — Wed, 08 Jun 2016 11:38:02 -0400

Worst 2 months of my military career. I'm a Marine, but my MOS goes to school with Sailors. No offense to any Navy here, but I hated PTing with Sailors. Instead of PTing to our level, we had to drop ourselves to their level. We once, just once attempted to do a 3 mile run. While most of the Marines were done and finished in 20 minutes, we had to sit and wait there for upwards of 45 minutes to an hour while we waited for the Sailors to catch up with us. After that, practically every run we did was at a walking pace to keep Sailors from falling out.

Response by PFC Private RallyPoint Member made Jun 11 at 2016 3:33 AM

PFC Private RallyPoint Member — Sat, 11 Jun 2016 03:33:26 -0400

I am training to be a Diver at NDSTC at NSA Panama City. Nearly half our class is made up of Navy Seabees, and about half of our instructors are SeaBees. I think working closely together here provides an excellent foundation for us to work together in the future when necessary.

Response by PO2 Private RallyPoint Member made Jun 13 at 2016 11:36 PM

PO2 Private RallyPoint Member — Mon, 13 Jun 2016 23:36:58 -0400

Most of the time I've worked with other branches it's been Marines but I've worked with Army and Philippine Army SF and their Combat Engineers but mostly the Marines if I had to pick one to work with all the time I'd pick the Marines my favorite branch of the military outside the seabees

Response by SGT Private RallyPoint Member made Apr 2 at 2019 4:15 AM

SGT Private RallyPoint Member — Tue, 02 Apr 2019 04:15:10 -0400

Very often.