Someone asked what's the hardest part in the Army. I told him it's dealing with @*#$ on a daily basis. Who agrees?

Well. As long as I'm on a roll...

The biggest "@*#$'s" are the E-4's and E-5's that think they know shit. I could rant forever about these little cretins but I'll keep it short. These "@*#$'s" have some kind of mystical ideals of how everyone else is supposed to act IAW THEIR Standards. If ANYONE above their rank falls short, they are "toxic leaders". A "@*#$" Cook or gas jockey can spot someone not doing -10 Maintenance with the TM in their hands, (they still have that right?) on their vehicle and all of a sudden the whole world/Army turns to shit. "@*#$" leaders can't even swear or call cool cadences any more because of your whiny little asses and your fragile feelings.

OH! and the word you were seeking in the title of this thread is "BASIS" not "Bases". (I see you corrected this error. Thank You. Using the wrong word pretty much makes you look like a "@*#$".)

Fully concur. Excellent description of how things really are, as well. For anyone who is not familiar with how a BCT really is, it may appear that there is just a lot of hyperbole and sarcasm in your comment, but you've hit center mass with that round. Well done!

MSG Pat Colby - Steady!!!

spent time in a IN Bde HQs as a Pvt/E-6

Sgt (Join to see) ,
I love the serenity prayer adage. So very true.

The adage I subscribe to is: "The Army advances one ETS, one retirement, one death at a time." Seems to fit the situation all the time.

I disagree with you, respectably. Anyone that's spent a little time in the army, that's all I can speak for, can agree that dealing with anyone who outranks you can be very tedious and stressful. Some can take it and roll on, others cannot. For myself, it got very testing after 8 years in, by the time I got to 10 years in, I was biting my tongue and counting my days remaining. Many cannot ask a simple question from higher echelons without being embarrassed or degraded. Everyone has their own unique experience.

SGT Chris Hill - I worked on the Space Shuttle program for 33 years. I had bosses that would give me instructions when they did not know what they were talking about. I could have quit, or accept that I would have to put up with folks that were not competent. Rather than argue with them, I would tell them what they wanted to hear, and then do the job the way it needed to be done. I lasted in a harsh working environment because I loved the Space Shuttle program. Yes, it is stressful, but you will find plenty of turkeys in the civilian world also. I had been working on the program for two years, when I had a new boss that was incompetent. He had asked how many Assembly Language programs that we were running. I told him that there were 15 programs. He told me that I was wrong. I showed him a printout that listed the number of programs as 15. That made him mad, so he had me provide him with a daily activity report as punishment for showing him up. I went to his manager to complain. It turns out that they had worked togrether before and were friends. Even thought I was in the right, I had to wait for six months until he left. I had plenty of other cases that I had managers that were not as skilled or knowledgeable as I was. Like you said, you bite your tongue and move on.

I had one boss that would have weekly staff meetings where he could ramble on about nothing for two hours. I was working 60 + hours a week and resented having to go to these meetings. I got in the habit of scheduling my own meetings at the same time, so I had an excuse to miss his staff meetings. We had plenty of meetings. I would always try to make the meetings that I conducted last no more than one hour. We had flight readiness reviews that would last from 6 to 10 hours long. My part of the presentation would usually be finished in 10 to 15 minutes. Talk about tedious. Again, If you are doing something that you love, learn to take things in stride. If you do not love what you are doing, consider finding something else.