What civilian skills did you have that transferred to your military experience?

2022-10-01T16:50:26-04:00

For me, I grew up in the New England woods. Played, hunted, and camped there a lot. We played Army games all the time, and even had BB Gun ‘wars’ in the thick woods. Learned to listen-really listen- to the sounds of the woods. Tracked animals and my friends. Became my second home.

Enter Vietnam. All those skills transferred to my time in ‘Nam. Recon for me was a natural fit. Saved my life, and my team members, several times noticing, hearing, and smelling the jungle/woods. Extension of my childhood.

So what do you think you brought with you to the military from your childhood, civilian lives?

Response by SGT Ruben Lozada made Oct 1 at 2022 6:23 PM

2022-10-01T18:23:31-04:00

Communication skills as an administrative assistant.

Response by SGM Mikel Dawson made Oct 2 at 2022 1:18 AM

2022-10-02T01:18:44-04:00

Feb 2003 I was in Camp Virginia. One day after chow, walking back to work I passed a refer trailer where a couple soldiers were standing talking. I heard them talking over the running refer unit the trailer was load with frozen goods but not cooling. I stepped up to them asked what was wrong. Was told they couldn't get in touch with maintenance and the unit wasn't cooling. I ask if they had a ladder. The Mess SGT told the SPC to get one. I climbed up. The unit was a Thermoking unit, which I had been schooled on I looked at the gauges, ask the SGT if he had a hammer which he got. I then tapped the 3 way valve and heard the "clunk" of it changing. Looked at the pressure gauges, they returned to normal. The Mess SGT, "SGM, how did you do that". I replied, "I am a Reserve Soldier, many of us have different civilian skills as well. I was a trained Thermoking mechanic in another life."

Response by LTC Eugene Chu made Oct 2 at 2022 7:44 AM

2022-10-02T07:44:19-04:00

I finished business school in 2015. Along with high level classes, I also learned about civilian project management and improved my Excel skills. During a mobilization for COVID, I used those MBA talents during a logistics mission.

Response by CPT Private RallyPoint Member made Oct 2 at 2022 7:18 PM

2022-10-02T19:18:50-04:00

Power Point and Microsoft Office software.

Seriously........... I entered at age 39 as a military intel analyst after being in corporate finance and corporate marketing.

So I totally hit the ground running. By time kids figured out how to work Word, Power Point, and Excel I was long done with my products. Plagiarism was just about required. They don't want us coming up with original ideas. They want is regurgitating vetted intel through reliable sources, copy, paste, and document the source.

Response by CPT Lawrence Cable made Oct 3 at 2022 6:02 AM

2022-10-03T06:02:24-04:00

Raised on a farm, so I was outside a lot, had gotten used to hard work and in the heat, cold, rain and snow, and already got up early. Me and my buddies were in the woods a lot, most of us hunted, so I was familiar with firearms. And since I was on a farm with all sorts of different equipment, I felt confident that I could operate anything with wheels or tracks if you showed me the controls and let me play with it for a bit. BTW, I did find that to be true.

Response by CSM Richard StCyr made Oct 3 at 2022 10:07 AM

2022-10-03T10:07:14-04:00

I was an Eagle Scout and an apprentice Mason.
Map reading, orienteering, stalking, first aid, physical fitness, hiking, mountaineering, and marksmanship; all things we learned in scouting were useful. The intangibles of good ethics, morals, discipline and courtesy also helped.

I enlisted as a 51B in 1980 which is now a 12W Carpentry and Masonry Specialist. All my civilian training as a masons apprentice directly transferred to my MOS. I also took drafting and machine shop in high school which was really helpful in blueprint reading.

Growing up in northern NH in Coos county, where there were more cows than people and we had free reign of the woods, brooks and Connecticut river didn't hurt either.

Response by SSG Carlos Madden made Oct 3 at 2022 11:41 AM

2022-10-03T11:41:50-04:00

I was pretty young when I went in, 17, and I grew up in a diverse area - both racially and socially economically. That was the only thing I ever knew but I really came to value those people skills when I got into the military because it wasn't the first time I'd been part of such a diverse group of backgrounds. In contrast some of my peers were a little shellshocked in basic since they'd never lived with people of difference races or sexualities.

Response by MSG Thomas Currie made Oct 3 at 2022 5:43 PM

2022-10-03T17:43:18-04:00

The main civilian skill that I brought with me into the Army was the ability to read and write -- which were both unusual for an enlisted soldier in the late-1960s and early 1970s. I grew up as a city kid from THE city (NYC) so not much on the country skills that many have mentioned.

I spent a year and a half in Navy ROTC before leaving college. That was the first time I handled any firearm. I found that I liked the M1918 BAR and I did not find it "uncontrollable" at all -- it was a good intro to the M60 machine gun I carried most of my tour in Vietnam. I got a little time on the Navy twin 3"/50 which translated very well to the controls on a tank as an 11E tank crewman. The Navy also taught me how to Call For and Adjust Indirect Fire -- although in the Army I had to remember that the Army only used add, drop, right, and left, but didn't include up and down even for Illumination fire.

The one "civilian skill" that the Army eventually recognized was that both in high school and college I was a photographer for the school newspapers. This turned out to be very helpful when I was an E6 and someone in the upper Army "leadership" got the brain fart that every NCO needed to have a Secondary MOS and that the common pairing of two combat arms MOS didn't count, they wanted every NCO to have an SMOS in a different field.

I checked with the personnel geeks to see how they planned to implement this and I really didn't like the answer. They were going to go through everyone's records looking to see if they had ever served in an MOS in a different field, if so they would just make that the secondary MOS. If the NCO had never served in another field, the next step was to direct their unit to conduct OJT in some other MOS available in the unit. At that time I was an 19E30 in a basic training company. I had spent about 2 months working as a 76Y Supply Sergeant (which fortunately was NOT in my records). The only other MOS at the NCO level was for a Cook. I had absolutely no desire to OJT and earn a secondary in either MOS. I asked the personnel guy what else they had. He said that people who had a civilian skill could apply to have that awarded an their SMOS based on "prior civilian experience" -- I did a little research and discovered the MOS 84B was a Still Photographer. Before close of business that day, I had a request going up through channels for award of SMOS 84B30 based on my "prior civilian experience" as a newspaper photographer!

About a month later the request came back approved. There was only one catch, I had to take and pass the MOS Proficiency Test for 84B. The same old written tests that we all took back then to qualify for Pro Pay. I took the test about six months later, and surprisingly enough my score would have even qualified for Pro Pay if I had been serving as an 84B. The funny part was the the test was divided into four or five section on different topics and I had nearly aced all the sections except one that I had gotten a terrible score on that one section. It was the section about photographic equipment. Almost all the questions were something like "You have been assigned to [some task, such as take aerial photos of your post] which equipment will you choose?" where all the answers were stuff like AN/XYZ-123 with just the Army equipment number and no nomenclature. I had never used any Army camera equipment so I absolutely didn't have a clue what any of the model numbers were. The other sections of the test were about techniques and procedures so I did great on those. Passing the test qualified me for SMOS 84B which I held until it was changed to SMOS 84Z when I made E8.

Overall I took a lot of photos while I was in the Army but I never did take any photos FOR the Army.