What duty stations/units in the Army have a high mixture of garrison and field experiences?

Sgt Private RallyPoint Member — Fri, 02 Feb 2018 03:18:26 -0500

Gals/gents, I'm EASing from the Marine Corps this year and I'm joining the Army. Currently an E-4 and I've been on both the Garrison (Law Enforcement) side as well as the field side and enjoy both thoroughly (field side a bit more). What duty stations / units in the Army have a high mixture of the two or just the field side?

Response by SSG Private RallyPoint Member made Feb 2 at 2018 10:58 AM

SSG Private RallyPoint Member — Fri, 02 Feb 2018 10:58:48 -0500

It's just as the Marines are, it's all on where you go. Every unit is different and most work in cycles between the road and field so it's hard to really pinpoint who does what. I've been in for ten years and every unit I've been to did a little field work, but more road than field in my experience.

Response by MSG Private RallyPoint Member made Feb 2 at 2018 12:04 PM

MSG Private RallyPoint Member — Fri, 02 Feb 2018 12:04:50 -0500

Depends, really. For example, when I was at FT Irwin, I was in the field every month, but when I went to Landstuhl Regional Medical Center, my "field time" consisted of going to the range once a year.

Response by SFC Private RallyPoint Member made Feb 2 at 2018 12:47 PM

SFC Private RallyPoint Member — Fri, 02 Feb 2018 12:47:39 -0500

Stay away from Irwin. Like SSG Fletcher said, every instillation is different, and your training cycles will dictate when and how often you go to the field. At JBLM I only went on one CTC rotation the entire 6 1/2 years I was there, along with sporadic field time for team/squad/company lanes. In one year at Bliss I went to JRTC, and NTC.

Response by SFC Dennis A. made Feb 2 at 2018 2:10 PM

SFC Dennis A. — Fri, 02 Feb 2018 14:10:13 -0500

It all depends on the duty stations and the unit mission. I always managed to end up in the ones that spent more time gone than at home. Made the time fly by and never got bored.

Response by SFC Greg Bruorton made Feb 2 at 2018 4:33 PM

SFC Greg Bruorton — Fri, 02 Feb 2018 16:33:26 -0500

Most of the Signal Corps units that I was assigned to had plenty mixture of garrison duties and field exercises. But I'm from the old Army where painting rocks and raking gravel around the barracks' areas were commonplace. We also did a lot of drill and ceremonies, riot control training, as well as communication exercises before deploying to the field.
Field trips lasted from two weeks to a month in duration. But back to the garrison life, there were plenty of field display inspections both in and out of the barracks.

M.P.s are still in high demand with Signal and MI units whereby they would guard sensitive and classified containments both on and off post.

Forts Gordon and Bragg come to mind having mixtures of field and garrison activities.

Response by PFC David Gettman made Mar 5 at 2018 10:28 AM

PFC David Gettman — Mon, 05 Mar 2018 10:28:35 -0500

If you want to spend a lot of time in the field, 2d Cavalry Regiment, Rose Barracks, Vilseck, Germany is the answer. Last year the regiment was in a dozen different countries at once, from Estonia to Saudi Arabia. They have been training extensively with armies from former eastern bloc countries including Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania, Poland, Czech Republic, Bulgaria, etc......and have conducted a couple road marches covering well over 1000 miles through these countries. The most recent road march took them across the Black Sea to the border of Russia.

The 2d Cavalry Regiment is also the oldest continuously serving regiment in the Army, serving proudly since 1836. They are the main reaction force in Europe, capable of deploying anywhere in the world within 48-72 hours.