what y'all think?

[Pete_F]

OK, I wast talking to my g/f's brother in law, he's just got out of Army, was active for 10, 5 in reserves, did mostly "inside" work, ie no combat mos's.

Now then, he was telling me since im 33and have an assoc. degree 87 hrs college, and over 100 point scores on all my asvab scores he was kinda doggin me for choosing Infantry. I think hes just a dumbass and I want to know what yall think, I have had management positions at my last 2 jobs and they were all outdoor, dirty environments, hell i like being outside and, working with " the guys" I want to make the Army my last carreer and hope to prove myself as i always have and to grow and become a leader someday, I also know its gonna be hard to do but i also want to complete my education and get my batchelors at some point, he said thats impossible as a " 11 bang bang ". Well at that point i had grown tired of his shit so we left.

[AmericanGirl]

I have no military background, but I'm tossing in my 2 cents ( dont yell at me guys) IF you want to go infantry, dont let anyone dog you, especially someone who is what our infantry guys here would call a pogue. You know what you're in for if you go infantry, but it sounds like you can handle it. As far as school, there are quite a few good fully accredited online colleges nowdays, two guys in my Masters degree classes are in the military, one is active duty and the other is NG but works a fulltime job, and drills in addition to college... I also have had a couple adopted soldiers in the sandbox who were taking college classes online while they were over there... one of them had to get a new laptop, a lunatic shot his... not saying it would be easy, but if you are determined enough, you could do it. It comes down to what you want to do.

[Panzerman]

I don't know about the Army infantry, but I'm a grunt in the Marines and I can give you my perspective.

First, being 33, you'd better make sure you're in damn good shape - I'm 26, and I'm starting to feel like 40. This shit will make you old, fast. And as far as getting an education while being an active duty infantryman goes - again, not sure about the Army, but for us, there's no fucking way you'd have time to persue a degree.

There's a lot of ups to being a grunt, but there's a lot of misery to go with it.

[CadetFredendall]

I'm 20, an ASVAB of 94 and 82 credit hours and I enlisted 11B as well Don't let anyone get you down. This IS America, afterall. You can do whatever you want!

[Covertness]

Two jobs in the military as a whole. There's Infantry and those who support the infantry. Tell your g/f's brother to make himself useful and go get you a beer out of the fridge.

[Grimmy]

If you really have your heart set on joining up then you should seriously pursue that. There's nothing like regret for "things not tried". I would suggest going with as short a first time enlistment as you can get, as a "test run" tho. If you want to continue then you've got the re-enlistment options and if you find it's not appropriate to continue, for what ever reason, then you'll have less time invested.

If you want infantry, go infantry. There is nothing quite so pathetic as a soldier in any branch that wanted to be a grunt but got talked into something else. They tend to end up "wannabee" grunts and annoy everyone around them.
I have no idea how, exactly, the US Army or even the current USMC policies work but when I was a Marine grunt is wasn't hard at all to transfer out of the grunts once you'd finished your first enlistment. If that's true today as it was then, you can start as a "walklots" and then "trade up" to something less physical if you find your hyper advanced age has left you a bit fragile in the legs.

As far as acquiring education goes. I'd imagine that's a non-starter atm but this current "op tempo" wont last for ever and there's already talk about near future spindowns on deployments and such. Once things settle down, as they eventually will, Soldiers that had all they could manage on their plate will suddenly find themselves with squat all to do but inspections and occasional training deployments. When times like that occur, its either 'get educated' or declare guerilla war on the MPs and/or Duty NCOs A man's gotta have enemies, dontcha know?

[Vulture6]

First, being 33, you'd better make sure you're in damn good shape - I'm 26, and I'm starting to feel like 40. This shit will make you old, fast.

Ain’t that the truth! Seriously, that’s something to consider. You can handle it at 33 – but as you age, you don’t heal as quickly, and the grunts will make your body wear down.

And as far as getting an education while being an active duty infantryman goes - again, not sure about the Army, but for us, there's no fucking way you'd have time to persue a degree.

There are many Marine and Army infantrymen who are pursuing a college degree – HOWEVER – they are not assigned to a grunt unit while they’re doing it. Do not even dream of trying to go to college while you are on your first enlistment or while assigned to a deploying infantry unit. Generally, somewhere during your second enlistment you be assigned to a non-deploying unit. You might be able to work college in there – bottom line, don’t join the Army and enlist in the infantry if you’re doing it primarily to get the college benefit. But it doesn’t sound like you’re doing that.

[Pete_F]

Thanks Vulture6, You are correct, no i am not doing thisforcollege benefit, i did sign up for the gi bill, maybe use it later on in life! I know i will have to be in good shape and i know im no 18 year old, but i have always been active and an outdoors type of guy, i want to serve and feel the need to dosomething for my country and be paret of something bigger than myself. I figured it will take me a while to finish off my bat. degree, i already got my assoc, and i want to take classes online, i do know however it will take time this is something i want and im pretty hard headed i dont give up on anything i like the good fight and when you get waht it is your after you appreciate it that much more! I really hope my maturity ect.. will help me excell in the US Army then i will be able to help other Soldiers to make them succeed in whatever thet endeavor for.
Thanks for your reply to my questions guys!!! and any other comments/suggestions are welcomed, Thanks in advance
Pete

[armyinfmom63]

Tell your g/f's brother to make himself useful and go get you a beer out of the fridge

I agree with that!!

My son is in Infantry, and just getting ready to come back from Iraq. I "know" he didn't have anytime to pursue a degree while being deployed. Besides, I would have kicked his ass if he had taken his mind off of what he was there to do, and try to pursue a degree with all you have to think about and remember to achieve one. He did a great job, just maintaining his first job (being a soldier) on a daily basis. Besides, the way he told me, they only had time for their shifts and pretty much whatever sleep they could get, so college at that point was out of the question.
But once he gets back, if he wants to pursue college, and has the time, then I am all for it!! But he did just re-enlist for 5 more yrs.,( Because he loves the Infantry and what he is doing so much, that is what he told me..) so I am pretty much sure all he is thinking now is Army, Army, Army....

Good Luck with your enlistment, and I do hope all goes well with you!! I know we could use all the good Infantrymen that we can get!!

[BrianP]

I had 3 guys in there 30's in my platoon in basic and 2 of them were 33 and they did pretty good. I still hear from both of them from time to time, one of them hates the infantry and is trying to re-class and the other one loves it

So it really depends on the type of person you are