Then the Soviet Army is for you!
"In Soviet Russia, Army joins YOU!"
I'm thinking of joining the Navy
- Thread starter Gaith
- Start date
"In Soviet Russia, Army joins YOU!"
Not so good, alas... I slacked off on college math and didn't do any engineering - not a machine/parts guy at all. I realize that that might pose difficulties... maybe I'll have to take a more combat-prone approach when all is said and done. We'll see...
Not really. If I'm going to go in, why not go all in, is my thinking.
Oh, I haven't got any illusions there; no worries.
No doubt. Well, like I said (and @Hendricks), if Navy OCS doesn't pan out, I'll definitely be willing to consider alternatives...There's staff work in any service, too.
"In Soviet Russia, Army joins YOU!"
Good to hear. As a former Sailor, I can say that you're doing a good thing.
Now, the thing about OCS, like any other boot camp (for any service), is to just keep your chin up and roll with the punches.
Make it through the first two weeks and you'll make it through the rest. It WILL be stressful. No joke. You may even find yourself doubting your choice.
See and that's big thing right there. First two weeks are generally a big mind-frak to get you accustomed to military life.
Having come from a house where getting yelled at was the norm for me, I was already used to it.
If you can make it through those first two weeks, you'll do fine.
About the worst thing you can do however is to start doubting yourself. It's all over from that point on. ("If OCS doesn't pan out.."). Yes it will be stressful and you're only human.
But just don't give up, don't doubt yourself, and hang in there. Remember the other guys in your division are going through same s**t as you. So you won't be alone.
That's how you know you're part of a team right there. Keep that in mind and you'll do great.
And then you'll know can make it through OCS.
So I do wish the very best.
Now, the thing about OCS, like any other boot camp (for any service), is to just keep your chin up and roll with the punches.
Make it through the first two weeks and you'll make it through the rest. It WILL be stressful. No joke. You may even find yourself doubting your choice.
See and that's big thing right there. First two weeks are generally a big mind-frak to get you accustomed to military life.
Having come from a house where getting yelled at was the norm for me, I was already used to it.
If you can make it through those first two weeks, you'll do fine.
About the worst thing you can do however is to start doubting yourself. It's all over from that point on. ("If OCS doesn't pan out.."). Yes it will be stressful and you're only human.
But just don't give up, don't doubt yourself, and hang in there. Remember the other guys in your division are going through same s**t as you. So you won't be alone.
That's how you know you're part of a team right there. Keep that in mind and you'll do great.
And then you'll know can make it through OCS.
So I do wish the very best.
Yeah, didn't even pick an actual OFFICER rank to compare it to, threw Captain in with enlisted ranks for the other services. Other than that, well, he wasn't that close, even. Captain is an O-6, pretty easy to compare, really...
Edit: Actually, he boned that up, too. Gunnery Sergeant is an E-7, while Technical Sergeant and Staff Sergeant are E-6s. The Navy's E-6 rank is Petty Officer, 1st class. Either way, all enlisted ranks, whereas Captain is, shockingly, an Officer rank...
http://usmilitary.about.com/od/theorderlyroom/l/blenlrank.htm
Edit: Actually, he boned that up, too. Gunnery Sergeant is an E-7, while Technical Sergeant and Staff Sergeant are E-6s. The Navy's E-6 rank is Petty Officer, 1st class. Either way, all enlisted ranks, whereas Captain is, shockingly, an Officer rank...
http://usmilitary.about.com/od/theorderlyroom/l/blenlrank.htm
My brother was in the Navy for 10 years and absolutely loved it. He said that he would have stayed if he would have remained single.
He left a full lieutenant and he never really had any issues with the training, but then again, he runs about 5 miles a day, and has since Jr. High School. The officer training was pretty easy too since he'd seen a lot of it during ROTC.
To the OP, be wary about any of the recruiters. One of the teachers at my son's karate school wanted to join the reserves and the recruiter pulled some sort of switch on him and he ended up signing up for full enlistment. He tried to fight it, but the bottom line is, he signed the forms so he's stuck for the next several years.
If you want to be an officer, make sure you know exactly what you're signing or else you may be swabbing decks for the next 4 years.
He left a full lieutenant and he never really had any issues with the training, but then again, he runs about 5 miles a day, and has since Jr. High School. The officer training was pretty easy too since he'd seen a lot of it during ROTC.
To the OP, be wary about any of the recruiters. One of the teachers at my son's karate school wanted to join the reserves and the recruiter pulled some sort of switch on him and he ended up signing up for full enlistment. He tried to fight it, but the bottom line is, he signed the forms so he's stuck for the next several years.
If you want to be an officer, make sure you know exactly what you're signing or else you may be swabbing decks for the next 4 years.
Ummmm, you guys thought he was being serious?
gturner claims two more victims
I guess I'll have to work harder to make things more obvious.
* scratches head *
You see, just because an admiral is an O10 and a general is an O10 doesn't mean they're actually equivalent in any way.
Suppose, for example, that General David Petraeus met with Fleet Admiral Abdul Ahad Muhammed bin Nidal, supreme commander of the Taliban Navy. Petraeus points out that the Taliban Navy consists of a Coleman inflatable boat purchased at a flea market in Kandahar, that said boat needs a hole-patching job, is missing an oar, and that the two rowers (who make up the bulk of the Taliban Navy) are laid up in hospital with a vicious case of VD and uncontrollable diarrhea. So Fleet Admiral ibn Nidal (who prior to the lucky purchase of the Coleman boat was running a goat-meat kiosk on the side of the road outside an American base) replies, "That well may be so, but I still outrank you, as I'm an O11 and you're just an O10."
Well, rest assured that the same situation occurs in the corridors of the Pentagon on a daily basis, with Army and Air Force generals quizzically asking their Navy counterparts, "Hey, didn't we see you plopping down the mashed potatoes in the cafeteria last week?" And the guys in white reply, "Yes, but now we are admirals and get to make other people ladle out the mashed potatoes."
* scratches head *
You see, just because an admiral is an O10 and a general is an O10 doesn't mean they're actually equivalent in any way.
Suppose, for example, that General David Petraeus met with Fleet Admiral Abdul Ahad Muhammed bin Nidal, supreme commander of the Taliban Navy. Petraeus points out that the Taliban Navy consists of a Coleman inflatable boat purchased at a flea market in Kandahar, that said boat needs a hole-patching job, is missing an oar, and that the two rowers (who make up the bulk of the Taliban Navy) are laid up in hospital with a vicious case of VD and uncontrollable diarrhea. So Fleet Admiral ibn Nidal (who prior to the lucky purchase of the Coleman boat was running a goat-meat kiosk on the side of the road outside an American base) replies, "That well may be so, but I still outrank you, as I'm an O11 and you're just an O10."
Well, rest assured that the same situation occurs in the corridors of the Pentagon on a daily basis, with Army and Air Force generals quizzically asking their Navy counterparts, "Hey, didn't we see you plopping down the mashed potatoes in the cafeteria last week?" And the guys in white reply, "Yes, but now we are admirals and get to make other people ladle out the mashed potatoes."
Oh, I own the book - devouring it some years back
Smaller navies don't have Fleet Admirals. If they're lucky, they may have a rear admiral in charge.
Difficult to tell when he's trolling and when he's just pretending to troll, I suppose. Without putting anything else into a post, difficult to pass those inflections on the internet. Without more context, not much difference between being wrong and pretending to be wrong, I guess. And since he even repeated this one, it was a poor attempt at humor if that's what he was going for...Ummmm, you guys thought he was being serious?
Nice try... Nobody would try that joke in the Pentagon, of course, because everybody knows that it's a Navy man who's the top officer in the armed forces these days. Plus admirals are running four of the Unified Commands, compared to three for AF generals and one each for Army and Marines. An admiral is even in charge of European Command, which used to be Army turf without question. But anyway, keep on trollin'!
--Justin
^^ You guys, please don't accuse somebody of Trolling. Accusing somebody of Trolling is Warnable. If you really think somebody is Trolling, use the Notify button.
Curious, why, is trolling a crime and would (false) accusation have a baaaad effect on the poster? It's not actual hurting anybody if you say "this guy posts off topic or extraneous messages". The Internet is taking itself way too seriously when it comes to "trolls" on message boards.
^^ One can discuss that in the bbs-related sub-forum, I believe.
Back to the thread, do I therefore take it that, apart from the dramatically increased likelihood of shooting at people, Army OCS would be more interesting, better paid and all-around generally preferable than enlisted Navy? (If enlisted Navy really is just swabbing decks...) If so, then my choice order might be, from most to least desirable,
Navy OCS, Air Force/Army OCS, enlisted Air Force/Marines, enlisted Navy/Army
(Don't think I'd want to do Marines OCS even apart from its physical rigors...)
Back to the thread, do I therefore take it that, apart from the dramatically increased likelihood of shooting at people, Army OCS would be more interesting, better paid and all-around generally preferable than enlisted Navy? (If enlisted Navy really is just swabbing decks...) If so, then my choice order might be, from most to least desirable,
Navy OCS, Air Force/Army OCS, enlisted Air Force/Marines, enlisted Navy/Army
(Don't think I'd want to do Marines OCS even apart from its physical rigors...)
Even navies without any real ships will have a full admiral in charge, such as Madagascar, which only has 500 navy personnel.
We never had a fleet admiral prior to WW-II and haven't had one since Halsey retired in 1947. The only reason we created the rank was so the Navy didn't suffer hurt feelings about the five star generals the Army was minting.
Little known fact: Navies were first created by the treaty of Bodega Bay in 1235 BC. The warring kings of several nations held a meeting because they'd been banishing their undesirable male populations to each other's kingdoms in an effort to protect their daughters from riff-raff.
Unfortunately the only result was that all their daughters were being wooed by foreign riff-raff, so they ingeniously decided to keep the riff-raff at sea for as long as possible by inventing things they called 'naval warfare,' 'extended maritime patrol,' and 'blockade duty.'
Well everybody knew that if Obama got elected the military command would consist of nothing but affirmative action and special ed.
Besides, generals from the other branches suck up to the admirals because everyone likes to spend weekends partying on the water with the guy who's got the biggest, most expensive boat.
Personally, I'd stick the USCG in front of all that -- but then, that's where I've been for the past 19 years. Plus 4 more for the Academy before Active Duty.
Cheers,
-CM-
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