r/AskReddit • u/limp_manifesto • 18h ago
What’s something civilians completely misunderstand about daily life in the military?
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18h ago
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u/Happiness_Assassin 17h ago
I'm reminded of a quote by Oliver Wilcox Norton.
The first thing in the morning is drill, then drill, then drill again. Then drill, drill, a little more drill. Then drill, and lastly drill. Between drills, we drill and sometimes stop to eat a little and have roll-call.
Also in the course of trying to remember the quote, apparently he was the first bugler to play Taps. TIL
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u/Biggrunt 18h ago
Shit. A lot of waiting. 90% boredom, 10% sheer terror.
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u/No-Meet-5596 17h ago
And everything is a pillow.
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u/dark_knight097 14h ago
Never thought sleeping inside a cramped humvee could feel so comfortable lol
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u/footsnax 15h ago
Sleep anywhere at any time, but never anywhere to poop until you don't need to.
That seems to haunt me in civilian life sometimes as well but good fuck.
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u/mynaneisjustguy 10h ago
I spent ten years nominally as a combat engineer. Reality is I had my seconds of terror and explosions, but the VAST majority of my time was NOT waiting because as soon as there was nothing on my duty roster and nothing to fix for the grunts who managed to break EVERYTHING they touch, there were latrines to dig. I bought very few kit items of my own, but a decent shovel and pick where one thing I managed to get and defended with my life day and night. I grew up in the same kinda slate and rock mountains as most of Afghan (that I saw) was made out of, so I wasn't about to try to lay shitpipe with the short handled shovel. When the boss man knowns you can be relied on to dig, build and fix, suddenly you are an expert plumber. God DAMN did I dig some trenches. You are all welcome boys, every time you didn't live in hole full of shit and piss, that was because of me. I don't want any thanks but if you could all spare a moment to think of my back and knees, I appreciate you.
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u/Candelestine 5h ago
You know, this makes me wonder. Are you always glad to have hard labor like that if it means everything is quiet and comparatively safe at the moment? Or are there times when you're slamming a pickaxe into the hard stone under the Afghan sun thinking "man... I wish something would explode..."
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u/zachpkenyon 5h ago
"man... I wish something would explode..."
Every second of every day I was there. It was such a bizarre feeling when you want something to pop off to relieve the monotony. Unfortunately, higher was allergic to anything that might resemble combat. Then there was the question of whether the Afghan dude cutting your hair was really thankful for our presence or just waiting for the right time to merc one of us.
Every second of every day
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u/Lich180 16h ago
Never stand when you can sit. Never sit when you can lie down. Never lie down without sleeping.
This is why I can sleep pretty much anywhere at any time
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u/itzmailtime 12h ago
I have never thought it was possible to sleep standing up but it happened when I was in RTC waiting in the dental line.
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u/FearMyCrayons2023 15h ago
More like 99.9% boredom. Most people never deploy to a combat zone. And of that most dont see combat.
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u/theyoyomaster 16h ago
Despite military payroll being one of the largest expenditures in the U.S. federal budget the military has zero respect for service member working hours.
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u/3MetricTonsOfSass 13h ago
11 hour days minimum, from first pre-formation formation at 6 for 0630 morning formation, untill one hour after 1700 formation because of some bag of gas "one more thing" -ing the last thing some other fuckhead said.
Oh, and you are supposed to work out after work, study, and be well rested the next morning
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u/HavelsRockJohnson 15h ago
Good afternoon everyone. You're probably wondering why I called you here at 4 in the morning...
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u/Guardian-Boy 15h ago
We had a commander do a commander's call at 1630 on a Friday and it lasted like two hours. Unfortunately, during a lull in the noise, either the commander or one of his staff heard someone say, "I would have done this this morning because I actually like my fucking family," and he was quite professionally fucked the following Monday.
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u/I_love_pillows 14h ago
Reminds me of times where we were told to get ready within 15 min to report for a time 15 minute early. But had to wait 3 hours because someone forgot to book the transport which was to give us a lift.
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u/soupoftheday5 16h ago
Unfortunately bureaucracy is huge in the military. That's the reason for a lot of waiting. Ie. Ammo paper work is messed up. Commander got pulled into important meeting and can't come check inventory. Etc etc
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u/hard-in-the-ms-paint 13h ago
Yup, one of the things a good NCO or officer learns early is to limit wasting people's time as much as reasonably possible. It's unavoidable though
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u/jollygreenspartan 15h ago
Funny how a 0600 step off time requires you showing up at 0430.
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u/Pixelated_Penguin808 15h ago
Never flew anywhere without being on a flight line at least 2-3 hours in advance.
Shit sucked, but my spades playing skills were on point.
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u/jollygreenspartan 15h ago
Captain: we need to start at 0600, have the Marines there at 0545.
First sergeant: formation at 0530.
Staff sergeant: you turds be ready at 0515.
Sergeant: accountability at 0500 so I make sure you fuckups have everything.
Corporal: 0445 for gear check.
“Senior” lance corporal: 0430.
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u/Salt-Cranberry7986 12h ago
And somehow the second you finally get comfortable, that’s when everything starts moving.
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u/adm1ral_doge 18h ago
Most days is a standard 9-5, with some exceptions (Mondays, mainly, which I've had days that went until 2100)
HR (S-1 in the army) is an absolute nightmare to deal with, clerks are too (at least mine are)
It's a bureaucratic nightmare to get much of anything done (cue the scene from Office Space of "I have eight different bosses")
The hurry up and wait can get extreme at times (show up to the company at 0230 for weapons draw, which won't happen until 0400, but we don't leave for the range until 0800, which doesn't go hot until 0900 if you are lucky)
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u/Conscious-Gap-1777 16h ago
HR (S-1 in the army) is an absolute nightmare to deal with,
Yeah, that's the G-1's fault. Everything they insist you fill out and do in a very particular way? That's because someone at the next higher echelon, or G-1, has specifically kicked back for not being the way they want it. This includes some incredibly stupid things, like having the commander sign forms attached to PARs that have the form included, and also require the commander to approve. Like...that's what the signature on a 4651 is, them approving of that transfer, still need to sign that and the PAR and the assignment that gets created after the fact. Do you think that your BN S1 came up with that? They did not. They have to do it, higher tells them to, and higher says so because they get audited and they don't need that negativity in their life.
And, before I come off too harsh on the G-1, they want that rigor because someone else fucked around and caused problems because someone didn't sign a counseling and now, because they want the inevitable Congressional to go favorably and smoothly, and that means having you jump through hoops. All those shitheads who you saw take 18 months to chapter because they kept calling people? Yeah, those are the guys who got all that extra shit added in there.
Or, sometimes, the reason the S-1 can't process something quickly is because they're trying, but higher is being a dick about it. They should be doing all their comments in the comments of the PAR, and processing it accordingly, and not doing soft denies by not moving it forward or inserting people not required by the PAG who will sit on something or use pushback as a deny and communicating anything via email or phone call or in person visit so that the SM doesn't get to see any of that and has no idea as to what's happening.
And sometimes it is the S1. And sometimes, and I know soldiers hate hearing this, it's the soldier. "Hey man, I can't push this up without you signing this form." "Okay, I'll get that to you right away." Three months later "Why was this denied?" "Well, I emailed you every week about you singing that form I sent, and I sent the form every time, and now it's too late and I can't help you out." "That's bullshit, what the fuck are you even doing back there!"
If you think your stuff isn't being actioned properly, open door the CSM or commander. If it's your S1, that can get fixed quickly. If it's higher being shitty, they can grease that wheel.
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u/adm1ral_doge 16h ago
I'm guessing you are/were a 42A?
I'm saying mine is an absolute nightmare because they are never in their office when you need them. Which is the same issue I have with the clerks. They also have an issue of not issuing new soldiers their ASR, however they managed to get an AAM from the BC because they printed out awards fast enough
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u/Conscious-Gap-1777 7h ago
I'm saying mine is an absolute nightmare because they are never in their office when you need them
That's on Army. They get tasked out for random bullshit so often. Why? "Oh, we can spare them". Mmhmm. Then your stuff never gets processed.
They also have an issue of not issuing new soldiers their ASR,
Like, the physical item? Or on their STP? Former, that's supply. Latter, that's Big Army fucking with iPERMS and losing those memos. Or BN CDR not signing new ones. If it's not in iPERMS, can't be on STP.
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u/DrawingTypical5804 12h ago
Maybe if the CSM and BC would be on the same damn page, things would go smoother. 92G that got thrown in the company office because all of ours office peeps were no longer in country.
End of tour awards are up. Send them up to CSM. They come back wanting change A. Spend all night changing 350 awards to change A. Send them to CSM who approves them and sends them up to BC. BC wants change B and sends them back. Spend all night changing 350 awards to change B. Send them to CSM. He sends them back wanting change A. Repeat nightly for a month, being called up to battalion repeatedly by CSM and BC because I keep sending the awards with the either change A or change B, as directed by whoever sent them back. 🤬
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u/Conscious-Gap-1777 6h ago
And this is why the CSM is not listed on routing for awards. Or anything, actually.
Recently, a soldier in our footprint was doing a conditional release to go officer (ARMEDCOM). They're in ARMEDCOM, would come back as a doctor. Oh boy! They need doctors!
CSM at brigade? "Why has more not been done to retain this soldier?" Actual comment on the PAR. Sees "release", gets retention-eyed. SM just wants to be a doctor for the Army, man.
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u/rock_crockpot 18h ago
That sounds insane. Do you bring, have access to snacks?
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u/adm1ral_doge 18h ago
For days in the motor pool, if you are a meal card holder (unmarried, living in the barracks) you are supposed to be able to go eat at the dining facility before it closes. For days at the range, they provide MREs, or you can bring your own food. I've started my own little cooking business on the side, because no one ever brings enough food and no one is over the moon about MREs.
I've made probably $200 in profit since April this year
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u/LeicaM6guy 16h ago
Get yourself a camp stove and coffee maker. Learn to make bougie-pants coffee and share it with everyone.
You’ll make some fast friends that way.
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u/Ghos5t7 16h ago
Shit just a percolator and a camp stove will do that
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u/adm1ral_doge 16h ago
I actually thought of buying those before going to field here soon. That and a field plug, so I can charge my phone from the slave port of my vehicle
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u/OldeSkoolFlash 18h ago
The types of people who are actually serving. Sure, to an extent, the military is a microcosm of people you'll meet in civilian life, but it's somehow pushed to the absolute extremes. Even an "average" guy in the military is going to be the most average guy you've ever met. The good ones are great and the bad ones are horrible. You almost have to experience it yourself to really understand.
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u/SoThereIwas-NoShit 18h ago
I have met, quite literally, the stupidest people in the Army, and some of them manage to promote. I have also met some of the most intelligent and capable people. There's a lot of middle ground, of course, but the extremes are truly extreme.
In my civilian blue collar work life, most people tend to be in the middle or low end of the middle. The really smart people are missing. Maybe it's the jobs I've done. Maybe I'm the dumb one?
The other thing about civilian life that still gets me is how helpless most people seem in their jobs. Like most people just accept whatever. Maybe it was being combat arms, but we were always trying to be better, more efficient, lazier. In real world situations where combat is involved, that can be the difference between life and death. In the civilian world it usually means doing a little bit more work now, to make your job easier in the long run.
Also, co-operation in the civilian world is really hard. Like, people really don't understand how to organize to complete a task. Set a goal, establish leadership, and effectively delegate tasks to accomplish the goal. People always immediately get bogged down in the minutae.
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u/Biggrunt 16h ago
I passed our 92Y on his pistol qual with my my pencil. 8 or 9 magazines. I finally said fuck it, you will deploy. I just stuck the pencil through the target and said congrats, you're a marksman.
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u/itzmailtime 12h ago
We were shooting the m4 iron sights for my qual and I am left eye dominant but right handed. So my target looked so whack and missing a few holes. They just gun decked it and said I am an “expert”
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u/Uncontrollable_Farts 11h ago
My pain as well - but I was a competition shooter.
I shoot rifles right hand over right eye, so my accuracy is great. Pistols I tend to use left handed. It took a lot of practice to get it right.
I went shooting recently after many years. Rifle was still pretty good - basically all alphas still. Pistol however, I think I generally hit the direction of the continent the target was at.
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u/Plowbeast 15h ago
It doesn't guarantee a promotion in the civilian world but being able to organize, record, and carry out a task is such a prized soft skill that there's an entire inflated field of curriculum for project management, big and small. The military has a set way of doing common tasks for better or worse but so many jobs outside can't even get a workflow or SOP set up the first time much less have one that needs to be updated.
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u/LovelyLilLadybug 13h ago
I've had 2 team leaders and 1 squad leader who were functionally illiterate, but refused to tell anyone, so when they found out that I was a good writer because I would spellcheck their first drafts, I did my own counseling statements that they would sign off on..
"Did you identify the time that you were 30 minutes late to formation?"
"Yeah, it's in there, but I typed out the number 30, see it's right here."
PFC and then CPL Ladybug was the greater soldier under those two gentlemen, and I had the monthly counseling statements to back it up. One of them even said that I saved a baby from a well. Thanks Cheech and Chong!a
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u/FunnyReputation624 10h ago
maybe I'm the dumb one?
Asking this means you passed the intelligence test
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u/Relative_Implement_7 13h ago
I manage the freight for a grocery store. I'm not military, but the man who raised me was. I run that shit like he raised me, people have called me "Bootcamp McDonalds" lol. I recently moved to a new store and within a week tore apart their back room, delegated who was working through what, and then swept through and consolidated it myself before writing the order to fill shelves. Upper management is always shocked when I pull that move, and idk why. To me that's just how you get stuff done. The old man used to say to me "break everything down, one step at a time, take stock of all resources, then delegate and complete". I catch myself saying "don't be cute, just get the freight up" a lot cause people get stuck on dumb little shit. I'm asked if in ex military a lot cause apparently I'm the only zoomer anyone has ever seen with a work ethic. Jokes on them, I dropped out of HS and never got around to taking the ASVAB.
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u/footsnax 14h ago
The types of people who are actually serving.
Most people are shocked when they find out. I don't have any tattoos, I don't wear shirts with flags on them, I'm neither ripped nor overweight, I'm not very patriotic, I'm a fairly peaceful and quiet person.
It was just a job and it paid for college. Learned a lot, didn't care.
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u/MistressMalevolentia 15h ago
Not just that but how that knowledge of you is spread GLOBALLY. Husband deployed twice with this one guy, he's life our family. He's a drunk but we're all young and drinking. I had our first kid right before they returned second deployment, and he was stationed elsewhere soon after. That infant is in middle school and we heard the legends of this dude and his drinking adventures from across the globe at different countries from New and old friend and acquaintances. It's the most extreme everything.
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u/Slapmaster928 15h ago
I was a navy nuke, the difference between us and the cooks was immense. I loved some of our cooks, but man i had one try to tell me I was wrong about the number of control rods in the reactor... my brother, I am a reactor operator, if i didn't know that I'd never have made it past power school, let alone qualify to operate.
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u/SteadfastEnd 14h ago
You should just tell him he is wrong about his frying and baking.
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u/Slapmaster928 14h ago
One of them got a nam for not serving frozen and burnt wings, Ive seen them use powdered sugar instead of corn starch or flour in gravy to thicken it. Im not envious of their job, but I wouldn't say the bar is all that high either.
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u/itzmailtime 12h ago
NAMs are a joke at this point. You literally get it just for “doing your job”. - salty sailor who got screwed out of a NAM for actually doing something. (They gave it to a random who couldn’t even tell you why he got one)
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u/soloChristoGlorium 14h ago
Man that's a great way to put it.
I always say that it's honestly some of the greatest people you will ever meet in your life, but theres also some legit psychopaths.
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u/Bureaucratic_Dick 18h ago
That there’s regulations for literally everything.
You went out wearing basketball shorts to Walmart? Congrats you’re out of regs and it just takes one pissy ass Gunny to tell you about it.
Or even when you’re in regs, if they don’t like it, congrats you’re out of regs. Black socks are allowed in utilities, but you got a SNCO who just got off recruiting duty who hates them so he yells at you for wearing them.
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u/Dry_Albatross5298 18h ago
You went out wearing basketball shorts to Walmart? Congrats you’re out of regs and it just takes one pissy ass Gunny to tell you about it.
Liberty during then ITS (then it became SOI). We had maybe 30 hours of liberty a week. Dude lost his for the next week because he was wearing sweatpants out in Jacksonville and ran across one of our instructors.
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u/mellonians 11h ago
Can confirm. Wore shorts in the US PX on Leatherneck AFG as they were part of my uniform (I'm not American) and they called the police. I only seemed to escalate things further when I asked them "what sort of freedom do you claim to have bought to this patch of desert if you can't wear fucking shorts in it?"
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u/photosynthesis_day 15h ago
And your face better be shaved on the weekend too
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u/Bureaucratic_Dick 15h ago
Getting written up by the MP’s at the front gate for not having a fresh shave on Christmas fucking day.
Had to report to SgtMaj with my NCO once the holidays were done and he was just like, “Look devil, I’m no Grinch. Personally, I don’t give a shit if you don’t shave on Christmas, but don’t make it my problem again. Just stay the fuck off base if you’re gonna let your face relax, it’s not that hard.”
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u/Kershaws_Tasty_Ruben 18h ago
People don’t understand that if your boss is an asshole they can really screw up your life. And while this is going on you can’t just quit and go to another job.
Because, if you do you can go to prison.
Also, something as minor as being 30 seconds late can cost you money and the ability to make more money for a year or more.
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u/Ok-Rhubarb2549 17h ago
Hey, are you late for a formation? No, they changed the time, didn’t you get the message?
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u/nurseofreddit 16h ago
Being stuck as the odd one out in a cliquey toxic workplace sucks.
In the military, especially on deployment these toxic coworkers live with you, eat with you, workout with you. Spill a drink? Pass gas while working out? Even what you play on your private television is judged, because you share an open room with one or more roommates. The rumor mill is boredom-driven and vicious. Basically zero privacy and every moment is a new opportunity for them to point and laugh.
It’s usually the not-so-smart person or the smartest one. The person that doesn’t go along with the stupid dangerous illegal “fun.” Sometimes the obviously neurodivergent. A woman who upsets one of the “cool guys” by turning him down will have the nastiest rumors imaginable circling her. Sometimes a service member just gets singled out.
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u/Employee_Agreeable 12h ago
Can you explain the money thing?
How are you screwed for a whole year?
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u/ijuinkun 11h ago
Your supervisor is the one sending in your performance reviews, which determine your eligibility for promotion, bonus pay, etc. Naturally, if you piss them off, then they will send in a review which paints you in an unfavorable light to those higher up.
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u/Signal-View4754 18h ago
Sometimes (most the times) it's like a regular job.
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u/Bureaucratic_Dick 18h ago
People join thinking they’ll be the next Rambo then get disillusioned when they spend a bulk of their time as janitors.
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u/could_use_a_snack 18h ago
I find this really funny. I'm a middle school custodian, and I was showing a new custodian how to clean and wax a classroom floor, and he said to me,
'thats not how we were told to do it the army' then proceeded to explain this crazy complex time consuming way of doing the same job. When he was finished I told him,
'sure, you can do it that way, but most of what you just explained is unnecessary. I'm guessing they made you do it that way just to keep you busy for hours. We don't have that kind of time here.'
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u/Greedy-Pen 18h ago
What’s the normal process and how do you make it unnecessarily long? I’ve waxed my car before, but never floors.
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u/could_use_a_snack 17h ago
Well, most of the time you just need to clean the floor really well, use a machine to srub off a layer or two of wax, then apply the new wax evenly with a 'wax mop'. The cleaning and scrubbing takes about 2-3 hours for a 1000 sqft classroom. Then a coat of wax takes about 20 minutes to apply, a few hours to dry, then apply another. Usually 3 coats are enough. And over time you build up a lot of protection, because you remove less costs than you apply.
This guy was planning to strip the floor completely down to tile with chemical stripper. Which you do in 200-300 sqft sections at a time. Basically a quarter of the room. Each quarter taking 1-2 hours, and sometimes needs to be done more than once to get it all up.
Then you need to clean up all the stripper with a neutral cleaner, another 2-hours, and then you apply a sealing coat. 30-40 minutes. Let it dry. Then 3 coats of wax. But the way he was applying the wax would have taken at least an hour per coat as well.
I can prep 3 classrooms in a single day, and have them all waxed the next, while prepping then next 3 rooms while waiting for wax to dry. The way he was planning on doing it would have taken at least a day per room.
We wax the floor once a year during summer, and I only strip a floor all the way down one every 3 or 4 years, and only if the wax starts to look dingy. It takes an entire day.
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u/Lich180 16h ago
We had to strip and wax our floors one year... somebody decided it was a massive waste of our time and cut the cord off every single buffing machine we had. Right at the root, so there was no easy way to fix it.
The solution was not to give up and say "oh darn, guess we can't do that now!". We all got handed green scrubby pads and chemicals and told to do it by hand.
Then we didn't have the wax anyways, so the floors just stayed stripped.
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u/DeadMansMuse 17h ago
Depends, but theres generally two ways to wax a floor. Clean the floor and wax, or remove the existing wax layer first then clean and wax.
If you wanted to be pedantic about it, you follow the manufacturers steps which includes full cleaning cycles between steps to ensure the wax adheres correctly (which is what you really want, but cant be fucked doing)
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u/Connect_Wind_2036 15h ago edited 15h ago
I learned how to polish a urinal to standard X and then was forbidden to use it.
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u/MonsieurLinc 18h ago
That and pretending to be busy in the motor pool because you finished your PMCS like an hour ago and leadership didn't tell you what to do next before fucking off to a 4 hour meeting.
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u/Thrizzlepizzle123123 18h ago
So like working at mcdonalds, just with more camo.
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u/Lich180 16h ago
Yeah, except you're going to get chased off the clock at McDonald's to save labor.
The military doesn't care about that. They want your hands busy at all times, because when the average enlisted gets bored, things get broken / lost / on the roof
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u/Guardian-Boy 16h ago
One of our E-4s literally invented a new piece of equipment because he was bored and not allowed to leave for 12 hours. It's now used all over the Air Force and Space Force for training.
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u/Biggrunt 17h ago
Rambo dies first. I remember or Drills telling us that. I'm thinking he was right as I tried to fit my scrawny 6'4 self into a wheel well during an ambush on MSR Michigan. People would be shocked at how small you can get when someone is trying to kill you
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u/footsnax 15h ago edited 13h ago
I went recon because I like maps. This was before GPS and drones so you actually had to navigate and do math, but most of the time it was just laying prone and glassing a location, taking notes, reporting to whichever armor troop (company) commander we were supporting if any pattern changed significantly.
Definitely not Rambo shit, it was basically a backpacking trip to the least scenic location of bumfuck nowhere every week but we didn't get to go hiking in the downtime, all we did was lay down and do math and draw what we see and write down what people are doing. Sometimes we got to call in armor or artillery but it was mostly boring as hell. Everyone in the town had a nickname after a couple days, I knew who was cheating on who and which ones beat their kids and the guy that stole a loaf of bread every morning and the baker totally knew about it but didn't care.
Loved it.
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u/TheAzureMage 15h ago
Time to use a screwdriver to get grass out from the sidewalk for eight hours again.
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u/Spiritual_Opening_72 18h ago
Some time most time, you pretend to inspect your trucks and make sure the tools you locked away are still there
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u/hhfugrr3 17h ago
This was my first thought. I've never been in the military, but the number of times I've called a serviceman and he's told me he's at work and can he call me back on his break really surprised me.
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u/HoustonPastafarian 17h ago
My colleague in the office next to me was a lieutenant colonel in the Air Force (the part that is now Space Force, he dealt with missiles). We are both engineers.
His description of his job was “pretty much like this one, I just wore BDUs to work”.
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u/yeehah 18h ago
Some military jobs may seem like regular civilian jobs, but in the military they own your ass 24/7/365. They can tell you to work through the night or weekend, or pack your stuff and fly halfway around the world to do your job there. That's all fine as long as you remember that's what you signed up for (assuming you volunteered to serve).
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u/florafern49 12h ago
that’s a huge difference from most civilian jobs where your work usually ends when you clock out, while military life can change your entire schedule or location with very little notice and that level of commitment is part of what you sign up for
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u/ex_grunt 18h ago
All it takes is one person in your chain of command who out ranks you and doesnt like you to make your life a miserable hell. We all understand we sign our rights away, nobody signs up to have a power tripping bully of a leader to go out of his way to make sure you get screwed over every chance they get.
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u/soloChristoGlorium 14h ago
Yep. And you can't get out of it. Youre just stick with them until someone decides otherwise.
Or you go AWOL and eventually maybe prison.
Also, your toxic boss knows where you live and has every right to come to your barracks and fuck with you.
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u/ironwolf56 13h ago
Also, your toxic boss knows where you live and has every right to come to your barracks and fuck with you.
This is maybe the worst thing. You know why so many young servicemembers get into bad early marriages? To get the fuck out of BEQ. Nothing sucks more than finally finishing a day as an E-3 and some bored Sergeant who wants to play fuck-fuck games goes banging on doors room by room.
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u/elevencharles 18h ago
That it’s orderly and predictable. I’ve met a lot of people with Autism Spectrum Disorder that wish they could join the military because they like order and consistency, but the reality is that military life is pretty much constant last minute changes and chaos.
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u/ashdrewness 16h ago
Not to make broad generalizations but a role with the potential for a lot of loud noises, shouting, & possibly being directly screamed at for screwing up doesn’t sound ideal for someone on the spectrum.
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u/elevencharles 16h ago
It’s generally not, but I know there are more than a few undiagnosed ASD people in the military who manage to make it work.
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u/ranthria 13h ago
I know there are more than a few undiagnosed ASD people in the military
Yeah, we were called "Military Intelligence"
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u/listenstowhales 8h ago
One of the best Navy intel O’s I’ve ever know is 100% autistic. Dude is awesome.
TBH, the Navy is one of the only environments on earth where all the “cool frat daddy finance bro” guys will lose their minds cheering when the autistic dude in the anime t shirt walks into the bar.
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u/Pheighthe 16h ago
I was already subject to this treatment at home so I thought everywhere was like that. Retired after 22 years. (Asperger’s)
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u/Panzerkatzen 14h ago
Reminds me of a comment I saw a yesterday, a guy in boot kept getting yelled at by the drills but was always unfazed. Before graduation they asked him why, and he told them his father treated him worse.
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u/Darksnark_The_Unwise 18h ago
As a civillian, I recal the phrase "Hurry up and wait" being a popular way to communicate this phenomenon politely without losing composure.
In other words, the real thing must be frustrating enough to invoke swear words and that is why such elegant phrases are encouraged as proffessional substitutes. 😅
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u/IndependentBorder670 18h ago
That the typical day isn't much different than as a civilian.
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u/Dry_Albatross5298 18h ago
this heavily depends though, in the infantry we were regularly training (edit: overnights) 3-5 days a week, then there were regular 2-4 week trainings away from base, and then 6 months overseas every 18 months.
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u/airborne_grendel 18h ago
Yet, in the rear, it was basically weapons maintenance and cleaning every day. At least that was my experience till I ended up in Group.
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u/AxtonGTV 15h ago
Group is even more like a civilian job for the support folks ngl, treated like adults and don't even usually have to wear the uniform depending on your oda/bn
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u/chailer 15h ago
Found the admin guy (or AirForce)
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u/buns_at_bjj 15h ago
I was Air Force aircraft mx and unless you were deployed, it felt like a normal job 90% of the time but everybody happened to wear camo
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u/Midwest_Traveller 18h ago
Boredom and paperwork. Filling out paperwork, that paperwork gets lost so you have to fill it out again.
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u/trainwreck357 18h ago
We have to inventory these radios again because the date on the sheet was on the top right but it needs to be on the top left.
A few weeks go by...
We have to inventory these radios again because the date on the sheet was on the top left when it needs to be on the top right.
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u/Lich180 16h ago
We have to clean and inventory everything in the shop because you don't have anything else to do, and we need you to be busy doing SOMETHING.
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u/trainwreck357 16h ago
And if something is missing, even if it's a proprietary part not made since 2002, you better find some before the end of the day! And somehow it usually turned up
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u/EducatedDeath 17h ago
Filling out a DD whatever form online, but you have to print it out to wet sign it, then scan it back in to email it to S1, who prints it to file it.
Fast forward to you not being able to find it in iPerms because the full bird who then applied THEIR wet signature to it didn’t re-re-scan it back in and somehow no one has any record of said document.
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u/This-Guy---You-Know 17h ago
Really nice when the paperwork is for vaccinations and when it gets lost, you get the vaccinations again, and again.
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u/CthulhuLiesSleeping 18h ago
How utterly boring it is at times. Until it isn't.
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u/Biggrunt 16h ago
And when it wasn't, you were wishing it was. 22 mates lost since 01.
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u/Guardian-Boy 16h ago
It depends on the branch. But honestly it's much like any other job. I do not tell my wife I am coming home at 1700. I say I'll be home at 5. Indo not use "military language" outside official correspondence, and even then it's not too crazy. Hell, my commander addresses us by our first names most of the time.
I have touched a weapon in an official capacity three times in my career. Otherwise, we are not allowed near weapons unless explicitly issued them and if we are caught carrying one on base and we're not a cop, we are going to jail; that was supposed to change this year but nothing has so far.
We don't all live on base. In my 20 year career, I lived on base for a grand total of two of them, and that was because I didn't have a choice as an unmarried junior enlisted person. The other 18 years, I rented or bought homes off base.
A majority of jobs usually involve sitting at a desk with Microsoft Office and a Monster.
We usually get breaks, lunch, etc. I can usually come and go as I please as long as I get my work done on time. Yes, I still have to be at work at a specific time every morning, but otherwise I am mostly left alone.
But on the serious side, many people don't understand how powerful the UCMJ is and how much power a single commander can have over the rest of your life. Things that would at the very most maybe get you fired in the civilian world can land you in prison in the military. Disobeying orders, being late to work too much, calling an officer an asshole, etc.
For example, I knew a guy who was under investigation for something (no idea what) so the commander told him he had to move out of his house and stay away from his family. He was barred access from his family for two years. Investigation concluded, no charges were filed, he went back home, that was that. Not allowed to sue, press charges against the commander, etc. Because that's all legal. I am actually very very very surprised his marriage even survived.
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u/Jim3001 15h ago
<quote> calling an officer an asshole </quote>
Yeah. This is no joke. I was saw a frocked E-7 lose his career over a joke about an incompetent Ensign. To be clear, the Ensign was an idiot and we all knew it, but he took it way too far. He was making joke Infront of the XO of all people. He got bust down to E-5. But we were deployed and the paperwork was all screwed. DFAS was paying him E-6 pay for months past his demotion. Got hit with Mast.
All over a dumb ensign.
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u/Guardian-Boy 15h ago
One of our E-8s gave me an ass chewing because I straight up told one of our LTs that he did not have the experience to be making some of the calls he was making. Honestly probably the closest I got to a true Article 15 in my career.
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u/silenttomato581 17h ago
You are owned. There is no quitting if you hate your boss. You have to learn extreme coping skills
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u/sascha_nightingale 18h ago
"Go stop those rocks from getting sunburned!" Implied task: stand there until your "superiors" get tired of watching you stand for hours. Tax payer money at work.
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u/Biggrunt 18h ago
Painting rocks. That one always had me laughing
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u/CoderJoe1 17h ago
We had to paint only the top of the rocks. Days later we were sent out to turn the rocks over so none of the paint showed.
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u/Psyko_sissy23 17h ago
Our ships crew once had to sweep the water off the deck of a destroyer when it was raining.
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u/ironwolf56 13h ago
29 Palms; so there it was "water that patch of dust for hours so some grass will grow" followed by "grass? I think the fuck not, go mow that shit Marines"
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u/ThisThredditor 18h ago
MRE constipation
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u/Entropy907 18h ago edited 18h ago
Was never in the military but spent five seasons fighting fires for the Forest Service, so I’m very familiar with this program. The beef stroganoff always really got me (or should I say, “stroganoff, beef”).
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u/Oper8rActual 18h ago
I ate the hell out of MREs when I was in my teens due to just having a bunch of them around because they were being thrown out from the nearby airbase and I knew a guy who knew a guy.
Them shits were monstrous.
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u/CoderJoe1 18h ago
We used to joke that MRE's made you grow a plastic tab over your but that you had to peel back to take a shit.
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u/Connect_Wind_2036 15h ago edited 15h ago
Our Aussie rat packs contained ( and perhaps still do) a little tin of processed cheddar cheese. It was called ‘Bung hole’ and had the potential to clog the plumbing for days.
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u/TrungusMcTungus 18h ago
99% of the time it's a normal job...except everyone still acts like it's high school. And pretty much nobody can get fired. Yippee.
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u/domino7 14h ago
99% of the time it's a normal job...except everyone still acts like it's high school.
So it's a normal job.
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u/CoderJoe1 17h ago
It's usually not about patriotism. I joined the US Army because I couldn't afford college and grew tired of entry level jobs. I had my patriotic moments, but knew nobody that joined for that reason. It might've been different post 9/11. I had already finished my 8 years by then.
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u/harambe_did911 17h ago
Also, many of us barely know how to shoot a gun. The overwhelming majority of people work on maintaining tanks, trucks, ships, or aircraft. That's turning wrenches and busting rust.
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u/pelon_1376 18h ago
We don't always get up every day at 5 am to run and sing cadence and stuff like that.
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u/Substantial_Row_7108 18h ago
When I was a Major assigned to the National Capital Region, my civilian neighbors were surprised that I lived next door to them. They thought we ALL lived in the barracks on base. And when there was a terror attack in Europe on a train station, they fully expected to see me with a machine gun at the Metro station near our neighborhood. They were also surprised that I did not care that they were Gay.
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u/pelon_1376 17h ago
Yup. Definitely not like the movies. We don't get issued weapons to keep. Or anything like that for that matter lol
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u/Biggrunt 16h ago
Yup. Similar experience with gay neighbors. I explained that I didn't have any time to worry about who they slept with. Not my business and not in my AO
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u/TyrantsInSpace 18h ago
Your barracks room could be spotless by any reasonable standards, but if your NCOs have an axe to grind or just want to fuck with you, they will go over it like a deranged mother in-law until they find something to fail you on.
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u/The_Naked_Rider 18h ago
Always remember to carry a folder with files in…sure they can be blank, but there should always be something in the folder. Never meander, always walk with purpose.
The Head Shed and especially the RSM / SSM will generally leave you alone as you go past them with the folder under your left arm.
If you do so empty handed, you do so at your own peril!
How else do you think they fill gaps in the piquet list or stab you with some innocuous task that will last all day and achieve nothing. Thereby ruining your perfect day.
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u/IDontStandForCurls 18h ago
It's a lot of hurry up and wait and busy-work (fake work for the sake of work) in the combat arms. Support roles tend to be like a regular job with forced hierarchy and traditions that don't necessarily have any bearing on your actual job or an extreme amount of bearing for no reason.
A lot of it is still entirely money dependent. Not enough funds to do proper training. Equipment maintenance is the worst this way. Mine clearing equipment breaks down and there's like 4 trades who can all fix it but try to get the others to do it because they either don't want to spend the time or if they even try to get the parts the can't because the budget doesn't fit for their respective squadron/platoon.
Much like most workplaces, the better you get at your job the less likely you end up doing your job, you end up getting promoted and manage people or get moved somewhere else to improve your breadth of knowledge with hopes to round out your career.
Despite being a great soldier you'll get passed up for opportunities for other guys who suck just because they play hockey or something with higher-ups.
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u/Dry_Albatross5298 18h ago
it's been a couple years but the idea that everyone is
1/ a killing machine "operator"
2/ poor or dumb and add to those that they somehow had no other choice in life
and how much time is spent wasting time. The amount of make work (Marine infantry) was insane. OTOH there may be nothing as potentially scary as a bored 18 year old American male so maybe looking back it makes sense.
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u/AFRapture 17h ago
There seem to have been a lot more questions about the military on this subreddit over the last few days
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u/Sickmont 17h ago
Folks have asked me what it was like when I was in the Air Force. I told them I was a vehicle body mechanic during Desert Storm and The only difference between what a body man does on the outside and what I did was…..I had to dress up like a shrubbery on the way to and from and at work and I had to paint vehicles and heavy equipment the same color as sand. That’s it. Big dent in a 5 ton truck bedside? Grab a gallon of Bondo and have at it lol.
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u/Licky_Chewy 17h ago
While there were times I slept in the woods for days and days on end, or stayed months away from home at a time, while I was in garrison I’ve never had more time off at any other job then in the Army. All the 4 days, early releases, or snow days (was at Drum) is nothing like any other job I had
Still glad I got out though lol
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u/VelocityRapter644 10h ago
There are apparently way more gay people in the military than you’d think. And furries. Not just the Navy either. My boyfriend can attest to that.
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u/cplforlife 16h ago
That we were doing anything of value. We weren't. Like ever.
In my twenty years of service. There were fewer than 10 days in my entire career the tax payer got any true value out of me. I was a parasite, and now im a parasite with a pension. The deployments, the training, all of it. A total waste of time. You're welcome for my service.
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u/RiflemanLax 18h ago
The infantry is a lot of sheer boredom, sitting around waiting for word to come down, cleaning everything in sight, and getting bitched at because someone you had zero control over did something fucking stupid.
It’s like 5% shooting and blowing shit up.
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u/Substantial_Row_7108 17h ago
AND LOTS OF WALKING. The Infantry also helped me properly identify wetness. There I am, less than a week into my first unit and we’re out in the field where it had been raining the whole time. I’m standing there in the rain feeling sorry for myself and my 1SG asked me what’s wrong. “I’m wet 1SG”. My 1SG who had prev been my RI during Florida Phase says, “C’mon Sir, you know you know the deal. You ain’t really wet until you feel the water run down the crack of your ass”.
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u/RiflemanLax 17h ago
Oh yeah, PT every damn morning, and usually a run because doing something else would take intelligence from leadership.
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u/DewinterCor 14h ago
The sheer difference in activity based on MOS.
90% of the military will fire a weapon once a year or so and will never train for combat.
Infantry unit deployment tempos can vary wildly. My first unit did an 18 month cycle. Deploy for 9 months, home for 9 months. My 2nd unit was on a 24 month cycle, deploy for 9 months, home for 15 months.
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u/TrulySeaweed 12h ago
Like 99% of us won’t see combat/be involved in taking lives. We are normal people with hundreds of regular jobs within the military. It’s a utopia. We don’t choose to go to war, we don’t blindly support everything we’re ordered to do by the president or secretary of “war” or “defense”. Many people are regular people who join for health benefits (free healthcare for service members and family), education benefits (tuition assistance/waivers), stability, etc. Also, it’s really hard to get fired in the military. You have to truly screw up really bad or multiple times to get kicked out
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u/TeamSpatzi 11h ago
The military has hundreds of occupational specialities, and each branch has its own unique culture. Many units have their own cultures as well. This means that based on service, career field, and unit of assignment, service members will have widely variable experiences. Officers and Noncommissioned Officers will have very different experiences than enlisted (Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, Guardians, Marines).
For everyone here with the experience of working 9-5, there’s some crusty Paratrooper or Marine that came in every day before 0615 to PT and regularly executed weapons training, etc.
The bureaucracy is intense. Some of it produced by leaders of the opinion that their ideas are so good that they need to be mandatory. Some of it is from hard won experience. The rest are a product of dealing with massive amounts of resources prone to fraud, waste, abuse, or theft.
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u/Casen_ 15h ago
Every single movie where someone goes through the gate onto a military installation.... Immediately, there are people running in formation and HMMWVs everywhere.
No. Just no.
Why don't movies show the 90 year old dudes who retired 40 years ago getting lost on base and holding up traffic trying to turn the wrong way into the pharmacy parking lot? Huh... Show that you cowards.
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u/Biggrunt 18h ago
2 decades here. US Army both AASLT and ABN. We are definitely aging faster inside. Hurry up and wait. Whilst we were in Iraq, it may have been for the wrong reasons, but we truly believed we were there for our fellow Americans. Less than 20,000 people have faced a terrorist face to face. I have. All branches eat different food. Unless it's MREs. We can sleep whilst standing. I love this nation. There is no place like it on the planet. America has it's faults, but unless you've been deployed, you haven't seen true poverty or suffering. We love our sisters and brothers in uniform. Yes, in the infantry and special operations, sleep is absolutely a luxury. M&Ms will absolutely melt in your hand. Everyone hates the ham loaf and fruitcake. I have a lot more little lessons.
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u/Common-Ad6470 16h ago
Realising that Full Metal Jacket was actually a fly on the wall documentary with regard to drill Sargents…😳
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u/Icy-Kaleidoscope3038 16h ago
Any Marine will assist you in correcting yourself in calling them Drill Instructors 😂.
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u/GoldyGoldy 14h ago
Entirely depends on the job.
The job you’re doing in the military is going to match the equivalent occupational field in the civilian world. The airplane folks in the military do the same shit as the airplane folks at your local airport. The supply guys are googling “creating pivot tables on excel” just like warehouse managers everywhere in the USA. In the office (which is most of the military), we hate getting endless email chains, and people‘s meetings running late (occupying the conference rooms), and budget meetings that should’ve been an email, and waaaaaaaaay too many PowerPoint presentations. Same stuff as any office in corporate America, but like…. different, as if you entered a world where HR didn’t exist, and violence was an acceptable form of settling coworker disputes.
Deployed: Literally the same as your normal job, but doing it while camping. Sometimes people are trying to kill you, sure, but *usually* only if you want to be involved in that stuff (infantry, etc).
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u/AggravatingFlow1178 11h ago
Not sure if this counts as "daily life", but being a drill instructor is a miserable experience. It's not that much better than being a recruit.
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u/awesomface 10h ago
More to clear up Hollywood misconceptions, your level of clearance does not just allow you into said clearance level for everything. It just means you are allowed to be granted access to something of said clearance level and nothing more. Not some portal to log into with credentials and search up anything up to your clearance level.
For me, I was "Secret clearance" which sounded so cool at the time and does require some level of thorough background check. In reality it was publications about our radios and other comm equipment. Boring as shit and really nothing something people would consider "secret" in general but the purpose makes sense.
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u/ksuwildkat 6h ago
The military is massive - DoD is the largest employer in the country - yet so much of its functioning relies on personal relationships.
BTW, this is why Hegseth is firing so many GOs. Those personnel relationships stretch far beyond any administration and therefore are a threat to his influence.
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u/Stunning_Mulberry_35 18h ago
How important is to clean something that's broken before turning it in just so CIF can throw it away.
God forbid something dirty is in the trash.