My brother's tyring to join US Army

A Can of Man

A Can of Man

Je suis aware
Hey guys, my brother's about to get his Green Card in about 5 months or something and he's looking for a short stint in the US Army for a variety of reasons. Basically he wants the following:
1) Citizenship guarantee
2) A job he can "boast" about in the work place
3) He wants the shortest amount of time in service
4) Relative safety. Doesn't want to get his head shot off

He's banking on the 2 year enlistment but I haven't heard a good thing about it and I wonder if it is actually 2 years or does it almost always run off to be 3 years long? He doesn't require benefits of any kind. Does anyone know for sure what he's supposed to expect?
As for MOS, I recommended NBC. In most cases he will be assigned to an NBC unit where life should generally be pretty good. Much of the patrolling would be done in armored vehicles which sure beats going around in a truck. Odds are he won't be busting his balls inside a city with insurgents waiting to cap his ass either. Also, NBC specialists tend to be rather expensive to train, so the odds of them being used for high risk duties (other than NBC) should be rather low. Also since everyone knows there's no WMDs in Iraq, NBC units won't be that busy either and I don't see why their tours should be extended.
The issue my brother has with NBC is that their MOS training is 5 months opposed to 1 month in infantry, which means the 2 year tour ticker starts 4 months later than infantry. Personally I think if you're not in it for a career, the extra 4 months can save you a lot of pain.
NBC also has some pretty fun gear so he should be able to have a few good photos before he leaves... stuff to talk about and all.
But this idiot seems to be hell bent on joining the infantry which pretty much disqualifies the shortest TIS and low risk criteria.

Anyone else have a clue or an idea?
Or do you think his pride is just getting in the way and there's not a damn thing anyone can do?
 
Want's realitive safety yet want's Infantry? Have you explained the Infantry too him?

I know alot of MOS are not open to the short enlistment due to training expense and retention/return on the Army's Money. There is a list of MOS that are available for National Call to Service enlistments. Infantry and Chemical Operations (NBC). So is MP, some aviation, Arty, Engineers theres alot of MOS included.

He is required to serve a minimum 15 months after basic and AIT. But he has to complete 24 months. That includes basic and AIT. He also is goning to have an active reserve or national guard commitment of at least 2 yrs following active duty. Which means he drills once a month and serves 2 weeks a year...he would also be subject to activiation and stop loss if his unit is activated. While on active duty he could also be stop lossed.

You might tell that if goes 11B infantry the chances of him being in a place where people are actively trying to kill him are about 99.999% at sometime in his enlistment. 74D (nbc)it could happen. Hell any MOS it could happen, in infantry MOS's I'd bet a paycheck on it.
 
I know... I thought about this last night and I don't think any of the four reasons he gave me were the major reasons. He realizes his life has nothing to do with the military, he's not going to serve in Korea so he feels like a draft dodging wimp so he needs to go and make a damned statement. But in the process he's possibly going to lose his marriage, his job... I know they guarantee that you'll get it back, but they'll probably get rid of you if your wage is high and you're suffering from PTSD.
And I know enough about him to know that he is VERY bad at taking set backs. In fact he f*cking flips out and goes all suicidal and crap over it.
Not to mention you can die doing this thing too but apparently he doesn't have the respect for this line of work as he should. Even if you don't die, you could lose a good chunk of yourself. Heck. If I lost a good portion of one of my legs and I had to do non-combat stuff but thankfully was able to keep my uniform I'd still be fine with it. But he ain't a lifer and if you get out and you lack a good piece of you, people will look at you as if there's something wrong with you pretty much until the day you die.
 
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If he enlists on active duty his employer can replace him. 2 year contract or no. The job protection only extends to my understanding to Reserves and Guard that are activated. Then it gets even murkier. They can't take your job or drop your pay but they can put you in an "like" position with no pay reduction.

Example: I've got a friend who was a detective sgt. When he got back there was a new sgt. and my buddy is now a detective but at sgt's pay.

Sounds to me like he needs to rethink this thing. If he's not ready to put his six on the line then he needs to stay where he's at or become a Huey Repairman or something and stay off the pointy end.
 
Too bad helicopter maintenance requires a secret clearance which means citizenship.
But there's plenty of other stuff like vehicle mechanic... but for that he complains the hours are too long. Unbelievable.
 
Excuse me but.....WTF? The hours are to long for a Motor T mechanic? He's wanting to be a Grunt. Wonder how he'd deal with the 20 hr days and 4 nights in that MOS and the frequent 24 hr days and 0 hr nights?

Marine to Marine if you PM me his address I'll go slap the Crap outta him for you.
 
Like I said, this is why the little idiot worries me.
I think if we sit this one out and be quiet and let him do the thinking he might just pull out of this "I'm going to join up" by himself. It's not the first time he's said this sort of thing but this time I just felt he meant it more than the other times.
 
This wouldn't have anything to do with him being envious of you takin a gut check and serving in the Corps would it?

My lil' Bro did the same thing and joined the AFROTC got freakin commissioned and flys C-130's now, and he's a freakin Major so I have to salute his azz.

I think given your opinion that enlisting is the worst thing he could do.
 
It might.
He has something like that.
He always has to show up, do something I did but do it a little better. It's always easier if someone has gone before you have.
But it seems like he might be taking this thing a little too far.
 
The Army doesn't offer 2-year contracts in combat MOS's anymore. It's 4 in AD, 2 Reserve and 2 IRR (8-year contract is standard).

We've talked a bit about this, but I'll put it publicly:

He needs to sit home. We've no want or need for John Wayne wannabe's in the Infantry, and he's as likely to get booted out as he is to get shot. This is a different Army, a different style of combat. Individuals need to know when to be individual and when to be a team player - in the cold war era, it was ONLY team players. Times have changed.

If your motivations are anything other than protecting your buddy next to you, you'll get someone killed. It's just that simple.

God bless him for wanting to serve, but his motivations are all jacked up.
 
If he walks into a recruiters office with that attitude his ass is going to Fort Benning. Trust me, he doesn't want the Infantry. Make sure he walks in there knowing exactly what he wants minus the combat MOS and especially not Infantry. Sitting in a fighting position with no sleep and flash bangs going off for a week is not the job for the unwilling, it breaks people.
 
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