(Army) 33yo non prior service. Help decide on a combat MOS

[1168]

I'm sorry, you lost me at have the most fun...and you wanna join a combat arms MOS?

I was in discussion with a dear friend and this subject came up. He's very well versed in deployments, the military, and ultimately killing the enemy. He articulated what he believes what should be the culture combat arms and it goes like this:

"Killing the enemy is the only thing that matters. Your proficiency at said task is your measure of worth, regardless of the job or the unit. Light infantry exists within a cult of death, mired in the fear of failure, but redeemed by the brotherhood that surrounds you."

If any of that sounds off to you, you'd be wasting your own time. You'll have fun along the way because the training is fun, but in the end, what's stated ^ is what is expected of you.

The US won't have a shortage of enemies anytime soon.

Don’t forget painting rocks and stupid shit like that. Thats why I suggested 68W. “Uhm Sergeant, I’d love to, but I’ve got HIPAA training to do up at Battalion today”

[Coal Dragger]

Better yet just avoid enlisting at that age. Sorry dude, but your enlist in the Army ship sailed about 10 years ago.

[Belmont31R]

Combat arms in your 30's as lower enlisted is a stupid decision unless you have some sort of ageless freak physical gift. Beside the physical side of it your age is going to not let you fit into a platoon or squad of dudes who are mostly 18-22 year olds. Barracks life in combat arms units can be like living in a mental institution at night. You will not fit in.

You'll be much happier doing something that would give you a skill, clearance, and is combat arms or SOF adjacent. PSYOPS, cyber, medic, intel, certain signal MOS's, EOD etc where its much less 18 year old heavy and your maturity can be a benefit to you and your unit.

And here's the deal with 18X contracts. Most of those dudes decline or self drop before they even get to selection. If you decide SF is something you want to pursue a couple of years in the military first is a great benefit. 18X is an awesome way to get people to join up with the lure of SF to fill out 11B slots in line units. 11B is great for an 18 year old who doesn't know what they want to do in life, and has the drive to go do military shit and where they literally don't know any better. At that age you're still dumb enough to go through the BS and come out the other side reasonably ok.

I was commo, and supported line units. We had 6 man teams that attached to the combat arms units in our brigade. My team was unique being a 'remote' unit so we got tasked to the brigade recon team. It was kind of a mix of elements from the brigade but 11B's, fisters, mortars, scouts, some Air Force dudes, a command group, and us lol. We got to experience a lot of the other aspects of the military and deploy with them. Still hard enough of a job that since I've been out I'm basically in back pain every single day, the back of my head and neck was numb for months at one point while still AD, I feel about 20 years older than I am. We got invited to do a deployed area Spur Ride with the Scouts and I can still remember a lot of that stuff like it was a week ago haha

If you had your degree I would actually suggest going to AF or Navy in some sort of cyber intel or linguistics intel job. They have better enlisted to officer programs, better QOL, and those jobs in those branches work adjacent to SOF. Seals have a pretty extensive support element next to them that SOF in other branches don't.

[ColtSeavers]

Better yet just avoid enlisting at that age. Sorry dude, but your enlist in the Army ship sailed about 10 years ago.

This. No matter what MOS you choose, the only people you'll be able to relate to or get along with will be Senior NCOs, and you aren't going to be hanging out with them as lower enlisted, in or out of uniform.

[Wake27]

This. No matter what MOS you choose, the only people you'll be able to relate to or get along with will be Senior NCOs, and you aren't going to be hanging out with them as lower enlisted, in or out of uniform.

Depends, I've seen some leeway there for instances such as this.

[Edm]

My input for what its worth... I went through basic at 21. Had a easy time. My problem was the immaturity of the others there. Seriously stupid. Went ROTC and got commissioned at 24. FA. Then I still had to deal with the immaturity of 18YO's.

You may find a fast track to some cool job, but you also may find yourself standing on a drill field with 100 others in a formation for hours while you participate in some change of command in July while its 100 degrees. Because you are avaliable.

[Pirate EC]

You're 33 and still ****ing around, half ass trying to get a degree. You're about to quit on that with a year left to go enlist with the hopes of doing cool guy shit. I don't know why anyone is filling your head with ideas of going SF or Ranger. Quitters don't get very far in either of those career fields no matter how physically fit they are. Get your shit together and finish your degree. If you're feeling a little depressed with where you are currently in life, being a 33 year old private living in the barracks in some leg infantry unit isn't going to make you happy.

[1168]

My input for what its worth... I went through basic at 21. Had a easy time. My problem was the immaturity of the others there. Seriously stupid. Went ROTC and got commissioned at 24. FA. Then I still had to deal with the immaturity of 18YO's.

You may find a fast track to some cool job, but you also may find yourself standing on a drill field with 100 others in a formation for hours while you participate in some change of command in July while its 100 degrees. Because you are avaliable.

Ugh. I have to go to one in August. Gross.

[Belmont31R]

Depends, I've seen some leeway there for instances such as this.

Overseas duty stations are pretty lenient on this. I was in Germany for almost 4 years and when we wanted to hang out you just say its a team/section/platoon open invite. People that want to have fun do and those who wanted to spend their off time in the barracks did. Plenty of drunken moments with E6-E8's. When we got back from Iraq they kept the E6's in the barracks because of the 1AD realignment, and their corner rooms they got to themselves were the party spots lol

When I went to Ft Lewis even as a single soldier I said F the barracks and got my own place off post. Even as 23 I was done with barracks bullshit. They tried to rope me into cleaning the barracks after COB and was like nope I live off post and haven't slept a day in there.

[Belmont31R]

Ugh. I have to go to one in August. Gross.

ADA and FA units are high on the anus penetrating stupidity because its not like they can go out to the motor pool and shoot off rounds. So they do a ton of filler time. At least 11B can come up with lower level training to kill off empty days.