u/Dementedsage

I’m currently enlisted in a completely unrelated field. I’m working on school right now and AECP’s probably the only way I stay in the military long term. I’m kinda just looking for thoughts in general on it compared to civilian nursing.

What’s your schedule like? Is it the typical 3x12 civilians do? How’s army medicine in general? How much general “officer stuff” do you end up doing instead of nursing if any?

Someone holding construction with a rotate to get back into site if someone happens at another entrance sounds cool until they get overrun half the time and attackers get another new entrance to site. Then I gotta roate back into site early to take care of a construction push because I'm stuck in a 2v3 with enemy on site 1 minute into the round.

Hard breaches normally push freezer. Not everyone takes hard breaches as a secondary. Why not just funnel them into the doorway closer to blue stairs? Trap operators on site would make it even harder to push.
Anchors have fewer angles to have to hold. Roamers can get a decent angle on them from stairs instead of having to push site and take a bigger risk.

It's like someone just did a really poor job of copying some pro league strat one day and everyone just rolled with it. Everything you set up as a defender can be used against you.

If your diet is trending and has a name, it's USUALLY shit.

Stick to mostly the outside ring of the commissary. I get produce/meat and then go into the isles for legumes,pasta, rice, seasonings, bread, tortillas, and occasionally tuna. Carbs aren't the enemy, but if I'm intentionally trying to loose weight, my carbs basically all come from either some form of potato, fruits, oatmeal, legumes, and veggies.

FIBER IS YOUR FRIEND. Foods high in fiber are usually low in calories. It also keeps you full long enough to keep away the temptation to snack between meals. The average man is supposed to get 38 grams a day. If you’re a woman it’s 25. If you can make that, you will not be very hungry often. Legumes, whole grains, vegetables, and fruits are generally are your sources.

Drink actual water. In this damn heat especially you should be drinking ass loads. It's genuinely hard for water intoxication to kick in. Coffee and energy drinks are ok in moderation, but the total weekly calorie intake you can avoid by drinking sugar free/creamer free is pretty substantial.

Fucking sleep when you can. Calorie deficits cause weight loss, sleep is one of the biggest factors in determining how much of that is fat vs muscle. Put away the electronics a few hours before bed if you can. Put your kids to bed, shower, clean the house, read a real physical book, or just something that doesn't put you in front of a screen. Caffeine only before lunch. Caffeine has a half life of 3-7 hours, meaning if you should probably have around 10-12 hours between your last intake and bedtime. Your bed is for going to sleep and sleeping with your partner only.

Meal prep, instant pots/crockpots and packed lunches are also a friend. We’re adults. Some of you have kids to take care of too. We’re busy during the week. Take care of your food situation ahead of time instead of waiting till you’re hungry and it’s a lot less tempting to order a 1500 calorie meal from McDonalds when it’s 1730 and you’re tired from work all day. If you are a single soldier with a tolerable Dfac, GO EAT AT THE MAIN LINE.

Until you pass, I very strongly advise against drinking. Obviously it’s bad for you, but it fucks with so many bodily functions it’s not even funny. Most drinks are also pretty calorie dense. A six pack of beer is around 1000 calories. Trust me I like having a couple beers or ciders after work too, but understand it’s not exactly conducive to a favorable body composition.

During change of command the spouse usually gets a bouqet. If there's a daughter, particularly an older one, she usually gets a single rose. Sometimes they'll hand a son a small gift bag. So what's usually in the bag? Also, what if the SM has a husband? Do you bring them flowers anyways?

I'm a brand new sgt who's been running a squad since I was a SPC because the SSG in charge is comical levels of incompetent. Like I have to try and keep him away from non office work because he's so incompetent he's an actual safety hazard. I have no Specialists. All of them left for other companies, PCS'd or ETS's right before I picked up, so there's no one to help manage the privates. The one other sgt is also useless, so effectively I've got 10 soldiers right out the gate. For whatever reason company and PLT leadership keep coming to me to fix every fucking problem. The other NCO's aren't really doing much within the squad and I end up fixing those too, so I'm just putting out one dumpster fire and a new one pops up immediately afterwards. Meanwhile, I'm new to this shit myself and trying to figure out leadership as whole. I make time when I can but I feel like I'm failing my soldiers sometimes cause I literally just don't have time for them.

I'm legitimately having blood pressure issues right now and I blame work for most of it. Did I just fuck around and not shitbag enough or something? How the fuck do you deal with this shit? It's hard for me to even relax on my day off cause I keep thinking about the fact that I have to go back to doing everything under the sun for people I wouldn't trust as McDonald's shift manager.

I'll take a a diet Dr. Pepper. I'm trying to lay off the alcohol for a while.

Everyone always says call IG over whatever their COC is doing that they don't like. To my knowledge, IG isn't there to punish they're there to educate though and they don't give a fuck if something is a blantanly obvious dickhead move as long as it's not against regs.

Trying to play regs with leadership that's got selective reading comprehension anyways is like trying to play chess with a pigeon. They're gonna shit all over the board, say they win, and fly away, so wtf is the point?

If you're an NCO especially, YOU SHOULD BE FUCKING USING THE SHIT OUT OF IT. I'm fucking tired of illiterate NCO's. Thank you for coming to my crash out.

I'll take a 30 rack of Modelo. I'm starting to understand why some of my old NCO's drank the way they did.

From company level and from the platoon level everyone just goes straight to me for everything. Not to the SGT's nor the SSG's. I’ve got fucking three goddamm NCOs getting paid more than me to sit on their ass in the fucking office. My fucking SSG is either the stupidest person in the BN, or playing dumb because why the fuck am I having to spend more time teaching him basic shit about our mos than the Privates.

I’ve got four soldiers, effectively nine because the SSG and SGT are both lazy. I’m spending so much time on taskings that I’m starting to feel like I’m actually failing my soldiers now that I have literally zero time for them. So far it’s a lot more trying to do my job and three others, than actually getting to mentor the younger soldiers.

In return I neither get paid like an NCO, nor do I even get my own room. Barracks management told me get fucked till I pin five. I shouldn’t have to spend lunch writing an event oriented counseling for my literal roommate while I’m close enough to be sniffing his feet.

I’ll take a Gin and tonic.

I came in back 2019, so It’s been a while. I remember getting to my first unit and I was one of four unmarried soldiers in my entire platoon. People who made it to sergeant without getting married or getting out a couple months later were rare. Cut to today and I gotta fucking lap my BDE footprint if I wanna inspect all my dude’s rooms because we’re super low on space in the bricks. It’s most of the e4 and below in the barracks and I’m one of four unmarried NCO’s in my platoon also in the barracks. Like is it just a coincidence, or are soldier marriages starting to more closely align with the average age for civilians.

I’ll take a Stella Artois.

Day two of having my first soldiers; I finally get a chance to sit down and talk to them, get to know them, write an initial counseling, etc. One of them already is paying a grand a month for their car as a private. I know I can't tell them what to do with their money, but the majority of the kids paycheck is going to a car he can't afford and that's still a problem. He's also got a semi-shit APR.

I got sent to the field almost immediately. They're back in the rear, so I can only do so much from here. The other NCOs I work with aren't gonna want to do anything for him. He's already got one of those credit building cards on the way. I advised him to pretty much just use it for stupid shit and pay it off. The Apr in like six months can be refinanced. I gotta print out his LES for his counseling packet anyways so I'll probably have a more in depth talk with him about finances then when I get back.

I ultimately can't really do anything PARTICULARLY impactful I can just advise when it comes to his money as far as I understand. Even if he were to sell it, it's new so he'd be down probably 5k just based off lost value alone, so it's not exactly gonna sound appealing to him if i try to convince him to get rid of the damn thing and buy a 2012 civic instead. I'm just crossing my T's and dotting my I's. I don't want the kid to make the same mistakes I did when I was younger.

I'll take a Modello. I'm already starting to understand why some of my old NCOs used to drink the way they did.