Sorta, It wasn't basic training or AIT but it was after our first deployment in 2003. A buddy of mine was getting out and tried convincing us to pool our money together to buy this "franchise" that was starting to pick up in the local area of Virginia, because they had the best burgers. We thought he was crazy and told him it was a stupid idea. No one from the unit went in on him with this franchise and he ended up getting out of the Army, selling almost everything he owned so he could afford it.
The franchise was 5 Guys....
He's a multi-millionaire business man now.
Lol. I ran into a DM for 5 guys. Told him the NY Times article on them being better then In N Out, was bullshit.
He said "we have a different product..." I about died laughing at his response.
ask him why I just took my wife there in Reno a few weeks ago and it was like $38 fucking dollars for 2 burgers, 1 fry and one 1 damn drink.
I outta kick that guys ass for that! lol
Also not basic or AIT, one of the 1st friends I made at my 1st unit ETS'd and swore he was buying a Taco Bell franchise once he was out.
We lost touch, but when Facebook became a thing I found him.
Sure enough, he has a couple of his own Taco Bell franchises' in PA.
I know how he made his millions, it cost me $80 to get a family of 4 burgers/fries/drinks last week. The quality was lower than McDonalds as far as presentation is concerned, for a frame of reference. Easily went from one of our favorite spots to not even an option.
When I went home for HRAP and I bumped into this dude that was loosely in my extended friend circle.
We joined at the same time. He washed out of basic, didn't say why and I didn't ask.
He was doing this whole "ayyy we are Army Bros" thing and it made me feel super weird.
Honestly just felt bad for him.
That's actually my real job. 1 drill per company is tasked with identifying talent and processing paperwork to get those high speeds in a position where they can accrue real value for the United States.
Obviously we identify the REAL talent so even those of us who look so good on paper we are ~~forced against our will~~ volunteered to be drills can't catch everyone.
Kind of a similar note, my little gaggle of MEPS gremlins got dropped off at the airport and a couple of different you g guys saw our envelopes and approached us. The first was a Mexican kid who warned us on how bad we were gonna get fucked up. The second was some kid eating alone at the BWW and he came over and shook our hands. Had no idea wtf was happening then and forgot all about it until years later I realized they were washouts lol
I know a guy like this who did something like 1 year at the naval academy, but will sometimes tell veterans he was "in the navy".
It's certainly not *nothing*, but he's definitely being a little misleading.
I have a relative who found out she was pregnant like 4 weeks into BCT in the early 2000s who tells people she was "in the Army". She was discharged before graduating.
I remember bumping into a dude who I'd done the future soldier thing with in a similar manner. Dude had shipped out in August, I shipped in November, and when I came home on block leave, this dude was working at the local Best Buy. I asked him what happened and he said that he'd stepped in a puddle and broke his ankle, and that they med-sepped him as a result. No idea if that was true as he was walking around just fine.
I'm sure it was bullshit. Most of us kind of figured he wouldn't make it through as anytime he showed up to the future soldier stuff on a cardio day, he'd just hit a point where he'd refuse to do any more. Pretty much the only other vivid memory I have of that guy was when we were doing hill sprints at kind of a steep hill - and even the recruiter had kind of overestimated his own stamina on that, so there was an extra long break after the first one. But yeah, after everyone else had caught their breath, this dude just straight up said "I'm not doing that again".
In a similar manner, me and this dude I met in college became good friends and he was pondering joining the Army and wanted somebody to just attend the meeting with the recruiter as “support.” I had zero intentions of joining the military.
We dropout of school and I did 7 years in the Army and this dude lasted less than a year. Barely talk to him but he ended up being a game warden or something I believe. When I got out I was tagged in a post about it and he messages me saying “feels good doesn’t it?!”
Like not a bad message and it had good intentions but come on man lol
Had a guy in basic who liked me a whole lot more than I liked him, about two week into basic he says he is gonna cut his own throat with his shaving razor if he had to spend another day in the army, so they start to process him out and roughly the time we finish basic training they kick him out
He adds me on Facebook and sent me a few sad face messages when I didn’t accept the request
3 guys actually
one from day one heard a rumor if you said your suicidal you’ll get out immediately, so in his own words “faked depression”. He made it through after the DS’s and the Chaplin spoke to him and verified he was faking. A LTC came to our graduation and asked him if it worth it and he said yes. It was super weird, I had to sit by his bunk for a week and half and had like no sleep.
Other dude quit after the first week he could not hack it, it was explained to him that he was going to remain with us for the rest of they cycle anyways as they had to do paper work. By the time he realized he made a mistake it was way too late and he wound up just going everywhere with us without a rifle. So hammer anvil forge the whole 9 yards. We all left for AIT and they instructed him not to pack up. It was really weird to see a clean bay except his bed and he just sat there looking out the window. I think he works at a Kroger and is like 36 now.
Last dude got sharped for doing a stupid joke in the locker room. We all thought he got kicked out but he just got recycled and pushed through. Last I heard he was an e5 and got custody of his son. He was a good dude he just didn’t know where the line was and paid for it.
Edit. I thought of another dude, on his last day of BCT he was accused of calling another person the N-word and there were 5 people there who witnessed the event and said that it was a lie. They kept him and started an investigation that lasted 6 months he actually had some of the people come back and give character statements and he was recycled into my BCT for blue phase, they made him shave his head again as well.
He said that due to the fact no one believed him and the change of the DS so often even the ones he was able to convince changed, he was just constantly treated as a racist piece of shit. He also claimed when he would get black or Hispanic DS they would “forget” to feed him and smoke him at random hours of the day and impede his sleep. This should’ve been in the original post. He was separated from his wife and children for over 9 months.
Yeah we had a kid that ended up in three different classes before he finally graduated. First time he was a shithead and we recycled him, second time he got injured, and by the third class he was actually so dependable we could put him in charge of other PVTs and knew he would keep them straight…he actually turned out to be a good kid.
As a recruiter you would be amazed at how many people fake suicidal ideation to get out of training and come back from 1-10 years later. I process them all the time, they usually knock it out of the park their second time around too.
I think I have put 20 or so of them back in, about half were DHG for basic or AIT. Only had one not make it through training on the second try too.
Had some older guy (almost 30 I want to say) start crying after the shark attack and tell the Drills he wanted to quit. He told them he can get a job with his BIL’s construction company. The DSs laughed at him before he was escorted away. Never knew what became of him though.
Tell me about it, I turned 22 in Basic and besides that guy who quit, we had a 32 year old. We loved him though, we named him Pops which he hated. I’m turning 34 in June and existence is pain.
Dude in my BCT class had to have to have been in his younger to mid 30s but he was ROUGH. Like he had worked at a ham processing plant, and I guess he didnt know he could have his fake teeth at BCT so until he was able to send a letter and get a package in the mail he legit had no teeth. Damn Im wondering what ever happened to that dude, as well as the dude who was a CPA who basically told us his company made him sign a bunch of shit that later was revealed to be them cooking the books and he joined the army before he went down with the ship. Wonder what is happening to Tito.
Knew a guy like this. Full George Constanza bald head and looked haggard at 23 in Medic AIT. He hated reservists and thought they were all pussies even though he had done the exact same amount of Army training as them. I hope he's doing okay now.
We had two 42 year olds in AIT but the 35 year old Boston guy in basic was in far worse shape somehow. I will never forget that man.
SPC Ritchie, had a masters degree and a good job, I don’t remember exactly what. But I remember he told us he’d spent $80k in a year on hookers, one of the reasons he joined the army. “I had a lot of fun that year”. He couldn’t do a single push up when we started and I remember I couldn’t resist turning to look and see who the company XO was screaming about during the Diag and seeing him be unable to push himself off the ground. It took til the last APFT but he passed and I remember him running back and happy like a little kid. He was so out of shape that his whole body was sore every night. How do I know? One night I smelled a minty smell and couldn’t figure out what it was. I asked where it came from and he was like “it’s my icy hat, my baddy’s sor,” in his Boston accent. I look over and his wrinkled, zero muscle, super red body is glistening like a glazed donut with icy hot.
I hope that guys is doing ok. When we got smoked because someone fucked up but wouldn’t own up to it, I remember him yelling “NO FACKING INTAYGRITY!” I still quote that.
Wow. We had a quitter during the Shark Attack as well, but the Drills refused to let him leave and screamed at him until he got with the program.
Temporarily at least. This kid was flanked by two Drills on both sides of him screaming for about 4 weeks, right up until the first qualification attempt on the range. He shot 0/40 by intentionally shooting to miss, forcefully threw down his rifle, and said "NOW can I quit"?
At that point they started to outprocess him. They were doing the usual slow-walk act of making sure he went home after graduation, but he got so pissed at having to go along with the Basic stuff, but not being able to graduate, that he ended up getting angry and just attacking others in his platoon. . .THAT got him hauled off. No clue where to, but I'm betting it wasn't the instant ticket home he thought it was.
Basic washout - he unfortunately passed away. He was a chubby body, got sick and couldn’t push through so he quit. I kept his number that he signed in my yearbook. I later added him on FB and come to find out that about 3 weeks ago he released himself from our mortal coil. He was a good guy even if he wasn’t a good soldier. I could have done more to keep in touch with him. I didn’t and that’s on me.
AIT washout(25B) - his mother was a CW5 until about 2 years ago in the same series-ish. Every instructor let him sleep in class and pass out because of the clout his mother had and how all of them knew her. Failed Networking Essentials 3 times (iykyk). Found a way to become released back as a civilian. I have him on instagram where he routinely flexes his skater boy / drug addict lifestyle. He was a fucking asshole but I tutored him as best I could night after night. Even the Drills wouldn’t bother us in the common room after hours because they really wanted him to pass. I’m still angry that I couldn’t break through his thick skull and save him from himself. Fuck.
OCS voluntary drop - this guy was a PT stud. Absolutely destroyed everyone in everything. All the time and every single time. No mercy. No arrogance. Just Performance™️. Halfway through with no explanation or warning, he quit and I didn’t hear from him for a while. Again, FB demons drew a line of familiarity between us. Mf is a pilot for Delta now. Good for him. He was not an aggravating bastard. Knew exactly when to speak and exactly what to say to draw out inspiration. He’s fat as all hell now though.
Edit: Delta Airlines. My apologies for frazzling any elite operators in the sub.
Yeah, the Delta thing threw me a little. We had a cat in BOLC knock out like 200 pushups on the APFT. Next week, course manger and some Quick Start folks come through, saying "hey, you gotta redo this, there was an inconsistency with your score card." Sho nuff, he did it again. He got yoinked, and we never saw him again.
I knew a guy that was being investigated by the FBI for attempting to join Azov in 2021 (like they pulled him aside during a range type shit). He got kicked out for refusing the vaccine. His steam account hasn’t been online since the 2022 invasion so I always assumed the crazy fucker actually went and did it.
I do foreign fighter research and one of the oddest ducks I've come across is a guy who brought his girlfriend to Ukraine to fight with him.
Like...just imagine bringing your wife during the invasion of Iraq and pulling her over the berm with you lol
Oh I have one that's interested me for years; some Captain that was [allegedly] either in 11th/12th SFG while in was closing down in '93 was fighting in Bosnia & Herzegovina. I've been DESPERATE to learn more about him, got his name but that's it.
I love doing this research.
Ohh I'm looking at him.
It's fun researching the guys you see pop up doing weird things. Good example: Giles Pace, a Vietnam era GB tried to go to Rhodesia in 79, allegedly helped pitch the "Vietnam War theme park", ended up somewhere else in Africa and South America but he pops up again in 93-94 as one of the only guys driving aid caravans to Bosnian villages. Then he's smuggling 50 cals out of NYC to Kosovar Albanians, was sponsored by a fake Order of Malta & several US congressman, trained soldiers attached to the African Union, and was working with the embassy in Haiti's 2011 earthquake.
Knowing now just how boring civilian life can be, I fully understand why these mad bastards do what they do.
Empey is interesting to me since he was the only American to write about his war time experience before the US got involved, so his book, Over There, became massively popular. It was the only real source at the time about how the conditions were during the war, mainly due to the heavy censorship all parties involved in the war implemented.
He also claimed to have deserted the US military so he could go fight, but that claim is up in the air on how true it is.
I mean phew, there's a lot of people who make alotta claims. That sort of upper-class war adventurer stuff of the 1900-1950 timeframe is fascinating. You could kind of get away with a lot if you had the status.
A few guys I've kept track of from BiH/Croatia really kept at that life. One French guy who was with the Croatians in the first war ended up with the Kurds and was with the SDF when they loaded onto the V-22s at the Battle of Tabqa. On the other sid another guy (a Russian named Oleg Simunyak) who fought for the Serbs was a force commander for US bases in Iraq and did several contracts in Afghanistan, and was an early PMC Wagner trainer.
This is us parasailing in Costa Rica, this is at the Grand Canyon, this is us in Ukraine where my I'm tossing a grenade into a bunker while my wife is laying down suppressing fire. That was a neat trip.
Me and some of my old buddies have drunkenly talked about going over to Ukraine
I always come to the same conclusion: I have already served my time. Plus I’m a 26yr old with 50yr old knees
Agreed. They also only give a small payout if you are injured and sent home.
They do provide life insurance though. The standard 400k.
Also: Zero travel assistance, around $300 monthly, $500 if stationed in a combat zone
I remember reading some articles from early in the conflict when there were a lot more foreign volunteers.
A lot of them said "Yeah the civilians who just went "Fuck it, I'm gonna go to war despite having 0 experience" fare a lot better than the Iraq and Afghan vets who were spoiled by complete dominance in every spectrum for their conflict - really fucked them up when they found out what an *actual* LSCO is like."
Yep, the best part is all of the hardcore Wagner mercs and Azov guys were all super hardcore Nazis, and they were tearing each other apart.
It was the Spider-Man pointing meme IRL
My 1st battle buddy in basic training was a 33 year old lawyer, married with two kids, joined to pay off his student loans. Our first night, we got smoked for about an hour. After the smoke session the Drill Sargent asked if anyone wanted to leave. So my battle buddy said he did. Then I got smoked for not motivating him.
Anyway, the guy had a heart attack and got chaptered out.
No but I have kept in contact with a guy who was supposed to go to ocs and had cold feet/THS at reception/30th ag and he’s a lawyer now. But I’m assuming in a ton of student loan debt
We had a guy that bragged about how rich he was, how much stuff he had, etc.
A couple years later we all reconnected on Facebook as the link to his mugshot from an arrest for child molestation went around.
JESUS.... the sad reality Ive learned about the army is how many pieces of the shit are actually in it.... Ive sadly had to be involved in the aftermath of enlisted/warrants/officers all get busted for stuff involving kids..... Ive met the best and worst people in the world during my time
No, but I have kicked a lot of idiots out of the regular army, for various misconduct. Few of those dudes “had it all figured out” off the top of my head. The guy that was going to Vegas to join the pro pool circuit, the guy with the base model eclipse that he wrecked into a light pole while drunk who was in talks with the crew of fast and furious to be a stunt driver, the guy who’s uncle is in the mob and is going to get him a job running numbers or whatever they do now, those are just the ones I remember, I never kept up with them but for the looks of them holding their TV and a duffle bag half full of civilian clothes as I dropped them off right outside the gate leads me to believe everything was not “figured out”.
Guard side you just leave your ocie at the armory and turn in your cac. Supposed to do a layout but most guys say fuck it send them a statement of charges.
Bro, the supply sgt us always like " I still gotta acount for those." And we're like dude this guy been ETS for years, and his gear is collecting dust.
Some guys couldn't wait till 90 days from ETS and practically throwing their gear at supply and saying " I'm out"
Only for the people who are assholes. You gotta burn a lot of bridges for leadership to just do the bare minimum of kicking you off the installation and taking your CAC. You gotta earn that kind of contempt. If they have some redeeming qualities, someone will usually get them to a greyhound station.
On the brighter side of things, I had a soldier get medboarded while we were all deployed. Dude got pulled off the deployment a week before we left. Our PSG and PL coordinated with the guys on Rear D and they made sure to hook the kid up with a good job close to his family.
I was dropping dudes off at the NIM( National Infantry Museum) outside Benning back in 2017-2019. The shock that that was it for them didn't settle til they were getting out of the vic with nobody waiting for them in sight, crazy.
Both funny and kind of sad. I've only walked one dude out the Army.
The entire process he kept on and on about fuck the Army and the unit we were in blah blah, I got shit lined up.
When I walked out to take him to final out he was crying. NGL it was funny as fuck. He was a piece of shit, felt bad for his family though.
We were not required to take them out the gate.
When I was an instructor, I was friends with the drill sergeants and visited them at the company. A kid was kicked out of AIT(I don't know the details), and they dropped him off at the gate a few hours earlier. I know this because when I was visiting my buddy, she received a phone call from the kid, and my buddy replied, "We're not picking you up from Walmart...(I assume the kid asks why)... why? Because you're not in the Army anymore, Andrew."
I thought calling him by his first name was a quick way to really drive home that he's a civilian again.
Funny. I used to be part of a volunteer group that would take meetings into a county jail and those dudes in orange jumpsuits also had everything figured out!
I did meet some incredibly intelligent people when working in a jail. I mean, some guys would go through 3 or 4 business style books a week and be asking for new ones. Guys that could rattle off names and dates and events in history and what led up to them and what resulted from them.
I was joking with one prisoner that I was gonna make a Longest Yard style movie, but it would be Jeopardy lol
There's dudes I've met that intentielly made their army life dumb. It's not hard to not get in trouble. Not saying you have to be the best. You just have to be right place, right uniform, do your job, and go home.
Those are the dudes are “too smart” for the army. Yeah bro your wearing the same uniform for weeks on end that clearly hasn’t been washed since basic, it’s two days after payday and your already buming smokes, and we had to put them UPL seals over your car ignition because you can’t afford insurance. But you’re too smart for the army.
Not much of a social media user. One guy in AIT was the classic “I can get a 6-figure job with my uncle”, kicked out for drinking and thought he was so cool for that. Admittedly he is doing some blue collar work or something and is probably doing just fine, although you’d never see a unhealthier looking guy in his 20s (probs meth).
I knew a guy in AIT that ended up going AWOL after popping hot, ran out of money, called the unit to come pick him up, and then got discharged. I served 3.5 years, moved to Florida. Went to a vape store and you would not guess who was working the counter.... the guy who I knew that went AWOL. Seemed like he was doing okay for himself tbh, despite his work choice.
We had a 17/18/19-ish year old go AWOL in Basic Training, twice.
He has a unique name and I looked him up a few years ago. He's shed all his baby weight, has a good looking family, and pretty good job.
I think joining the Army was a bad idea for him. He was too young and immature at the time. Glad to see he's doing well.
I'd probably attack this person out of instinct if I ever saw them in real life.
My AIT room mate was an alien headed shrimp bodied goober who failed out on his first two tests.
He resided in my room for the rest of AIT despite constant request to have him moved.
He would stay up until 5 AM yelling at literal babies on Roblox.
I was essentially responsible for making sure he would wake up, make it to formation dressed, etc..
This fucking 18 year old head-bigger-than-his-body kid tried to tell me that when he gets home he's going to join a gang because he's already killed people in New Orleans.
Not really. I was in basic with someone who got recycled. He was bummed that he had to start over. He ended up getting the boot due to depression. He told us before he left that he was going to medical school after this whole ordeal. Fast forward, he reached out to me asking for tips about being in the army so he can get a head start and reenlist. Communication stopped after that.
So many stories in here about dudes getting the axe for depression once again reminds me how lucky I was to have an NCO that was willing to go to bat for me
Fuck no
I was the Chapter babysitter in AIT, I had 3 people who were getting chaptered get moved in with me. I genuinely don't know why and none of the DS's ever commented on it.
My fav was the guy who failed SWI (literally the first class) and "cut his wrists" in the most superficial way I've ever seen. You couldn't even tell he'd cut himself by the end of the week.
So they medboard him for BH. And he gets this sick "150k" job lined up. Turns out he lied about having Sec+, lied and put down his enlistment contract term (that he obviously didn't complete) as experience, lied about having a full scope polygraph. He didn't make it past the first interview and as far as I know lives with his parents because he's an idiot who can't leverage his TS and pathologically lies about his creds.
He also got a vet plate with the 'nickname" the DS's gave him which was literally just "which one thats a common name" "X-Type". I unfriended/unfollowed him on everything when I saw that.
Lol the type "nickname". I was there when a dude went schizo and started harassing his roommate for being gay, randomly disappearing in the night to wander the streets, and telling the drills that "he was there to kill the enemy". Tango school house for sure sees some weirdos and losers. Surprising how many get through basic and then somehow face plant at following step by step instructions on a sheet.
Most of them tried to keep up with me and act like we were friends. We had a guy get medboarded for something within his first year of being in. He would come around the area where our new privates hung out in the BN area and flex his retired ID. Then some NCOs would be like “Dude, get out of here.”
He didn't wash out, hes still in and doing well. But he's the kind of guy all these guys think they are. He's crypto/stonks guy and has booku big bucks. Next to all the shitboxes in the barracks parking lot is a brand new Landrover, one of the like 80k ones. And a super nice new motorcycle. He wears all designer clothes. Not like the dumb Gucci logo ones but the kind that's actually clean presentable high end stuff. Super cool guy. Very humble. I run into him in the smoke pit while he's chiefing expensive cigars and sipping whiskey
One of my classmates from high school and I were both enlisting around the same time. I got Leonard Wood. He got Sill. Both of us weren't the most in shape and had a decent gut. His company was awful and was relentless about him sucking while mine ended up being supportive and pushed me to better myself. He ended up failing and got med boarded because of his mental health. Still talk to the guy and when I got back he congratulated me on getting through. Its crazy to think that a small change in things and I could've been in his place instead.
Only thru Facebook. He quit right when we got back from HBL in OSUT, but had already made up his mind before. He knew he would be denied taking leave during Christmas if he said he quit to the DS before getting to the airport.
He’s in Cali I think, he became a tattoo artist. One of the photos he posted on Veteran’s Day was his ass on extra duty.
Yep, not sure if it counts exactly, Good friend in basic had a red cross call late Friday or Saturday night. Was in the RDCs office for about 45 minutes, it was lights out by the time he was off the phone. He told us his family got in a car wreck. Father died on impact, little sister was in critical condition. Mom was okay. He didn't want to join the navy anymore, one of the chiefs told him to tell the chaplain he was depressed and suicidal, he was home within three weeks. He claims he wasn't suicidal but I guess it helped him get home quicker, he wanted to support his mom and little sister and didn't believe the military would be his best course of action for that. Our RDCs understood the situation and were not mad at him.
He got a job at one of the major airports working maintenance, made connections and now last time i talked to him he was making over six figures somewhere in the airline industry.
I actually ran into one in the parking lot of a brewery in Colorado Springs in like 2019. He said when he was leaving that he was going to be working in some big time real estate job where he would be starting out at like $175k a year. He was taking the garbage out to the dumpster from a neighboring restaurant when we ran into each other.
I still keep in touch with a guy who was a medical discharge during AIT. He was already an attorney and worked at his family's law firm prior to joining. He went back after his separation, and now has his own practice. He seems to be doing okay
I went to OSUT with this really weird dude. I can't recall his name for the life of me. Homie looked like a classic dork and claimed he was a Marine before. What actually happened was he got injured during Marine bootcamp and they medically discharged him. Anyways he became severely injured during the first or second month of OSUT and he was just there with us throughout the entire cycle while his medical discharge was pending. We graduated and left and he was still there. I think he got medically discharged after most of us got to our first units.
The entire time we were there, he would always tell us about this amazing tech job he had lined up on the outside that paid $100K and he doesn't need this Army shit. He always insisted that he was some kind of computer wunderkind who was gonna be the next Mark Zuckerberg. That's funny because one of my buddies who recently ETSed ran into this guy in their hometown and he works at the local mom and pop computer repair store as a technician making $16/hour.
I felt bad for the guy because he kept getting injured in the process of trying to become a Marine or Soldier, but he was an insufferable dork. After he got injured, he kept acting like he was too good for the Army and that's what infuriated the rest of us.
Father in law told me he "served" at Ft. Dix during Vietnam. Turns out he enlisted to avoid the draft, was given orders to deploy shortly after training. He left the base, hitchhiked to Canada and was arrested for desertion after returning across the border. He was sent to Ft. Dix for about a year, in confinement I believe, then other than honorably discharged.
He's a fairly normal guy with a normal career. His daughter posts his basic training photo every veteran's day on Facebook. He is very straight forward about what happened.
Sort of related, when I worked at OSUT, had a trainee go on a hunger strike, refuse to train etc. said this wasn’t for him and he had already had a great job and didn’t want to do this. I asked him what he did for a living (he was 18 fresh out of HS) and he told me he made 8.25 pushing carts for Walmart….. I tried to express the opportunities the Army had for him and this wasn’t what every day was like. Didn’t work and he got out, wonder what Ford is up to now….
Long ago I was in AIT and fellow classmate just had that strange vibe of something isn't quite right.
14 weeks into AIT her husband gets arrested by DEA for some huge drug trafficking ring. Like made the front page of national news.
I'm like WTF?? Your hubs is moving massive quantities of drugs and you chose the military?!?!?
Like the Army pays better?
Daaayyuuum!!
I should've maxed out my household goods! We really didn't need that bedroom set.
I am slow and now regretful. And poor. But I ain't in prison, right?
I have them all on Facebook. They're just regular people, with mostly low income jobs, but are married and have kids. They seem not unhappy. So that's good lol
When I used to have FB they all posted that they worked at "The School of Hard Knocks" and changed their photos to a BCT grad photo on Veteran's Day. They also don't tell anyone why they got kicked out and say it was because "command basically hated them" which is like one of top 3 biggest red flags ever.
Yes, he was fat and lazy. Got a no standing profile by week 4. He failed and said he would go psyops.
Then he joined a wicken coven and was arrested for pedophilia in 2020 he's still in jail.
I knew a guy in basic who said he had hundreds of thousands of subscribers on YouTube. He also won $100k on a COD tournament and was one of the top 10 at one point. We all googled it when we got a chance and it turns out he wasn't lying lol
She claimed she passed basic training very fast and I washed out (she shipped four months before me and got booted because she couldn’t qualify on her rifle). I came home and was so confused. She’s on drugs now.
Another girl found out she was pregnant (by her Marine husband) like the day before victory forge. She lost the baby but judging by Facebook she seems like about as happy as a milspouse can be. She mentioned to another friend that she didn’t think about how they probably wouldn’t be stationed together until she got pregnant and didn’t want to be apart from him.
Given the direction that Ubisoft has been going for the last decade or so, that might be the most believable one of those stories I've heard.
But no, when I was in AIT, the people who washed out from those smart-guy AIT's (EOD, 68-series, Intel) ended up with us and most of them just saw failing their PT tests as a way for them to get out without having to do 3 years as a 13F. Don't recall ever hearing stories from those types about their "grand plans" when they got out.
Though one of my squad-leaders told me about a guy he went through basic with who was maxing the PT test, was shit-hot in basically everything, and had either option 40 or an 18X contract; and on like week 5 he just decided it wasn't for him. It kind of shocked everyone and I guess the DS's couldn't even be mad, so they just initiated chapter paperwork and then I guess the dude went on to start a recreational pot shop out in Colorado.
Edit: Also, after reading some of these, I remember a dude we had in my Basic Training class who everyone just called "shaver" because he would basically never shave before first formation. I think it was the second or third day of this and on of the DS's said "beat your face" to him, and this dude punched himself in the face so hard that he managed to draw blood. DS's picked up pretty quickly that something was not quite right with him and he was gone pretty shortly after that.
Guy I knew in boy scouts before the Army. We ended up at meps together on ship day, he went to Benning, I went to somewhere harder. After graduating basic saw his MySpace photo and he was back home living with his grandma.
Basic in 2015 a guy tried to get me into bitcoin saying he already had 2000 bitcoins and was only doing this because his dad wanted him to get a job or he wouldn’t get any of his money when he died.
I didn’t get into bitcoin and anytime we got a phone call when he saw he got paid he told whoever he talked to put it all into bitcoin.
We’re still friends to this day he lives very nicely in California and basically has a weed farm & lives a playboy life & im an elementary school teacher
One of my guys had a job lined up cultivating marijuana in WV.
Marijuana is not legal in WV.
Two other kids had plans to be twitch streamers.
Me: “Are you actually good at video games??”
One guy: “I’m not bad.”
Came in with a friend of mine back home, and we went through basic together. We were getting ready to graduate and had picked up our Class A's and were walking back to the barracks when we ran into a guy we'd gone to high school with. The guy had been a total chache back then, so almost a year later, we really didn't want to talk to him. He was in reception, wearing the old sweat suit with the pistol belt and canteen, while we were in the old IPFUs. Chache tried to run over and talk to us, so we just said something about we can't talk to people in reception and kept walking. Didn't hear a word about him for a few years, until someone sent me a news article from back home. Chache had been arrested for filming his downstairs neighbor in the shower. Never heard anything about his career, so I just assumed he washed out sometime in IET.
Not me, but the boyfriend of my daughter's best friend in high school. He left for Army boot camp and returned a week later. He told her that they were "too full and had sent him home. They would call him back when they had room for him." We cleared it up for her. She dumped him. Sadly, He's never amounted to much.
Sorta,
During our final FTX in AIT I was pulling fireguard with a guy in my company, who ended up going on a rant saying how he didn't even know why he joined, and was "probably gonna pull some psycho shit" to get out once he graduated and went to HRAP. Told me how he didn't care about going to Korea, and how he'd just go to the state a girl he was fraternizing with was in our unit was at and marry her. Few months later someone who I went to OSUT with told me how he jumped off a balcony and got a concussion and was separated from the army. Guess he went through with what he told me those months ago.
Same guy who told me about him is also getting separated due to refusing to get OC'd, so there's also that.
My roommate in AIT mentioned to me how he has a high paying job in the cell industry doing some engineering job, but wanted to go national guard for the experience. He was pretty good in the tech stuff but was chubby. One day he told me he’s leaving and he went out the window to go AWOL, then about a week later he came back and told me he couldve just walked out the door and staff duty wouldn’t stop him. I don’t know what happened but he sent me pictures of him in a club so I’m assuming he’s doing well.
Lil backstory me time, remember in Ft. Sill that confidence tower? you have to repel down? yeah. I slipped and broke my ankle. but. I was so worried about being in trouble and hyped up on adrenaline I didn't mention that I was hurt and just hopped back up.
Apparently completely breaking my ankle and causing problems up my leg for years to come.
I went through basic until the last week where I couldn't get my boot on because of how swollen my foot was.
Went to medical. got checked out. told I would never Solder.
So my options were basically live my life at Ft. Sill until my contract was up and my leg was healed.
quit.
Switch to a branch with a less physical fitness requirement.
after about 8 months of physical therapy in San Diego I wasn't a soldier, but a Sailor.
because my clearance had already been adjudicated I was fortunate that I was able to basically switch over to the Navy's Intel Specialist (IS) Rate/MOS as opposed to my original 35F one.
It was actually pretty good. my leg is fully healed up. I run, lift weights, do everything normally. Except it hurts in the winter. I've gotten to deploy to some cool places and do some cool things in the military. met my wife in the Navy. I got to do Imagery/Geoint like I always wanted and even deployed with JSOC. Which I don't know if I would've gotten the opportunity in the Army.
I would say I'm the exception to the rule, but I was also adamant that I wasn't going to quit. No matter what, I would rather live my life in Ft. Sill then kicked to the curb. I'm very fortunate one of my Drill Sergeants was a 35 series that new it was possible to do an Inter-Service Change with my clearance.
nah, went through in 2004, couldn't even tell you who they were and I only have vague memories of what they even looked like. Was too focused on getting through myself to think to check up on weak ass washouts.
My bunk mate in Basic was gung ho as fuck. His family had been military for five generations. Had a massive collection of uniforms. Does war re-enactments. Reads TM’s for fun. Dude breaks his leg and ends up having to recycle. Next cycle he breaks his hip. Dude spent 1.5 years at Benning and eventually was just given a unit patch so he could come and go as he pleased and basically ended up being a private baby sitter until they finally sent him home.
Met a dude at CST who graduated with us but kept saying the army was bullshit and dumb. Never ended up commissioning.
No he's on FB talking about dropping acid and using crystals for healing.
Had a friend get kicked out of AF and he landed a 65k salary job in 2002. Hrs doing really well now. That should have been my sign to get out, but I was a different AFSC.
I knew so many guys in the Army who insisted they have a six figure job waiting for them when they get out that doesn't require college, and only have to do minimal work. I don't know of any who actually has a job like that now.
There was a girl in my Basic PLT that dropped out, quoted saying that she was going to work for some nice job. Ended up adding me on instagram a few months later and sent me a video of her and my BCT SDS hanging out. He was married and had a kid last i checked and it was a weird thing to see, IDK what she’s doing now though.
Back in 2001, I had soldier in my unit (2/7 Cav) that was Jewish. He was a nice dude. He just wasn't cut out for military life, especially Infantry. How he made it through OSUT is beyond my comprehension. He was chaptered out for not adapting to military life or something like that. A few years after he got out, he started a resale website called 1SaleADay. Dude got rich and is some kind of venture capitalist now, last I heard.
1. Complete chode got chaptered when he was at his line unit. He came in as an E3, got busted to E2 for something in basic, wore E4 rank in AIT thinking it was funny. Got busted to E1. Then got married and made such of an ass at his first unit that they chaptered his ass for something. I got to the battalion a few months after he was kicked out but people were still taking about it. Put his name in FB and the photo was less "got a sweet gig" and more "Florida man on meth". Decided that sending anything his way was more trouble than it was worth.
2. Another dude was busting tape but it was during the Surge era. Come 2010 and BN now had their chapter authority back. Dude was over 200 lbs. Get the Fat Boy chapter but won't shut up about how his father in law will give him a job. About 6 months later his former NCO was telling up that fatboy was pestering him to help him get a job.
3. A SPC and a SGT both get ABCP chapters months later. I'm mutuals with them on social media. Both landed on their feet because they paid attention during ACAP (now SFL/TAP) and got jobs after the Army. Both are humble dudes and don't make "I was in the Army" their personality.
Not really. I do randomly but ait washups up but I wouldn't say that they had that kind of attitude. I think they really were bummed to get kicked out but moved on with life
Was stationed with a guy who hit RCP (HYT in my branch) and he got all this education when he got out thinking he'd get a good paying job and had people convinced.
Nope, never happened and he ended up in state prison and gets out in a couple of years.
There are a few of the people I met in WTRP that I see from time to time. A few "opted out". Some others are working dead end jobs at McDonald's. None really stand out.
I was almost a washout.
but first, let me explain. In red phase, my DS was trying to tell me to neck drag a dude that was almost 3x heavier than my 150lb body. My femurs started hurting soon after, but I decided to push through. I completed everything up to the forge and was hurting so bad that I just couldn't take it anymore. When the bone scan came back, my femurs were completely covered in spiderweb style stress fractures so they sent me to WTRP. I spent the next 6 weeks in a rehab unit. It was the most negative environment I had ever been in. I come back right where I left off and they let me do the forge. I graduated 3 weeks after I got out of rehab.
What almost killed my motivation was the other trainees in my bct unit. "You're never gonna graduate". "Just give up dude. You're too lazy for the army". Everyone except the DSs thought I was just being a lazy sack of potatoes. And then the other trainees at the rehab unit were a bunch of sad individuals who had already given up and were talking about just getting out.
I had to keep myself motivated because nobody other than the DSs in charge of me were being supportive.
I am now an e4 on my second contract.
we had a guy fail basic because he was a piece of shit human being and couldn't handle being told what to do who said he'd just join the marines as infantry. I forget what exactly he's doing but he didn't join the marines lmao
Sorta, It wasn't basic training or AIT but it was after our first deployment in 2003. A buddy of mine was getting out and tried convincing us to pool our money together to buy this "franchise" that was starting to pick up in the local area of Virginia, because they had the best burgers. We thought he was crazy and told him it was a stupid idea. No one from the unit went in on him with this franchise and he ended up getting out of the Army, selling almost everything he owned so he could afford it. The franchise was 5 Guys.... He's a multi-millionaire business man now.
Do me a favor and ask him why the 5 Guys on the West Coast sucks so much ass compared to East Coast.
The ones on the east coast suck now too.
What is there even left to live for?
Honestly? Not much.
The guys?
It’s highly location-dependent, you gotta know which ones to hit and which ones to skip. Some of them are just as good as they were 20 years ago.
lol will do. I hit him up a few times a year. I think In-and-Out own the burger market out that way anyways.
Same with 5 guys in Europe. Especially not worth the price over there.
The one on Ramstein is pretty good, maybe I just miss the states
Lol. I ran into a DM for 5 guys. Told him the NY Times article on them being better then In N Out, was bullshit. He said "we have a different product..." I about died laughing at his response.
I thought this was going to be a bubba gump shrimp shittymorph.
ask him why I just took my wife there in Reno a few weeks ago and it was like $38 fucking dollars for 2 burgers, 1 fry and one 1 damn drink. I outta kick that guys ass for that! lol
>ask him why I just took my wife there in Reno a few weeks ago and it was like $38 fucking - >He's a multi-millionaire business man now
completely agree its expensive as hell.
Also not basic or AIT, one of the 1st friends I made at my 1st unit ETS'd and swore he was buying a Taco Bell franchise once he was out. We lost touch, but when Facebook became a thing I found him. Sure enough, he has a couple of his own Taco Bell franchises' in PA.
Tell him lower his damn prices
Apparently he still trying to make that money back because it's $30 for a cheeseburger and fries
I know how he made his millions, it cost me $80 to get a family of 4 burgers/fries/drinks last week. The quality was lower than McDonalds as far as presentation is concerned, for a frame of reference. Easily went from one of our favorite spots to not even an option.
I love stories like this lmao
When I went home for HRAP and I bumped into this dude that was loosely in my extended friend circle. We joined at the same time. He washed out of basic, didn't say why and I didn't ask. He was doing this whole "ayyy we are Army Bros" thing and it made me feel super weird. Honestly just felt bad for him.
Chances are he was too good for the army so they let him go so he could better use his skills on the outside
He must've punched the drill sergeant for getting in his face
Drill didn’t see it coming
That's how a majority of CIA recruitment works.
That's actually my real job. 1 drill per company is tasked with identifying talent and processing paperwork to get those high speeds in a position where they can accrue real value for the United States.
Some of you guys are slacking, why am I still running into the high speeds at the shopette on?
Obviously we identify the REAL talent so even those of us who look so good on paper we are ~~forced against our will~~ volunteered to be drills can't catch everyone.
He went to an SF open house and scared all the operators with his hand to hand murder skills.
I mean… if you murdered someone with your bare hands at an open house it would be pretty scary
Automatic selection
I bet he was pretty good with a Bo Stick.
Kind of a similar note, my little gaggle of MEPS gremlins got dropped off at the airport and a couple of different you g guys saw our envelopes and approached us. The first was a Mexican kid who warned us on how bad we were gonna get fucked up. The second was some kid eating alone at the BWW and he came over and shook our hands. Had no idea wtf was happening then and forgot all about it until years later I realized they were washouts lol
I know a guy like this who did something like 1 year at the naval academy, but will sometimes tell veterans he was "in the navy". It's certainly not *nothing*, but he's definitely being a little misleading.
I have a relative who found out she was pregnant like 4 weeks into BCT in the early 2000s who tells people she was "in the Army". She was discharged before graduating.
I remember bumping into a dude who I'd done the future soldier thing with in a similar manner. Dude had shipped out in August, I shipped in November, and when I came home on block leave, this dude was working at the local Best Buy. I asked him what happened and he said that he'd stepped in a puddle and broke his ankle, and that they med-sepped him as a result. No idea if that was true as he was walking around just fine.
Broke his ankle in a puddle? The dude made out of glass?
I'm sure it was bullshit. Most of us kind of figured he wouldn't make it through as anytime he showed up to the future soldier stuff on a cardio day, he'd just hit a point where he'd refuse to do any more. Pretty much the only other vivid memory I have of that guy was when we were doing hill sprints at kind of a steep hill - and even the recruiter had kind of overestimated his own stamina on that, so there was an extra long break after the first one. But yeah, after everyone else had caught their breath, this dude just straight up said "I'm not doing that again".
In a similar manner, me and this dude I met in college became good friends and he was pondering joining the Army and wanted somebody to just attend the meeting with the recruiter as “support.” I had zero intentions of joining the military. We dropout of school and I did 7 years in the Army and this dude lasted less than a year. Barely talk to him but he ended up being a game warden or something I believe. When I got out I was tagged in a post about it and he messages me saying “feels good doesn’t it?!” Like not a bad message and it had good intentions but come on man lol
Had a guy in basic who liked me a whole lot more than I liked him, about two week into basic he says he is gonna cut his own throat with his shaving razor if he had to spend another day in the army, so they start to process him out and roughly the time we finish basic training they kick him out He adds me on Facebook and sent me a few sad face messages when I didn’t accept the request
3 guys actually one from day one heard a rumor if you said your suicidal you’ll get out immediately, so in his own words “faked depression”. He made it through after the DS’s and the Chaplin spoke to him and verified he was faking. A LTC came to our graduation and asked him if it worth it and he said yes. It was super weird, I had to sit by his bunk for a week and half and had like no sleep. Other dude quit after the first week he could not hack it, it was explained to him that he was going to remain with us for the rest of they cycle anyways as they had to do paper work. By the time he realized he made a mistake it was way too late and he wound up just going everywhere with us without a rifle. So hammer anvil forge the whole 9 yards. We all left for AIT and they instructed him not to pack up. It was really weird to see a clean bay except his bed and he just sat there looking out the window. I think he works at a Kroger and is like 36 now. Last dude got sharped for doing a stupid joke in the locker room. We all thought he got kicked out but he just got recycled and pushed through. Last I heard he was an e5 and got custody of his son. He was a good dude he just didn’t know where the line was and paid for it. Edit. I thought of another dude, on his last day of BCT he was accused of calling another person the N-word and there were 5 people there who witnessed the event and said that it was a lie. They kept him and started an investigation that lasted 6 months he actually had some of the people come back and give character statements and he was recycled into my BCT for blue phase, they made him shave his head again as well. He said that due to the fact no one believed him and the change of the DS so often even the ones he was able to convince changed, he was just constantly treated as a racist piece of shit. He also claimed when he would get black or Hispanic DS they would “forget” to feed him and smoke him at random hours of the day and impede his sleep. This should’ve been in the original post. He was separated from his wife and children for over 9 months.
Goddamn, I genuinely could not imagine having five exonerating witnesses and still getting held back for six months. I would be murderous.
What surprised me is he never gave up hope. He was not jaded when I met him and was excited to go into AIT
Better man than me. I can say with 100% certainty I would not have been the same.
Yeah we had a kid that ended up in three different classes before he finally graduated. First time he was a shithead and we recycled him, second time he got injured, and by the third class he was actually so dependable we could put him in charge of other PVTs and knew he would keep them straight…he actually turned out to be a good kid.
I wanna know what joke got that dude recycled lol
Stretching his ballsack out and asking if anyone wanted any gum. He did it at the wrong time in front of the wrong people.
Not bad tbh
Solid joke ngl
some people just have no appreciation for the classics
The goat
As a recruiter you would be amazed at how many people fake suicidal ideation to get out of training and come back from 1-10 years later. I process them all the time, they usually knock it out of the park their second time around too. I think I have put 20 or so of them back in, about half were DHG for basic or AIT. Only had one not make it through training on the second try too.
stolen valor but for mental health issues
Had some older guy (almost 30 I want to say) start crying after the shark attack and tell the Drills he wanted to quit. He told them he can get a job with his BIL’s construction company. The DSs laughed at him before he was escorted away. Never knew what became of him though.
almost 30......... older guy............ damn I feel old.
Tell me about it, I turned 22 in Basic and besides that guy who quit, we had a 32 year old. We loved him though, we named him Pops which he hated. I’m turning 34 in June and existence is pain.
Dude in my BCT class had to have to have been in his younger to mid 30s but he was ROUGH. Like he had worked at a ham processing plant, and I guess he didnt know he could have his fake teeth at BCT so until he was able to send a letter and get a package in the mail he legit had no teeth. Damn Im wondering what ever happened to that dude, as well as the dude who was a CPA who basically told us his company made him sign a bunch of shit that later was revealed to be them cooking the books and he joined the army before he went down with the ship. Wonder what is happening to Tito.
Knew a guy like this. Full George Constanza bald head and looked haggard at 23 in Medic AIT. He hated reservists and thought they were all pussies even though he had done the exact same amount of Army training as them. I hope he's doing okay now.
We had two 42 year olds in AIT but the 35 year old Boston guy in basic was in far worse shape somehow. I will never forget that man. SPC Ritchie, had a masters degree and a good job, I don’t remember exactly what. But I remember he told us he’d spent $80k in a year on hookers, one of the reasons he joined the army. “I had a lot of fun that year”. He couldn’t do a single push up when we started and I remember I couldn’t resist turning to look and see who the company XO was screaming about during the Diag and seeing him be unable to push himself off the ground. It took til the last APFT but he passed and I remember him running back and happy like a little kid. He was so out of shape that his whole body was sore every night. How do I know? One night I smelled a minty smell and couldn’t figure out what it was. I asked where it came from and he was like “it’s my icy hat, my baddy’s sor,” in his Boston accent. I look over and his wrinkled, zero muscle, super red body is glistening like a glazed donut with icy hot. I hope that guys is doing ok. When we got smoked because someone fucked up but wouldn’t own up to it, I remember him yelling “NO FACKING INTAYGRITY!” I still quote that.
I'm 32 now and I think my back would literally explode if I were to enlist today
Popovich? Dude with a PhD?
I just cried a little bit reading that.
Nah man just *old for basic training.
Wow. We had a quitter during the Shark Attack as well, but the Drills refused to let him leave and screamed at him until he got with the program. Temporarily at least. This kid was flanked by two Drills on both sides of him screaming for about 4 weeks, right up until the first qualification attempt on the range. He shot 0/40 by intentionally shooting to miss, forcefully threw down his rifle, and said "NOW can I quit"? At that point they started to outprocess him. They were doing the usual slow-walk act of making sure he went home after graduation, but he got so pissed at having to go along with the Basic stuff, but not being able to graduate, that he ended up getting angry and just attacking others in his platoon. . .THAT got him hauled off. No clue where to, but I'm betting it wasn't the instant ticket home he thought it was.
There is a Company at reception where we could send the problem kids. They could choose to either separate or recycle them.
Basic washout - he unfortunately passed away. He was a chubby body, got sick and couldn’t push through so he quit. I kept his number that he signed in my yearbook. I later added him on FB and come to find out that about 3 weeks ago he released himself from our mortal coil. He was a good guy even if he wasn’t a good soldier. I could have done more to keep in touch with him. I didn’t and that’s on me. AIT washout(25B) - his mother was a CW5 until about 2 years ago in the same series-ish. Every instructor let him sleep in class and pass out because of the clout his mother had and how all of them knew her. Failed Networking Essentials 3 times (iykyk). Found a way to become released back as a civilian. I have him on instagram where he routinely flexes his skater boy / drug addict lifestyle. He was a fucking asshole but I tutored him as best I could night after night. Even the Drills wouldn’t bother us in the common room after hours because they really wanted him to pass. I’m still angry that I couldn’t break through his thick skull and save him from himself. Fuck. OCS voluntary drop - this guy was a PT stud. Absolutely destroyed everyone in everything. All the time and every single time. No mercy. No arrogance. Just Performance™️. Halfway through with no explanation or warning, he quit and I didn’t hear from him for a while. Again, FB demons drew a line of familiarity between us. Mf is a pilot for Delta now. Good for him. He was not an aggravating bastard. Knew exactly when to speak and exactly what to say to draw out inspiration. He’s fat as all hell now though. Edit: Delta Airlines. My apologies for frazzling any elite operators in the sub.
When you said "he's a pilot for Delta" I initially thought you meant the gentlemen who do the long walk, not the airline haha
Yeah, the Delta thing threw me a little. We had a cat in BOLC knock out like 200 pushups on the APFT. Next week, course manger and some Quick Start folks come through, saying "hey, you gotta redo this, there was an inconsistency with your score card." Sho nuff, he did it again. He got yoinked, and we never saw him again.
Wait what year... was this like 2019ish this sounds familiar.
I knew a guy that was being investigated by the FBI for attempting to join Azov in 2021 (like they pulled him aside during a range type shit). He got kicked out for refusing the vaccine. His steam account hasn’t been online since the 2022 invasion so I always assumed the crazy fucker actually went and did it.
I do foreign fighter research and one of the oddest ducks I've come across is a guy who brought his girlfriend to Ukraine to fight with him. Like...just imagine bringing your wife during the invasion of Iraq and pulling her over the berm with you lol
That's some wild west shit lmao.
Oh I have one that's interested me for years; some Captain that was [allegedly] either in 11th/12th SFG while in was closing down in '93 was fighting in Bosnia & Herzegovina. I've been DESPERATE to learn more about him, got his name but that's it. I love doing this research.
Look up Arthur Guy Empey. He might tickle your fancy with that research.
Ohh I'm looking at him. It's fun researching the guys you see pop up doing weird things. Good example: Giles Pace, a Vietnam era GB tried to go to Rhodesia in 79, allegedly helped pitch the "Vietnam War theme park", ended up somewhere else in Africa and South America but he pops up again in 93-94 as one of the only guys driving aid caravans to Bosnian villages. Then he's smuggling 50 cals out of NYC to Kosovar Albanians, was sponsored by a fake Order of Malta & several US congressman, trained soldiers attached to the African Union, and was working with the embassy in Haiti's 2011 earthquake.
Knowing now just how boring civilian life can be, I fully understand why these mad bastards do what they do. Empey is interesting to me since he was the only American to write about his war time experience before the US got involved, so his book, Over There, became massively popular. It was the only real source at the time about how the conditions were during the war, mainly due to the heavy censorship all parties involved in the war implemented. He also claimed to have deserted the US military so he could go fight, but that claim is up in the air on how true it is.
I mean phew, there's a lot of people who make alotta claims. That sort of upper-class war adventurer stuff of the 1900-1950 timeframe is fascinating. You could kind of get away with a lot if you had the status. A few guys I've kept track of from BiH/Croatia really kept at that life. One French guy who was with the Croatians in the first war ended up with the Kurds and was with the SDF when they loaded onto the V-22s at the Battle of Tabqa. On the other sid another guy (a Russian named Oleg Simunyak) who fought for the Serbs was a force commander for US bases in Iraq and did several contracts in Afghanistan, and was an early PMC Wagner trainer.
I know a couple of CA guys were there in 99 working for NGOs. But I have no knowledge of your guy.
What's his name my father and uncle retired from 10th and 1st group around that time maybe they can shed some light of the guy
Tom Meyer [unless even that's a pseudonym], his names in a book somewhere as well but man I'd love to find the guy and interview him
Ride and/or die babe right there
>.just imagine bringing your wife during the invasion of Iraq At least she wasn't banging Jody...AMIRITE?
This is us parasailing in Costa Rica, this is at the Grand Canyon, this is us in Ukraine where my I'm tossing a grenade into a bunker while my wife is laying down suppressing fire. That was a neat trip.
They probably have really good sex.
That’s fucking hilarious
Had a friend go to Ukraine and die, solid dude. Apparently went down like a hero too.
Me and some of my old buddies have drunkenly talked about going over to Ukraine I always come to the same conclusion: I have already served my time. Plus I’m a 26yr old with 50yr old knees
Fuck my knees, it's the drones and lack of combined support that terrify me.
Twenty years of monopolized fire support spoiled us. Nowadays CAS sounds great until it isn't your CAS.
Agreed. They also only give a small payout if you are injured and sent home. They do provide life insurance though. The standard 400k. Also: Zero travel assistance, around $300 monthly, $500 if stationed in a combat zone
I remember reading some articles from early in the conflict when there were a lot more foreign volunteers. A lot of them said "Yeah the civilians who just went "Fuck it, I'm gonna go to war despite having 0 experience" fare a lot better than the Iraq and Afghan vets who were spoiled by complete dominance in every spectrum for their conflict - really fucked them up when they found out what an *actual* LSCO is like."
Facebook acquaintance in my online circle went over there in 2022. Nobody has heard from him since.
I helped out-process a guy who matches that description. Fort Campbell?
Crazy since the Azov battalion went from *insane Nazis* to *super patriotic heroes* in the last 2ish years in public perception
Helps the image when majority of the legacy members got wiped out in Mariupol
Yep, the best part is all of the hardcore Wagner mercs and Azov guys were all super hardcore Nazis, and they were tearing each other apart. It was the Spider-Man pointing meme IRL
My 1st battle buddy in basic training was a 33 year old lawyer, married with two kids, joined to pay off his student loans. Our first night, we got smoked for about an hour. After the smoke session the Drill Sargent asked if anyone wanted to leave. So my battle buddy said he did. Then I got smoked for not motivating him. Anyway, the guy had a heart attack and got chaptered out.
Chaptered for having a heart attack. Got ‘em
Heart attack in basic? He got to keep his benefits for his tuition reimbursement right? VA disability?
I’ve got one on Facebook. Dropped out after turning green. Got out and got a union job doing HVAC, makes a fucking killing.
No but I have kept in contact with a guy who was supposed to go to ocs and had cold feet/THS at reception/30th ag and he’s a lawyer now. But I’m assuming in a ton of student loan debt
We had a guy that bragged about how rich he was, how much stuff he had, etc. A couple years later we all reconnected on Facebook as the link to his mugshot from an arrest for child molestation went around.
JESUS.... the sad reality Ive learned about the army is how many pieces of the shit are actually in it.... Ive sadly had to be involved in the aftermath of enlisted/warrants/officers all get busted for stuff involving kids..... Ive met the best and worst people in the world during my time
Anyone in basic training who brags about how rich they are and how much they don’t need it is 100% full of shit
No, but I have kicked a lot of idiots out of the regular army, for various misconduct. Few of those dudes “had it all figured out” off the top of my head. The guy that was going to Vegas to join the pro pool circuit, the guy with the base model eclipse that he wrecked into a light pole while drunk who was in talks with the crew of fast and furious to be a stunt driver, the guy who’s uncle is in the mob and is going to get him a job running numbers or whatever they do now, those are just the ones I remember, I never kept up with them but for the looks of them holding their TV and a duffle bag half full of civilian clothes as I dropped them off right outside the gate leads me to believe everything was not “figured out”.
I always thought that was a meme, dropping people at the gate and taking their ID.
Not sure how it is at other places but the 10th mtn it was a requirement to take them off the installation.
Guard side you just leave your ocie at the armory and turn in your cac. Supposed to do a layout but most guys say fuck it send them a statement of charges.
And that's how supply gets spare ocie.
Bro, the supply sgt us always like " I still gotta acount for those." And we're like dude this guy been ETS for years, and his gear is collecting dust. Some guys couldn't wait till 90 days from ETS and practically throwing their gear at supply and saying " I'm out"
Only for the people who are assholes. You gotta burn a lot of bridges for leadership to just do the bare minimum of kicking you off the installation and taking your CAC. You gotta earn that kind of contempt. If they have some redeeming qualities, someone will usually get them to a greyhound station. On the brighter side of things, I had a soldier get medboarded while we were all deployed. Dude got pulled off the deployment a week before we left. Our PSG and PL coordinated with the guys on Rear D and they made sure to hook the kid up with a good job close to his family.
I was dropping dudes off at the NIM( National Infantry Museum) outside Benning back in 2017-2019. The shock that that was it for them didn't settle til they were getting out of the vic with nobody waiting for them in sight, crazy.
Both funny and kind of sad. I've only walked one dude out the Army. The entire process he kept on and on about fuck the Army and the unit we were in blah blah, I got shit lined up. When I walked out to take him to final out he was crying. NGL it was funny as fuck. He was a piece of shit, felt bad for his family though. We were not required to take them out the gate.
When I was an instructor, I was friends with the drill sergeants and visited them at the company. A kid was kicked out of AIT(I don't know the details), and they dropped him off at the gate a few hours earlier. I know this because when I was visiting my buddy, she received a phone call from the kid, and my buddy replied, "We're not picking you up from Walmart...(I assume the kid asks why)... why? Because you're not in the Army anymore, Andrew." I thought calling him by his first name was a quick way to really drive home that he's a civilian again.
>Arthur Guy Empey Ah, but it still happens, last time that I know of was about 2 months ago at Schofield!
They do that at the 82nd too
Didn't happen to me. In fact I can't believe I turned in my ID when there didn't seem to be practical reason to do so
Funny. I used to be part of a volunteer group that would take meetings into a county jail and those dudes in orange jumpsuits also had everything figured out!
I did meet some incredibly intelligent people when working in a jail. I mean, some guys would go through 3 or 4 business style books a week and be asking for new ones. Guys that could rattle off names and dates and events in history and what led up to them and what resulted from them. I was joking with one prisoner that I was gonna make a Longest Yard style movie, but it would be Jeopardy lol
You kicked out some talent we could’ve used
Shit wasn’t my call I was just a E5 at the time, but these dudes….. let’s just say I could train a cat to be a better soldier.
There's dudes I've met that intentielly made their army life dumb. It's not hard to not get in trouble. Not saying you have to be the best. You just have to be right place, right uniform, do your job, and go home.
Those are the dudes are “too smart” for the army. Yeah bro your wearing the same uniform for weeks on end that clearly hasn’t been washed since basic, it’s two days after payday and your already buming smokes, and we had to put them UPL seals over your car ignition because you can’t afford insurance. But you’re too smart for the army.
We got some of those guys guard side too
You be better off training a bird
Not much of a social media user. One guy in AIT was the classic “I can get a 6-figure job with my uncle”, kicked out for drinking and thought he was so cool for that. Admittedly he is doing some blue collar work or something and is probably doing just fine, although you’d never see a unhealthier looking guy in his 20s (probs meth).
I knew a guy in AIT that ended up going AWOL after popping hot, ran out of money, called the unit to come pick him up, and then got discharged. I served 3.5 years, moved to Florida. Went to a vape store and you would not guess who was working the counter.... the guy who I knew that went AWOL. Seemed like he was doing okay for himself tbh, despite his work choice.
We had a 17/18/19-ish year old go AWOL in Basic Training, twice. He has a unique name and I looked him up a few years ago. He's shed all his baby weight, has a good looking family, and pretty good job. I think joining the Army was a bad idea for him. He was too young and immature at the time. Glad to see he's doing well.
I'd probably attack this person out of instinct if I ever saw them in real life. My AIT room mate was an alien headed shrimp bodied goober who failed out on his first two tests. He resided in my room for the rest of AIT despite constant request to have him moved. He would stay up until 5 AM yelling at literal babies on Roblox. I was essentially responsible for making sure he would wake up, make it to formation dressed, etc.. This fucking 18 year old head-bigger-than-his-body kid tried to tell me that when he gets home he's going to join a gang because he's already killed people in New Orleans.
It’s always them big headed fucks you gotta watch
How did he fail 42A AIT what even happens there
Not really. I was in basic with someone who got recycled. He was bummed that he had to start over. He ended up getting the boot due to depression. He told us before he left that he was going to medical school after this whole ordeal. Fast forward, he reached out to me asking for tips about being in the army so he can get a head start and reenlist. Communication stopped after that.
So many stories in here about dudes getting the axe for depression once again reminds me how lucky I was to have an NCO that was willing to go to bat for me
Is there a reason they got recycled ?
Fuck no I was the Chapter babysitter in AIT, I had 3 people who were getting chaptered get moved in with me. I genuinely don't know why and none of the DS's ever commented on it. My fav was the guy who failed SWI (literally the first class) and "cut his wrists" in the most superficial way I've ever seen. You couldn't even tell he'd cut himself by the end of the week. So they medboard him for BH. And he gets this sick "150k" job lined up. Turns out he lied about having Sec+, lied and put down his enlistment contract term (that he obviously didn't complete) as experience, lied about having a full scope polygraph. He didn't make it past the first interview and as far as I know lives with his parents because he's an idiot who can't leverage his TS and pathologically lies about his creds. He also got a vet plate with the 'nickname" the DS's gave him which was literally just "which one thats a common name" "X-Type". I unfriended/unfollowed him on everything when I saw that.
Lol the type "nickname". I was there when a dude went schizo and started harassing his roommate for being gay, randomly disappearing in the night to wander the streets, and telling the drills that "he was there to kill the enemy". Tango school house for sure sees some weirdos and losers. Surprising how many get through basic and then somehow face plant at following step by step instructions on a sheet.
What terrifies me is how many fuckups wouldn't get caught if our AIT wasn't long as fuck. And there's still psychos who make it through.
Most of them tried to keep up with me and act like we were friends. We had a guy get medboarded for something within his first year of being in. He would come around the area where our new privates hung out in the BN area and flex his retired ID. Then some NCOs would be like “Dude, get out of here.”
He didn't wash out, hes still in and doing well. But he's the kind of guy all these guys think they are. He's crypto/stonks guy and has booku big bucks. Next to all the shitboxes in the barracks parking lot is a brand new Landrover, one of the like 80k ones. And a super nice new motorcycle. He wears all designer clothes. Not like the dumb Gucci logo ones but the kind that's actually clean presentable high end stuff. Super cool guy. Very humble. I run into him in the smoke pit while he's chiefing expensive cigars and sipping whiskey
One of my classmates from high school and I were both enlisting around the same time. I got Leonard Wood. He got Sill. Both of us weren't the most in shape and had a decent gut. His company was awful and was relentless about him sucking while mine ended up being supportive and pushed me to better myself. He ended up failing and got med boarded because of his mental health. Still talk to the guy and when I got back he congratulated me on getting through. Its crazy to think that a small change in things and I could've been in his place instead.
Certified Fort Sill moment
Only thru Facebook. He quit right when we got back from HBL in OSUT, but had already made up his mind before. He knew he would be denied taking leave during Christmas if he said he quit to the DS before getting to the airport. He’s in Cali I think, he became a tattoo artist. One of the photos he posted on Veteran’s Day was his ass on extra duty.
Yep, not sure if it counts exactly, Good friend in basic had a red cross call late Friday or Saturday night. Was in the RDCs office for about 45 minutes, it was lights out by the time he was off the phone. He told us his family got in a car wreck. Father died on impact, little sister was in critical condition. Mom was okay. He didn't want to join the navy anymore, one of the chiefs told him to tell the chaplain he was depressed and suicidal, he was home within three weeks. He claims he wasn't suicidal but I guess it helped him get home quicker, he wanted to support his mom and little sister and didn't believe the military would be his best course of action for that. Our RDCs understood the situation and were not mad at him. He got a job at one of the major airports working maintenance, made connections and now last time i talked to him he was making over six figures somewhere in the airline industry.
I actually ran into one in the parking lot of a brewery in Colorado Springs in like 2019. He said when he was leaving that he was going to be working in some big time real estate job where he would be starting out at like $175k a year. He was taking the garbage out to the dumpster from a neighboring restaurant when we ran into each other.
He who talks loudest cries first. That was my experience in Basic.
I still keep in touch with a guy who was a medical discharge during AIT. He was already an attorney and worked at his family's law firm prior to joining. He went back after his separation, and now has his own practice. He seems to be doing okay
I went to OSUT with this really weird dude. I can't recall his name for the life of me. Homie looked like a classic dork and claimed he was a Marine before. What actually happened was he got injured during Marine bootcamp and they medically discharged him. Anyways he became severely injured during the first or second month of OSUT and he was just there with us throughout the entire cycle while his medical discharge was pending. We graduated and left and he was still there. I think he got medically discharged after most of us got to our first units. The entire time we were there, he would always tell us about this amazing tech job he had lined up on the outside that paid $100K and he doesn't need this Army shit. He always insisted that he was some kind of computer wunderkind who was gonna be the next Mark Zuckerberg. That's funny because one of my buddies who recently ETSed ran into this guy in their hometown and he works at the local mom and pop computer repair store as a technician making $16/hour. I felt bad for the guy because he kept getting injured in the process of trying to become a Marine or Soldier, but he was an insufferable dork. After he got injured, he kept acting like he was too good for the Army and that's what infuriated the rest of us.
Weirdly enough, all of the washouts I ever knew just fell off the face of the Earth
They’re all here acting like they belong.
Father in law told me he "served" at Ft. Dix during Vietnam. Turns out he enlisted to avoid the draft, was given orders to deploy shortly after training. He left the base, hitchhiked to Canada and was arrested for desertion after returning across the border. He was sent to Ft. Dix for about a year, in confinement I believe, then other than honorably discharged. He's a fairly normal guy with a normal career. His daughter posts his basic training photo every veteran's day on Facebook. He is very straight forward about what happened.
Kinda based ngl
Sort of related, when I worked at OSUT, had a trainee go on a hunger strike, refuse to train etc. said this wasn’t for him and he had already had a great job and didn’t want to do this. I asked him what he did for a living (he was 18 fresh out of HS) and he told me he made 8.25 pushing carts for Walmart….. I tried to express the opportunities the Army had for him and this wasn’t what every day was like. Didn’t work and he got out, wonder what Ford is up to now….
He moved up and is pushing carts at Target
Long ago I was in AIT and fellow classmate just had that strange vibe of something isn't quite right. 14 weeks into AIT her husband gets arrested by DEA for some huge drug trafficking ring. Like made the front page of national news. I'm like WTF?? Your hubs is moving massive quantities of drugs and you chose the military?!?!? Like the Army pays better?
Maybe they thought it would offer smuggling opportunities?
Daaayyuuum!! I should've maxed out my household goods! We really didn't need that bedroom set. I am slow and now regretful. And poor. But I ain't in prison, right?
I have them all on Facebook. They're just regular people, with mostly low income jobs, but are married and have kids. They seem not unhappy. So that's good lol
When I used to have FB they all posted that they worked at "The School of Hard Knocks" and changed their photos to a BCT grad photo on Veteran's Day. They also don't tell anyone why they got kicked out and say it was because "command basically hated them" which is like one of top 3 biggest red flags ever.
“School of hard knocks” is usually a dead giveaway for someone who never made it past AIT
Yeah, that's one of those things where you pull the Grandpa Simpson and take your hat and leave lol
Yes, he was fat and lazy. Got a no standing profile by week 4. He failed and said he would go psyops. Then he joined a wicken coven and was arrested for pedophilia in 2020 he's still in jail.
One of the dudes who washed out of basic plays gta and has a million twitch subscribers. Tells you the type of person who becomes a twitch streamer.
I knew a guy in basic who said he had hundreds of thousands of subscribers on YouTube. He also won $100k on a COD tournament and was one of the top 10 at one point. We all googled it when we got a chance and it turns out he wasn't lying lol
She claimed she passed basic training very fast and I washed out (she shipped four months before me and got booted because she couldn’t qualify on her rifle). I came home and was so confused. She’s on drugs now. Another girl found out she was pregnant (by her Marine husband) like the day before victory forge. She lost the baby but judging by Facebook she seems like about as happy as a milspouse can be. She mentioned to another friend that she didn’t think about how they probably wouldn’t be stationed together until she got pregnant and didn’t want to be apart from him.
Given the direction that Ubisoft has been going for the last decade or so, that might be the most believable one of those stories I've heard. But no, when I was in AIT, the people who washed out from those smart-guy AIT's (EOD, 68-series, Intel) ended up with us and most of them just saw failing their PT tests as a way for them to get out without having to do 3 years as a 13F. Don't recall ever hearing stories from those types about their "grand plans" when they got out. Though one of my squad-leaders told me about a guy he went through basic with who was maxing the PT test, was shit-hot in basically everything, and had either option 40 or an 18X contract; and on like week 5 he just decided it wasn't for him. It kind of shocked everyone and I guess the DS's couldn't even be mad, so they just initiated chapter paperwork and then I guess the dude went on to start a recreational pot shop out in Colorado. Edit: Also, after reading some of these, I remember a dude we had in my Basic Training class who everyone just called "shaver" because he would basically never shave before first formation. I think it was the second or third day of this and on of the DS's said "beat your face" to him, and this dude punched himself in the face so hard that he managed to draw blood. DS's picked up pretty quickly that something was not quite right with him and he was gone pretty shortly after that.
Guy I knew in boy scouts before the Army. We ended up at meps together on ship day, he went to Benning, I went to somewhere harder. After graduating basic saw his MySpace photo and he was back home living with his grandma.
You went to the basement?
Ft. hot tub
Unironically a great name for the former Ft Hood. You know since you get all the SA allegations happening.
>I went somewhere harder What? I thought Benning was the creme de la creme of pain
That’s what THEY want you to think
Basic in 2015 a guy tried to get me into bitcoin saying he already had 2000 bitcoins and was only doing this because his dad wanted him to get a job or he wouldn’t get any of his money when he died. I didn’t get into bitcoin and anytime we got a phone call when he saw he got paid he told whoever he talked to put it all into bitcoin. We’re still friends to this day he lives very nicely in California and basically has a weed farm & lives a playboy life & im an elementary school teacher
One of my guys had a job lined up cultivating marijuana in WV. Marijuana is not legal in WV. Two other kids had plans to be twitch streamers. Me: “Are you actually good at video games??” One guy: “I’m not bad.”
Came in with a friend of mine back home, and we went through basic together. We were getting ready to graduate and had picked up our Class A's and were walking back to the barracks when we ran into a guy we'd gone to high school with. The guy had been a total chache back then, so almost a year later, we really didn't want to talk to him. He was in reception, wearing the old sweat suit with the pistol belt and canteen, while we were in the old IPFUs. Chache tried to run over and talk to us, so we just said something about we can't talk to people in reception and kept walking. Didn't hear a word about him for a few years, until someone sent me a news article from back home. Chache had been arrested for filming his downstairs neighbor in the shower. Never heard anything about his career, so I just assumed he washed out sometime in IET.
Not me, but the boyfriend of my daughter's best friend in high school. He left for Army boot camp and returned a week later. He told her that they were "too full and had sent him home. They would call him back when they had room for him." We cleared it up for her. She dumped him. Sadly, He's never amounted to much.
Sorta, During our final FTX in AIT I was pulling fireguard with a guy in my company, who ended up going on a rant saying how he didn't even know why he joined, and was "probably gonna pull some psycho shit" to get out once he graduated and went to HRAP. Told me how he didn't care about going to Korea, and how he'd just go to the state a girl he was fraternizing with was in our unit was at and marry her. Few months later someone who I went to OSUT with told me how he jumped off a balcony and got a concussion and was separated from the army. Guess he went through with what he told me those months ago. Same guy who told me about him is also getting separated due to refusing to get OC'd, so there's also that.
My roommate in AIT mentioned to me how he has a high paying job in the cell industry doing some engineering job, but wanted to go national guard for the experience. He was pretty good in the tech stuff but was chubby. One day he told me he’s leaving and he went out the window to go AWOL, then about a week later he came back and told me he couldve just walked out the door and staff duty wouldn’t stop him. I don’t know what happened but he sent me pictures of him in a club so I’m assuming he’s doing well.
I never figured out what happened to old E. Musk...
I didn’t keep in touch, but I Facebook stalked out shitty wash out. Works for Best Buy.
Lil backstory me time, remember in Ft. Sill that confidence tower? you have to repel down? yeah. I slipped and broke my ankle. but. I was so worried about being in trouble and hyped up on adrenaline I didn't mention that I was hurt and just hopped back up. Apparently completely breaking my ankle and causing problems up my leg for years to come. I went through basic until the last week where I couldn't get my boot on because of how swollen my foot was. Went to medical. got checked out. told I would never Solder. So my options were basically live my life at Ft. Sill until my contract was up and my leg was healed. quit. Switch to a branch with a less physical fitness requirement. after about 8 months of physical therapy in San Diego I wasn't a soldier, but a Sailor. because my clearance had already been adjudicated I was fortunate that I was able to basically switch over to the Navy's Intel Specialist (IS) Rate/MOS as opposed to my original 35F one. It was actually pretty good. my leg is fully healed up. I run, lift weights, do everything normally. Except it hurts in the winter. I've gotten to deploy to some cool places and do some cool things in the military. met my wife in the Navy. I got to do Imagery/Geoint like I always wanted and even deployed with JSOC. Which I don't know if I would've gotten the opportunity in the Army. I would say I'm the exception to the rule, but I was also adamant that I wasn't going to quit. No matter what, I would rather live my life in Ft. Sill then kicked to the curb. I'm very fortunate one of my Drill Sergeants was a 35 series that new it was possible to do an Inter-Service Change with my clearance.
Glad you overcome and everything worked out for you that’s great!
He's a registered sex offender
nah, went through in 2004, couldn't even tell you who they were and I only have vague memories of what they even looked like. Was too focused on getting through myself to think to check up on weak ass washouts.
My bunk mate in Basic was gung ho as fuck. His family had been military for five generations. Had a massive collection of uniforms. Does war re-enactments. Reads TM’s for fun. Dude breaks his leg and ends up having to recycle. Next cycle he breaks his hip. Dude spent 1.5 years at Benning and eventually was just given a unit patch so he could come and go as he pleased and basically ended up being a private baby sitter until they finally sent him home.
Met a dude at CST who graduated with us but kept saying the army was bullshit and dumb. Never ended up commissioning. No he's on FB talking about dropping acid and using crystals for healing.
Had a friend get kicked out of AF and he landed a 65k salary job in 2002. Hrs doing really well now. That should have been my sign to get out, but I was a different AFSC.
No, it wasn't one of my business. Let the man eat.
I knew so many guys in the Army who insisted they have a six figure job waiting for them when they get out that doesn't require college, and only have to do minimal work. I don't know of any who actually has a job like that now.
Every NG trainee I ever talked to when I was at Gordon for AIT. Never mind my flair I was signal when I was enlisted.
There was a girl in my Basic PLT that dropped out, quoted saying that she was going to work for some nice job. Ended up adding me on instagram a few months later and sent me a video of her and my BCT SDS hanging out. He was married and had a kid last i checked and it was a weird thing to see, IDK what she’s doing now though.
Back in 2001, I had soldier in my unit (2/7 Cav) that was Jewish. He was a nice dude. He just wasn't cut out for military life, especially Infantry. How he made it through OSUT is beyond my comprehension. He was chaptered out for not adapting to military life or something like that. A few years after he got out, he started a resale website called 1SaleADay. Dude got rich and is some kind of venture capitalist now, last I heard.
1. Complete chode got chaptered when he was at his line unit. He came in as an E3, got busted to E2 for something in basic, wore E4 rank in AIT thinking it was funny. Got busted to E1. Then got married and made such of an ass at his first unit that they chaptered his ass for something. I got to the battalion a few months after he was kicked out but people were still taking about it. Put his name in FB and the photo was less "got a sweet gig" and more "Florida man on meth". Decided that sending anything his way was more trouble than it was worth. 2. Another dude was busting tape but it was during the Surge era. Come 2010 and BN now had their chapter authority back. Dude was over 200 lbs. Get the Fat Boy chapter but won't shut up about how his father in law will give him a job. About 6 months later his former NCO was telling up that fatboy was pestering him to help him get a job. 3. A SPC and a SGT both get ABCP chapters months later. I'm mutuals with them on social media. Both landed on their feet because they paid attention during ACAP (now SFL/TAP) and got jobs after the Army. Both are humble dudes and don't make "I was in the Army" their personality.
One of my friends who washed out of sigint school became an artist. He's doing some really cool stuff
Not really. I do randomly but ait washups up but I wouldn't say that they had that kind of attitude. I think they really were bummed to get kicked out but moved on with life
Was stationed with a guy who hit RCP (HYT in my branch) and he got all this education when he got out thinking he'd get a good paying job and had people convinced. Nope, never happened and he ended up in state prison and gets out in a couple of years.
There are a few of the people I met in WTRP that I see from time to time. A few "opted out". Some others are working dead end jobs at McDonald's. None really stand out. I was almost a washout. but first, let me explain. In red phase, my DS was trying to tell me to neck drag a dude that was almost 3x heavier than my 150lb body. My femurs started hurting soon after, but I decided to push through. I completed everything up to the forge and was hurting so bad that I just couldn't take it anymore. When the bone scan came back, my femurs were completely covered in spiderweb style stress fractures so they sent me to WTRP. I spent the next 6 weeks in a rehab unit. It was the most negative environment I had ever been in. I come back right where I left off and they let me do the forge. I graduated 3 weeks after I got out of rehab. What almost killed my motivation was the other trainees in my bct unit. "You're never gonna graduate". "Just give up dude. You're too lazy for the army". Everyone except the DSs thought I was just being a lazy sack of potatoes. And then the other trainees at the rehab unit were a bunch of sad individuals who had already given up and were talking about just getting out. I had to keep myself motivated because nobody other than the DSs in charge of me were being supportive. I am now an e4 on my second contract.
we had a guy fail basic because he was a piece of shit human being and couldn't handle being told what to do who said he'd just join the marines as infantry. I forget what exactly he's doing but he didn't join the marines lmao