If you military ladies and gents could help me out...

Hello all, just a few questions to ask. Did your experiences in the military give you a feeling of fitting in and comradery? Is there a certain type of personality that one must have for military experiences?

I'm a month in uni, and I feel like I've made a huge mistake. Its not that the work I'm struggling with, the work is absurdly easy for me; I just think that I jumped the gun on this, and this isn't what "I need" right now if that makes any sense.

I had been looking at possible fields that could work for me, and I have continued to look at the Combat Engineers. Get to work outdoors, get to build things, not put in direct responsibility of killing people.

I'm just extremely miserable right now and if people could BS me some advice I'd be really thankful.

 

Yes, but the type of personality required varies, most greatly by branch and then by job within a certain branch.

A month in is really not very long. I knew within minutes of arriving at Parris Island I had made a terrible mistake. At one month we hadn't even been to the rifle range and there was no end to the pain. I was still considering swimming off. It wasn't for another month that I could actually see the light at the end of the tunnel and realized that I might actually survive, graduate and get off that place. It was another month before I actually became a Marine. So a month in uniform really is too soon to judge your decision. Hell, you're still a civilian wearing a uniform. And WTF, you're a month in and have internet access? Hell we never got a phone call, a Coke, until the day before graduation.

Well that's part of the problem, you should select something that challenges you. Comraderie is all about the shared overcoming of adversity.

You do know that Combat Engineers also blow stuff up and find land mines/IED's etc. ? You do know that Combat Engineers are directly attached to COMBAT units and there is quite frequently the need to kill bad guys? You do also, I hope, understand that the military exists (or should exist) for one reason only. Kill the enemy and break their stuff.

My advice would be to quit whining, suck it up and get on with it. Seek challenges in the service, things that challenge you physically and intellectually. Always try to excell. Never accept being anything less than the best you can be. The greater the amount of effort you expend, the greater the personal reward, especially in self-esteem. Like I said the brotherhood and comraderie comes with shared struggles, the greater the struggles the stronger the bond.

 

I agree with everything USMCPrice said, with particular emphasis on:

and

The military is no different than any thing else: What you gain from it is exactly what you put into it. If the military is not challenging enough for you, it's because you are not challenging yourself.

Another thing, part of life is living with the decisions we make. Maybe you made a mistake. Maybe you didn't. However, you did make a commitment to serve. The honorable thing to do is to keep your word. In the mean time, you can decide to feel miserable about it and that will gain you nothing. Or, you can decide to make the best of the situation and maybe, in time, you will find it wasn't such a bad decision after all.

 

Listen to USMCprice, you can tell it worked for him !

The fact that you're seeking out your future speaks well of you. You'll be fine !

 

My advice is to listen to USMCPrice...

 

Ditto. You don't really see what the military is about in the first month. Right now you are going through the military's aim to break your 'individualism' and get everybody to react by training and commands. It does you no good when you the leader yells get down and you ask 'why'? So right now you may not see the real military. So, throw away all expectations, focus on training and once you get to your permanent duty station, then you can give it a good eval. Good luck.

 

In my 25 years in the Army there were good times and bad. As time goes by I tend to only remember the good.

Frankly in the early years I was bored a lot. The MOS I had was technical but in a small field and a dead end for promotion. Since it was a small field there were a lot of “old timers” in charge. They did things the same way they had always done them and did not want to change.

This was the draft era and a lot of these guys had their rank simply due to longevity, not due to knowledge of their field or to intelligence.

Again, to be honest, I had to deal with a lot of stupid people and a lot of stupid, nonsense regulations and procedures.

After 8 years I took an opportunity to change career fields and go into a much more challenging job.

Find something that challenges you, if that is Combat Engineer then do it. Take opportunities to advance - schools, additional skills, etc.

Don’t take the easy road, that only leads to stagnation.

As far as the camaraderie it is there, but for me it was temporary. I have no contact with anyone I served with - this is probably an indictment of me and not them, however.