U.S. military might let its IT warriors skip boot camp

wartrace · May 14, 2017

DallasCowboysFan said:
Basic Training is not that tough. It's like summer camp or pre-training for high school sports before the season begins.

All you do is calisthenics and light exercise in the mornings and then spend the rest of the day learning about the history of the Army, your rights as a soldier, first aid and how to use the equipment that is issued to you.

There is a broad division between the people in the Army that serve in different jobs. People in Aviation have a different personality than those in the Infantry vs. Medical vs. Finance vs. Mechanics etc...

One of the goals of BT is to make sure you develop a soldier with a team spirit and ensure that they meet minimal physical standards. When I was in BT, there were people that could not do 2 push-ups but before we graduated they were doing 50 or 60, within two minutes.

And everyone was able to run 2 miles within a 16 minute window.

,Now, let's pretend you send all these soldiers from the street to active duty surrounded by soldiers that have the same background and the same experiences. The 'new soldiers' will be looked down on by the regular soldiers, I promise you.

And if an IT warrior goes straight to active duty and they can't meet the physical standards, does not know how to march, work in a team, salute or shoot a rifle....is that their fault or the Army's ?

When I was in BT about 1/3 of the people that started BT did not graduate for different reasons.

I recall one soldier that was kicked out of BT because he could not shoot a rifle. He panicked and started crying (19-20 years old ) when he had to shoot it on the range. He said he was 'afraid of it'. It wasn't anything special, it was an M16. They don't even recoil.....he was a pu$$y.

Another guy was kicked out because he had poor social skills and couldn't get along with anyone else.

Several people were recycled to another BT class because they could not pass the Physical Training (push-ups, sit-ups, 2 mile run) test.

I wasn't aware that our country was so desperate that we had to send people straight to the front lines without training. We didn't do it during the Revolutionary War when we were rookies, we didn't do it in the Civil War or WW1. We didn't do it during WW2 when Japan and Germany were conquering the world and we don't need to do it now.

The common denominator between every soldier is Basic Training.
It's only 9 weeks long and it's not that tough.

Nine weeks of BT plus a few weeks in AIT (Advanced Individual Training- specific to your job) isn't going to make a difference in personnel strength or our nation's security. And you could create a BT group specific to IT nerds if that is necessary.

If you want to get some 'takers'........increase the college loan repayment plan to 100K and then give them a 50k or 100K cash bonus and they will have all the people they need. It sounds like a lot of money, but failure costs a lotttttt more.
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Parris Island wasn't like any summer camp I had ever been to....

Cuddles · May 14, 2017

dealmaker said:
I think IT warriors not going through boot camp is an error, what gels the military is the common suffering everyone goes through at boot camp IE breakdown/ buildup.
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Just give them a math test....let them suffer through that.

jj90 · May 14, 2017

The real test is just to get them to talk to some girls. PTSD incoming.

maxpi · May 15, 2017

When I was in basic the mess hall needed a redecoration. An artist volunteered and got a pass from everything in Basic Training, didn't even sleep in the Barracks! He painted the whole thing and did some murals on the walls...

wrbtrader · May 16, 2017

The military can always send the IT to boot camps later (after) the deadline.

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U.S. military might let its IT warriors skip boot camp

wartrace

Cuddles

jj90

maxpi

wrbtrader