Hey man, I've been serving in the active army as an infantryman since February 2002. I've addressed your questions below and will happily answer anymore that you have.
Arethusa said:
For a lot of less than enjoyable reasons, I'll probably be joining up soon. I've been thinking about it for a while. I really haven't been sure I've wanted to join up, and I suppose I'm not now either, but I was fairly sure I didn't want to join as an enlisted man; at this point, however, it doesn't seem like I'll have much of a choice.
This is not a good reason to join. In my experience, most (most, not all) people who join up because it is their "last resort" end up miserable. Do it because you want to do the job.
As I'm 20 and still in college, I'm really not sure how this is going to affect that or what my options are for active service
I was 23 and still in college when I joined up. This will not affect your options at all, in fact depending on how many college credits you have, you may be able to come in as an E-2 or E-3 instead of an E-1 (E-4 if you have a degree)
but I am hoping not to spend more than two years in
Some MOS's (military occupational specialty or job) do allow you to sign up for as little as two years (at least when I signed up, not sure anymore) HOWEVER no matter if you sign up for two or four or whatever years, you still have an eight year total obligation to the service. After your intial time is up and you get out, you are put into the IRR (individual ready reserve) and can be called back up to eight years from the first day you came in. This doesn't happen often (I have heard of a few people who got notices to come back lately though) and the majority of people don't report back anyway (but can get into some sh1t obviously).
More commonly though the army will stoploss soldiers. That is, before they get out the Army will extend their time in.
and hopefully less in country. Is that even possible?
If you join up, you will get deployed sometime guaranteed.
I specifically want to be a ranger, but I'm not sure whether training counts as part of your enlisted time, deployment time, etc.
From the day you get to basic your time in service starts counting down no matter where you are or what you are doing (school, deployment, whatever).
If you want to go ranger, you will sign up as an 11B (infantryman) and you can try to get RIP (ranger indoctrination program) in your contract. This is no guarantee that you will go to ranger school or ranger batt but it gives you a chance. If you fail RIP or don't get it in your contract, you'll have to wait until you get to your unit. Usually you'll then have to wait until you're an E-4 or E-5 at least to get a chance. To increase your odds, try to volunteer for a recon or lrrs platoon when you get to your unit. I recently attended the pre-ranger program at my unit so I could go to ranger school but didn't make the cut
Tho I'm not too worried cuz I'll get another chance soon.
How good of shape are you in? My platoon mate is actually down at ranger school now. He made it through the Benning phase and is now heading to mountain phase so he had a chance to call me. His class started out with 360 people and is down to 104 now
In basic, will I be able to bring personal posessions? Afterwards? In country?
In basic, the only personal possessions you can bring are like religious items or a picture or two of your family. Once you graduate basic, the army will ship all your household goods to your new unit for you.
I realize, to some degree, these are questions I should take up with a recruiter soon— and I plan to— but my experience with a marine recruiter a couple years ago left a bit to be desired, and any advice or experience other members here can offer would be greatly appreciated. I'm kind of wandering blind here.
Like I said, feel free to ask me anything. I'll tell you the truth, your recruiter may not. And for the love of god don't join the marines!
With all that said, I've really enjoyed my time in the army and recently reenlisted to stay in until 2010. Done some cool sh1t, been around the world and back a couple times, made some friends. There are some awesome times and there are some utterly cr*ptacular times, you just have to keep your head up the whole time and you'll have fun.
