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Confused on a couple things regarding what im allotted and course of action, i am the non custodial parent (0 custody) of a dependent (never married), i pay child support greater than the amount on the bah-dif scale for my grade. i also am not assigned government housing/ barracks. am i alloted bah with dependent or not? if i am what forms do i need to submit to s1/finance? from what im understanding its a 5960,barracks clearout paper, and supporting court documents like child support order and custody order. thank you.

Any recommendations for prescription eyewear for the field? I only wear glasses on night shifts in the hospital or when in the field. I'm reserve-side, we've got NTC coming up, and I need a new pair anyway so I figured I'd find something durable.

I’m an 11B CPL(P)(26, 27 at time of ETS). I’m unable to CSP due to a current rotation out of country, with little time to prep my exit from service. What certifications/education should I pursue that’d have the highest likelihood of close total compensation to my current paycheck(ie Base Pay/BAH/BAS).

Currently, I have plenty of reclass options, as long as give up my P status. Any suggestions on this are welcome as well.

I have until this coming October to figure it out.

Good evening y'all. One of my future fathers-in-law is combat veteran, currently living in Texas, close to Jarrell. He submitted his claim multiple years ago which got him I believe 60-70% disability. He served in Iraq as 11B, and based on his medical records, I truly believe he should easily be able to get 100% if he files for reevaluation again. I know he works for living to support his family, and it is hard for him to do research on his end. I was wondering if any of y'all live in Texas that has connection for VA claims attorney or specialists that could assist in getting higher disability for combat veterans?

Thank you for your time and service!

Very Respectfully

Redditor

Some back story, I received an PME start date for Jan 5 - March 7 back in November. My second child is due on March 19th. My wife a stay at home mom and I had had a long sit down discussion and decided to defer to remove the risk of myself being in PME if she were to go into labor early but agreed that I attend the next Course. Recently just got another class for May 26 and was initially excited for me. Now she is bringing up that she can’t take care of both kids on her own for 4 weeks , a 3 year old, and a 6 week old. She refuses to take the drive to her parents house with me because of her worry of illness without 2 month shots for the baby and the 3 day car ride there. She refuses flights due to the cost and lack of supplies she can bring with her. She blames me for this problem and she thinks I’m trying to just get away from her. I’m at a loss for words and don’t know how to convince her otherwise.

Lookin for some insight into this. I’ll be going as an E-5 towards the end of this year.

In April 2023 I went through a very fast divorce and then arrived to Denver battalion in June 2023. I had no family or support structure and it did not go very well. By September I was well and truly losing my mind and needed out of recruiting. My plan was to continue being productive, and transfer any enlistees to someone else so that I could use 601 to get back to the regular army and try and have a normal life. Instead, I was pulled from my station and put in a closet at company HQ to do text prospecting 8 hours a day for 2 months. After that I was taken off numbers and was just a driver for the company.

I wasn't working a lot of hours so I had a ton of free time, but had no predictability so I could not fill that time with anything. For over a year I received no updates on where I was going, when, how, nothing. A year of unrated time equals dead career. Whatever. The isolation and unpredictability got to me and I think I lost my mind a little bit. More than a little bit. After surgery I found out that self medicating helped, for a while. In November 2024 I tried to kill myself.

At this point I'm 17 years in, fuck my pension, fuck disability, if I don't get out of here I'm going to die. I request a voluntary separation and it goes nowhere for 2 months. No answers, no help, nothing.

With no help coming for the voluntary separation, I knew I needed some kind of help. I was concerned that because of the self-medicating drug use that my mental health issues were not going to be taken seriously. So I got sober and two weeks ago I tried to get help. I wanted to be very sure that this would not become a big deal, so I asked four different ways to make sure that past drug use did not meet the criteria to be reported to the command, and I was assured that it did not. Immediately after disclosing drug use I was informed that it had to be reported to my command.

I'm upset. Everyone acts like I'm just being a jerk, when I am severely mentally ill and paranoid as fuck. After calming down I agree to an outpatient program. Again, I'm very specific that it's outpatient because being committed is by far the biggest fear I've ever had. I go to the intake appointment and I am extremely specific that there is no risk of harm to myself or others, no thoughts about it, nothing. Wouldn't you know it, I get involuntarily committed for over 90 hours while being told nothing about why I was committed, how I get out, when I can get out, or who is responsible for letting me out. It was a long weekend so there was no staff there to give me any actual treatment, just occasional group meetings. (Fun side note, I just got a notice of non-payment from tricare, can't wait for that bill)

After being released with no treatment, all I was asking for was still to get home to my family, where I could try and get some treatment with a support structure in place. I was, and I'm still being ignored. For the next week, I was enrolled in an all day drug rehab program that was entirely unequipped to deal with mental health issues. Things got much worse.

I am completely alone, I'm isolated, I'm paranoid, and have some wild ptsd from this experience. It really does seem like these people are out to get me at this point. I can't stay at my apartment because I'm terrified they're going to call the police again, and I'm going to have to repeat the nightmare of being commited.

Put me on TDY and send me to my family so I can get help, the nearest Army base is 45 minutes away, compared to an hour and 45 minutes from my current location. It's not that complicated, nobody is listening, and nobody is trying. If I was a Future Soldier threatening a ship day loss, these cocksuckers would be tripping over themselves to figure out a solution.

I don't give a shit about anonymity, I'm fighting for my God damn life out here. My name is Brit Richardson, I'm in Denver battalion, and I need some fucking help to get home to my family. This week, not months from now

I am begging for help, and it isn't a lot, but it's like nobody believes me enough to do the bare minimum

Again, I have no plan, intent, or thoughts to harm myself or others. I do not have access to lethal means. Please do not call the police on me, I'm not home and don't want to replace the door.

I finally got the Battalion commander on the phone, and verified that he is actually just too scared to ask his boss about it.

Hello, so currently I am a 12B and I’m in my first contract, I’ve always wanted to fly but didn’t want to go through college or G2G then I learned about dropping a flight packet and going warrant. I want to know what would entail making this switch, should I wait it out until my second contract to try and pick up 5 or try and hopefully drop the flight packet asap.

So I’m at AIT right now and graduate in a couple weeks. When I first raised my right hand I was proud to sign up and start this journey. I have a lot of family who proudly served so I was initially excited. Now I’m just embarrassed. I can’t believe the people that I joined with. I’ve never met so many entitled, irresponsible, immature people in my life. Nobody here tries to give a 100% in what they do. Everyone takes the easy way out of everything. They find ways to skip PT, trash the barracks, always show up in the wrong uniform, cut class, trash and break everything in the school house, people (male and female) are doing their makeup and shit in the middle of formation, fail ACFTs and somehow get waived through or just given a pass, people treat each other with no respect whatsoever, I’ve watched people ride profile the whole way through basic and they’re doing it the whole way through AIT as well and find the easy route through everything. People talk back to cadre and Drill Sgts and don’t call at ease for them and it blows my mind. I’ve heard people say things like “fuck this country I don’t want to serve I’m just here for the benefits” “If they tell me to deploy I’m not fucking doing it”. I could go on and on. Maybe I’m just naive but have things always been like this. I’m genuinely embarrassed to tell my family who have served what my experience has been like so far. I feel like it’s a joke and I feel like I’m at an adult day care not AIT

I know everyone says no one regrets dropping a warrant packet but I'm curious about the job specifically. what is an ammo warrants day-to-day like? what is their "scope of practice"? what would all you 890As rate it on a scale of 1-10/10?

I leave for basic this Sunday and up until this week I was fine. But each passing day I think about how I’m not going to be able to see certain people and what not and it’s weird. Kind of a sad feeling but I’m also exited about leaving and doing cool shit. Is this normal? Also I’ll have the bit of chicken that’s been sitting in the back of the freezer for 4 months thx.

Edit: thx for the replies. Guess what I’m feeling is normal. Going to leave this up if anyone else feels like this and wants to ask the same question.

So I start my reclass school in may2025 to 25B. ATRRS says TDY enroute. No orders (Yet). I put in for hawaii then I get a call today saying I'm on "Needs of the Army" and Ft. Cavazos is projected for my next duty station. Anybody have a issue where they are reclassing, with TDY ENROUTE in it with no orders yet?? Just worried due to i have 3 months before school, and no report date(Yet).

Thanks.

Where can I go to earn a deployment patch as a CA Reservist?

Without completely exposing myself, I’ve been at my current duty station significantly longer than most. Didn’t do anything to be here this long. As ADA we deploy, dwell time, deploy pretty frequently. Now I’m finally on orders. Movers came today and my family is living on folding tables and camping chairs these next few days. Don’t have a home at the next duty station as base housing is packed and off post is rough. I married a local who’s never left and she’s not exactly thrilled with the situation but willing to stand by me for the kids. This sucks. I miss my unit, nervous for the future and wish this process would just be over with already.

Just reminiscing about ESL again, given the current political climate. /s

Sergeants’ Major or Sergeants Majors’?

Such as: “That’s the Sergeants’ Major seating section.”

Or: “Sergeants Majors’ Asa Akira fleshlights were way out of spec.”

Just want to make a post asking everyone who their best leader was & what makes them memorable to you? Figured we could all use a good story to read.

Mine is my first team leaders (it was a squad but sort of blended since it was a treatment squad), they always made a point to make team cohesion without it being forced fun. If it was someone’s birthday, throw a mini party with pizza, cupcakes, and soda. When someone would graduate a school they’d buy their lunch. Sometimes we would go to the lunch and bowl on post and just do a team vs team competition. We would actually do classes and training lanes to be better at our job while in the field. If we worked late, again they would make sure to buy the guys pizza for staying late.

Truly appreciate them for making us into good soldiers and medics.

Edit BLUF: Let me be clear; my priority will always be my Soldiers. None of this affects them and they don’t know about it as far as I’m aware. I feel like I can vent because I got them to a place where they’re high performing and happy at home.

I’m nonbinary. Whatever that means. Don’t feel like I’m a man. Don’t feel like I’m a woman. I can keep pretending at work for as long as I need to get out of this chickenshit administration.

I love what I do. I feel confident that what I do is difficult and not many people could do it. I have a large family to support, including other LGBT people, who are scared. I need to cope with the fact that there are people who like me, but would want me gone if I said how I feel about who I am. I plan on seeing a therapist so I can fortify my resilience. How do I keep Musk and his cronies from finding out?

Edit: Let me get an uhhh… burger with a square patty. It’s “unnatural” but then so am I.

I'm in the 82nd, and I had a jump into CTE Wednesday night. Completely fucked my landing and snapped my femur in half like a dumb ass. I got to the hospital that night, and they had to do surgery, put a metal nail through my femur, and 5 screws just above my knee. Doctor said I'll never jump again, and I'm most likely gonna be medboarded. This shit sucks I feel like the biggest shitbag on the face of the earth for not being out there with my battle buddies. I have no idea what I'm going to do after the army, I'm trying to limit my intake of the pain meds they gave me (my family has a long history of drug abuse and it's somthing I struggled with before the army). I feel like if I get out and go back home I'm gonna go down that path again and I just don't know what to do.

My bad for venting or whatever I'll take 6 buffalo chicken tornados, a snickers bar, and a dr.pepper please and thanks.

(Edit: the medics had to cut my uniform off of me too, bruh. I ain't trynna pay for that shit 😤)

BLUF: Thinking about joining the dark side and going officer. After all this MP going Blue jazz. Is 31A even worth it?

I'm currently a SSG, I'm about to get my Associates in Criminal Justice. Been seriously contemplating applying for the Green to Gold program. Or, if not earning my Bachelor's and going OCS. (I know...) Law Enforcement is my end goal, even if I stay enlisted and finish off my years. (Hence the major) I've thought about other branches, i.e. Armor or FA (currently FA). But, it would be dope to do start what i am passionate about. I guess my question is, is 31A a waste of time? I heard promotion after CPT is non-existent. Which to be honest would be fine. At this rate I'll be a terminal CPT.

I'll take a two Baconators and a large chocolate shake.

Recently I checked into a new unit and started wearing a sanitized uniform.. just to see how people would treat me. I’m a SFC with a little under 11 years in, four deployments, and I’ve got more than a few things on my STP. BUT in the name of research, I got new uniforms and kept off all badges, combat patch, and tab and when I tell you I have never felt so judged in my life. By officers and enlisted alike and mind you this is a non deploying and mixed unit. we have reservists, AGR, and active duty. Why in what I would consider not a time of war are people still so stuck on these badges and patches? Not even in a petty way I was straight up told “you’ve never deployed how can you lead troops” by a Kuwait rotatee. What are y’all’s opinions on the matter? I really think I’m going to keep everything plain going forward.

What is PT like? How the work tempo? Any advice ?

I just wanted to start off by saying I am medboarding and just waiting on my ratings from the VA. My acting SSG is constantly on my ass about appointments for not only myself but my family as well. (My daughter has multiple health issues and a scheduled surgery as well, and they prefer both parents to be their if applicable. She is in speech and occupational therapies multiple times a month as well. He also knows we only have one car at this moment). I give him appointment slips for myself and also had her providers type out appointment slips expressing I am there.

Today he went to the XO, and told him and other people in my company that "he is faking appointments, no one has that many appointments" even having the appointment slips and being able to call the numbers provided if he so chose to.

What can I do. This isn't the first issue I have had with this person. He barged into my families home while we weren't there last year. Has constantly done things that my wife and I are uncomfortable with, and has had it out for me since I got here. I am at a loss of what to do. I have given what I know is needed not only out of respect but to save my ass and have accountability of where I am. Any advice is appreciated.

Why would my BH provider contact my commander? & should I be concerned ?

I'm putting on a class on how to employ a brazier breach for c-wire. There was a great video of the 173rd/ or 82 where the guy runs the shock tube back from the obstacles and pops the 81s. It was on this redit, does anyone have it? It's the holy cross that is set on top of the c-wire

How hard is it for enlisted national guard to get accepted into the MSW program? I have a BA in Psychology with a high GPA and am currently enrolled in MS Clinical Mental Health Counseling with a 4.0 GPA. I have 4 years of community mental health experience. Not posting to brag, I know it is highly competitive. Saw some posts on this thread from over a year ago but it was archived...How far ahead should I build my packet? Is there a commitment to go AD if you commit to the program while being in the Guard? Where do they send you for the required internship? What is the direct commissioning process like afterwards? For folks that have already gone through it, was it worth it?

Unfortunately I can’t elaborate. It was a scenario where I should have known better. I really thought I was doing the right thing and then when it all came crashing down, I can’t help but feel like a fucking idiot and ashamed in a way. Thank god I have a good leadership willing to defend me. Just wanted to vent what I could lmao.

EDIT: Nobody died, nobody was in danger. After reading everybody’s comments, I’m beginning to think it wasn’t even that bad, thanks for sharing everyone!