I always wonder what it means for enlisted soldiers
In: Other
Most of the military are not in combat roles. Like any large organization, there are a lot that go on behind the scenes to keep everything running. There is finance, admin, IT, and the list goes on. Any job you can think of that exists in a large organization, some form of it probably exists in the military. The key to a successful military is all of the logistics that goes on behind the scenes.
Military personnel have three jobs. One is their peacetime duty, the second is their wartime duty or specialisation, and the last is maintaining their combat capabilities. A lot of the jobs people have in the military are not much different than regular civilian jobs. Sanitation, facilities maintenance, vehicle maintenance, office work, logistics, communications. Militaries are like small enclosed societies that have to provide themselves with everything civilian society has because in the case of war they have to be self sufficient, so they can’t rely on civilian infrastructure, equipment and personnel, but their own. So basically they mostly have regular jobs like civilians and they’re in uniform while working. Every few weeks or months they’re required to participate in military exercises and training programs to ensure they can competently use a gun and carry out all the duties expected of a combat soldier. In some cases some personnel may be exempt from combat duties.
For example in the unit I was in the NCO in charge of the mess was essentially the head chef. He planned out the menus, ordered and organised food deliveries, oversaw food preparation and trained new cooks. A kind and docile man who worried over every single soldier as if they were his own children and wanted to make sure everyone was eating well. Our base was known to have great food compared to others in the area. That’s more or less a very regular job. But if war broke out tomorrow and he had to assume combat duties his actual specialisation was driving a mine clearing tank.
I was in Air Force Communications. In addition to the training and inspections and such that others have posted, we’d also do occasional humanitarian support missions (like natural disasters, refugees, etc).
Occasionally we’d also do some community service things, but that was usually just one day, once or twice per year.
Living far away from home with a bunch of guys whilst their high school sweet heart marriage partner is getting relentlessly pounded by random people back in their home town.
75% of the Army is not combat arms, Marines a have a slightly higher percentage of combat arms, and the Navy and AF have significantly less. It’s not a dig on the branches it is just due the base mission of each.
Those who are not combat arms do their jobs, medics medic, maintenance maintains, supply supplies, etc. When they aren’t doing that they are training, requals, new skills, etc.
For combat arms, training, always training. Fieldexes, ranges, and equipment maintenance. A lot of time is spent waiting for the next training event or waiting on transport to from training events. Infantry has a lot of time just waiting around then a few minutes of fast action. You’ll spend days in the field to run a live fire lane a handful of times. Walk, then jog, then run.
Source – 10 years Navy aviation supply including a tour with the Marines in Yuma, 3 years Army NG Infantry with a year activated and deployed to Kosovo unit later deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan as Stryker Brigade.
Outside of what other people have said, the US military is also involved with a lot of disaster and war relief
Having one of the largest Navies and Air Forces in the world means that aid can be brought anywhere.
Training, education, resting, Cleaning, helping out- once had to go help out a local fire house that was doing drills for disaster rescue, from like hurricanes and such, Testing-got to test out new gear they were trying to get approved to actually get picked up as standard stuff including the long range audio thing, directional super speaker that can be set up in a way to disarm aggressors at range non violently. [https://lethalindisguise.org/crowd-control-weapons/acoustic-weapons/](https://lethalindisguise.org/crowd-control-weapons/acoustic-weapons/)
theres always something that needs done and having lots of people with free time to do it is handy.
Some military jobs are administrative, so they always have their regular work. You need HR, supply, medical, etc., in the military too. There’s also occasional training, for your job, and various classes you must attend for things like promotion.
For combat troops, it’s train and maintain. Training is always happening in the military, from the training above to in the field playing war training. And many of the admin people get to go to the field too. And then with all of that equipment, there’s a lot to maintain.
And then when there’s nothing scheduled to do, you may get tasked with various menial jobs around the post. Or if your leadership is cool, you’ll get a lot of extended weekends or administrative leave (vacation that’s not charged to your 30 days a year allowance). This is also a good time to catch up on college classes.
Navy is different. They have the onshore admin stuff above, and then they also have ships. That’s like being in the field for months at a time, with lots of training drills. Aircraft carriers will be launching planes so the pilots and crew can practice. You get downtime between your shifts.
Empires always heroine their solders. How else do they maintain the empire?
Train and practice on individual and collective skills
Attend specialized schools like airborne, ranger, air assault, etc etc
Go to NTC or JRTC to practice going to war
Do physical fitness
Maintain equipment and vehicles
Do boring mandatory trainings on topics like counterintelligence or not marrying a stripper
Latest Answers