edit

[thebloodsonthewall]

I take back the recommendation to talk to Cavtrooper. Many people offer honest advice and you took the know it all attitude. You seem like a **** bag, you will hear this term sooner or later. I am sure you can figure out the meaning. There was a guy in my platoon in basic that weighed 120 pounds and he had one hell of a time doing the ruck marches and buddy carries and things like that. In the Army, if you are not squared away it is real easy to take the wrong path. There are many people in my company that are getting recycled at school because they focus on partying and having fun and they fail their tests. Or they stay up to late doing dumb crap every night and can't stay awake. People get drunk in the barracks and when they get caught they get bent over backwards.

If you do make it into the Army, you have to have your mind and body right from the get go or you are going to have one heck of a time. You need to be able to pass the PT test before you go into basic because there is a lot of training days and you really don't do PT that much. I got pneumonia about a week into basic and I was sick for 5 weeks out of 9 weeks. If I didn't come into basic in real good shape, I would have been screwed. I did all the training while I was sick and passed my PT tests. It was miserable but you just have to drive on.

In AIT it is way to easy to get fat and lazy. There is junk food all over the place and the PT is far to easy to maintain your fitness level. I go to the gym after PT 3 - 4 days week.

[Fred Foobar]

[JerryM]

I am just curious.

Is the Aussie typing an internet persona? Or are you truly an Aussie?

Mate, Cheers, Piss Off, etc.

I am going to be completely honest with you:

If you do not help yourself with the English and the attitude, MI School will be a super waste of your time.

You will probably pass basic, unless your foot, weight and attitude kick in and do you in.

35M is not an easy job. When I say not easy, trust me on this one. Your grammar is atrocious, your spelling needs improvement and your attitude needs to be controlled.

I am not being mean to you when I say these things. The three things I mentioned above are intrinsic to your success in the field you chose (if a 55 is enough to qualify).

Take this as a nice reminder from a Sergeant in the field. The military did, does and continues to have checks and balances when it comes to its troops, and I just would hate to see this as a complete waste of time on your part, and a waste of my tax payer's dollars.

I recommend you talk to your mother and father about this some more. Ask them:

"Mom, Dad, do you really think I can make it in the military? Be honest".

If they say yes, then they obviously want you out of the house, because as a parent, I would like for my son to succeed, and the way things read here you are not ready.

Please, think hard and long about committing yourself to a life changing experience that can chew you up and spit you out (Peter Murphy), or mold you into a surgical tool to find, fix and destroy the enemies of our nation.

Good luck to you mate,

SFC Jerry.

Cheers!!!

P.S.: I am not kidding about telling the truth about the drug use. If you are honest, some things can be understood. If you are caught on a lie (and believe me, it happens more often than not), you will feel the consequences.

[sspen003]

I am just curious.

Is the Aussie typing an internet persona? Or are you truly an Aussie?

Mate, Cheers, Piss Off, etc.

I am going to be completely honest with you:

If you do not help yourself with the English and the attitude, MI School will be a super waste of your time.

You will probably pass basic, unless your foot, weight and attitude kick in and do you in.

35M is not an easy job. When I say not easy, trust me on this one. Your grammar is atrocious, your spelling needs improvement and your attitude needs to be controlled.

I am not being mean to you when I say these things. The three things I mentioned above are intrinsic to your success in the field you chose (if a 55 is enough to qualify).

Take this as a nice reminder from a Sergeant in the field. The military did, does and continues to have checks and balances when it comes to its troops, and I just would hate to see this as a complete waste of time on your part, and a waste of my tax payer's dollars.

I recommend you talk to your mother and father about this some more. Ask them:

"Mom, Dad, do you really think I can make it in the military? Be honest".

If they say yes, then they obviously want you out of the house, because as a parent, I would like for my son to succeed, and the way things read here you are not ready.

Please, think hard and long about committing yourself to a life changing experience that can chew you up and spit you out (Peter Murphy), or mold you into a surgical tool to find, fix and destroy the enemies of our nation.

Good luck to you mate,

SFC Jerry.

Cheers!!!

P.S.: I am not kidding about telling the truth about the drug use. If you are honest, some things can be understood. If you are caught on a lie (and believe me, it happens more often than not), you will feel the consequences.

Well said

[jdberger]

please ignore crazy-boy....

[haiedras]

It honestly depends on your physical conditioning. I came in at 5'10" and 145-150, and I did fine. Upper body conditioning is nice, but unless you're like Neo in the Matrix, you'll build up that conditioning soon enough in basic. But if you can't run...well, that's going to suck a lot more.

Mental fortitude plays just as much a role as physical conditioning. When you absolutely have to carry a 6'4" 240lb dude in a fireman's carry...you make it happen.

[jmlivingston]

Ha! The fireman's carry was the same thing I was thinking about.

I went in at 5'9" and 145 and did okay. I played basketball in HS and spent a lot of time outdoors as a teenager (fishing, hiking and things like that). I considered myself in decent shape yet still struggled with PT during the whole time I was in the military.

Upper body strength is crucial. We had one morning about 4 weeks into AIT when we did more than 300 pushups and 150 situps along with a 3 or 4 mile run along with all our other PT. That was all before breakfast (heck, that was before dawn!). This was not a school that's known for tough PT either, such as any of the combat arms MOS's. This was at Ft. Sam Houston for medic training which was 91A at the time.

I remember the day well, it was the day my grandmother died and I went home for 2 weeks to run the family business while my dad went to her funeral in Alaska.

John

[phroggunner]

Would you expect similar difficulties for someone entering at 5'11" 146lb?

I graduated recruit training at 6' 155 lbs (showed up weighing 185). That must have been 30 lbs of nasty civilian I got rid of .

I don't think there's much difference between that and your height and weight. What it really comes down to is mental toughness. The minute you start treating your height/weight as an excuse, you've already lost.

[Desert_Rat]

Would you expect similar difficulties for someone entering at 5'11" 146lb?

In My experience,The shorter more muscular Men who have a lower center of gravity make some of the best Marines/Soldiers.Of the Men I had the privilege to serve with,some were this body type and they could run,walk and crawl for days.while I was in great shape and scored very high PFT's, I could barely keep up with these Marines.I was 6'2" and 205 at the time.217 was the "fattest" I could be by the standards. The thing to really keep in mind here is,It's all about the attitude and mental Discipline.As I used to hear and say quite often."It's all about mind over matter,If You don't mind,the pain don't matter"

[Jayskuh]

edit

[JerryM]

That's cool.

I say cheers and don't even know where I picked it up.

Good luck in whatever you choose.

[Tacit Blue]

Is this a complete joke? I'm looking into joining Air Force security forces, i don't even think he could handle being in something as simple as " waste management" if something does exist as a MOS....... WTF

[thebloodsonthewall]

Would you expect similar difficulties for someone entering at 5'11" 146lb?

Just based on on you weight and junk, you could afford to gain some weight but you might be fine. It depends on what shape you are in too. In basic you will probably have to carry a 35 - 50 pound ruck sack for distances up to about 12 miles and you can assume that most of the 12 miles will be up hill. They start off with like a 3 mile and work up to it.

Are you planning on joining the Army?

[Jayskuh]

edit

[dwa]

Thanks for all the input from everyone that replied.


The most I have weighed in the past was 150. I am confident I can get to around 160 though. It seems like I would need to also, as I would most definitely lose weight in training. I need to collect more information to make the final decision on which, but for me it is between Army and Marines. However, that will be at least 2(if I get bored of college), if not 4 years away. Thanks for showing interest though. Oh, and if my distance vision currently is not that great, (20/60 left eye, 20/70 right eye) what options would I have open to me?

uncle sam will get it corrected for you if you want after your in.