Some advice for people with intention to signing on with our Army.
Not to be offensive, but i hope that your intention to sign on will not make you into one of those bloodsuckers who sign on with the service/techinical side and proceed to act high and mighty , oppress fellow NSFs becasue they think they have made it, plus rank to boot.Sorry to say, due to my bad experiences with such ppl, just because you have the rank and the money, doesn't mean that you have made it. Respect still has to be earned, you can become a bastard then at the end of the day, ur guys will not cooperate in many ways that will still keep them out of the 'extras' or the 'charge' book.Maybe Im being sarcastic but I feel that NSFs who do not choose to sign on but rather jump into the rough and tumble of the private sector will eventually be much stronger in cognitive abilty and emotional backbone, because they compete in a less controlled environment.This is not meant to diss off people of high caliber who really put their all into their passion for the Army, I salute them.
It is very easy to be sucked in by the money and the impression that you don't have to fight with the other rats in the rat race outside because IT is a cocooned environment to a certain extent.As one of my warrants told me once, those slackers act so big but they do not realise that they cannot even be deployed elsewhere in the Army, which says a lot about their work ability.
Realise that being hardworking yet understanding is a merit worth having while working, so does having the ability to control the urge to make NSFs become your personal assistants.Remember, even if you screw up their 2.5 years, it will hurt you more than it hurts them, for they are precisely gone after 2.5 years, while your career stretches for far more and reputatuon tays, whether you like it or not.
I sincerely hope you have the noble intention to treat your Army career in the same you would have treated your career in the outside world.You will eventually go back there, and it is to your disadvantage if you treat Army regular life as a holiday chalet to prop your feet for 5, 10, 15 or 22 years.
As a friend once told me, he signed on because he thinks we are unlikely to go to war.This dichotomy between defence posture and the thinking of the personnel make this Army a unique place for people to enjoy the perks of combat risk with the atmosphere of peacetime ops.
Juz something to ponder, nothing in this world comes for free and everything you do will return to affect/bless you in one way or another.
