I am learning

I have been here in Biloxi for a few months now and I can honestly say I have learned quite a few things about my new adventure into the military.

I take advantage of every situation to pick people's brains.  Active duty, retirees, enlisted and officers all have been subjected to my many many questions.  The more questions I ask the more I learn and the more I understand how little I know.

So on this post I am going to stick with what I know now that I did not know when I started COT.

1) health care in the military is a totally different animal.  Staffing is better, ratios are reasonable and people want to help. 

2) There are no experts.  have a question about anything and no one seems to know.  It blows my mind that I work with people who have been in for years and years and they remain clueless about so many things.  I thought when I came in there would be people with answers to all my questions - Wrong!!  Completing anything around here is done with guessing and trial and error.  If you fill out a form wrong eventually someone will tell you but not one person seems to have any of the answers - this gets frustrating!

3) Ass kiss, ass kiss, ass kiss...recognition!  The military is all about awards and recognition and if you are not willing to put in some serious ass kissing time you will be overlooked.  It comes down to where the work does not matter nearly as much as face time with your leadership.

4) You can wait for it to come to you.  This is what I have sifted through all the advice and from watching other people.  No reason to be all gung ho and track people down to tell you what you need.  Just wait and from the depths of somewhere out there you will receive an email to tell you where to go and what to do - no need to stress.

5) You do not joined the military to see the world.  Because sometimes you get stuck and that is just too bad for you.  You are not on the move every few years - that is the military of old.  So unless you have crafted a plan you can easily get stuck in a place you never wanted to be.

6) You are not going to like everyone you work with.  i guess this is anywhere, but it is a little different here.  The uniformed co-workers personalities may not fit and that is just something that will not change.  The civilians you work with can be some of the worst people in the world and you can easily grow to resent their lack of integrity and lazy efforts.  It stands out 1000 times more in the military.

7) People talk a good game.  The fact is that is all they do is talk and talk and never really do anything.

8) some people work the shit out of the system!!  They find every TDY and every class.  Hardly every work, put themselves in for every award and get major face time with leadership.  They get the easy track to promotion and never really do any work.

9)  Rules do not apply to everyone.  I could so go into detail on this, but I am going to hold my tongue.

10)  You have to have a plan.  Early in the game you need to discover what it is you want to do with your career and how you are going to get there.  I had a little help and did a lot of reading to discover the best route for myself and now I am working hard to get to where i need to be. 


This post may come across as negative in nature and that was not the intention!  I do not regret for a second the decision I made to enter the military and I very much look forward to going to work.  I really enjoy what I do and hope to improve.  I plan to be a lifer!!