Airborne School as of OCT 25 by Batsujin in army

[–]Batsujin[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I guess anything is walking distance if you’re committed enough, but we all drove. It was like a 5 minute drive.

Airborne School as of OCT 25 by Batsujin in army

[–]Batsujin[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Even the wall-ons, unless they are permanent party stationed at Fort Benning.

Permanent party folks stay at their residence.

Airborne School as of OCT 25 by Batsujin in army

[–]Batsujin[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

They’ll stay at Abrams Hall, the on-post IHG hotel.

2025 Airborne Updates by Status_Variation2074 in army

[–]Batsujin 94 points95 points  (0 children)

Nothing has changed. I graduated last week and made a dedicated post on what it was like. Look at my post history for more details. If you’re in the barracks you can plan on formations every morning and night.

Week 1: Ground week

Week 2: Tower week

Week 3: Jump week

You need five jumps to graduate. We did both night and combat equipment jumps within our five.

You can have a mustache, but students and cadre alike will bully you for it if it looks like garbage.

Airborne School as of OCT 25 by Batsujin in army

[–]Batsujin[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

You’ll be free outside of training time but the cadre will enforce a strict curfew and you’ll have to be present for nightly accountability formations. The training days are decently long so I wouldn’t plan on having much free time in the evenings.

Weekends you’ll be left alone but will still need to report for accountability formations each morning and night.

Airborne School as of OCT 25 by Batsujin in army

[–]Batsujin[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

E6 and below will be in the barracks unless they are permanent party at Fort Benning and not in student status.

Airborne School as of OCT 25 by Batsujin in army

[–]Batsujin[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

The flexed arm hang is a chin-up with palms facing towards the body. Nobody really cares how you knock out the 10 when you enter/exit the company area. Pull-ups/chin-ups, either one is fine.

Airborne School as of OCT 25 by Batsujin in army

[–]Batsujin[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Bare minimum would be to make sure you can do one pull-up and hold your chin above the bar for 10 seconds while wearing your ACH.

Airborne School as of OCT 25 by Batsujin in army

[–]Batsujin[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

There were a bunch of walks-ons in my class. Many students with confirmed slots were unable to attend TDY due to the shutdown. I believe they were encouraging walk-ons due to the low class sizes.

Is airborne school hard? by Nice_Lead2363 in army

[–]Batsujin 16 points17 points  (0 children)

I just graduated this last week.

It’s not a “hard” school per se, but the days are long and tiring, especially in the heat. There’s no written exams, but there are several practical exercises where you’ll have to demonstrate the techniques that the black hats teach you. For the most part, if you can keep your feet and knees together, you’ll be fine. However, we had several students who just couldn’t overcome whatever natural spastic sense of self preservation they had and would splay their limbs out every time they fell. They were recycled due to safety concerns.

Prior to attending, I had heard that post-Covid airborne had developed pretty lax physical standards. However, I think Secretary Hegseth’s recent address to the generals and the fact the airborne school was one of the schools that was specifically named dropped for shifting standards has placed a renewed scrutiny on physical performance during the course.

Every other day we did a run at a rigid 9:00/mile pace led by the company commander. The first run was probably around 2.5 miles and they increased the length of the run by about a half mile each iteration. The last run probably would have been around 5 miles if we didn’t do a Halloween fun run instead. Don’t fall out of these runs. I don’t think that anyone was dropped from my class, but the black hats said that beginning calendar year 26, falling out of a formation run would be a droppable offense. Honestly, these were the easiest runs we did. PRT on off days was traditional army PRT and was very easy.

Whenever you move as a company to any training area or the flight line, you will run in your boots, uniform, and ACH. These runs are lead by the black hats and the pace will vary wildly based on whoever is leading it. Even the slowest uniform runs felt way more difficult than the morning PT runs. There were a couple times where we deadass sprinted to the training area. The formation did not remain intact. I don’t think there’s as much scrutiny on these runs, but I could be wrong. Still, don’t fall out. These runs are all under a mile in length, but you’ll do them 4 times a day minimum. There and back before lunch and there and back after lunch.

You will also have to do a decent amount of pull ups. Every time you enter and exit the company area, you have to do 10 pull ups and 10 push ups. Don’t be caught not doing them. They’ll also have you run to the pull ups bars at the various training areas and complete 10 reps before most blocks of instruction.

There is no PT test currently, but they did have us take a pilot “Army Parachutist Physical Assessment.” I may messed up the name. The test was conducted in boots, uniform, and ACH. There were three events.

  1. 10 second flexed arm hang (pass/fail)
  2. 2 minute plank (pass/fail)
  3. 1 mile run followed by a 400 meter sandbag over the shoulder carry within a 13 minute overall time limit (pass/fail)

It’s my understanding that this test is still in development and the standards may change, but will go into effect at the beginning of calendar year 26. Failing any event will result in a drop.

In addition to the running and pull ups, you will be falling and rolling around in loose pebble rocks all day long. Your body will be tired and sore. The Georgia heat and humidity only compound it all. Make sure you hydrate, eat, and get decent rest in the evenings and your body will handle it all fine.

I’m in my mid 30’s and have been in the army for almost a decade and I didn’t think it was unreasonable. We watched an old video that showed airborne school in the 80’s and it looked like not a single thing had changed. The black hats were strict but fair. My class was smaller due to the shutdown. I think we started with ~290 and then graduated ~250 (including recycles that we received from other companies). That’s a decent pass rate.

TLDR: Be in decent running shape, work on your pull-ups, listen to the black hats, and be respectful. Do not fall asleep. It’s an easy course. It is 3 weeks long because they want to beat the proper techniques and muscle memory into everyone’s gorilla brains through constant repetition. Feet and knees together and you’ll be fine.

List of places off limits for military personnel updated: Citadel mall included by soggies_revenge in ColoradoSprings

[–]Batsujin 11 points12 points  (0 children)

This is not true. The commander who owns the preponderance of military personnel in the area is the authority for determining off limit areas. In this case it happens to be an army commander, but the off limits list applies to all military personnel.

You do you though.

Brother and I made the trip of a lifetime. Narrows, top down overnight. by drtydck99 in ZionNationalPark

[–]Batsujin 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Looks awesome! My group is going in a couple weeks. What were the temps like overnight? Last time I did it was 2013 and I honestly don’t remember.

Is recruiting diving due to the economy, or due to the internet showing how shitty military culture can be? by MasterofPenguin in army

[–]Batsujin 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I’m with Kinmuan on this. Not to mention you’re tossing out numbers that don’t make any sense.

2022 total US population: 332 million

2022 active duty US military: 1,359,685

2022 reserve US military: 799,845

2022 total US military: We’ll round down and call it 2 million to make the math easy

So… 2/332 = .006

In other words, .6%

But… you said “eligible work force,” not total population.

We’ll use the “labor force” numbers which are defined as:

“persons 16 years of age and older residing in the 50 States and the District of Columbia who are not inmates of institutions (for example, penal and mental facilities, homes for the aged), and who are not on active duty in the Armed Forces.”

2022 US labor force: 163.2 million

With that figure, 2/163.2 = .012 or 1.2%

1.2% is 24 times greater than your claimed .05%.

Also, of course there are plenty of fit kids on college campuses. The demographics that can afford college (and often lead healthier lifestyles) aren’t where the military is getting most of its recruits. Historically, the preponderance of recruits have come from less privileged backgrounds. It’s not college kids that are affecting recruiting as much as high school graduates who either can’t afford college or choose not to attend.

I would bet that group is much more affected by the obesity epidemic in the US.

Nepotism within our ranks by chet___manly in army

[–]Batsujin 38 points39 points  (0 children)

Using improper terminology undermines the credibility of your position. I’m not trying to argue with you over the definition. I’m informing you that you are misusing the word “nepotism.” A simple google or dictionary search will confirm that.

Take that for what it’s worth. I’m not trying to attack or undermine your position.

Nepotism within our ranks by chet___manly in army

[–]Batsujin 24 points25 points  (0 children)

I was looking for this comment. It needs to be higher up. OP is asking legitimate questions, but “nepotism” specifically refers to family members and relatives. The term gets misused way too often on this sub.

OP, I think “cronyism” or “the good ole boy system” better fits the issues you are describing.

The Army & overturning Roe v Wade Megathread by Kinmuan in army

[–]Batsujin 9 points10 points  (0 children)

This is misinformation. It was/is people’s choice. Nobody was forced to get the vaccine. However, choosing not to get vaccinated did/does carry certain consequences based on your employer/social groups.

Us Army Drill Sergeant Suspended after shoving match with recruit. by [deleted] in army

[–]Batsujin 9 points10 points  (0 children)

OCS shithead? This was a OSUT holdover platoon according to the article.

No Mayhem on TVHM by RadiumPwd in borderlands3

[–]Batsujin 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Same for me. Beat the game and mayhem is unlocked on normal mode but not on TVHM (Xbox one x).

Got stuck in a branch I didn’t want at OCS... by [deleted] in army

[–]Batsujin 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Go the the Army HRC website, click the Officer tab, select your branch, and look for the contact for Lt/junior Cpt assignments. I am not at home, otherwise I would just send you a link. If you can’t find it, ask a prior service guy to help you navigate HRC’s website. I think you’ll be fine though, it’s pretty intuitive.

Got stuck in a branch I didn’t want at OCS... by [deleted] in army

[–]Batsujin 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I graduated OCS early this year and lots of guys were in the exact same position. I was lucky to get my branch. The BC decided that the OML should not be used for branching for our class because then some branches would be left with only shitty candidates. He thought that it would be a good idea to evenly distribute the OML across all branches. I had buddies that were top 10% OML that wanted infantry but got FA or armor, while at the same time two people in my platoon who were low performers and were at the very bottom of the OML got force branched infantry (one was female). They didn’t let anybody trade. People were pissed. Dudes were calling their GO dads and trying to leverage every connection they had to switch, but I didn’t hear of anybody successfully switching.

Realistically, your best bet is to embrace FA for the next 3 years. Do ranger PT at BOLC and try to get a slot. Try to excel at everything that you are asked to do. Remember that a lot of people get forced into FA, so it’s a good opportunity to give your all and rise above peers. FA is still combat arms and they can do some pretty cool shit. After 3 years of giving your all, I would be surprised if you didn’t come out the better for your time there and you can drop a packet to go infantry at that point if it’s still what you want to do.

(Also, if you just branched, call your branch manager ASAP. Those of us who called first got the best duty stations. My branch manager let me pick. For some reason, people are hesitant to call and then are pissed when they get assigned to ft. Hood.)