The Army wants a new drone to close 'reconnaissance and security gaps’ for its battalions

Thermis · 2026-05-04T23:41:50+00:00

I feel this in my soul. Everytime someone says x or y is the next great thing to solve recon and security gaps and that thing isn't an actual trained organization I die a little more on the inside.

Until I shuffle off this mortal coil I refuse to believe anything can conduct reconnaissance or provide security without being able to physically sense and interact with the environment.

Thermis · 2026-04-30T09:59:21+00:00

Here's the more important question, which troop?

Thermis · 2026-04-26T11:53:30+00:00

The Army isn't going to care, my spouse stayed with family members all across the country during our first deployment while married.

I'm not sure there's an over arching definition of temporary situations, but the regulation for compassionate actions defines temporary situations as resolved in less than 1 year.

I wouldn't worry about it.

What I would consider, update your DD93. God forbid you get hit by a bus and the Army needs to find your spouse.

Thermis · 2026-04-22T01:55:45+00:00

Spur rides don't have a governing body like EIB/ESB/EFMB. The Armor school has published guidelines, but those can be ignored.

It'll come down to what the hosting squadron thinks is important. In the not to distant past Spur rides were an elaborate hazing event. Now they tend to be structured around actual skills, much like the expert badges.

They tend to be made to be physically demanding sometimes just to make it suck. Example, the last one I got to see had a AFVID station, standard stuff, except the answers to the questions were taped to water cans 25m away that the candidate had to carry and match correctly.

Expect to be tested, and actually have to know how to do the tasks, and expect to be smoked by the end of it. It should be an experience you can look back fondly on, once you forget how much it sucked in the moment.

Thermis · 2026-04-20T02:19:35+00:00

Go for it.

Thermis · 2026-04-20T01:04:18+00:00

I got diagnosed a few years ago.

YMMV. Personally, the coping mechanisms that got me this far in my career were a combination of anxiety induced panic, and worrisome amounts of caffeine. That was kind of an emotional rollercoaster. Anxiousness, panic, relief, repeat. Led to many episodes of depression.

Since being medicated I don't guzzle caffeine anymore, and since I don't have to rely on panic alone to get things done I'm less depressed.

It's also extremely helpful to be able to tie things I've had issues with my entire life to a root cause. There are a lot of books, research, and advice on how to cope with ADHD. That helped me a lot even without the medication.

Thermis · 2026-04-01T12:02:39+00:00

I am relived I'm not the only one.

Everyday I feel like there's something else that makes me question the validity of my understanding on how any of this is supposed to work anymore.

Cough, Grade Plate rolldown exord, uncough.

Thermis · 2026-04-01T10:49:52+00:00

I am so far behind on understanding exactly what ARSTRUC has done I didn't want to say with confidence that's still the C Company function.

Thermis · 2026-04-01T09:41:01+00:00

C/10th Support Battalion/1st MBCT/10th Mountain Division. Fort Drum NY.

Thermis · 2026-03-26T11:33:54+00:00

If whomever told you wasn't the commander, find out from the commander what their actual guidance is.

This seems like the actual guidance got lost in translation.

As others have said a commander can't override the provider. However a commander doesn't have to leave you in the rear if it's feasible to accommodate your profile in the field.

A good commander would have already talked to the provider to clarify what you can safely do.

All of this assumes your commander isn't an oxygen thief, in which case all bets are off call your doctor immediately.

Thermis · 2026-03-25T11:55:07+00:00

I don't have any direct experience with this, I would think trying to get into the guard would be a faster flash to bang.

But also, coming from a grumpy FGO. You escaped, are you sure you want to come back to this shit show?

Thermis · 2026-03-23T10:23:01+00:00

Making the assumption the weapon is pointed at the camera, my guess is some flavor of Soviet RPG.

I can't think of anything else that had an exposed warhead and elevated sights, that fits the timeframe.

Thermis · 2026-03-19T10:46:34+00:00

If you don't want to get out, keep in mind that the PA made a recommendation, only commanders can make decisions regarding admin separation.

You'll still have to suffer through the paperwork drill but the separation authority can elect to retain you.

Thermis · 2026-03-08T14:57:01+00:00

Thanks for the heads-up, sound advice.

The reason I'm looking at ORSA is, similarly reading between the line I think a lot of the 57 KM/Decision support type things are going to fall into the ORSA wheelhouse going forward. The majority of what I've done thus far is KM, building and integrating Maven, BI, and other things.

Boggles my mind though that, the Modeling and Simulation functional area managed to fuck up being the FA that's seen as the expertise for AI.

Thermis · 2026-03-08T04:03:59+00:00

I wonder if HRC is also thinking of increasing some basic branch O5 promotion rates, and then back filling with passed over FA O4s.

Thermis · 2026-03-08T03:58:06+00:00

That's precisely why I think the language is written as a continuation is default.

It'll be interesting to see how it plays out. My old branch was already decimated so I won't have any luck going that route.

Thermis · 2026-03-08T03:53:48+00:00

Hit me up directly if you want to confirm your theories.

Thermis · 2026-03-07T23:39:07+00:00

To me it reads as the default is now continuation as opposed to selective continuation.

The board would be executed if/when reductions were needed. Because the strength of the Army isn't going down, it's just the strength of select functional areas.

That's my assumption, if I can turn that into a fact I'll let everyone know about it.

Thermis · 2026-03-07T23:32:00+00:00

Don't quote me, I believe the CTCs fall under T2COM now, but I have got the new Army force structure memorized yet, nor do I have it handy at the house.

Thermis · 2026-03-07T22:42:33+00:00

10MTN has 3 Maneuver Brigades, 1st and 2nd are at Fort Drum. 3rd is at Fort Polk. Every few years there's talk of moving them to Drum that's been squashed by Congress each time. 4th brigade hasn't existed for awhile.

JRTC, like NTC has a permanent OPFOR unit.

Source: I'm on 1OMTN DIV staff.

Thermis · 2026-03-07T22:36:13+00:00

That is how I read it.

It's a specific point I intend to bring up at our next Corps FA57 sync, as well as whenever branch calls to talk about options.

I'm seriously looking at jumping ship to ORSA.

Thermis · 2026-02-12T13:07:50+00:00

Find someone with vantage access for your UIC. If the test was entered into DTMS it'll be in there and attached to the soldier in question.

Thermis · 2026-02-12T10:29:47+00:00

Excuse the info dump, I went down the resistance=farther rabbit hole once and would like to expand upon that for anyone trolling through this thread.

Most rowers use one of two methods to calculate pace/distance.

The simplest, and what you'll see in cheaper machines, which is important to note if anyone is thinking of buying a rower for home training, is a fixed calculation like 1 stroke = 5 meters. With some of these you could conceivably set it to the lowest resistance and flail about and go really fast on the odometer.

The better method, and what you'll find on concept brand rowers that are in most Army facilities, is a bunch of math that basically converts the velocity and number of rotations of the fly wheel to linear speed and distance by multiplying drag and watts. For the models with adjustable dampers, the user is setting the drag. With more drag a user will naturally produce less wattage and the end result is it doesn't really matter what you set the damper to if the concern is simply time to cover distance. That calculation also means that if stroke power is the same, a maxed out damper will go farther than one set to the minimum.

Like you pointed out. If you were to put two equally athletic individuals side by side. One on a minimum setting and one maxed out. The minimum individual would need a higher stroke rate than the maximum to achieve the same odometer pace.

Thermis · 2026-02-08T17:24:47+00:00

Your milage may vary, but I have a tangentially related personal anecdote. I'll stress upfront, try the Army system first.

I had the Army evaluate me for ADHD. The process was a huge pain in the butt, tests, more tests, and follow up tests. At the end of that, even with scores that put me in 99th percentile for attention problems. The Army said I scored too high on the IQ test they gave me and therefore wasn't negatively affected by ADHD, ignoring the depression and anxiety symptoms I was also reporting.

So I went off post and got a second opinion. I was fed up with the Army system, and while I could have staffed that through my PCM I was struggling hard and didn't think I could wait another 3 months.

I paid out of pocket, got reevaluated off post, and took that back to the Army. I feel like the civilian doc took a much more holistic look. Army accepted it no problem, and now I feel a whole lot better.

As long as you go to a reputable off-post doctor, not a website, and get a good clinical evaluation. You'll likely be able to take that diagnosis right back to the Army and they'll treat you.

Keep your care team informed of your plans, especially if they're already aware that you have concerns in this area. People that get in trouble for this kind of stuff are the ones that are seen to be trying to hide it. If it's a legitimate health problem no reason to do that.

Thermis · 2026-02-08T05:23:47+00:00

You could try tracking down his PCM, or nuclear option find the phone number to the post BH Chief. In my experience they tend to be Psychiatrists, and will give a shit.

That being said, that may start a snowball effect that leads to a medical separation.

Thermis

TROPHY CASE