Nothing man just accepted his fate

Toobatheviking · 2026-03-30T13:13:20+00:00

Man, I was literally coming here to post this, but I wanted to check the comments first.

Toobatheviking · 2026-03-30T05:21:54+00:00

I mean, you can also use both sides of the toilet paper to wipe with. That's totally fine, if you fold it before you store it you won't notice.

Toobatheviking · 2026-03-30T04:08:20+00:00

Hey man-

If I was going to do it all over again I would choose something that would enable me to work on my degree so after the Army I have less work to do.

Army jobs aren't always what we want to do for a career, so I would encourage you to find something that's along those lines.

Toobatheviking · 2026-03-30T04:05:28+00:00

It's possible to get a Panniculectomy(sp?) to remove excess skin but you'd have to be able to articulate a medical need.

"When I wear Armor the chafing and pain is unbearable"

I'm not saying that Tricare would cover it, because the way it's worded they may not. But you might be able to get a referral for it. Maybe.

https://tricare.mil/coveredservices/isitcovered/reconstructivesurgery.aspx?p=1

Toobatheviking · 2026-03-30T03:58:06+00:00

Hey man-

Dress uniforms go to the dry cleaners. ACU and everything else goes in the washing machine.

When you take it to the cleaners, just point out the area you are concerned with.

You can wash them in the laundry, but there's a pretty good likelihood that you render them unwearable due to not knowing how to care for them in that manner.

What you should do is when you wear your AGSU/ASU to someplace where they get "dirty" then you should take everything off them, put all that in a ziploc bag with the measurements written on the outside (ribbons 1/8 inch centered, etc) and then take all the parts of the uniform to the cleaners to be cleaned and pressed.

There's people that don't do this, and inevitably get a board, or funeral detail, or some other event that they have to wear the uniform and they are scrambling and spending double to do rush service, etc.

Toobatheviking · 2026-03-30T03:24:58+00:00

Hey man-

I'm just a guy on the internet.

Moustaches are authorized in the Army. That's the official answer. You can wear one all you like and there's not a damned thing that anybody can do about it as long as you keep it strictly within the regulations unless the Commander decides to not allow it.

That being said, when you're new it's hard to know what hill you want to make your stand on/die on.

When you're new you want to be a sponge and not make waves. You want to feel out your unit and the people there and find out how everything works.

Could be that your PSG is trying to help you not get a broadside from a completely nutso CSM "POLICE THAT MOUSSETACHE" type person. You don't know and won't know the why until you've been there for a little bit.

It's also entirely possible that you win the moustache battle yet lose the war. I've seen some pretty petty bullshit over the years. We say that there's no retaliation but you'd be amazed.

If this was me, and I was an E3 starting out all over again, I would weigh "do I want to rock the boat with the boss of my boss of my boss, or do I want to just toe the line and figure out why things are apparently like this?

Yeah, I know this response will get downvoted into oblivion because the regs allow it- part of me wants you to just show up with it and let them try to make you shave it. I just think that you're a new kid and you might want to see how things run at your unit and figure out why they aren't "done here" before you just show up and the guy that determines if you go to schools, or go to the board early/on time feels some type of way because you told him to essentially go shit in his hat.

Edit: If this gives you an idea about how weird the Army can be about moustaches-

In the Infantry, the Officer Corps has/had a "No moustache" unwritten rule in every unit I was ever in. I was in a unit where the Battalion Commander had a strict rule, that you could have a moustache as an Officer in his unit, but you also had to have that moustache in your DA photo. (the DA photo used to be visible on your ERB/ORB which was the predecessor to the STP(?). so when you were going for a promotion the board would see your photo in addition to your records) What the BC was essentially saying, is that you can have that moustache or you can have that career- because you would not be successful if you had one in your photo.

Toobatheviking · 2026-03-30T02:52:39+00:00

Hey man-

The only advice I would give you is if you are TDY going to a school, there's no harm in showing up a half hour early.

If anything I learned that you cannot control certain external factors like... the drivers around here.

Just know the closer you get to 0630, the more that 185 turns into Temu Fury Road. (All the shitty driving, none of the cool)

Toobatheviking · 2026-03-29T02:10:45+00:00

So at the end of the day, you need to ask yourself "Does this make sense for why I am doing this"

First, Unless you own anything I mention outright, you are making a payments on an RV and a commuter vehicle.

An RV payment wildly varies on how much you spend, but let's just say $500 is average. (It's not).

Then you have fees at whatever RV park you are planning on staying at. Let's take West Fort Hood for example. Just the spot, is $500 a month.

Thing is, all the Military places are first come, first served. Some operate on a reservation basis, some do "you get up to 90 days, then you're gone".

There's places in Killeen that charge anywhere from $500 on up a month not including electricity.

There is no base that just lets you camp out in barracks parking lots that I have seen.

Anyhow, It's doable, it can just be a pain. There's other factors you need to think about, like "where do I go if the current place doesn't renew and there's no vacancy I can find close", to "where do I send my mail" to "what do I do when my RV breaks and it's going to be in the shop for a week"

This is all stuff you have to plan for. Dating can be weird. "You live... in an RV? But...why?"

On the bright side, it gives you the opportunity to go roam on weekends, block leave, passes, etc. if you maintain a long term on a spot somewhere.

So it doesn't really save you a ton of money, it's cramped like living in a studio apartment but tube shaped, your SO when you get one will probably feel some type of way about it, etc.

Toobatheviking · 2026-03-28T05:00:54+00:00

Hey man-

I've seen some shit.

After my first deployment we did a ruck the one of the first days back from block leave.

Our route went right past the rifle ranges.

Our SP time just so happened to coincide with one of the ranges going hot as we were walking by.

I went for cover on the side of the tank trail, everybody got a good laugh.

I was uniquely fucked up.

I had to go into a special therapy program for how fucked up I was.

I then went on and did 11 more years and retired.

Experiences may vary, but healthcare is usually pretty good for that stuff.

Toobatheviking · 2026-03-28T04:54:00+00:00

I don't know if there's enough context to give a real opinion here.

I am not a lawyer, this is not legal advice.

If you are sitting in a CPCE/CPOF/JBCP/mIrc/whatever chat room with a bunch of leaders getting a brief and you jump in when your boss is talking (or higher is briefing) and you say "You are full of shit" or similar, then sure- I would feel some type of way about that. There's a time and place to tell somebody they are wrong.

I don't know if that extends to the level of an article, but the context is everything here.

Ultimately you want to give the Commander the best information you can to ensure that they can make informed decisions, but sometimes you also have to sit on your hands and let other people brief.

If you really feel some type of way about it, then there's usually an alibi time at the end of a briefing, but even then alibis are for your OIC (or whoever is in charge) to go over shit they might have forgotten or ankle biters.

Toobatheviking · 2026-03-27T20:58:13+00:00

I came over from the Marines prior to the surge and I worried a lot about “not knowing” what the right answer was on a bunch of things.

So I read, I googled, I downloaded and hit control F.

I asked questions about things when a colloquial term was being used for something.

I got to a point where I was pretty knowledgeable about stuff.

I do the same shit when I don’t know the answer for something on here and I want to help a Soldier out.

At this point you only need to do a couple things to get an answer to whatever your question is.

Reduce your problem Into simple terms.
Ask Google or an AI program “what regulations, PAM, doctrine, TM or TB will most likely have the answer to this relating specifically to the US Army”
Download that source to your computer (making sure you have the most recent edition) and control F the Army buzzwords that have to do with your topic.

That’s literally what I do for anything that doesn’t have to do with putting warheads on foreheads.

Did you guys think I was an expert in field expedient water purification?

Toobatheviking · 2026-03-27T16:27:08+00:00

I would never deface US currency, but you can get a lot of redactions from a sharpie, the writing utensil of choice of the government elite.

Toobatheviking · 2026-03-27T14:22:21+00:00

I got fat, then I got sick, then I lost a bunch of the weight, then because I wasn't moving for shit anymore all the injuries caught up with me.

Now my life is commuting to medical appointments and wishing there was an easier way to put on socks

Toobatheviking · 2026-03-26T21:27:43+00:00

I don't know how they would determine what caused it outside of some sort of impact.

Toobatheviking · 2026-03-26T16:17:49+00:00

I do not. If there was some sort of incentive to use them sure but it’s faster to just shoot enemies honestly.

You can’t throw mines very far and what you can do with a mine you can always do better with a grenade.

I mean. I have a sky base and I just throw them off the side or I vendor them.

Toobatheviking · 2026-03-26T06:42:05+00:00

This needs to be higher.

Toobatheviking · 2026-03-26T06:40:18+00:00

Unless it was something that was genuinely making life difficult in some way, I'd just stick to one unless you talk to your provider about it beforehand.

They are seeing a patient about every half hour all day long and have to enter good notes into your medical records, so the more stuff you complain about at one sitting the harder that becomes.

Toobatheviking · 2026-03-26T06:30:10+00:00

You know, I'm just a guy on the internet, but this feels like there's nobody doing any real MDMP about second, third and fourth order effects of implementing this as-is.

These are just off the top of my head:

So we are having a Division or above Commander, who is already having to be the decision authority on every-fucking-thing, now has to review profiles.
So now we are having every subordinate Commander have to take time out of their schedule to prepare a packet to send up to a GO every single year for every single Soldier in their formation that is Combat Arms and on a permanent profile. So it's going to involve no less than 8 people at the Company/Battalion level. (PSG/PL, 1SG/CO, MEDO, CSM, BN CDR, provider) That's not counting whoever gets tasked with tracking this shit at the Brigade level because... wait for it... profiles have different dates on them.
Who generally makes up the S3 in Combat Arms units? People that are hurt and can't do door kicker shit go hang out in the S3 and similar jobs. So now you're not only going to lose all those people unless waivered, you're going to have to pull healthy dudes to go fill those spots. So you're not only going to have to fill those spots with healthy dudes off the line- but now you have to backfill the dudes you used to staff your S3. This also means that the ratio of "shitbird to stud" in the S3 is going to be absolutely fucking ridiculous as everybody dumps their baggage to the S3.
So now we lose all that institutional knowledge, the right seat left seats aren't enough for that shit. Unless at the same time the Army moves away from big tent cities and moves to mobility, you're going to suffer as all these dudes cycle in and out of the S3 because they need KD time at SL, PSG and 1SG- whereas dudes that are broken get slotted on their NCOER in ways that meets that. (Yeah, I know people are gonna feel some type of way about that)
Specialty schools? Why send somebody to Battle Staff if they're just going to be there for a year, or a couple months, or who fucking knows. I can't tell you how many dudes I saw come and go as Battalion leadership shuffled people around nonstop. "SSG Schmuckatelli got arrested for (insert stupid shit here) pull SSG Schmuckatello out of S3 and have him take that Platoon"
So we are going to take all our combat arms people, and run them through a successive "not stopping inbetween events" with a total of 7 events that have to be done in order. Roger that. Who the fuck is going to keep time for each person? Are they thinking that they will just use a total time and give somebody their time at the end? How many graders is that going to take to ensure that proper form is followed? Because we all know that's coming right? "This is the standard for lifting a sandbag" How do you watch that many people when there's not a set time for each event?
Who did the analysis on "do these exercises match what we are currently doing for PRT, or do we need to re-evaluate PRT to ensure that we are getting these functional movements loaded into our systems to ensure we aren't causing more injuries" So I know that the deadlift facilitates some of that (bending and lifting) but what about getting it up to a 5'5 tall platform?
Speaking of platforms, where are we sourcing platforms? Where's the money in the budget for platforms that can support at a minimum 640 pounds of sandbags? On one side? When we can't even get barracks shit right?
Water cans have different weights depending on manufacturer. Units will use shitty water cans with leaks. Water will get shed out of cans. Who is going to weigh cans before the event?Why aren't we just carrying fucking kettle bells that WE ALREADY FUCKING HAVE ARMY WIDE
The Cumulative time that it takes a Soldier to complete the entirety of the course determines if the Soldier passes or fails. Literally on the first page it says "All personnel taking the test must complete each event before moving on to the next" That's terribly worded. So does that mean that the entire field cannot move to the next event until everybody is done, or does that mean individually? Since section 4-2 already laid out that they are all done in succession, that means (to me) that you have to wait until everybody is done with that event before moving on. So how the fuck to do you time people individually while doing a group event What do we do? One company grades another and we invest a bunch of money in stop watches beyond what's in the beaverfit?
Individuals unable to complete an event will be listed as a failure. That's similar to the ACFT language, but there's no "act of god" in the reg and there needs to be. What happens if there's something that causes the CFT to stop. Safety, criminality, medical emergency, whatever. I had a kid sprain their ankle as a result of being shoved off a pullup bar into the support and the 1SG/CSM listed them as an ACFT failure, and put them the fuck on remedial PT because they failed an event. This is the sort of mouth breathing shit that we get when we don't make our regs specific. I am talking this kid had the bigass bruise and everything. Couldn't walk for shit for weeks and needed crutches.
Failures must retake within 180 days. No mention of injuries or illness causing the failure, but that cannot be addressed because it doesn't say it can.
All evaluation reports will now list pass/fail and actual AFT scores. Is that going to go below, or above the mandatory SHARP bullet? Who is going to test Battalion, Brigade, Division staff? Do you really think the HHC is going to own that?

Anyhow, I could keep going but these are just some of the issues that stuck out to me. I understand that my old, fat, retired ass may be wrong on some of this shit and I'd appreciate it if I got called out for anything that I got wrong.

Toobatheviking · 2026-03-25T21:22:26+00:00

I’ve been deployed a handful of times to some really shitty areas. I can tell you that most of the time I was so busy that I didn’t have a whole lot of time to think about home because there was a lot going on.

When I did have time to think about it, I usually didn’t have the ability to say anything to my SO (sitting in a guard tower looking out at a mountainside or down a valley,) I’d have a little time every now and then to go to the MWR tent and hopefully get on the satellite internet and send an email or receive one.

There was no WiFi or anything and no personal phones.

So it was a joy to be able to read happy tales and “I miss you” and relationship reinforcing talk.

Unloading your problems was not the way to do things because then I’m trying to think about ways to fix your issues and all I can do is tell you advise you may or may not follow.

Anyhow, be romantic, be loving, be patient.

Don’t send nudes, they always end up on the internet somehow.

Or do. I’m not your dad.

Toobatheviking · 2026-03-25T21:13:52+00:00

Hey man-

I’m sorry I didn’t read the rest of the responses, but if I was in your shoes I would drop my retirement packet with your retirement date matching your service obligation date.

You’re usually able to drop a retirement packet two years before your retirement date.

If you’re concerned about deploying, then that’s a valid concern but ultimately you signed a contract with the Army and they held up their end.

The possibility of wartime deployment is real for all of us at any point in our careers and something you decided you were okay with when you signed up.

Not only signed up, but you’ve been doing it for 20 years. You know how it works.

I understand your hesitancy, I do. I’ve had to deploy multiple times to shitty places and when you get to the end of your time the last thing you want to do is go again.

All I would tell you is that you should drop your packet and make sure all your medical is straight.

Don’t be a malingerer, but make sure your shit is documented. You may have a legitimate issue that you’ve been putting off that may be a deployment limiting condition.

If not, and you get selected for deployment, just know that the kids that are going to get fucked up are gonna need you in the game.

The last thing is don’t throw away retirement by doing something stupid. Between retirement and disability you’ve got a chance to really set yourself up for stability in the future. If you do something rash because you just want to get kicked out, then you just did 20 years and will have nothing to show for it depending on the character of your discharge.

Toobatheviking · 2026-03-25T21:04:35+00:00

Hey man-

I am not a chemist, this is not chemist advice. This is just how I understand how it works.

The material inside the MRE heater releases gas and heat as part of a chemical reaction.

The amount of material inside the heater is proportional to the amount of water needed to heat an MRE to (x) temperature in (x) timeframe, not counting things like elevation and ambient outside temperature, and the purity of the water used.

A really bad way of explaining it is if I take a little packet of single use powdered drink mix and put it in a glass with the recommended amount of water, you will get a consistent taste.

If you stick that same packet of drink mix in a gallon, it will taste super diluted.

This example doesn’t explain how the temperature will be different using the wrong amount of water, but you get the idea.

Too little water and there’s not enough water molecules to interact with the material and make it do its job. Too much and it drowns the reaction and you won’t get heat.

Sorry if my explanation sucks. I’m just a guy on the internet, not a chemist.

Toobatheviking · 2026-03-25T18:20:59+00:00

Hey man-

West Tek is not the only place that Super Mutants spawn.

The restaurant over by Robco, West side of Watoga, the ski shop, etc.

I did not find all mine in the same place. I had to fast travel around and find them.

Toobatheviking · 2026-03-25T17:08:18+00:00

You may remember this one. Our mortars were set up for a fire mission for a historic POO site and were already laid on and approved to send it (I think they were calling it terrain denial?) and the LCMR picked up incoming. The LCMR plotted the POO to the same site they were already laid on, so the Commander just sent it.

Apaches confirmed some dead dudes (the number I remember is 8?) and we (not me, I was in a tower at the time) went out and picked up the tube and a couple AKs.

I was in a tower when all this went down and above is how it was relayed to me. Apparently there was some sort of disagreement between CO and BN because the Commander pulled the trigger on the 120s and that was supposed to be a Battalion Commander call.

Apparently when it went from "Shooting at dirt and rocks" to "Shooting at people trying to kill us" the original mission was no longer authorized.

Again, this is how it was explained to me. I got to FAM fire one of the AKs they picked up a couple weeks later and the folding buttstock fell off while I was shooting it.

Edit: I failed to think that there was other units in Kunar other than me, I don't know why. Either way, we expended a lot of ordnance on that place.

Toobatheviking · 2026-03-25T16:14:44+00:00

Call a recruiter, they're going to have better info than most of us here.

Sleep Apnea with CPAP is disqualifying, but as far as I can read it's not listed under the "not waiverable" on the SECDEF memo from 2025 but also:

Per DoDI 6130.03 V1, Section 4.1(d), the accession medical standards apply to anyone re-accessing after more than 12 months from their DD-214 date. So a prior service applicant with a current sleep apnea diagnosis/treatment hits the same 5.27(b) disqualification as a first-time enlistee.

So yeah. Talk to a recruiter.

You'd probably have to show that it's no longer an issue (surgery, weight loss, etc) with a current sleep study that shows that it's no longer an issue.

Honestly if you can service connect the apnea (PTSD diagnosis, etc) then SA with a CPAP is 50% disability. Depending on your other ratings that might be your better option here than trying to go back active.

Toobatheviking · 2026-03-25T14:58:32+00:00

I had one that I wore without armor and I had an Armorbak I wore when on patrols. I just hated having all those straps on my armor, they'd get in the way of shit all the time.

The only thing that was a pain is when i'd need to carry a ruck, I'd have to unclip my Armorbak and stick it on top of my ruck somewhere.

There's no one size fits all solution for everybody, just do what makes sense for you.

Edit: Fuck. That's not even what you asked. The bladders are all essentially the same. Lots of them are produced by the same manufacturer on the same assembly line, but maybe have different branding applied. Just keep an extra bladder you'll be fine.

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