I Enlisted

[EricTheRed]

Hey guys. Just thought I would let y'all know I enlisted yesterday (June 14) in the Texas Army National Guard. I will be shipping off to basic June 10, 2008.

Keep me in your prayers.



-Mercurius

[JustinHesychast]

Oh, God. I certainly will. :)

[Orthosdoxa]

Oh my stars!!!! :eek:

May God protect you and keep you in His care. I salute anyone who enlists in the service of protecting our country.

PS - love the sig pic. ;)

[EricTheRed]

Oh, God. I certainly will. :)
Thanks :)

[EricTheRed]

Oh my stars!!!! :eek:

May God protect you and keep you in His care. I salute anyone who enlists in the service of protecting our country.

PS - love the sig pic. ;)
I thought you would ;)

[Dust and Ashes]

So, since you're in the Texas Army National Guard, does that mean you get to carry a Barret .50 as your main rifle and a .50 AE Desert Eagle as your sidearm?

[EricTheRed]

I wish! I'd wear a cowboy hat also.

[Philothei]

oh...Now why would you do that? You are so young!

Got to put you down for prayers.

God bless,
Philothei

[EricTheRed]

Don't worry. I am on the college first program so I cant be deployed the first 2 years of college. I also plan on taking ROTC which would make me undeployable for the last 2 years. So I will not be deployable until I am an officer.

[StephanStrategy]

Hey guys. Just thought I would let y'all know I enlisted yesterday (June 14) in the Texas Army National Guard. I will be shipping off to boot camp June 10, 2008.

Keep me in your prayers.

I will be praying for you. I know many folks from the Texas Guard (the 36th CAB) that are on LSA Anaconda with me. If that is the division you are assigned to you are going to be falling in on some good guys.

Start running now; and get used to it. :) I only tolerate running, I never liked it; no matter how much the Army told me I would.

Mike

[EricTheRed]

Thanks for the advice :) I definatly can not slack off this year before boot.

[MariaRegina]

My prayers.

[Michael the Iconographer]

I salute you!

[Tsarina]

NO way!!!??? :eek:

I'll definatley keep you in my prayers, crazy Mercurius!

[Khaleas]

Don't worry. I am on the college first program so I cant be deployed the first 2 years of college. I also plan on taking ROTC which would make me undeployable for the last 2 years. So I will not be deployable until I am an officer.
Good luck and you'll be in my prayers!
I hope they keep the college program promise for you. My husband's cousin is doing that and he just got back from his second tour. After two years in school he was gone, back for one and then gone again. He had no commitment though afterwards to become an officer after doing that so he's actually getting out of the Marines when it's up in another year and a half.

And I totally second the running part...

[Michael the Iconographer]

I double salute you for not enlisting in the Navy!

[Rowan]

:) <--smile of a girl from a family mostly military

Praying for you!

[Thekla]

Best !

prayer for you ...

[EricTheRed]

Good luck and you'll be in my prayers!
I hope they keep the college program promise for you. My husband's cousin is doing that and he just got back from his second tour. After two years in school he was gone, back for one and then gone again. He had no commitment though afterwards to become an officer after doing that so he's actually getting out of the Marines when it's up in another year and a half.

And I totally second the running part...
The head ROTC guy at University of Texas in Arlington assured me I am undeployable the second two years of ROTC. They dont want their officers-to-be shipped off before finishing.

Thanks for the prayers everyone. I guess I really should start running. It's been forever since I was in a sport.

[Rowan]

Yes. Run like you're being chased. You'll thank yourself later.

[Dust and Ashes]

See if your recruiter can get you some tapes or CDs of running cadence and listen/sing while running. That will help get your breath built up and make the miles just melt away.

[Greg the byzantine]

Eric........

I guess I will be keeping the warrior saints busy with prayers.

[EricTheRed]

Eric........

I guess I will be keeping the warrior saints busy with prayers.
Thanks! I need all I can get.

[Mary of Bethany]

But you still have another year of high school first, right????

Mary

[EricTheRed]

Yes I do.

[Rowan]

Did you enlist after the school year was out? I almost did, so they said I would have spent the summer before the next school year in basic training, then finish high school.

I think you just missed the last shipping for the summer or somethin' :P

[Countrygirl1976]

Be careful and May God Bless you and keep you safe.

[DonVA]

Wow, Eric. NOW I know what you've been up to! Repeat after me: "LAYUFT, LAYUFT, LAYUFT-RIGHT-LAUFT!" Glad to hear you can complete your studies and become an officer before you're eligible for deployment. :thumbsup:

God be with you through boot camp! :crosseo:

[Orthocat]

and remember these words...

"YOUR MAMA IS NOT HERE TO PROTECT YOU ANYMORE!!!"

"THE ONLY THING FROM TEXAS IS STEERS AND ..........
AND I DON'T SEE ANY HORNS ON YOUR HEAD!!!"

"YOU LOOKING AT ME BOY? YOU THINK I'M PRETTY? YOU WANNA HOLD MY HAND AND MARRY ME?"

I could go on....

You'll be fine ;)

[zhilan]

Hey guys. Just thought I would let y'all know I enlisted yesterday (June 14) in the Texas Army National Guard. I will be shipping off to basic June 10, 2008.

Keep me in your prayers.



-Mercurius

That means you have to call me ma'am. :P

BTW, I did ROTC so if you have any questions about it or anything feel free to ask me.

[zhilan]

P.S. Lesson number one that one of the seniors taught me when I was fresh into the ROTC program that has carried me through:

Never trust a man in green (or nowadays digital blue...) ;)

[zhilan]

..... But seriously, don't believe anything a recruiter tells you....

[InnerPhyre]

My God, Eric......


Don't know what to say. I wish you hadn't, but you will soon be your own man. Stay safe. I will remember you in my prayers.


Listen to Zihlan as well. Don't take what the recruiters say at face value. They will say virtually anything to meet their quota (I learned this first hand). The military will happily make promises to your face to get you to sign on the dotted line and then renege. My girlfriend's brother reenlisted last year because of the promise of a large signing bonus, increased pay, promotion, and a better job. Nearly 6 months later, he has the same job, has not received his promotion, hasn't seen a cent of the bonus. Then a couple of months ago, he and several others were moved out of the barracks to make room for new guys, the army promising to pay for their off-base housing. Right now he is struggling to pay his rent, because the army decided he wasn't eligable for that pay either.

I'm not trying to rain on your parade. I'm just telling you to please be extremely careful. When you sign your life over to the government, they can pretty much do whatever they want with you and you have little recourse. Be safe, my friend.

[EricTheRed]

I am well aware of the recruiter stuff. I made sure that everything was on the contract. Luckily I had a recruiter that did not BS.

[repentant]

I will pray for you, but IMO it is not a good idea anymore. Who knows now will you will be sent and who you will have to fight. It seems that the U.S., although claiming to fight terrorism, supports them just as much. We have President Bush, going to Albania as a national hero, in support of Kosovo becoming a free Islamic state. By doing this, he is going against Russia, Serbia, etc..although by the time you probably have to go anywhere, he will be out, but you never know what position we will be in by then.

BTW, did you get your Spiritual Father's permission to do this? I asked mine years ago about joining, and he told me it's not a good idea...for similar reasons above. the war in Serbia was going on at the time..

[zhilan]

I can give you a number of tips on working the system, but you have to be constantly on the alert to make sure you don't get screwed over. You also have to become comfortable with saying no, even at times to those in charge of you. For example, when you are injured and have a profile (meaning the doctor has said no physical training) the SGTS will try to force you to do it anyway and put you on a big guilt trip, but this is the reason people end up with permanent injuries that will stay with them for their lives (I saw this happen with a number of my peers). If the doctor says no, then you have to insist that they respect that. Many things like that. It's a headache.


But good luck.

[ArmyMatt]

Congrats, God bless and good luck buddy. Welcome aboard.

[InnerPhyre]

I can give you a number of tips on working the system, but you have to be constantly on the alert to make sure you don't get screwed over. You also have to become comfortable with saying no, even at times to those in charge of you. For example, when you are injured and have a profile (meaning the doctor has said no physical training) the SGTS will try to force you to do it anyway and put you on a big guilt trip, but this is the reason people end up with permanent injuries that will stay with them for their lives (I saw this happen with a number of my peers). If the doctor says no, then you have to insist that they respect that. Many things like that. It's a headache.


But good luck.
This happened to my girlfriend. She is now permenantly disabled because of a knee injury that she sustained in basic training. She was told to do no PT, but her drill sergeants intimidated her into doing it anyway.

[cassc]

Wow we sure have a lot of military types!! I will be honest and say that I wish we did not need so many but I am gratefully of the scarifies you all are willing to make.

My great-uncle passed away last week and as member of the army air core in WWII there were officers at the funeral to salute the casket and present my great-aunt with his flag "from a grateful nation" as they say, it is an extremely moving moment and it reminded me that no matter our politics we all should be grateful to our service men and women.

Eric, I can't say if it is wise but it is certainly brave and I'll pray for you!!

[Dewi Sant]

I pray for you.

[EricTheRed]

I will pray for you, but IMO it is not a good idea anymore. Who knows now will you will be sent and who you will have to fight. It seems that the U.S., although claiming to fight terrorism, supports them just as much. We have President Bush, going to Albania as a national hero, in support of Kosovo becoming a free Islamic state. By doing this, he is going against Russia, Serbia, etc..although by the time you probably have to go anywhere, he will be out, but you never know what position we will be in by then.

BTW, did you get your Spiritual Father's permission to do this? I asked mine years ago about joining, and he told me it's not a good idea...for similar reasons above. the war in Serbia was going on at the time..
When I told my recruiter about my desire he arranged a meeting between me and two ex-military men from my parish. It was a very informative meeting.

[repentant]

When I told my recruiter about my desire he arranged a meeting between me and two ex-military men from my parish. It was a very informative meeting.


Yea but..laity and a SF are two different things. Especially laity who are alumni so to speak..but to each his own..God Bless you in your endevours..

[Orthosdoxa]

I hope no one's taken the wind out of your sails, Eric - we're just worried about you. But I respect and admire the heck out of you.

[repentant]

I hope I didn't come across like that. He is definitly brave for doing what he is doing, as is all who are in the military. Especially with the war now, where there is no identifiable enemy. I am just cautious as to what he may be a part of in the future. And of course if you say no, it's court martial with possibility of Levinworth..

[zhilan]

Just remember, and your chaplain should counsel you on this, but in case he doesn't, you don't give up any of your religious rights when joining the military. So some commanders may give you slack over it, but you have the right to full practice of your religion.

Also remember that no court or commander on earth can make you violate the will of God. So always follow your conscience, even if it means facing consequences.

......Also take advantage of military discounts at every opportunity. Hilton Hotels give amazing military discounts.