Day to day life in the 75th

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WillardKurtz

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I was wondering what it is like for some one in the 75th? That and how it differs from lets say the 82nd.
 
Good question. I think we have a couple guys on here that have been in both units to answer your question.
 
What asshole, motherfucker, cocksucker! You think I am your friend, how about throw in Sergeant and stand at fucking Parade Rest when speaking to me, asshole! :evil:


Just Kidding sending a PM shortly.
 
Wow I almost shit myself until JK came up, lol. Oh and I suggest you post it so that anyone that would like to know could read it.
 
Life is better than anywhere else. Perform and be rewarded. Fuck up and be castrated.

Good equipment
Good chow
People that want to be there (for the most part)
Leaders that typically have a set
Joes that aren't pussies.

hrm, think i hit it up bout right.
 
I was at Regt in the beginning. There were only about a dozen NCO's and Officers that didn't have a Bn history. In fact I was the Senior Tabless Bitch at the time. (No one else would take the job.) Comparing it to the 82nd was close. Since I have to classify myself as a professional staff puke I have to say it was THE most difficult staff I EVER worked on. I have wondered for decades now what the original marching orders for the command group were.

A lot of the TTP's that the Bn's had developed for doing things from the way they wore their uniforms and gear to other minutia were tossed aside for the new 'Regt Standard'. This became for lack of better term; ultra conventional in many ways.

We had an attrition rate of 60% for SSG and above that first year (please bear in mind that most of these 60% were NCO's and Officers that came up from a Bn) . The Sgt and below attrition was higher... a lot higher. It really made for a really hard environment to work in. The daily routine was pretty much the same; first formation, PT, Work Call. We jumped, went to the range (not near enough, but then you can never go the range enough.)

I have no doubt serving in the Battalions was very different (and probably a HELL of a lot more fun).
 
Alright so I have thought this over trying to best give you a glimpse of Battalion life. I really think that the day to day stuff is like any other Infantry Unit but life is better. Had many people in my time come from other units and they are like little kids in a candy store :eek:


Rangerpsych was right about Battalion
Life is better than anywhere else. Perform and be rewarded. Fuck up and be castrated.

Good equipment
Good chow
People that want to be there (for the most part)
Leaders that typically have a set
Joes that aren't pussies.

hrm, think i hit it up bout right.

The only gripe is that the chow has gone down hill in 2/75, fucking Eco.
Chow was great at one time.


The individuals make Ranger Regiment what it is.
Yes we have a larger expense account than other Units and that adds to the fun but the fact that you have leaders that are leaders. We also get specialized training not offered to other units. Some people have put it this way the Regular Army is about a 1 to 2 years behind Regiment and Regiment is about 1 year behind higher echelon units. Regiment is the Standard for the Army they are always leeching off of us.
In Regiment your day revolves around training and training. You will become one with your weapon and become proficient with multiple weapon platforms. You will learn your job and that of everyone else. You can spend a day shooting a Company size load of ammunition in a Platoon (we have burned through some stuff in a couple of hours). Sometimes I thought we had a Brigades worth of ammo. I can always tell you what time I had to report to work but could never tell you what time I was getting off. It was no secret, we work until shit needed to get done gets done. There are gonna be days that you will see no end in sight. This is no Fucking 9 to 5 job. Strong work ethic.
So it is pretty much like this: PT, Training, Sleep and Repeat.

You read what I told you and hopefully you have a better understanding from that and what was said here.
 
What asshole, motherfucker, cocksucker! You think I am your friend, how about throw in Sergeant and stand at fucking Parade Rest when speaking to me, asshole! :evil:


Just Kidding sending a PM shortly.

LMAO, I was reading this and I was :doh: oh man I have to moderate and do all that crap now... lol
 
LMAO, I was reading this and I was :doh: oh man I have to moderate and do all that crap now... lol

My pulse jumped a few beats till I got to the end.. lol




My opinion of the 101st. (not 82nd, but it is still the best Airborne Division in the world. (ok, ok.. no parachutes, but real long ropes)

When I got to the 101st, I was a little disappointed. First of all, I expected this friggin high speed low drag hot mo fo division, that I dreamed about since I was a kid. So I get there in Feb 93.. roll in the front gate and see the division headquarters..... a two story white painted wood building that was smaller than my grandmother's house.. I think WTF???

That was the first opinion.

Then I get to my unit HHC 2/327 Inf aid Station.

more modern three story brick quad barracks building that our aid station occupied the bottom floor (most of it anyway)

nothing special...

The field time rocked.. especially since we did not have to drive three hours to get to the back 40 like we did at Ft Lewis goiing to Yakima. The gear was mostly first line and we usually got shit that trickled down to other divisions after us...

nothing special...

So then my grandfather died, I had to travel to Maine for the funeral day before Christmas eve 2003. Did not back nothing but a small carry bag, and wore my class A's. Got to the connecting flight, in PA or NY somewhere... I never had to buy a drink. Got to Maine.. kids lookin at me with my few ribbons, EFMB and AA wings... And that little patch with the Eagle on my shoulder...

That was something special... made me proud to be in my division.

The typical days were sick call motor pool details, etc But I truly enjoyed my time. Spent 12 years in, wish I could have stayed longer.. but the 65' freefall and the broken foot, hip, rib and four shattered vertebrae did not assist career progression..

Did a short time of RSE (Ranger Support Element) for 2/75 in 1990, and them are some crazy mother fuckers, I tell you what...

Archery practice in the hallway of the barracks.. and jumping off the third floor ledge into the trees... nut jobs.. all of em.. But I am OH so friggin glad that they are US troops, and fight for those things I hold dear...

That is my :2c:

its all I got..
 
I wouldn't say that the day to day stuff is like any other infantry unit, aside from keeping up with the basic fundamentals (ie. rucking, land nav, battle drills, etc etc). I wouldn't call life in the 75th easy by any means, considering the standards you have to maintain both physically and mentally. To top it off, we were either training, deployed, or on RF1, which left very little time to fuck around. Days in garrisson were always different for the most part.

This is from my squad/team experience, other squads experiences may differ slightly:

PT would be done Monday-Friday at around 5:30. Monday was considered deathrun monday..lol (although I believe everyday we ran to get to the pool, stadium, etc etc). Tues and Thurs I believe were rucking days (squad based, and it was basically running with a heavy ass ruck forever) Aside from that, the PT was always different. We might run doughboy stadium or Cardiac hill with our P-Masks (gas masks) one day, and the other end up swimming/drown proofing/lifting weights/climbing ropes. It basically depends on how gung ho your squad leader/team leader is and what school they are prepping for hahaha.

At like 8ish, I believe we ate breakfast at what I consider the worlds greatest chow hall.

After you got cleaned up and all that, you met up in your squad AO. Where you might do something cool, or something stupid (admin shit). You might spend all day and night at the range (you can't leave until you shoot expert), jump, fast rope, practice CQB (+mag reloads, squad level drills, door breaching, yada yada yada), prep for a night training mission, or something else. I always felt it was a constant learning experience because we did different shit all the time. Some days you really didn't do anything but clean your weapons and sit around planning team level assaults on other squads (basically we would ball up ...or attempt to ball up another squad until the last man standing tapped out or got choked out...always fun).

After the day was over (this is in garrison remember) most people ended up in the gym again anyways. Since PT in batt can pretty much make or break you, you always have to be at your best. If you fall out of runs or anything else physical, it could pretty much make life miserable for you.

I guess its hard to give you an insight into batt life without you actually being there, as things change daily, people leave and new people arrive. We had a generous budget so we got to do a lot of interesting things. If you want to learn more, pass RIP and experience it for yourself.
 
Wow this is really pretty informative, but it really sounds like you can't know till your there.
 
Hmmm what about a regular infantry unit or a paratrooper unit, are they more like a 9 - 5 job or what?
 
Scale the intensity down from the Battalions down some to the 82nd. In the Rgr Regt and the 82nd there has been a mission for a couple of generation to have the Initial Ready Company in the air in 12 hours or a Bn (read as task organized task force in the 82) in the air in 18 hours.

So in the Division you rotated between support, training, and Ready Force cycles. Since the Regiment don't do support they had a training and mission cycle. With the 3rd Bn added that came to training, training, and mission cycle.

With the Division Support cycle did entail ass and trash details around post, Funeral Detail that covered NC, Southern Va, and other areas. But also the spt cycle units would fill out deploying units as needed and load out the DRF 1, 2, and 3 Bn's. A lot of this entailed heavy drop rigging, ammo details, and the like. DRF Bde's could expect one Bn fly away ERDE and a Greenramp Race per cycle.

In Germany there was a lot of PT to 5 PM days, but not in Division. In Germany the local training areas didn't really lend it self to heavy force training. So troops are gone a lot to Graf, Hoefehls, and other garden spots of Europe.
 
Wow not many forums where people would actually leave insightful and more importantly true info.
 
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