I've kind of been wondering this since I started considering to join...What are weekends like in the army(more specifically the infantry). Do you still have to wake up early to do PT? Do you just wake up whenever and have the weekend to do what you want? Im just wondering
Depends. Sometimes you will have things to do on the weekends like pick up trash, guard things, etc but it's not like that all the time. Units take turns doing those kinds of things (its called red cycle taskings) so no one unit has to do them all the time. If you are in the field of course you have a 7 day work week. For the most part though the weekends are yours to do with as you please. I always did PT on the weekends to stay in shape but it was a personal choice. If you are consistent PT dud then you may be required to do PT on the weekends with your supervisors.
Can I sleep at a girlfriends house? As long as you keep your unit informed (phone #'s, etc) when ever you leave the installation as to where you're going, for how long, etc. And that's so your unit can always get in touch with you if need be.
Let me elaborate on the question, can you go out to the bars and such if you are 21?
Weekends...21? Hell we had a bar in the battalion area in AIT. You could drink any night and they did not card. Fort Bliss also did not have a drinking age for military members. Post commander did not want young soldiers going to Mexico to drink, so any service member could buy alcohol on post.
Just remember a hangover is not going to excuse you from your duties the next day and you best not show up for duty still drunk from the night before.
Originally posted by Ray31C: Just remember a hangover is not going to excuse you from your duties the next day and you best not show up for duty still drunk from the night before.
Thats very true for the regularly scheduled duty day.
But wanted to throw this in the discussion....
If they happen to call a unannounced readiness exercise in the early a.m. hours of a Saturday or a Sunday morning and your drunk. You can find yourself drunk and in uniform BUT your still expected to perform as best you can within those limits and be as professional as you can.
That was a Cold War thing they did in the 1980's in Germany, they might not do it anymore though.
Originally posted by WENDELLKEITHDUNCAN: We partied, got drunk and stayed at the girlfriends house on weekdays.
As long as we were in at 0500 to make sure the men were in the 0515 formation for PT, it didn't matter.
Weekends were for sightseeing and getting drunk and meeting new girlfriends.
That reminds me. We were some pretty hard drinkers up in Alaska. We had one particular soul who would mix vodka and sleeping pills to get to sleep (I don't recommend that btw, bad mojo). Anyway, we had this really effed up pile of crap who was always getting into trouble and couldnt PT for shlt. One monday at 0600 we were doing a five mile run and as usual he falls out right at the beginning. Ol vodka and sleeping pills guy says "Jesus, I can out run you and I'm still drunk!" Squad leader stares at him and he says "I mean not... Drunk."
You have to be real careful now about reporting in to PT drunk. Many units now if they suspect it they will test you and nail you if you are still drunk. Seen it happen alot lately.
Oh no, I wouldn't recommend it at all. Showing up drunk is definately a no go in my book. Besides, one of those freakish MPs might get ahold of you. God knows what they do to their prisoners behind closed door. Don't ask don't tell indeed.
Originally posted by k_9MP: You have to be real careful now about reporting in to PT drunk. Many units now if they suspect it they will test you and nail you if you are still drunk. Seen it happen alot lately.
Wow! That sure is different from the '80s.
I'm sure others can verify that you could've gotten drunk just off the fumes coming from our PT formations. In Germany, I came in just in time to change clothes into my PT clothes several times. Drunk until after breakfast was the norm for us.
Kids, do not try that at home. It's not recommended. We were professionals. It's dangerous to run in a flack vest and weapon intoxicated.
To the original guy, as the others said weekends are generally your time to do whatever you want to do unless you're on duty for some reason. In my stateside unit, after the last formation of the day we were generally off to do whatever we wanted. I stayed at many girlfriends' houses. More than one in one night if I was lucky.
Originally posted by PepeLep: Wow! That sure is different from the '80s.
I'm sure others can verify that you could've gotten drunk just off the fumes coming from our PT formations. In Germany, I came in just in time to change clothes into my PT clothes several times. Drunk until after breakfast was the norm for us.
Yes and No. At 2AD, they would look the other way for PT for the smell but not the swagger. If you fell out of the run for any reason you were a dirtbag.
At 9:00 a.m. if you were still wreaking and still drunk you got an Article 15. They looked at that as the start of the duty day and it was your responsibility to be ready for duty at that time.
Originally posted by WiFiWarrior: It's Thursday night and my weekend has already started. I don't have to be back until 0630 Tuesday. How's that for Army weekends?
Sorry for highjacking the thread, but this seems right up my alley! After 4 years of college parties I like what I'm hearing haha. How consistent is this across the MOSs? More specifically... I am enlisting for 35M and I've heard rumors that most of the guys are, well, not the types to be seen at bars as much so-to-speak. True? False?
I can remember a few times getting back to post just in time for PT after a night out on the town. Boy did those days suck!!!!! You always tell yourself I'm never gonna do that again, but you do.
