View Full Version : MOS
uboat509
05-18-2006, 12:12
I have a question for the other QPs here. How many of you were selected for your first choice MOS? Those of you who were not, do you ever wonder would it would have been like to get your first choice? I am asking because I was selected in my second choice MOS, 18C when I went to SFAS. I liked be an 18C but during the entire two years that I was an 18C I never got to run or even attend a single demo range becasue they all got canked. The only 18C specific stuff that I ever got to do was S4, hand reciepts and 1,2,3 reports. The Bravos ran ranges, the Deltas perfomed medicine, the Echos made commo, the Alpha did whatever it was that he did and the Zulu ran the team but I never got to blow anything up. It was frustrating. It wasn't that we didn't try to get ranges but demo ranges in Germany can be hard to come by and the ones that we did get ended up getting canked. My first choice had been 18D and I thought seriously about reclassing right up until I went to the 18F course. 18F is the best job I have ever had and I am too late in my career to change anyway but still try to get any medical training that I can. I was just wondering if anyone else had similar experiences.
SFC W
Are you a demo man or an Engineer? (X)
I had little use for demo men. Now a good engineer, well now.......
What's the difference between a demo man and an Engineer? An Engineer can do everything a demo man can but also a whole lot more.
Pete
I took pride in being an Engineer. Bridges (building & classification), Building Construction, Route Recon and the hundreds of other related items. I got other MOSs but the 18C was the most useful.
How many Team Sergeants will send their Engineers down for a week to help with building Habitat for Humanity homes? I would.
Warrior-Mentor
05-18-2006, 15:55
I got my first choice (18A). ;)
That's too bad. We had 18Ds running demo ranges and training, 18Bs building things, 18Cs writing CONOPs, you name it, just to force the guys to cross train. They'd get with the SME, learn the subject and teach it...kept guys from getting bored with their MOS too.
x SF med
05-18-2006, 17:42
When I was in, we were required to cross train and do admin stuff - so that the team / company could run efficiently and everyone was ready to 'move up' into more senior positions.
I thought the greatest honor I received was (as an E-4p, E5) I was asked by my CO to be the acting XO for the company, and my CSM backed it fully. I was an 18B ath the time, and as recognition for a job well done (all you Companty XOs out there, I feel your pain and frustration, a thankless job) I was given the chance to reclass into 18D (yup, the chance to go back through Phase II, TDY). But we got chances to do real life demo/engineer training - as the state of MA needed some buildings removed, and our 18Cs really used it as an in depth exercise, IEDs, clearing UXO, and a lot more, we rotated through commo courses too in the same exercise. I was always kind of disappointed that I didn't get 18C originally.
How could you be disappointed? :confused: At the end of the day when you get home, you take your uniform off and look down at your shoulder and see you've got "the long tab." The rest of us are hoping we get the opportunity to even attempt to earn any one of the MOS's.
If I'm one of the ones who gets picked up when I get to selection, sure I'd love my first choice, but at the end of the day all that matters is if I can say, "I'm a Special Forces soldier!"
SF is SF is SF... thats how I see it anyway, could be wrong...
uboat509
05-18-2006, 22:20
Are you a demo man or an Engineer? (X)
I had little use for demo men. Now a good engineer, well now.......
What's the difference between a demo man and an Engineer? An Engineer can do everything a demo man can but also a whole lot more.
Pete
I took pride in being an Engineer. Bridges (building & classification), Building Construction, Route Recon and the hundreds of other related items. I got other MOSs but the 18C was the most useful.
How many Team Sergeants will send their Engineers down for a week to help with building Habitat for Humanity homes? I would.
It's not that I only wanted to demo, I just would've liked to have also done demo. How's this for irony though? Right after I graduated the 18F course the engineers on my team were finally able to secure a demo range that did not get canceled and then a few months later when I went to ANCOC I discovered that they did not have an 18F ANCOC so I had to go through as an 18C and again I got to got to a demo range. I have done more demo since I stopped being an engineer than when I was one.
SFC W
uboat509
05-18-2006, 22:25
I got my first choice (18A). ;)
Funny you should mention that because I had a team leader who, when he came toward the end of his team time fervently wished that had gotten an enlisted or warrent MOS. He even briefly considered resigning his commision until mama found out and she changed his mind.
SFC W
NousDefionsDoc
05-18-2006, 22:35
How could you be disappointed? :confused: At the end of the day when you get home, you take your uniform off and look down at your shoulder and see you've got "the long tab." The rest of us are hoping we get the opportunity to even attempt to earn any one of the MOS's.
If I'm one of the ones who gets picked up when I get to selection, sure I'd love my first choice, but at the end of the day all that matters is if I can say, "I'm a Special Forces soldier!"
SF is SF is SF... thats how I see it anyway, could be wrong...
Don't ever use the term "long tab" on this board again.
We weren't given a choice. It all depended upon what was needed.
Now a good 12B was the head scrounger in the team and worth his weight.
I don't know if I would have chosen commo, the way it was put was Commo or nothing.:D I learned to enjoy the job. I was the "most protected" member of the team. I hope things haven't changed. We were all SF troopers who just happened to have special additional skills.
Warrior-Mentor
05-19-2006, 09:05
Don't ever use the term "long tab" on this board again.
Why's that Doc? I've not heard or taken it in a derog manner before you mentioned it.
Just curious.
Why's that Doc? I've not heard or taken it in a derog manner before you mentioned it.
Just curious.
DITTIO!!!
Why's that Doc? I've not heard or taken it in a derog manner before you mentioned it.
Just curious.
I'd think it would be context and use. Start to use it and it becomes habit. Next thing you know the phrase is popping up everywhere and used by everybody.
Kinda' like "Are you a real Green Beret?"
Pete
x SF med
05-19-2006, 13:05
No, but my hat is ;) :eek: I'm a Special Forces Soldier. Actually, SFC ML used a different word in an airport when asked that question by a civilian, I almost lost bladder control.
edited to post correct rank, he had just been promoted.
No, but my hat is ;) :eek: I'm a Special Forces Soldier. Actually, SFC ML used a different word in an airport when asked that question by a civilian, I almost lost bladder control.
edited to post correct rank, he had just been promoted.
Y'all are going to say I'm an a$$hole but IMO such responses belie the concept of "Quiet Professional" and, in fact, indicate quite the opposite. Not all civilians, normilitary for that matter, are as educated and up on SF like we. A little courtesy goes a long way.
Warrior-Mentor
05-19-2006, 14:39
Concur with Bronto, er, ...I mean Terry about the courtesy.
I've heard Long Tab and Short Tab used for years reference the SF and Ranger Tabs. Never took them to mean anything more than the physical measurements of the actual tabs themselves.
BMT (RIP)
05-19-2006, 15:31
Nov '64 E-7's went to O&I with a few E-6's.
BMT
x SF med
05-20-2006, 00:26
Y'all are going to say I'm an a$$hole but IMO such responses belie the concept of "Quiet Professional" and, in fact, indicate quite the opposite. Not all civilians, normilitary for that matter, are as educated and up on SF like we. A little courtesy goes a long way.
Fellow SF soldiers - my comment was not meant to be in any way derogatory, nor discourteous, it's relating the differences in the way people perceive things - I was laughing at Mike's quick wit, it was in the Fayetteville airport, and he was bashing a freshly minted private with jump wings and an 82nd patch, not a civilian.
Fellow SF soldiers - my comment was not meant to be in any way derogatory, nor discourteous, it's relating the differences in the way people perceive things - I was laughing at Mike's quick wit, it was in the Fayetteville airport, and he was bashing a freshly minted private with jump wings and an 82nd patch, not a civilian.
Understood! Unfortunately there are those who let their hats go to their heads (in a manner of speaking).:rolleyes:
I detest it when a total stranger starts trying to verify my bone fides, which I never divulge in the first place. I have been known to dazzel them with tales of my time in the 4th SFGA, or better yet, the super secret Detachment-R, in Moscow in the sixties.;)
Once, on Combat Alley I was challenged by a couple of cherries from the 82d. My closing statement was to ask them how they were going to explain to their buddies that they just got their asses whipped by a leg!!:lifter
NousDefionsDoc
05-20-2006, 11:32
It is flippant. To see the effects, just check a couple of the other boards. The next step is calling soldiers "Longtabbers". And I am thinking back to the reason for the tab in the first place. Remember?
Am I being discourteous?
It is flippant. To see the effects, just check a couple of the other boards. The next step is calling soldiers "Longtabbers". And I am thinking back to the reason for the tab in the first place. Remember?
Am I being discourteous?
1. Some of us don't remember because we got out before the 18 CMF and TAB.
2. My remark concerning courtesy wasn't for you and I hope yours wasn't for me.
I believe one of the primary reasons for the 18 CMF was to provide a logical career field for SF and prevent the hijacking of good personnel to non-SF units. SR NCO's were being hi-jacked and officers had no SF Branch.
I would think the TAB was to recognize those who have completed SFQC -- even those who end up in non-SF assignments.
NousDefionsDoc
05-20-2006, 15:44
It wasn't a remark Terry, it was an honest question. Sometimes I am discourteous, and if I am being so in this case, I would like to know.
I remember the tab being issued after the beret was given to non-qualified support personnel for a short time. However, my memory could be off, it's been a while. I do remember still being in training and being ordered to wear berets with the white flash for parades and such - none of us wanted to do it as we had not earned the right.
I have no problem with the 18 CMF, I think it was a great idea. And although I didn't generally wear it, I have grown accustomed to the tab. "Don berets" meant something to me. "Sew tabs" does not.
No, my previous post was not directed specifically at you, it was in answer to questions directed to me and the discussion in general.
Well dayem! Me too! Sometimes reactions to my posts seem to indicate something entirely different to my intention. Thus, censure for using the four letter "N" word.
The wearing of the beret was always a controversial policy, mostly defined by local commanders. It changed from Group to Group. In 1963, the commander of SFTG mandated that all permanent party assigned to SFTG were to wear the beret. Thus all spoons, clerks, etc wore the beret. I remember being on KP and the spoons were actually embarrassed to wear the beret but were ordered to do so. We trainees had to wait until graduation. That was life. Maybe there was a lesson there:"The beret didn't make the man."
In 64 when I arrived in the 10th, all abn personnel assigned to the 10th wore the beret. Those who were not "3" or later "S" qualified wore the candy bar. It got to be a real dick measuring thing. -- mostly for the non-SF qualified personnel. I remember 1SG Childress, Later CSM of the 5th in RVN ,referred to those on operational detachments as "long dicks". How prophetic. He had a way with words. I guess "long ficks" was a precursor of today's term "operator".
People were constantly hi-jacked out of group. They started awarding the "3" upon graduation because the 11th ABN (changing to 11th Air Assault) and newly forming 4th ID were grabbibg gtraduates of SF medical training right out of Ft. Sam.
When former members of SF were assigned to non-SF units they had nothing to sho for their qualification, except perhaps a combat patch. By giving the tab for completion of SFQC their qualification followed regardless of assignment, like the Ranger tab. That is mny take and maybe not official since I had years in grade as a civilial when this happened.
In addition there were few career officers in SF since there was no SF brancjh. Enkisted members wore unassigned brass (the U.S. and Eagle). They tried to make us wear branch insignie (infantry, signal, medical etc) but that nrver came to be as far as I know.