[Firebeef]

To the kid, Doc22584 that started this thread and anyone else in the pipeline, wondering what life on an ODA will be like:

1. You only have one chance at a first impression.

2. You will only have 1 first year.

3. The Team will have it's own personality before you arrive, as do you. Each time a new member arrives, if you are to be succesful, you will to an extent, meld your personality and morph into the personality that is the team's. As time goes on, traits of you own personality, however slight will be manifested as part of the Team personality, and vice versa.

4. I arrived at home station, bag and baggage in a jock strap and a light coat of oil, ready for what they were gonna throw at me. 2 guys I had known all the way back from SFAS and AIMC landed in the same Company. The team I ended up on, luck o the draw, was a "go" team. Both of my classmates were smart, motivated guys. One of them, ETS'ed as soon as his time had been served. He left somewhat bitter and abused. The other one ended up on a Team that was doin some Experimental stuff.....I'm on the edge of an OPSEC violation, so leave it at that. None of the "FOGs" on that team were happy with their status as guinea pigs, and therefore my buddy, who had sat next to me all the way through AIMC, and is an excellent soldier and Green Beret, was pissed off on a pissed off Team. I don't believe his experience in his first year has a whole lot of positive superlatives he'd be willing to share.

5. If any of this above babble makes sense, or more importantly, if any of it doesn't, see lines 1 and 2 above, and that's how you should enter your first year on an ODA.

my .02 worth