[glebo]

Swank and SpetsnaZ have good comments, I as a former 05BS, 18E and 18Z will give you my .02.

1. If your going right into the "fight", I would tend to lean toward the combat skills training upon entry into the army, you need the survival skills upfront, learn the technical as you go, as was mentioned reclass, I don't know how often they do that though, no one wants to lose a guy for two months to get reclassed.

2. If you're not going right into the fight, I agree with getting some type of Ft Gordon signal MOS prior to the 18E, the echoes are slowly starting to shift into network, LAN/WAN, computer geek duties with all the wizz bang equip emerging along with all the tactical comm's equip. It would also help with communicating with mother army when they are in your AO. You can hone your tactics through intensive tm training and drills over time.

All these opinions have merrit, but in the end, it's your call.

Good luck

EDIT: If I had my way I would send them to benning first, get infantry tng, then also send them to Ft Gordon for a signal skill before becoming an 18E, the way we used to do it. The leaarning curve in the MOS phases of the `Q course is quite steep, alot of of stuff to cover with not enought time.

I am also the 18E training developer up here in SWC(S)

There's alot more we tng/info we need to get to the 18E's, but we just can't come up with the time required