Perhaps I am the outlier here but one of the things that I found most difficult about the Army was the lack of predictability. Theoritically it is a structure with clear expectations, but I never knew what to expect day to day. It seemed like no one ever knew what was going on. Some days we worked out tails off, other times we sat and did nothing for hours. Either way we rarely got home at a reasonable hour. I was never able to plan anything because the Army couldn’t figure out what it was trying to accomplish. The Army’s inability to plan is one of the top five things I disliked about serving.
Other things I disliked in no particular order are: wearing dress blues, dealing with Finance and S1, lack of leadership accountability, rarely accomplishing tasks in a way that made sense, and a lack of expertise in regards to training. When I say “lack of expertise” I mean that no one ever seemed to know what they were doing. Almost every time I took a class or learned a task it was taught by someone who was clearly an amateur. It seemed like every time my unit did something it was the first time anyone had ever done it so we wasted copious amounts of time not knowing what to do.
I do not regret serving because it is an honorable thing to do and it afforded good benefits to my family, but I am so glad to be out. I would not recommend it to anyone who is bothered by leadership that insists on operating in an illogical manner.
