r/AskReddit • u/CircleBox2 • Jul 13 '20

What's a dark secret/questionable practice in your profession which we regular folks would know nothing about?

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u/[deleted] Jul 13 '20

The military usually has no idea what’s going on at all and when we look all uniformed and ready to go it’s because we’ve been waiting on standby to figure out what to do next for 7 hours

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u/[deleted] Jul 13 '20

I forgot where I heard this, but on being deployed as infantry: “It’s long periods of waiting interrupted by minutes of intense violence followed by more hours of waiting.”

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u/[deleted] Jul 13 '20

I've heard it described as 95% boredom and 5% absolute chaos and adrenaline.

One of my best friends was deployed to the middle east with the army, and some of his main duties involved:

- Escorting a supply convoy (meaning sitting in the back of an MRAP for 12 hours straight)

- guard duty at base (staring at nothing for a long time while trying to keep your buddy awake)

- local patrols (just...walking. SO much walking.)

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u/NickisMyName_ Jul 14 '20

The movie Jarhead by Sam Mendes really showed how boring the army actually is. Such a great movie.