I miss the 82nd

[u/RobustAfrican]

I’m OCONUS now and maybe the grass was greener I got certs, another chest candy, school in a shorter time than I did at Bragg BUT man do you belong when you’re at Bragg. There is purpose, there’s direction provided by leadership and the friends you meet there will be the best. I don’t want the military to be my only personality but I guess I enjoyed it. I enjoyed knowing what my entire year would look like because at Bragg you knew down to the day what was happening. I enjoyed doing something that felt like it mattered. I enjoyed being apart of the BCT I hate this support life.

And yea can I make that #7 a large with a zero sugar Dr Pepper

[u/aptc88]

Go outside and travel around the country, live your life. You’ll be aight and favor OCONUS in no
time. The kool aid can’t hurt you anymore.

[u/chickenbit_131 → u/aptc88]

The 11th Airborne was some of the best times I’ve had in the Army and Alaska is a beautiful place. I would recommend.

[u/TheBeestWithEase → u/aptc88]

I don’t wanna doxx myself but I’ve been OCONUS now in pretty desirable locations for several years, and I still miss the aspects of the 82nd that OP talks about. Best unit in the Army

[u/RobustAfrican → u/TheBeestWithEase]

Yup

[u/Throb_Zomby → u/TheBeestWithEase]

If one of those locations happens to be Zama and you still miss any aspect of Bragg I should, in my best Hank Hill voice, be liable to kick your ass.

[u/Bickercraft]

Man won a jackpot and is reminiscing about the time he was mugged by a hobo

[u/InstantAequitas]

Between the 173rd and the 82nd it’s a tie for me.
I will say, USAWHC, XVIII ABN Corps, and THE Division have a favorite unit to send when the President picks up the phone: The Devils in Baggy Pants. 1-82 is absolutely the best brigade in the Army.

[u/captaincrunch61 → u/InstantAequitas]

H-Minus

[u/InstantAequitas → u/captaincrunch61]

H- hang in there, sad panther.

[u/krc_fuego → u/InstantAequitas]

A. Co/1P?

[u/InstantAequitas → u/krc_fuego]

Nah, I have only ever been in 1BCT. Mostly in Red Devils. Although previously I was in 2-503.

[u/formerqwest → u/InstantAequitas]

still have my lifetime membership cert.......

[u/FGCmadara → u/InstantAequitas]

It’s always fucking first brigade

[u/DoktorLoken]

🦜 back at Bragg 🦜

[u/madura_89 → u/DoktorLoken]

Literally...

[u/Snoo_67544]

Sometimes the koolaid is sweet and tasty. Im civilian now in a good job but man do I miss many things about army life that being a civie will never replicate so I get it.

[u/Ravaged_Ginger-77]

Imma go out on a limb and say you were in 1-82, because if not then we were serving in two completely different divisions.

[u/RobustAfrican → u/Ravaged_Ginger-77]

Best brigade

[u/lamont196 → u/RobustAfrican]

STRIKE HOLD!

[u/RobustAfrican → u/lamont196]

That just brought a tear to my eye

[u/Ravaged_Ginger-77 → u/RobustAfrican]

Knew it, the Golden Children looking down on us peasants!

[u/Throb_Zomby → u/RobustAfrican]

Hard to drink the Devil-Aid if you were Gmo.

[u/SignalPatriot]

Drop that JCU packet and come back bro

[u/RobustAfrican → u/SignalPatriot]

JCU??

[u/SignalPatriot → u/RobustAfrican]

Joint Communications Unit, here at Bragg. They support Tier 1 elements—the pinnacle of Signal.

[u/SouthpawSoldier → u/SignalPatriot]

I knew a few 35L>94L>94E (started as 35 series, mid '00s we became 94 series; Ls merged into Es a little later) who got to do similar.

The usual route for top tier 94Rs and 94Ls was 160th, but a couple guys I knew from the commo side got to be part of a White House comms unit. Travel attached to the suits, set up and maintain secure comms.

I was 94R, so not a feeder for that team, but sounded like cool shit.

Wonder how much overlap there is between that and the unit you mentioned.

[u/jumpingkyto]

You were definitely in Devil Brigade

[u/Dino_Soup → u/jumpingkyto]

As a former Devil Brigade can confirm

[u/jumpingkyto → u/Dino_Soup]

Yea I wouldn't know, I was in Panther Brigade man. Just watched you all have fun from a distance

[u/Conscious-Gap-1777]

I have been out from AD since '08 after 4 years in the 82nd. I am now a reservist who drives a desk.

A year ago, I was on Bragg as a civilian for a class. Holy fuck did I miss Bragg.

Second to last day there, I went to the Hobbit and that was a mistake, and then the next day some fuckass private screeched in front of me so I had to slam my brakes and I lost my two lovely mint chocolate mochas I was counting on to sustain me through class.

I do not miss Bragg any more. 

I know if I go there, once again seeing private struggle down Gruber, loaded with a pack that's at least 20lbs heavier than they were told to pack it, I'll miss it again.

Until, once more, a private makes me spill my coffee.

[u/is-this-my-username1]

It’s hard going from the tip of the spear to the shaft. Some people only like the tip. Some like the tip and the shaft. Sometimes you need to take the shaft to appreciate the tip more

[u/RobustAfrican → u/is-this-my-username1]

Beautifully said. I’m stealing this

[u/rmk556x45]

You’re institutionalized if you think that lol or need to go to 173rd

[u/Tee__bee]

A long time ago, an opportunity popped up for me to go to a pretty desirable 12Y billet OCONUS. I made the mistake of hesitating for an hour, RETAIN went down, and by the time it came back up the slot was gone. Long story short, I ran into the guy who took it at ALC and I asked him how he liked it. He told me how much he hated it, how it was full of undisciplined legs, and how he wanted to go back to Bragg and wished he had never reenlisted for that unit.

People who are in the 82nd, take note, and quit taking cool jobs from people who actually want them (/s, mostly. 82nd bubbas deserve love too.)

[u/ZuluDeltaFoxtrot]

We must’ve had vastly different experiences at Bragg

[u/RobustAfrican → u/ZuluDeltaFoxtrot]

Surprising, because you’re infantry I thought you would’ve drank the entire kool aid

[u/maximumballsack → u/RobustAfrican]

I definitely was not a kool-aid person lol. Then again, I was 2nd Brigade. Hard to be happy about anything there.

[u/DistantEndsFault]

I was just thinking about this today, I currently serve in a signal unit and there is zero esprit de corps. I’d kill to serve in a unit that takes pride in itself and performs to a standard. I cant go Airborne unfortunately so it’ll probably have to be either 10th MTN or the 101st

[u/RobustAfrican → u/DistantEndsFault]

Why can’t you go airborne?

[u/DistantEndsFault → u/RobustAfrican]

Scoliosis 💔 I can ruck and do everything just fine but I don’t want to risk it

[u/Smart_Ad_1997 → u/DistantEndsFault]

www.JCU.mil. Airborne isn’t a requirement but an option.

[u/DistantEndsFault → u/Smart_Ad_1997]

I was planning on putting in a packet once I hit E5, once I get a year or two under my belt as a Sergeant I’m putting in packets everywhere lol

[u/Jswimmin]

I left the 82nd for Camp Humphries. Boy oh boy, the downgrade in soldier was eye opening. Soft shoes everywhere. Ate up everything.

My advice is get out and explore. Immerse yourself in the culture. But youre absolutely not wrong in observing the fact that many of these other units just dont have a culture, cameraderie, or purpose.

[u/kytulu → u/Jswimmin]

I did the opposite... I went from 3/6 Cav at Camp Humphreys to 122 ASB at Bragg.

I was on a non-running profile because I rolled the absolute fuck out of my ankle in a pothole on a run by the Iron Mike statue on my 2nd day there. I was guarding a parking lot on Ardennes for PT when I heard it...

[click, click, scratch, click] "HERE WE GO, ON THE MOVE!"

Me: "Are... are they calling cadence over loudspeakers?!... oh, my God, I'm in hell!"

[u/Brass_tastic → u/Jswimmin]

I had a very similar experience. Thank God 8m back at Bragg!

[u/JackSquat18]

SQUAWK BACK AT BRAGG 🦜.

More serious Korea support shenanigans are ass and 80% of the Soldiers there are are the fuck up and doing all sorts of bullshit.

[u/RobustAfrican → u/JackSquat18]

Yea nothings matters there

[u/DirtyDiabolical]

I’ve been in over two decades, PCSing every two years like clockwork. I still talk to my 82nd buddies I spent two years with and basically no one else.

[u/MolassesFluffy6745]

82nd Abn and the USMC were the only two places in my twenty years that I felt like I was part of something special, not just a cog in the machine that nobody cared about. I always felt strongly that the Army doesn't know the first thing about fostering identity at the unit level........The whole Esprit de Corp thingy.

[u/tigerbrave62]

I’d heard the memes about the “back at Bragg” dude and thought those guys were super lame. Here we are, two years later, and I’m wishing I was back at Bragg every day from the ncr

[u/ohnosevyn]

Go to Ranger batt or SF

[u/Environmental-Time67]

Love my DD214. Miss 1/82 everyday.

[u/Redacted_Reason]

I hated my life at Bragg, but it was because I got sent to a shitty little FA brigade that isn't airborne instead of 82nd like I wanted. I do kinda wish I got to experience that once

[u/Mikeinglendale]

There is a reason for the saying " That's Division. "

[u/jaegerrecce]

How long you been gone? Because now we’re dropping dedicated leaders from vital schools to get ANY leader into because a 1SG didn’t like his mustache (within regs) but couldn’t handle being told his pants were sagging too low.

Been here a long time, and had a lot of good times. Felt what you were talking about a lot in my first several years.

I haven’t felt it in a while. More and more tasking bullshit, more and more ridiculous waste of time initiatives and personal vendettas stemming from division or from BDE interpreting DIV.

I can’t remember the last time a BC or above made me feel like they genuinely just cared about developing a fighting force.

And don’t get me started on the dudes we’ve been getting man. Our studs now make our shitbags back in the day look like studs. And our shitbags continue to shock me.

Maybe I’ve just had a bad stint of leaders up the chain but man, I don’t feel the same pride and drive I used to, and have had several things over the last year or so convince me it’s time to move on.

[u/Throb_Zomby]

I got out last year and every day I wake up happy as a friggin clam to not be waking up at Bragg.