3 ms·

I'm glad you found a good unit. My company probably wasn't that bad, but bad enough. Part of the problem I think is that careerists naturally have a certain c

• fapjacks 9y ago
  Yeah, I think probably the very nature of the Guard works against that pressure, since there is no "fast track" in the Guard. There is somewhat for officers, but enlisted folks have no such luxury. I mean, in the Guard, it's college kids, police officers, and guys coming off of active duty that need to serve the two or four remaining years of their enlistment. Almost everybody with military career ambition joins the active service instead of the Guard. So it's a lot more laid back in general. And these are literally people you'll spend a decade or more serving with. Guys that live near you and have families in your community. So it's a lot more tight-knit than active duty units. It's an older crowd, too. So while it can be cliquish to some degree, it definitely isn't like a lot of units I've seen which are heavily partisan and cliquish, and then made even worse by people with ambition that are willing to screw you to get ahead. The only other place in the military which I would consider equally laid back like the Guard is Special Forces. The best working relationships I ever had were with Special Forces units (and other Guard units). I suppose because they have nothing to prove, there's no friction like there is in regular Army units. Or Marines. I spent a lot of years deployed working with a lot of different folks. I like working with Marines, but they have the same issue as regular Army units, with cliquish behavior and people willing to step on others to get ahead. I totally know what you're talking about.