Slick Sleeve
I’ve been in for 12 years now. 10 as enlisted (68W), 2 as an officer (13A). I’ve always been in major units, mostly light, some heavy. Well, I’ve never deployed. I’ve always shown up right after a deployment, been in a BDE that doesn’t really deploy, or just gone on rotations.
Now, I’m about to go on another rotation then I’m applying for an army school so I’ll be in non deployable for a couple years until that’s done. That’ll put me at ~15 years TIS with no deployment. Feeling like I’ll never get one. On top of that, I haven’t been afforded much opportunity for chest candy. I have 1 badge. I feel very unaccomplished.
Can anybody relate? Slick sleeves do get treated differently and I’ll die on that hill.
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Its Friday, markets just closed. You might just get your chance
Nah. The market is down so peace will be announced between now and Monday after a bunch of people in DC "happened" to have a hunch to buy the dip.
Keep an eye on 3M second you see them starting to ramp up production that’s when you know we’re going to war or there’s some fucking stupid virus going on
For the love of Sweet Dread Cthulhu, this is the sort of thing that doesn’t mean shit. Do your job, take care of your people. That’s the only legacy that’s worth a damned thing. If/when you get sent down range, nobody will give the slightest runny shit about anything other than those things.
Sincerely,
Old, dusty NCO
Scuse me Sarnt, maybe sir/ma'am wants to be one of them "Can anyone tell me what my girlfriend's husband did in the Army?" reddit posts in 50 years
Literally, the people I’ve met that deployed and saw combat wouldn’t wish the shit they seen on anyone. Who wants to experience trauma like that?
People who haven’t experienced. Sadly. We were Soldiers. Once and young.
Go to selection if you wanna deploy.
Otherwise it's really not all its cracked up to be.
An old friend of mine was an 18X, got through and into 7th Group. He's getting his first look at MSG next year and still no deployment.
Lots of slick Rangers nowadays too.
But that's okay.
A slick sleeve Army won the Gulf War and WW2.
Your last point is excellent.
You'll find with experience as an officer that people stop treating you differently as a slick sleeve once you demonstrate competence. All that patch does is give an initial impression of competence, but your reputation builds itself over time regardless of your velcro covers.
Besides, any deployment after about 2015 doesn't mean much relative to a future LSCO fight. Don't let anyone who traded small arms fire with dudes in sandals tell you that experience makes them better equipped for a proper war.
I'm not saying it doesn't happen because I know it does. I'll say this, though: if anyone treats you any different simply because of what you have or don't have on your right sleeve, then that is a reflection of them, not you.
Literally witnessed this today.
35 year old dirt bag E5 shits on 21 year old stud E4 for not having a deployment patch on his shoulder. Like it’s somehow his fault for not being 18 in 2006. Made me instantly think differently of that NCO
And then that NCO will wonder why his soldier isn't re-enlisting.
I had a First Army MAJ overtly check my right sleeve during pre mob when whether or not I had deployed had zero relevance to what the Major was supposed to be teaching me, the Captain. I've never wanted to throw hands over something so minor.
Dude clearly couldn't find his ass if you spotted him one check and was sent to First Army so the active duty folks didn't have to deal with him. But the participation trophy mattered to him.
I joined in late 01. Very few people had combat patches then. Mainly senior NCOs and offices who were still around from the Gulf War.
Honestly, as cool as it sounds to have a combat patch, deployment fuckin sucks...especially if you're deployed into a combat zone. I deployed to Kuwait in Sept of 02 and spent 7 months sitting on my hands until we punched the berm in 03.
Now 23 years later, my body's destroyed and my brain is all sorts of fucked up. I can't function as a normal human being and it's had negative effects on every aspect of my life.
Looking back, I kinda wish I still had slick sleeves. At least I could live a normal life in my mid 40s.
Those who've never deployed will always feel like they're missing out, while those of us who did tend to miss the innocence from before. Personally Ive spent the past 20 years trying to find a way to be that guy who left for the desert, rather then the one who came back.
If I may offer some advice that was given to me by a VA chaplain sometime during my inpatient stent at Battle Creek:
You're dead. The person who boarded the plan to the Middle East or wherever you went to war is dead. Whether injured or not, combat killed the person who deployed overseas.
The difficulty is you're still trying to live as that person, rather than living as the person you have become.
Once you start living as yourself as opposed to who you used to be, you can begin healing.
9 years as 11B just got hit with Recruiting so 3 more years with no deployments. So I’ll be a 12 year 11B 0 combat deployments. But I do have 2 Europe rotations and a South Korea rotation 🥀
We just sent a guy overseas. No prior deployments, rotations, nothing.
He'll be coming back with a deployment patch, a CAB, a Purple Heart, and some dead buddies.
I guarantee you he would tell you it wasn't a good trade.
NGL, I think the stigma is kinda moot now. I get that when I first joined in 2007, PFCs like myself were going to Afghanistan, and while it was "cool", I don't wish what we saw on anyone. You're doing what you do and that's all that matters. Especially if you make a good impression on those you work with/for. But that's just my opinion, and I felt was worth sharing. Don't sweat it and make a positive impression on others.
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