AS and the Army

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This is just some insights into my experiences training and subsequent service in the Army Reserves in light of my discover of AS. Basically there are two parts; basic combat training and reserve drilling. And I know this is long, sorry


Basic training went somewhat well overall I think. It is designed to turn your world upside down, and it really does. The initial shock of not knowing anybody, unfamiliar surrounding, new rules, and etc was disturbing. However, it was designed to be uncomfortable for everyone. After the initial discomfort, I actually began to like it. I will just organize what I did like into a list format.


1. You were basically forbidden from having social conversations with other soldiers. Although they did occur, they were rare and brief. Great, recruits developed a bond, and it was real. However, it was based on mutual suffering, so all I had to do was be there.

2. Generally, you were expected to not make eye contact with instructors. Often you would be standing in some sort of formation, making eye contact impractical with your peers. There were some exceptions. Furthermore there was zero ambiguity in body language. As far as I could tell there was none. Basically if you were standing, you were in one of four pre-defined positions, and nobody failed to comprehend what they were.

3. What was expected of you was extremely explicit. They told you what they wanted, and how they wanted it done. You never had to "read" your instructors.

4. Coming in, nobody really knew army culture. They taught it to you cognitively. They had classes on what to call people, how to interact, and etc... Basically they were resocializing you, only none of it was intuitive. There was no gray area with interacting acceptably. The people that had problems were stupid people; ones that had difficult with the 'learning' part.

5. Every damn day was the same. What the scheduled training consisted of did change, but the routine did not.

6. Early on, I think a lot of people or instructors could tell I was a bit "off". The good thing though is it did not matter. I tried to be nice, and when contrasted with unmotivated and/or f****d up soldiers, I was alright.

That is about where the likes run out off the top of my head. Some problems I had were...

1. After a while I found out a few other soldiers thought I was gay, and that I made them very uncomfortable. I am not gay. Apparently it arose from staring. I do not remember doing it, but I do not doubt that I did.

2. I never understood why we did so much pointless stuff. It seemed pointless, so I lacked interest, and performance.

3. I did have some problems with the volume of my voice. When speaking to superiors I always spoke very quietly, and apparently they did not appreciate it. Speaking loudly to them always felt very awkward, and I would speak quietly without realizing I was doing it.

4. They socialized me for the military. Discussions about killing and violence were more than appropriate, they were encouraged. The more the extreme the expression, the more likely it was to evoke a positive response. After returning to civilian life, I had difficulty re-adjusting to civilian norms, even very simple ones. For example, it is not OK to talk about a desire to kill people, at all. I would imagine that is obvious to most people. Even if it is not, they have not been encouraged to talk about it, and probably will not.

All in all I liked it so much that I considered going active army. When I arrived to the reserves my Army experience became entirely different. I have been in two units, and my descriptions apply to both, although I acknowledge they may be atypical. Basically, everything I had learned meant nothing.

1. Titles, suddenly became much more complicated and were used to denote interpersonal relationships as opposed to rank relationships.

2. Directions were less clear. Often, their requests had hidden requests. Do this, (and this although I am not saying it.)

3. You socialize a lot. I think that a lot of the problems people have with AS negatively affected me. Lots of chit-chat time. Nearly all of it is just small talk. One thing that I found was that storytelling is often a form of entertainment and conversation. However, my basic experience was very interesting to me, and absolutely nobody else. I am OK at telling a story, partly because I can use interesting language to exagerate certain aspects of a prior experience, although I had difficulty with what constituted an appropriate story.

4. The unit was very 'diverse'. I should probably define this a bit more. Basically there are about half white and half black, from varying walks of life. I am not saying that there is anything negative about diversity, but rather that I can be insensitive without realizing it. I do not really know how to consistently not exacerbate racial tensions. BTW, I am an upper middle class white male. I felt that perhaps my use of formal language may have conveyed arrogance.

I remember one incident where it was me and two other black males that were more or less friends. We were sitting around talking and somehow one of them brought up a negative story that he had with the police. I said something along the lines of "well what you were doing was illegal" then related a positive interaction I had with the police. Then they said it was because I was white, and went on about that for a minute or two. I just backpedaled and acknowledged that the police often treat minorities unfairly. BTW, that was not my opinion of the situation. I think I backpedaled well enough, and consequently did not seriously offend them, but that is just one story of many.

5. Dealing with superiors is very difficult. If you actually did what you were taught in Basic, then you were wrong. Standing at parade rest, and addressing the individual as Sargent was wrong. (You only do this when you are in trouble I would later find out.) However, there is no clear code on how to interact.

Over all, my experience as a reservist has been overwhelmingly negative, and I would not recommend it. I would guess that at my unit I have been extremely awkward, and only through mercy and goodwill of other soldiers have no been ostracized. I do not like burdening people like that, I would much prefer that I could not offend. Additionally, there are a few soldiers who are just as*holes, and they do not have any reservations about being an as*hole to me. This is probably more or less specific to my units, but we do not really do anything. There is no routine, and most of the time you just spend trying to look busy. Personally, it is much harder to "look busy" than it is to actually be busy. The social interactions and expectations are more nuanced and subtle than they are in civilian life IMO. I think I actually stand out more because of my language, aside from being a minority (white middle class.)

Oh well, I hope somebody finds this interesting. I thought that this was the most appropriate forum as well.

Thanks.That was well written and informative.When I first saw the post,I had the very cynical thought,that perhaps a military recruiter had come here out of desperation.(I hear the recruiting numbers are down and they are getting very desperate for "fresh meat")

Some of the problems you encountered reflect my own experience in the civilian work world.Co-workers who would rather chit-chat then work,bosses having you do pointless things just to look busy.
I work in home health care with developmentally-delayed clients and it is also a disproportionately ethnic group.(the managers are all white middle class but the workers are over 50% Liberians and African American.)There is also a lot of managers who tell staff to do A,but then dont seem to care if they actually do it(no follow up),as long as they said to do it,then they are good managers.....huh?Also,if a manager makes a "med-error" they are not held accountable but if the worker does,they get in trouble.(Just one of many examples of double-standards based on title,which I imagine you also experienced.)

Anyway,thanks for sharing your info,it was interesting to me.

that was good perspective. I am considering joining the reserves, probably air force. I wish I had done it right out of high school but I didn't, and I spent a few years "drifting" in terms of my goals and socially as well. I am now getting ready to graduate college and am considering going in as a reserves officer, but I am a bit scared to sign my body to them for their use. I also feel like it would be a waste of my college degree to sign myself up now, especially since military I definitley don't want to make a career. More something to get done with and move on.

What job do you have in the army? How long have you been in it?

btw, I dont think you did anything wrong with the race comment. Perhaps they had legitimate reasons for critisizing the cops, but if they had problems while doing something illegal, you are not obligated to be complicit in their rationalization of their behavior. While I think its important to make sure you don't offend a person of another race, I also don't believe in walking on eggshells around them. All people should be held to the same standard and if someone. If someone is going to be offended and assume I am being racist for having one standard, they are the ones who are being too sensitive. Most people have different standards for minorities, which is not helpful. If you are unsure if what you say is socially acceptable, I certainly can relate to your backpedaling, I do it myself with things that people have later told me there was nothing wrong with saying. But just thought I would tell you that there wasn't anything wrong with the comment you made.

Interesting, I always thought I'd fit well with the military. You bring up some issues I could see myself having.

I tend to want to skip basic (I know, impossible) and go onto 'command' roles. Mainly because I have a 'no fear' attitude and am rich with military history to help me. Though, the whole idea of killing someone for something doesnt sit right with me anymore (unless its for defense)

Thank you very much for your excellent description and for your recommendations. After reading that, I'm more convinced that being in the military is actually very similar to working in a large corporation. Both military and corporations have their own culture of interpersonal socializations and chains of command. You can get punished by not following orders correctly in both situations, and it's possible to get ostracized for poor interpersonal skills. Although the actual details might be a bit different, the basic similarities are there. It just seems, though, that the military has a very strong slant in its socializations... the point about actively encouraging discussions about violence and killing people suggests that, whereas perhaps the worst a large corporation will go to is a kind of cult-like mentality (e.g. Microsoft, from what I've heard about a former employee). Also, it seems that punishments are different; at a company you could get a decrease in pay, get some emotional abuse from the boss, and even get fired. But in the military you can get some physical punishments as well. And in some military positions, you're under contract, no? Then you will be stuck in service even if you wanted to leave. The inability to leave whenever I wanted to would be a very strong deterrent from joining the military, for me anyway. I would be horribly afraid to get stuck in a bad situation that I couldn't get out of, and had no way of resolving.

thats a big part of what deters me as well, the inability to leave. I can picture myself saying, oh crap, what the hell did I just do? I have a college degree and I just signed my name in blood.

Remember that there are different parts to the military which are very different, depending on the branch and your job. The Air Force is more beaurocratic (the "chair force"), and because it involves less direct contact with battle since it has no infantry, its not as death and aggression centered as the army or the marines.

as for skipping basic, its possible if you graduate from college and instead go to officer training school, which I hear is not as hard as it involves more leadership training in classes and such than stress training which is the focus of basic.

My experience in the Army Reserve in Australia was very different, where I was in a signals regiment, rather than infantry.

I found the other people pleasant, even though some were a little stupid.

Recruit/basic training was a shock to the system. Waking at 5.30am.

Eventually settling into a routine was good.

I didn't know about my AS at the time, but most people took my quirks in their stride like
- me taking everything that was said literally
- saying things inappropriately at times

I didn't mind being forced to socialise, as we were all in the same situation.

http://www.getamused.com/jokes/019773.html

There's no way I'd ever join anything military. The conditions there are terrible, and the drill sergeants are abusive scumbags. I'd rather die than join.

AS prevented me from going to military. "We don't want autistic ret*ds like you" they said, and I was free.
The insult was worth it. As the person above, I'd rather die than taking verbal abuse