A quick question for anyone with knowledge about the US military

Michael Wolfe

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Greetings,

I'm in need of some info for a piece I'm working on. I have a character who joins the military, and eventually ends up in combat, in Iraq.

I would just want to know: what is the shortest amount of time it could possibly take a person to go from first joining up to ending up in combat, without bordering on being unrealistic?

I know there's basic training, and my understanding is that training time also depends on the person's MOS. But I don't know enough about how long everything would take before someone could end up in combat.

Thanks very much in advance for any help.
 
FabricatedParadise

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Typically a newly enlisted person goes from basic training to AIT school, which is (I believe) advanced individual training -- but don't quote me on what it stands for. When my husband went... hmmm... ok Basic was from the end of January to the end of March. 8 weeks. If they fail tests/requirements it could be longer, but is typically that long. AIT was from the end of Basic until the end of June so... 3 mos. After that he got 2 weeks leave before he had to report to his duty station. So from shipping out (Hubs is in the Navy) to basic to reporting to duty station was almost 6 mos. From there, he could pretty much be deployed at any time, but most likely wouldn't until he'd received further training/ qualifications at his duty station.

Mr. FabricatedParadise was deployed for the first time almost 1yr to the day after he left for basic.

Hope that helps.
 
Richard White

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A lot is going to depend on what you want your person to do in the book.

All Basic Training in the Army is 8 weeks, but then depending on your specialty, it can vary from 16 additional weeks of training to 18 months. Obviously Infantrymen get trained faster than Medics and Linguists take the longest (esp. for Arabic - that's 63 weeks of training right there, not counting additional schooling).

So, give us a hint what you want them to do and we can help.
 

Michael Wolfe

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Thank you for the responses. To Richard: the character's career in the military isn't a big part of the story, so I don't really go into the specifics in terms of what his specialty is. Basically it just mentions that he joins the army, and some time later, ends up in combat.

All I really need to know is the minimum amount of time it could possibly take to go from joining to ending up in combat. If basic training is 8 weeks, and additional training can be as little as 16 weeks, that's a great start right there. That's twenty-four weeks. Could a soldier conceivably go into combat very soon after that twenty-four weeks, or would something else have to come first?

Thanks again for any help - I really appreciate it.
 
Richard White

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Unless the Army has changed that much between 1999 when I got out and today, I would say if you said he spent five months in training before being deployed, you'd be completely safe.



(More detail than you need, but bear with me:
Say he was going to be an engineer and blow stuff up.

1 Week at the Inprocessing station (uniform issue, medical exams, etc.)
8 Weeks basic training
1 Week leave between basic and advanced individual training (AIT)
16 Weeks AIT
1 Week leave before joining unit
1 Week at the Replacement Detachment inprocessing
2-3 Months at his new unit
Unit deploys to Iraq

If he's infantry, they do OSUT (One Station Unit Training)
1 Week Inprocessing
14 Weeks (Basic and AIT combined)
1 Week Leave
1 Week Inprocessing
2-3 Months training with unit
Deploy
OR
1 Week Inprocessing
1 Week at new unit
Deploy to join the unit already in Iraq

So, yes, he could be in Iraq 18 weeks after joining the Army if he's an infantryman OR up to 5 months if he joins a unit that's scheduled to deploy.

Hope this helps.
 
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