SITREP: JamesGarafalo

[JamesGarafalo]

Very recently finished OSUT and graduated as a Private First Class 11b. I'm currently in my 2nd week of Airborne school and it feels like a vacation. I want to say a few things from the extremely limited knowledge I have so far. I've found that I can do things I never knew I could do. As long as I don't quit on myself I will be successful in everything that I want to do. When I started working out and exercising for the first time in my life my results were pathetic. August 1st of last year my first "2 mile run" was 21:42 couldn't do 30 push ups in a row and It's not worth mentioning my sit ups... you get the point. I finished OSUT with a 296/300 PT score. When a shot an assault rifle for the first time I was the last one out at on the range trying to zero my rifle. I didn't think I would qualify. A few days later, I switched from being a right hand/right eye shooter to lefty (for the first time in my life at anything) and a few weeks later I earned my expert badge. Hell, even here at airborne school the first day we had to do our 10 pull ups to leave the field I couldn't do more than 6! Today, I banged out 10 every time we had to easily! +1 for the Ranger in the sky. I'm not perfect, I'm not stronger than most, I'm not more fit, and fuck, I could still lose pounds of fat. My strength comes from my mental toughness. That's all that's needed so far and that's what I'll use to get me through.

I don't have much time to be on this website in my current situation, but I'd like to say a few things.

Advice:

My weaknesses can sometimes be my coordination, I'm slow to learn some things, but when I do, I fucking master them! I can do stupid shit sometimes, we all do and I'm working on that and you should to.

The best single piece of advice I can give this generation right now: and this is fucking real, that maybe the older guys won't understand. Delete those fucking dating apps off your phone. Right now. Do it. You might meet some chick like I did: a Beautiful older women in this case. Who you may or may not have sexual relations with and then get turned off when she finds out you don't want a full blown relationship, that you are focused on training, that she has a kid, and she lives in another fucking state? yes. Then the next day you wake up with 57 text messages from her and her "friend" that she is reporting you to the military police for rape, that she knows people in the regiment and that you'll lose your contract. True fucking story. I'm 99% sure everything this crazy women said is a lie or a cruel joke to scare the shit out of me. The moral of this short and recent story is: Don't get involved with females while you're training, unless you know for sure they aren't batshit fucking crazy. I learned the hard way. Those story's you hear on the news about football players etc being accused of unfounded rape and losing everything. I'm lucky enough to have video proof and documented texts of innocence. You probably won't be that lucky. The Army taught me this shit in Basic about how unfounded reports can fuck you over. I wish I listened sooner. It could happen to you. It could still happen to me!

Network: The advice given to me by current and previous rangers( some from this website) is invaluable.

I know that I can always do more than I think I can.

No shit it's a good idea to read the ranger handbook, it's interesting, it helped time and time again in OSUT. I volunteered to be a squad leader, the ranger handbook was like the bible.

[cams]

Lesson #01; Booze and pussy will get you every time.

Lesson #02; Privates are dumb, cocky, and will fight or fuck anything that moves.

Let me guess, was her name Ann? 250lbs of bright red hair and lives under a bridge?

You best pray this goes away quietly or you'll be eating kimchi in the snowy mountains.

[Jim]

Agree with everything Ranger Cams said. Be careful of the women in the Columbus, GA area, as they can sometimes be crazy. Let us know how tower week is going and how that first jump felt. Never, never quit!

[IntelToad]

Amen Cams.

JG - Good update and good advice for the DEPS following you.

[cams]

The women outside any post you go to are just waiting for some dumb Private to knock them up so they can get that Gov cheese. They'll infect you, fuck you over, then fuck your squad mates as well, and you'll have a shit sandwich that just won't go away, hopefully not in the form of an unexpected child either. Seen it happen far too many times and ruin many young soldiers prospects before they even get started.

Remember that your goal is to be a Ranger/Soldier, not to be a party animal, unexpected father or another court care for money and Art 15's from the domestics that follow.

These rules and roles have been passed down for generations on both sides, you're not special or the first, learn from it, speak to your squad leader or Sgt about it and tSje their advice or prepare to be another statistic.

[JamesGarafalo]

Thank you Ranger Cams for the advice. I learned already you are spot on.

Just a quick update on my progress: Just graduated Airborne school yesterday and met with the RASP liaison afterword. There were already people ready to drop, I couldn't believe it (this is after they were offered the ability drop their contracts in basic and airborne school). He told them it was too late at this point for them. The liaisons speech was pretty motivating and cleared the picture up for me. I built RASP up in my head as something nearly impossible to pass with statistics like "18% of infantry makes it". From what I gather as long as you don't quit, don't bring in contraband and meet the physical standards: 69 sit ups, 58 push ups, >40 min 5 mile, 12 mile >3 hours I should be golden.

[IntelToad]

The women outside any post you go to are just waiting for some dumb Private to knock them up so they can get that Gov cheese. They'll infect you, fuck you over, then fuck your squad mates as well, and you'll have a shit sandwich that just won't go away, hopefully not in the form of an unexpected child either. Seen it happen far too many times and ruin many young soldiers prospects before they even get started.

Remember that your goal is to be a Ranger/Soldier, not to be a party animal, unexpected father or another court care for money and Art 15's from the domestics that follow.

These rules and roles have been passed down for generations on both sides, you're not special or the first, learn from it, speak to your squad leader or Sgt about it and tSje their advice or prepare to be another statistic.

^^Amen, this should be a sticky.^^

My cousin's son was a Marine in Iraq and married some off base troll with two kids before he deployed. She cleaned out the bank accounts while he was gone, he was badly wounded and she divorced him shortly after he got stateside. Like Cams says, this is a generational thing. My dad was a Marine in the 1940's and gave me the same advice.

[Jim]

Any new developments, JamesGarafalo? Never, never quit!

[cams]

James it's been 25 days since your last sitrep, you had graduated BAC and stated that you "should be golden" in RASP, so please, let us know how you're progressing.

I'm fairly certain we've earned that courtesy after all the assistance we've provided you, and it helps to know if we need to make adjustments for future soldiers as the training gets updated.

Unless you're dead or in jail, there's been a 1,000+ before you that found the time to update us.

Remember-the maximum effective range of an excuse is zero meters.

Sound off.

[Jim]

He has not been on the site since 5 July -- two weeks. Not encouraging. Never, never quit!

[cams]

He must've quit.

[Jim]

He must've quit.

Think you are right. 5 July was his last visit.