U.S. Military: Are all jobs equally important?

Discussion in 'Warfare / Military' started by Clausewitz, Feb 27, 2015.

  1. Clausewitz

    Clausewitz Active Member

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    A friend of a friend was recently thanked for his service, but he was a graphic designer in the military. I know it's nice that civilians thank the troops for their service and I won't debate that here, but I will ask if all jobs in the US military are equally important? And if they attract a certain type or volunteer and/or require a different (more/less) level of commitment? What are the most important jobs? What are the least?

    Here is a list of choices:
    http://www.careersinthemilitary.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=main.advsearch&newsearch=true
     
  2. Lil Mike

    Lil Mike Well-Known Member

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    Equally important? That's kind of vague. Not all jobs in the military are equal, not by a long shot, but they all have their advantages and disadvantages. One thing I've learned from talking to people from many MOS's is that they were all told in their advanced individual training that their job was the most important one.

    That's what I was told too.
     
  3. Clausewitz

    Clausewitz Active Member

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    Yeah, I was unsure of how to phrase it but do you think certain mos's are predominantly held by Troops for reasons other than patriotism? E.g. Most cooks only joined so they could get a pay check? Or graphic designers could be privatized and removed from the USMC...
     
  4. Lil Mike

    Lil Mike Well-Known Member

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    When people join the military, it's usually not because of one thing, like patriotism. It's usually a mixed bag of multiple reasons in which patriotism is a part, like college money, or stalling and buying time before going to college, feeling directionless, want to travel, want to get your man card stamped, want adventure, want the pay and benefits, looking for marketable skills or just something that may be interesting to do.
     
  5. Clausewitz

    Clausewitz Active Member

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    I see. Well are there jobs in the military that you view as not valuable, or less valuable than most other jobs to the overall purpose of defending the nation?
     
  6. Nightmare515

    Nightmare515 Ragin' Cajun Staff Member Past Donor

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    It's kind of hard to answer because its sort of like asking what is more "important" in your car? The engine or the lug nuts on your wheel? The lugnuts may be easier to replace but you don't exactly what those things to go missing when driving down the road.

    The military is one big oiled machine. Some parts are large and some are small. Some may seem meaningless while others take all of the glory. Just look at a car magazine, you always hear advertisements stating 500hp and whatnot but never hear them talking about the reinforced crankshaft and forged pistons inside of that thing to make it withstand 500hp. The engine itself gets all the glory but those internal parts are just as important to making sure it can actually function. The military is no different.

    A graphic designer? Maybe your friend helped create battle maps which are one of the most important things needed in the military. Maybe helped create powerpoint slides to present during briefings to give leaders the information needed for the mission in detail. So and and so forth.

    The military is absolutely full of Type A personalities who always trash talk one another about whose job is more important. All combat units trash talk everybody else who doesn't sleep in the dirt and get bullets thrown at them. Combat units trash talk each other. Infantry trash talks Tankers, Tankers trash talk Scouts, all three trash talk Artillery, etc. According to everybody, nobody else does anything. If you work in the field then the staff guys don't do anything. If you work in staff then the guys in the field don't do anything. But you never really know how important people are until they aren't there anymore. Everybody plays a part.

    Every time something big happens there are multiple "unsung heroes" who make it all work. When jets and helos take off and drop bombs and missiles on people it took a lot more than just those pilots to do that mission. Armament people have to constantly make sure the bombs and missiles and bullets are good to go, make sure there are enough on order, fuelers have to make sure the birds get fueled, mechanics and crew chiefs make sure the birds are ready to fly and fix them if they aren't, avionics crew makes sure the avionics work, air traffic control has to be there directing the aircraft, somebody has to create the mission, somebody else had to brief it, battle planners had to create the attack plan for the mission, etc etc. But when the target goes boom guess who gets the high five? The pilots.

    LOADS of people work to make the military run. There are no unimportant jobs in the military. The military isn't the civilian world, it doesn't "create jobs" just so people can work. You have to have a reason and play a part in that well oiled machine to get in the military. Everybody, no matter how small, matters. Some jobs just tend to get more "credit" and praise than others. But for every "cool" job in the military there are about 20 or so "boring" supporting jobs there to make sure that cool job can actually get done.

    So to answer your question its kind of hard to say who has the most "important" job. Some jobs are more dangerous than others but that doesn't mean they are more important. Some are also much more fun than others as well.
     
  7. Clausewitz

    Clausewitz Active Member

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    Ok, I can dig it. Thanks for the response. I read your replies but do you really think a band member contributes to the defense of the nation as much as an infantry grunt?
     
  8. Herkdriver

    Herkdriver New Member

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    The Indispensable Man

    Sometime when you're feeling important;
    Sometime when your ego 's in bloom;
    Sometime when you take it for granted,
    You're the best qualified in the room:
    Sometime when you feel that your going,
    Would leave an unfillable hole,
    Just follow these simple instructions,
    And see how they humble your soul.

    Take a bucket and fill it with water,
    Put your hand in it up to the wrist,
    Pull it out and the hole that's remaining,
    Is a measure of how much you'll be missed.
    You can splash all you wish when you enter,
    You may stir up the water galore,
    But stop, and you'll find that in no time,
    It looks quite the same as before.

    The moral of this quaint example,
    Is to do just the best that you can,
    Be proud of yourself but remember,
    There's no indispensable man
     
  9. DentalFloss

    DentalFloss Well-Known Member

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    Yes and no. Clearly a PFC is not as "important" as a 4-star General. But at the same time, the minute you put the Uniform on you are putting your ass on the line. Rest assured if sufficiently large hostilities break out, today's graphic designers will be tomorrow's new 11B infantrymen. So, from that perspective, every Soldier, Airman, Sailor, and Marine who is now or has ever served is deserving of our gratitude and thanks.
     
  10. Nightmare515

    Nightmare515 Ragin' Cajun Staff Member Past Donor

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    As far as actually defending the nation themselves? No. Supporting those who do? Yes.

    The band is great, they are a huge morale booster. During deployments the band goes around and does concerts and whatnot for the troops. When living in a tiny outpost in the middle of nowhere with no running water it's a great feeling to see the band show up and do a concert for you.

    Some jobs are designed specifically for morale. And morale itself is one of the most important parts of the military. Keeping spirits up and keeping troops happy in something as miserable as a warzone is a key to success. You can train the best hardcore tough as nails grunt as you want, if he is depressed and sad and feeling sorry for himself then he is absolutely worthless.

    Mobile kitchen prep stations and military cooks are the same way. The only reason cooks are there overseas stationed in those remote outposts is to cook maybe 1 hot meal a day for the troops. Troops can survive on nothing but MRE's and be just fine. But having even one hot meal every once and awhile is a huge morale booster and gives them something to look forward to.

    It sounds sort of lame but it really does matter quite a bit. So yes the band is very important as well even though it may not seem like it.

    Plus it's a lot harder to make a band member than it is to make a grunt. The Army and Marines can produce grunts like a factory, but only a select few people actually qualify to play in those bands.
     
  11. Nightmare515

    Nightmare515 Ragin' Cajun Staff Member Past Donor

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    Very well put.

    Even today those "non combat" roles aren't safe. Contrary to popular belief its not just the grunts who die in war. Those HUGE bases in Iraq and Afghanistan with 30-50,000+ people on them with restaurants and gyms and paved roads still get attacked by both direct and indirect fire. "Regular" troops who work as the desk clerk in hospitals or work the counter in the store have literally been killed by mortars coming over the fence.

    When you hit the ground in a warzone nobody is safe. I don't care what job you have. Mortars and rockets don't give a damn if you are a secretary or an Army Ranger.
     
  12. Clausewitz

    Clausewitz Active Member

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    Well just to be clear, I respect the military but I can't help but thin that the troops who volunteer for combat arms, aviation, medicine, and intelligence appear to be more necessary and committed to the mission, than say my friend of a friend the graphic designer who I'm sure (not really) took the job for the training. I would assume our troops took the aforementioned jobs for more ideological reasons. Am I off-point?
     
  13. Herkdriver

    Herkdriver New Member

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    Your job in the service is often based upon the needs of the service.
     
  14. Hoosier8

    Hoosier8 Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    Another thing lost in this is that no matter what you sign up for, you really have no choice what you end up doing. You can be a graphic designer on a convoy carrying an M4. There are no sure things in the military and anyone that is in deserves the respect for being there in the first place.
     
  15. Clausewitz

    Clausewitz Active Member

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    That actually sounds pretty horrible. But nor all jobs deploy, right?
     
  16. Hoosier8

    Hoosier8 Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    Of course not. A minority of military jobs actually involve combat. It is a huge organization that supports actual combat. That said, you have no choice where you are sent. For instance, my daughter's Gunny was saved by a an admin MOS while on convoy.
     
  17. AlNewman

    AlNewman Well-Known Member

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    I find that one of the nicest things I have been called but it still does not address the issue nor answer the question.

    It could be said that the war of 1812 would fit the bill and perhaps even the Mexican War. But not since then, there has been no war that defended this country. Just a sad state of affairs that kill off our young and enrich the military industrial complex.

    But what does that have to do with the thread, well it answers the initial question: "What is the most important job in the military?", civilian, the refusal to be dragged into a conflict in some foreign country that protects some private interest of some private corporation while enriching some politicians for playing the game.

    So if that is the rain cloud you are referring to, then there should be many more to put a damper on the neo-cons and empire builders at the expense of our youth.
     
  18. Clausewitz

    Clausewitz Active Member

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    Can you please move this to another thread? It's a little bit off topic...
     
  19. Hoosier8

    Hoosier8 Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    You mean like FDR and Kennedy's wars?
     
  20. AlNewman

    AlNewman Well-Known Member

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    Just how is it off topic as it totally answers the question. It is not my desire to post to your liking.
     
  21. Herkdriver

    Herkdriver New Member

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    Why politicize a non-political question. The question is posed are some occupations in the military more important than others. The services are an apolitical institution. If you want to discuss the issue of whether the services are put to a justifiable use in defending the nation, that would involve a political discussion.
     
  22. AlNewman

    AlNewman Well-Known Member

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    That would change the whole complex of the question. For the FDR war, the most important job for the military would have been the manipulaters that caused the attack by Japan to get the military industrial complex and bankers into their share of the profits being denied by the people in their denial of the US getting involved in the war.

    As to what you refer to as the Kennedy war, first it wasn't Kennedy, he inherited that from the end of WWII by the US commitment to support the French after slipping the shaft to Ho Chi Minh. Kennedy had sworn to end our involvement in his second term but he never got there. Now for the initial question, the most important military job for this period was the propagandist that mislead the American people on the Gulf of Tonkin lie.
     
  23. Nightmare515

    Nightmare515 Ragin' Cajun Staff Member Past Donor

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    Well I believe that may have been a bit misleading. You do have a "job" in the military but there may not always be a reason for you to do that specific job. And since Uncle Sam is paying you he isn't going to just let you sit around and wiggle your thumbs since you have nothing to do, they will find something for you to do.

    Remember that the US military is a conventional war machine. Our modern military was designed to fight the Soviet Union and military doctrine has pretty much stayed the same since the Cold War. It wasn't until 9/11 that we got blindsided with this war on terrorism thing. So now many of the jobs needed to fight a "conventional" war have fallen by the wayside because we aren't fighting the Red Army we are fighting terrorists. We had to completely change the way we fight wars. The US military has the maintain the ability to defeat everyone conventionally while also learning how to fight a counter terrorism guerrilla war.

    So in the Army for example we have things like Patriot and Avenger anti aircraft missiles, American SAM sites. There are no air threats for us we rule the skies. Al-Qaeda and the Taliban aren't flying jets around so we have no real need for those. The people who operate those things don't just sit around while the grunts fight the war they fight too. An old cliche in this modern terrorism era is that "everybody is infantry". Plenty of jobs outside of Infantry found themselves kicking in doors in Iraq and Afghanistan. Not EVERYBODY, but many jobs who never thought they would find themselves on the battlefield with a rifle and a rucksack.

    That's the Army though. The Air Force and Navy still do their jobs because we aren't going to grab Air Force people to go play Army grunts. They aren't trained for that in basic training. So in reality its the Army and Marine Corps who find themselves playing Infantry grunt often while the Air Force and Navy still pretty much operate in their "conventional" ways. The reason is simply because the Air Force and Navy have BIG guns. They were designed for total destruction type wars. We can't have B-1 bombers and Aegis Class Cruisers pounding the crap out of terrorists who live among the innocent. They can't really "adapt" the way the ground services can. They can't exactly scale down their big guns.

    So yeah if you join the Army or Marines you may find yourself playing Infantry at some point depending on your job. But the Air Force and Navy are pretty set in their ways. If you become a crewmember on a battleship you won't find yourself on the front lines in Iraq or anything.
     
  24. Lil Mike

    Lil Mike Well-Known Member

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    The military will on occasion reform, change, add or delete military occupational specialties, so the military does think that some jobs stop being valuable, but then again, maybe I'm not understanding what your point is. In a typical corporation they are paying someone to do a job because they think it's worthwhile to have it done, and it's much the same for the military.
     
  25. Clausewitz

    Clausewitz Active Member

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    By the job, are some soldiers more committed than others?
     

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