Clarkson, help! + CBRN

paradoxer

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Clarkson I'm quite sure you posted a link about a recent graduate's CBRN blog but can't find it now. Could you help with that? DS is considering detailing CBRN and thought it would be useful reading.

Any other input appreciated from those with insight.
 
Never let the machine beat you...Found my old post. The blog is here http://seanempey.blogspot.com/

I think old mattinuniform is a Maryland grad.

I don't think either of these will be overly enlightening. CBRN is a decent enough branch to go into. Not the most popular. Back in the day when the soviets were going to fight us on the plains of Europe and we expected to have to deal with nerve agents and tactical nukes the Chemo was an important dude. Even during Desert Storm I spent all 4+ days of the ground war in a chem suit taking little white pills that were supposed to minimize the effects of nerve agents. We thought Saddam was going to use that stuff. These days there really isn't a credible CBRN threat on the battlefields we are fighting on. Of course the homeland security guys with those skills that will get called if the terrorist ever turn that stuff lose in a major city will need the skills.

Your Boy is in for an interesting career.
 
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Thanks

Never let the machine beat you...Found my old post. The blog is here http://seanempey.blogspot.com/

I think old mattinuniform is a Maryland grad.

I don't think either of these will be overly enlightening. CBRN is a decent enough branch to go into. Not the most popular. Back in the day when the soviets were going to fight us on the plains of Europe and we expected to have to deal with nerve agents and tactical nukes the Chemo was an important dude. Even during Desert Storm I spent all 4+ days of the ground war in a chem suit taking little white pills that were supposed to minimize the effects of nerve agents. We thought Saddam was going to use that stuff. These days there really isn't a credible CBRN threat on the battlefields we are fighting on. Of course the homeland security guys with those skills that will get called if the terrorist ever turn that stuff lose in a major city will need the skills.

Your Boy is in for an interesting career.

Yes, some have said stay away, others have said good for advancement with Ranger school. Thinking that to detail CBRN with Ranger school and then branch MI might not be too bad. Many unknowns no matter what. He's vacillating between infantry and CBRN for detail. Other insights would be great.
 
Never let the machine beat you...Found my old post. The blog is here http://seanempey.blogspot.com/

I think old mattinuniform is a Maryland grad.

I don't think either of these will be overly enlightening. CBRN is a decent enough branch to go into. Not the most popular. Back in the day when the soviets were going to fight us on the plains of Europe and we expected to have to deal with nerve agents and tactical nukes the Chemo was an important dude. Even during Desert Storm I spent all 4+ days of the ground war in a chem suit taking little white pills that were supposed to minimize the effects of nerve agents. We thought Saddam was going to use that stuff. These days there really isn't a credible CBRN threat on the battlefields we are fighting on. Of course the homeland security guys with those skills that will get called if the terrorist ever turn that stuff lose in a major city will need the skills.

Your Boy is in for an interesting career.

Clarkson's posts=:thumb:
 
CBRN...ugh. Quite frankly, the worst. It's a branch that almost never does its mission. Why? Because the CBRN officer gets stuck in the operations shop of a battalion and his two functions are USR (unit status reporting...a hellish readiness report that must be submitted monthly) and doing odd jobs.

Once upon a time it was called NBC (Nuke/Bio/Chem) and the joke was that it meant "NoBody Cares." Now that it's CBRN, the joke is "Caring, But Really Not."

If he wants true credibility as an MI officer from his detail time, he needs to do a combat arm. If he wants to become the MI officer who can help the operations shop with USR, then Chem is a great choice.

Sorry to be so blunt, but there's no point in letting a hard charger of a kid blunder into possibly the worst branch in the Army. Even the loggies look down on chem.
 
Concur with Scout...and would add that this is not the best path to Ranger school, if that is a goal. Infantry Branch Detail MI would be a better choice.
 
Help me some more please

CBRN...ugh. Quite frankly, the worst. It's a branch that almost never does its mission. Why? Because the CBRN officer gets stuck in the operations shop of a battalion and his two functions are USR (unit status reporting...a hellish readiness report that must be submitted monthly) and doing odd jobs.

Once upon a time it was called NBC (Nuke/Bio/Chem) and the joke was that it meant "NoBody Cares." Now that it's CBRN, the joke is "Caring, But Really Not."

If he wants true credibility as an MI officer from his detail time, he needs to do a combat arm. If he wants to become the MI officer who can help the operations shop with USR, then Chem is a great choice.

Sorry to be so blunt, but there's no point in letting a hard charger of a kid blunder into possibly the worst branch in the Army. Even the loggies look down on chem.

So I know squat about all this but here's the little he's been told as best as I can discern in a nutshell.

That every Special Ops needs a CBRN on the team. So you combine CBRN and Ranger training (which he says most CBRN's don't do) and you are not stuck in operations but have additional opportunities outside of odd jobs and the monthly reporting. Is this nonsense? A 1/100 possibility? BTW DS is the intimidating captain of the hockey team that is always leading the pack, maxing PT and everything else that comes his way. He's had 3 PMS's in 3 years and no continuity with other cadre. He's tried to gather information from every source but as you can tell there's still this niggling concern (at least for me) about the CBRN choice.
 
So I know squat about all this but here's the little he's been told as best as I can discern in a nutshell.

That every Special Ops needs a CBRN on the team. So you combine CBRN and Ranger training (which he says most CBRN's don't do) and you are not stuck in operations but have additional opportunities outside of odd jobs and the monthly reporting. Is this nonsense? A 1/100 possibility? BTW DS is the intimidating captain of the hockey team that is always leading the pack, maxing PT and everything else that comes his way. He's had 3 PMS's in 3 years and no continuity with other cadre. He's tried to gather information from every source but as you can tell there's still this niggling concern (at least for me) about the CBRN choice.

No, that is not true for a number of reasons.

That every Special Ops needs a CBRN on the team.

Not true. Those that do need one would not take an officer, and the slots for officers would be available after his detail time ended and he went to MI.
 
Would Ranger be different

No, that is not true for a number of reasons.



Not true. Those that do need one would not take an officer, and the slots for officers would be available after his detail time ended and he went to MI.

Would this be true for Special Forces/Ranger?
 
Would this be true for Special Forces/Ranger?

SF does not have CBRN below the battalion level. There is a Chem/Recon detachment, but that's one slot per group, which means only 5 slots in the Army for an officer.
 
THANKS!!

SF does not have CBRN below the battalion level. There is a Chem/Recon detachment, but that's one slot per group, which means only 5 slots in the Army for an officer.

As the Dumb and Dumber movie quote goes, "So you are saying I have a chance." Don't think so; I'll let him know so he can explore some more, the hours are numbered.
 
Even the loggies look down on chem.

To be fair, we look down on everyone that's going to leave the Army without a skill set that translates to the civilian world. I kid. Mostly. But yeah, the Chem Corps is not the route to take for a careerist looking for combat arms experience on a branch detail.
 
To be fair, we look down on everyone that's going to leave the Army without a skill set that translates to the civilian world. I kid. Mostly. But yeah, the Chem Corps is not the route to take for a careerist looking for combat arms experience on a branch detail.

Can you explain the "skill set" reference? Doesn't CBRN have training that includes various certifications?
 
To be fair, we look down on everyone that's going to leave the Army without a skill set that translates to the civilian world. I kid. Mostly. But yeah, the Chem Corps is not the route to take for a careerist looking for combat arms experience on a branch detail.

Yeah, the real world is dying for someone who can get everything there late, blame the STAMIS box when they fail, and at best master a totally arcane system of supply no sane organization would ever use. Go get 'em, SPOs of the world! :wink::biggrin:
 
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