What’s it like being in the National Guard?

I joined the National Guard right after graduating high school in 2011 where I went to basic training (boot camp) at Fort Sill, Oklahoma and did my combat medic training in San Antonio, Texas. The National Guard let me go on an LDS mission so I did that, came back in 2014, and resumed my military service. I’m currently serving as a medic for the 1457th Engineers Battalion in American Fork (but I live in Logan) and I spend most of my time doing school work and community service at the hospital, English Learning Center, and Aggie Translators at USU.

These are the 3 biggest reasons I joined the military–the first reason being the most significant and the last being the least significant reason:

1. I joined because I love the US, I want to serve her interests, and help other nations receive the liberty that they are looking for; Basically, I wanted to be involved in a great purpose.
2. I wanted to be a combat medic because of the experience I could get in preparing to becoming a doctor (which is my career goal).
3. Other things such as adventure, experience, comradery, getting away from home, etc.
4. The military has some benefits like paying for college

For anyone who is thinking about joining the military, here are my suggestions:

First, have a good reason WHY you are joining the military. I would hope it’s something along the lines of serving your country, patriotism, etc. If it’s for an amazing, unique experience, that’s reasonable because you will find some of that and many of us have joined for that reason. If you are looking for a way to pay for school, the military is an option but make sure that’s not your only reason for joining because your commitment to the military has to be a serious one.

What is it like being in the National Guard?

Being in the national guard is like working for a really big organization with all those things that big organizations and businesses typically have—lots of rules, regulations, acronyms, paperwork, big hierarchies with a long ranking system, required emails, inefficient tools and sources, meetings, insurance benefits, retirement benefits, etc. Sometimes I don’t like those things, but that’s the reality of being part of the military.

Being in the national guard is not that big of time commitment since it is only one weekend a month, and a 2-week field training every summer. We spend most of our time at these weekends receiving training that is required for all soldiers–things like shooting a rifle, getting classes on healthy-lifestyle choices, inspecting and cleaning equipment properly, doing a little training out in the wilderness, etc. The fun parts are when we do field training or when when I get to practice my specialty as a medic. However, being a “combat medic” right now might not be as exciting as what first comes to mind. A medic typically would do something like wrap a soldier’s injured ankle, give an IV to someone who’s dehydrated, teach some basic life-saving skills like CPR to a group of soldiers, give flu shots,  take vital signs, get a medical record prepared, etc. Since we are not in a combat situation most of the time, being a medic is like being a medical assistant or a nurse at a clinic. When we’re in a combat situation, we do the more intense stuff– like treating a gunshot wound on the limbs or chest or doing a cricothyroidotomy (making an incision on the neck and inserting a tube to stabilize the airway) to save someone’s life. But since I have not been deployed (and I don’t know if I ever will be–it all depends on what our government decides), the most exciting thing I’ve done as a medic is rushing to the ER a couple times for a soldier who cut off his toe and another soldier who had a suspected appendicitis.

So this description may not be as exciting as most people visualize when they think of “a combat medic in the National Guard.” But with all that said, my overall experience in the national guard so far has still been worth it to me and I will honestly say that I’ve enjoyed it so far.

Common Misconceptions regarding the military

Physical Fitness

One common belief of the military is that we are so physically fit that we could go to the olympics or something. The truth is that the general physical fitness standards in the Army are really not that challenging. Never in my entire life have I been a super athlete, but I have managed to get the maximum score in the Army Physical Fitness Test (APFT) the last couple years. Is it really time consuming to get there? I would say consistency is key –like exercising 20 minutes a day has been sufficient for me. So no, you don’t have to be a super athlete to do well in the military. And even after achieving that, I’m sorry to say that I’m still not fit enough to go to the olympics, run a marathon, do the ironman, or climb Mt. Everest right now. But scoring high on the APFT is definitely achievable when you have a normal life of work, school, and other goals. The only key is to keep the exercise habit a consistent one.

With that being said, there are SOME very intense physical training involved in the military for special groups like the Army’s green berets or the Navy SEALS.  Most service members in the whole military don’t get involved with those types of high intensity training. I certainly haven’t.

Is boot camp really that hard?

It was not as physically difficult as I anticipated. I think that high school wrestling was actually more physically strenuous than the physical training at boot camp. Drill sergeants yelling at your face is never fun but it happens to everyone who goes to boot camp, so the sooner you get over it the better. It was probably more of an emotional and a mental test for me than it was physical. But overall, you just simply do what you’re told in basic training and you make it through. I would agree that boot camp is not that fun but since it only lasted 2 months I would say that it wasn’t that terrible either.

“You’ve gotta be really brave to go on a deployment”

A deployment is not necessarily a death sentence. Most soldiers make it back from deployment just fine without physical injuries or anything serious. The military likes to accomplish missions while also keeping their service members as reasonably safe as possible. I have not had the opportunity to be deployed yet but I have no problem–in fact, I would probably be excited— if my unit gets called up.

You must have a lot of cool experiences to share

I hate to say it, but the cool, neat, intense experiences don’t happen to every service member. Most days in the military are pretty bland, mundane, and filled with a checklist of things to do that are not that eventful. When you’re not on deployment or in a special training course, your day-to-day life is pretty similar to a normal civilian job.

Your specialty and the current world events all depend on what kind of an experience you get in the military. When it comes to specialty, some get to experience interesting things because they’re part of special forces while others spend their career working in an office. Timing also makes a difference. We went to Iraq in 2003 and a lot of those deployments were very dangerous. I met a few soldiers who deployed around that time and one described it as IED’s (Improvised Explosive Devices) going off almost everyday, causing several injuries and deaths to our service members of that time period. The deployments right now, however, are very different. When I enlisted in 2011, we were pulling troops out of Iraq and the dangerous deployments were decreasing (I was actually anticipating a deployment and I was disappointed when it never happened). Since 2011, most deployments have been to Kuwait or Afghanistan and most of those soldiers have come home perfectly sound without even getting a scrape on the knee. So timing makes a difference. The things that a veteran experiences seems to be largely affected by the nation’s politics and current world events.

Conclusion

I am proud of what the US military has accomplished throughout history in many parts of the world and for that reason I am proud to be a part of it right now. I am more than willing to defend the US and help other nations receive the same opportunities and freedoms we enjoy here. The ideals we hold like freedom of speech, religion, and equality of opportunity are just a few that are very important to me and I hope that every person in the world can enjoy those same benefits. That’s why I joined the military in the first place.

My overall experience in the military so far has been a positive one. Everything we do is oriented toward being trained and ready for deployment or whatever our elected leaders feel is a necessary objective. I love the ideals and values that we hold in the US and I consider it a privilege to serve in the military of the best country in the world.

— Jeff Chipman is a junior studying nutrition science.