Question about 11B

If I joined the Army as an Infantryman what can I expect from a day to day basis? If your in Iraq of Afghan are you the ones doing the patrols and room clearing or is that all the special forces. Ive been looking at my options as I was prior Navy and am trying to gather a lil more Info before I make a decision. Thanks.

Carlo

No way in hell there's enough SOF to raid every house in Iraq.

I am currently in the last month of 2nd deployment in iraq as a 11B. Your day to day op tempo vaires on what type of mission your unit has. If you are operating in a city, you can expect to be doing at least one patrol a day, all the way up to three a day. As far as clearing houses, we are transforming our way of operating with the ISF (iraqi security forces). They will be the first one's in the door, you are just there to ensure that security is established, and everything is running smooth, and all SSE, and detaine's are processed correctly. After your mission, you can expect to do alot of paperwork. We have moved towards the garrison combat zone. Its all about paperwork now a days. Your day can start very early, and end very late at night.

Sergeant Williams hit everything on point. As an 11B in Iraq or Afghanstan ( I am a vet of both) I have got three words for you " Expect the Unexpected" because as a infantryman, you will never know what mission you have til that morning and sometimes they will tell you what your mission is the night before and change it at the last second the next morning. As a platoon NCO on my iraq deployment, I hated those morning meetings with LT and rest of the team leaders ( I was a team leader myself). I already knew that orders had been changed but listening to the guys dropping F-bombs in front of LT was pretty funny. Paperwork, Paperwork, Paperwork, it will become monotonous but after awhile you wont even care anymore because it will be like second nature. I will leave you with this one thing to remember: 11Bravo's always have to be flexible.

exactly right ssg. stephan...monotonous is a perfect word to describe day to day activities in the infantry...you dont even care anymore because it is a forced second nature...thats the army...you are right though the most important thing is flexibility.