advise on joining US military

• go reservist or state

Same amount deployment missions, much better treatment and safer bases. You can go full time reserve and enjoy a better benefit than regular army shmucks.

• look into MOS identifier training

bug your recruiter for this. In my case(vehicle mechanic), the MOS identifier was '-H8'. You are above your peers because you got trained to do more stuff. Any and all training you can take, take. It all adds up in paycheck and nobody will fuck with you just because you have little extra pin on your chest. It's stupid, but people in general are stupid.

• fuck the top 25 job

Your recruiter will push you for these MOS, they are in demand, thus they get more points for shipping you in such job. What this means is that you're stuck. You will never be able to change MOS until you re up.

• look into sign up bonus

Some of this shit can be tens of thousands of dollars. Also, if you got friend who wants to come, you get a bonus for signing someone else. Get that bonus and split with your friends.

• learn the creeds and coc

In every unit you'll be at, you must know your job creed, soldier's creed, infantryman's creed, and your chain of command(boss names). There will be a lot of shit you need to memorize, don't be the one to get caught not knowing stuff you should.

• do research on what banks your basic/ait has

You should have a bank account for banks in your training base. No, Chase or Bank of America or US Bank are not in all of the bases.
It's bullshit, but get it set up online so you can close those account later. I couldn't close my account in fort jackson until years later I decided to cave in and buy a plane ticket there to be physically there to close it.

• Army Knowledge Online

make sure you pick an easy username and password to remember. Fuck the recruiters who tells you to make a secure un/pw. Fuck, put your last four ssn. There are ton of shits you will have to know, don't make more than you need to. Also, put their help hotline number on your phone. You will need it. You can change all that shit later after you get assigned to your unit.

• Armystudyguide.com be familiar with your regulation

Your success is 100% based on your knowledge of your references, not your actual skill. This is a problem, but not something you can fix. Know your army regulation numbers and memorize them. Shit, I'll tell you right now. AR 670-1 (uniform standard), FM 21-20 (PT), and FM 3-22.9 (M16). Know at least those three regulations back to back. Trust me on this.

• don't bring electronics

In training, they'll be taken away. Some training facilities are allowing them, but do yourself a favor and save the headaches. It will be a headache trying to get your shit back should anything out of the ordinary happen to you.

• stationary

Stationary were allowed when I was in training, which I admit was 10 years ago. Bring notebooks and pencil, so you can draw/write and not be bored out of your mind. Religious books such as bible is also okay.

• your recruiter is not the most knowledgeable person about military

Take what he tells you with a grain of a salt. Take what I tell you here with a grain of a salt. Every unit has their own standards, things are gonna be different. which leads to...

• BASIC and AIT life

some places will put your entire platoon in a wide ass open room and you might end up living with the dankest stank ass mother fucker, with two working laundry machine for 2.5k troops. some place will let you stay in a private apartment room. Don't expect nice shit to happen to you, nothing is guaranteed.

• mail

your family and friends are allowed to send you sweets. please have them do. You don't know it,
but you need them.

My old games and my high school crew

I have a story about this. Me and my group of high school friends were made of: myself the exclusively console kid, two 75% pc gamers who mainly played MMOs and FPS, and two dudes that played every games. I tried to spread my fighting game and beat em up enthusiasm to the rest of the group whenever I could. One of the idort kid, let's call him Far, was a social but the butt of the group since he said whatever the felt like saying and did whatever he did. He was not a bad kid at heart though. Anyway, my effort reached a fruition I guess because everyone seemed to enjoy games like D&D 2: Mystara and AVP the capcom arcade game. PS2 Launch comes around, and one of the mainly PC gamer bud buys Bouncer out of his savings. He was a 17-year-old with no work, he was really hyped for it to buy it from what little he saved out of lunch money. Then we had an all nighter one day at my place, and the kid forgot his Bouncer home probably because we were drunk as fuck from booze. From that day on, he proceeded to accuse Far for stealing his game. College time comes around, everyone was separated onto our own schools, hardly anyone met each other any more. I never went to college, and I stayed in my parents for a few more years. I decided I had to do something for my life and joined the army active duty as a mechanic. As I cleaned my stuff out of my parents' home, I noticed Bouncer and few games that weren't mine. I didn't pay them much mind, my parents weren't going anywhere and they didn't care to leave my stuff alone so I felt like I could return them when I have chance in future. 4 years later, I come home from my Army contract, and I found out that the kid passed away because he did too much drugs.

I don't have any contacts left for those old high school friends. I still have the game in my possession, hoping that I can return to the right owners one day. I'm so sorry guys.