Joint Perspective

I love working in this joint environment. For those of you who don’t know, joint means Army, Air Force, Navy, and Marines. I found out that is different than combined, which means multiples militaries from different countries. We have that over here too, but I really love the joint aspect. Everyone has great personalities over here, along with different characteristics, but there are a few things specific to each branch that I’ve noticed. The Army guys are tough. They’ve been through a lot, many of which have been over here for multiple tours. One guy can’t hear very well out of one ear anymore b/c he’s been in 3 IED explosions. Another guy just found out that he’s been extended to 15 months, and his wife just had a baby! I surely wouldn’t deal well with being away from family, especially if there were a new baby around! Yet he’s taking everything in stride and trying to stay positive. The Navy guys are all different. I can’t think of a way to peg all of them. Some of them work really hard, some old chiefs shirk off additional duties (every branch has that though), but they do have a great sense of camaraderie. My boss is Navy and it cracks me up b/c he is computer illiterate! He is continually shocked by new tricks and he jokes around that the Army and AF are power point rangers b/c we know how to do so many things with power point that they don’t. I didn’t think that it was that hard to print 6 slides to a page… The Air Force guys are misfits. Sure I’m one of them, but we’re smarter than most other service members (not always, but a great deal of the time) and have new ideas for how to do things that actually make sense. The Army spends more time trying to say, “no we can’t do it that way b/c this is the way that we’ve always done it” rather than actually thinking about implementing great changes. Not all Army guys are like that (especially in my office), but quite a few around the base… Plus being in the AF we’re always having to prove ourselves b/c the Army doesn’t think that we’re as good as them – we’re just an extension of the Army they say. But it’s all in good fun, and I get a kick out of the jokes. And last but not least, the Marines. I don’t see much of them, but when I do I’m always impressed. Their salutes are super sharp and they’re very respectful. I occasionally work with a few of them, and in my career field at least, they’re very smart. All that extra boot camp training and tech schools paid off! I’m sure that many of you reading this blog who’ve been deployed have different experiences and observations. I’m in no way an expert, and this post was more to help family/friends who have no idea about the other branches to get a small glimpse of the great work environment that I have over here. If this was in any way taken negative, then you read it wrong. Email me if you need clarification on anything! I love the people here and am having a blast!