There's a lot of Army history in my family. We had several serve in World War II, one in Korea, and one in Vietnam with the Army.

All branches of our military deserve a five star rating, in my opinion.

Hey, I got a brother in Iraq right now. Kudos for the sacrifices and commitment to duty, honor, country.

  After serving 17 years in the Air Force, I got the opportunity to deploy with the Army for a year and developed a new appreciation for drinking Red Bull, dipping snuff, saying "hooah", superiors spewing profanity to chew out their subordinates, freeballing,  and  consuming UGR rations. Not!

Me and many other Air Force had 6 weeks of so-called training at Fort Bragg, North Carolina prior to leaving for Afghanistan. The Air Force could have easily done it in 2 weeks. The training was totally inefficient, "hurry up and wait", the leadership totally insensitive and unprofessional, and a lousy 4 day pass that was at the end of training and I had to pay $500 out of pocket just so my wife could come see me before I left.

I wouldn't recommend the Army unless you want to be in combat or didn't score high on your ASVAB scores. The burnout rate is so high now and people with 15-18 years in are now separating because they can't take anymore with deployments and being away from their families.

BUT, for all those infantry guys out there in the field and doing guard tower duty, I totally thank you for protecting the rest of us living on the FOB.

So check it, guys, I got nothin' but love for anyone crazy enough to put on some camo and go into harms way for our country, but I gotta share a story of how my buddies got in trouble when I was part of the Marine Detachment on the army base Fort Bliss. Six of my buddies got in trouble for roughing up 15 soldiers. Yes, these Jarheads were outnumbered nearly 3 to 1. Cool, huh?

No thanks.

I served from 1966 to 1969. I learned more in the Army than in college.

Army soldiers deserve far better treatment and compensation, especially when ordered to leave their families for 15 months at a time.  The army officers I've met are the most honorable people I've ever known.

Sorry, I dont agree with all good post here. American army is nothing in front of gulf army and other asian countries are doing well. So dont think ourself better. There are others who have great powers than US army. Thanks.

No matter what amount of ammunition you drop, with out boots on the ground the war can't be won.

well, lets see, the army treats your family like dirt (just think of the Pat Tillman case). The same thing happened to my family, when my dad was serving in the army for 20 years during desert storm. Also, the army discrminates. Benefits are horrible, compared to the other branches of the military. I dont have any respect for the army whatsoever.

My dad was in the army. It made a man out of him.

My son enlisted in the Army Reserve and left for Basic Training (14 weeks) 3 days after his HS graduation, prior to starting college in the September semester. He graduated from AIT in October, 2004, and is now in school, full time, about to commit to ROTC. His SAT scores are in the low 1400's. His cumulative grades were around 3.1 (low 80's) in high school. The Army took this bright, athletic, unfocused glob of potential and turned it into a disciplined, structured, dynamo who knows the cost of accomplishment, at the age of 21. His best friend has been deployed and works today at Abu Graib. Is the Army for everyone? Certainly not. It's tough, and arduous. Ben lost 25 pounds at basic. From 175 lbs, at 6 feet tall, he didn't look the least bit heavy. But, the most stark difference is in his eyes. His self-confidence is obvious from the moment you hear him speak. His old, brash cockiness is gone. He measures his words and speaks sparingly now. He wants to learn Arabic and serve his active in Army Intelligence, and he doesn't just think he can do it. He knows he can. Young people considering the military should consider this. If you enlist, do so knowing that you'll be tested, beyond anything you've even thought possible so far. Resolve to succeed, no matter what. Endure and persevere. On 3 occasions, Ben wanted to quit. Don't kid yourself, it's tough. But when you step on that stage to graduate, you have accomplished something that the vast majority of your generation can only imagine. It's not for everyone.

Guys who join any branch of the military aren't stupid. They deserve our support and our praise. God bless our servicemen and women!

A bunch of GED/fastfood material personnel but I gotta say you guys deserve some respect!

Let me tell you!! JOBLOLBOJ hit it right on the head!!! In my short Air Force career I have worked with a few prior army guys. They couldnt wait to switch over to the blue. One in particular was an infantryman... we went through Air Traffic Control school together. In his four short years he was a SSgt, impossible in the Air Force, so when he switched over they made him a SrA. This tells you how much weight their rank structure holds. Let me also reiterate what joblolboj said.... While I respect what the army does as a branch, this does not mean i respect the majority of the people in it. My experiences with army soldiers has been that the majority of them truly are the dregs and misfits of society, who join the army not out of patriotism, but out of desperation, with nowhere else to turn. I remember not too long ago in high school, looking at the kids that were in the Army JROTC class and thinking damn, what a group of idiots!! These were the kids with zero social skills, zero friends, zero talent, zero girlfriends/boyfriends, and damn near zero brains. Seriosly. So I dont come off as biased, I will say that there is an abundance of these same type of people in the Navy, Marines, and even the Air Force. This is the main reason why I decided to seperate from the Air Force. Hate to say it but I was too smart and needed more out of life than the thrill of a new ribbon to put on my shirt. Moral is; you gotta respect the Army as a whole and the mission that it accomplishes. As for most of the individuals, you have to see them for who they truly are. Though there are always exceptions. Fact: there is a program in place right now, between the Air Force and the Army, it's called Blue to Green. This program is to try and up the armys numbers right now and is offered to all air force members... they will let you choose almost any job in the army, including warrant officer spots, and they are paying HUGE bonuses to anyone who switches. This program has been going on for probably almost 2 years..... last time I checked, out of hundreds of thousands in the Air Force....... 13 have switched. Think about it.

FAYETTEVILLE, N.C. - A Fort Bragg soldier charged as a teenager in a notorious New Jersey rape case shot and wounded his estranged wife and her boyfriend, then killed himself, authorities said. (SEE!! I told you they were date rapists!)

In importance the Army is probably on Par with the Air Force as they are the only branch able to hold defeated territory in total war. After the AF and Army would be the Navy since it's the most efficient means of transporting mas quantities of US soldiers to war. The marines are probablyleast important (not saying their not useful, just we could live with out them) because the Army with it's 1 Million soldiers could easily replace them, but they are VERY helpful.

I'm not trashing the Army. I dated a guy that was a Staff Sargeant. To this day, he cannot READ: not even something as simple as 'the cow jumped over the moon'. What he is good at is making babies; one in every state where he was posted. I'm concerned about the culture of rampant baby-making and delinquent child support payment issues as a result. I'm told that the Child Support Enforcement Division in Cumberland County, North Carolina would be nonexistent were it not for the soldiers at Fort Bragg.

My son was in the Marines and now is in the National Guard. I think all of our military service men and women deserve our fullest respect. God bless and keep them safe.

The army huh, in my experience they are rather unorganized, that being said, I dont know where we would be without them. being a marine I like to think we do all the hard work. we go in and break everything then leave the army to keep things together. They do a decent job not the way we would do it but none the less it gets done. And if your worried about the cost of the army your a fool, I get paid less than 20k a year and its the same for almost all military because no matter what branch we get paid the same. if you dont like the military so much think what it would be like without one. You people say all these ignorant things about the military not realizing what it does to moral. that is why I cant stand most democrats. All they seem to care about is themselves, willing to change their ideals to that which suits their purpose. Thats a differnt topic

I have just looked over the comments from other individuals, and have to say that there are a coujple that really belie an abysmal ingnorance. One apppears to be based on parocialism based on the reviwer's association wiht the Air Force (I'll get to my own biases about that institution when I rate it); the other is based on what I can only assume is no association whatever with any militaryy service. OK, my rating of the Army is a Five because, based on 20 years service as an officer, I damn well am qualified to comment and to give it a Five. The Army takes people (men, women, black, white, Latino, Asian, Christian, Jew, Muslim, Buddhist, atheist,whatever) from every segment of society, makes them into a team, and gets the job done. There is going to be some deadwood in any organization that large, but most of the people are motivated, conscientious, and dedicated to the mission (which happens to be, among other things, making it possible to live in a country where opinionated, egregious ingrates like some of the other reviewers can live and spout off idiocy in the name of free speech). There was indeed a time (i.e., Vietnam, not the most glorious chaper in the Army's history) when the Army was way too politicized (that was the Army's fault to the extent that it let it happen), and civilians in Washington who were making policy and giving orders to the military were screwing things up unbelievably (I know, I lived through it). Post-Vietnam, the Army got its act together and created a force that is much more capable. Standards in the Army today are a lot tougher than most civilians know or can (or want, in some cases), to believe. Qualification for promotion in the officer corps is unbelievably tough. The Army seems to have done a moderately successful job in kicking the butt around the block a few times of anyone who we have fought lately. Terrorism has brought new challenges, which the Army is going to have to adapt to and cope with. I believe that it is undignified for commenters to heap negative vitriol on those people in our society who, for whatever their reasons, choose to serve in the military. Don't forget, it's those dumb, fat, lazy, etc., etc. kids who go out and lay their lives on the line for the rest of us. I'm trying to be civil here and have deleted some of the really choice words that would express how I really feel about some of these unmitigated jerks who carp and criticize about the Army, or about the military in general. The Army exists to break things when the civilian masters are not able to solve problems which may be of their own making.

Go Army beat Navy!

The U.S army is one of the most vital parts of the world. They even resolve conflicts in foriegn countrys. You should respect them for all of the things they go through to make sure amarica stays a free country.

The Army serves a purpose. The smart people stand out like sore thumbs, and progress quickly through the ranks, if they don't get disgruntled from working with ...umm the not so smart ones. You may be given a primary job, but your REAL primary job is playing soldier, and doing PT. Don't expect to be treated like an individual...it's all about following orders and being a soldier. That's why the whole army of one campain came about...to dispell the myth that the individual isnt important. Actions speak louder that silly slogans. In the end it's just about personal preference.

Why must you give such low scores? I look around and see ones twos and threes! Whats up with that? You have know idea how much hell these boys (and girls mind you) go through to keep our country decent.

I have to say the Army is good I can not say Great because they have a bad habit of derating a person when they get near retirement or end of their service time. They also are bad about not keeping good records or entering accomplishments on your record, So if you join any branch of the service every time you see the Doctor or get a accomplishment be sure to get a copy in print of it for later refferance you might need it after you get out of the service like the VA hospitol.

I believe that the United States Army is one of the best and the most flexible combat branch in the entite military. Army Infantrymen are the ones who do the real down and dirty stuff on the ground. The army is VERY broad as well, you have Special Forces, Paratroopers, 10th Mountain, Army Rangers, Delta Force, & Reg Infantry. There are just some many ways to be a soldier in the Green Machine.

I can't say anything bad about the Army. It was a paycheck to support my family for a few years. Sure some of the guys aren't the brightest. They Army does take the lowest test scores. But the majority of those guys are really dedicated to their job. And they do it surprisingly well.

I have worked in the U.S. government in both civilian and military capacities for most of the past twenty years. Of all the government organizations that I have had contact with in that time, none has been worse than the U.S. Army. To say that I hate the Army would be giving the Army more credit than it deserves. As a group I have never met a stupider bunch of people. Enlisted people that join only because they have no other options after knocking up their girlfriends at age 17 before they can graduate from high school. NCO's with fat, disgusting wives that sit in the post Burger King washing down Whoppers with a Diet Coke while their filthy, greasy brats run around out of control. Officers that only wish that they were smart enough for another branch of the service. And on it goes. I should also say that I live overseas (Germany) and it shames me to no end that these creatures are the best examples of American that we can find to represent our nation to the world. What an embarrasment. A very telling incident tells a lot about the Army. When I joined the Air Force in 1982, the recruiter took me along with several other candidates for the military aptitude test. One individual did not pass. The response from the Air Force recruiter? "Well your scores are high enough for the Army. They are just down the hall." Sure enough, that individual did join the Army. So began my disrespect for an organization of failures. You can say that things have changed in the twenty years since. I have contact with the Army at least several times a week I can assure you it has not. One positive thing I can say about the Army is that being cannon fodder on the ground makes it easy to remove some of the dim bulbs from our society. Better to have them take an Iraqi bullet while "defending America" (from what? from whom?)than to have someone from another branch of the military that might make a positive contribution to society take it. The current Army slogan is "An Army of One" and that is more true than the Army realizes. They probably only have one person in the entire organization that has enough smarts to realize what a brain-dead and dysfunctional organization the Army truly is. It is said that Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld "has it out" for the Army and intends to change the way it does business. Rumsfeld may be an ass generally but in this effort he is right on target. I think that the best reform for the Army would be to require an educated force. But of course those with any education know that the Army is a sinkhole for the castoffs, the stupid oafs and the dregs of American society. To those who are contemplating joining the Army I say "DON'T". To those that have joined I say "Get out before the brainwashers actually have you thinking that you are a valuble and integral part of their organization. When you have reached that point you have fallen into their trap and will have lost the respect of anybody in the real world that can think for themselves.

A very wasteful institution that suffers no guilt when it presents the taxpayers with the bill. Too reliant on super-sophisticated weapons systems that have all the bells and whistles when half the bells and whistles would be more than sufficient. As a result, these weapons systems cost a fortune to develop and maintain, and a good deal of the time they're obsolete the moment they hit the field. Furthermore, the useful life on non-critical, non-combat equipment and supplies should be radically extended because this waste runs into the billions of dollars. There should also be more competitive bidding on defense contracts and more civilian oversight of the procurement process, because as it is, the incompetents in the High Command have an open checkbook, and that open checkbook is a most significant contributor to Bush's runaway federal deficit that the rightwingers apparently have no problem with. There's also too many goldbricking lardasses in this branch of the service and it might be a good idea for the Army to institute acceptable/unacceptable height to weight ratios and enforce them. Most importantly, the Army needs to be reassessed in terms of its mission in the 21st century, but seeing how the droolers, the idiotic Bush Administration, the propaganda mill that calls itself "The Mainstream Media" and those parasites known as "Military Retirees" are insistant on the apotheosis of the Armed Forces, a support of the Masters of War and their minions at any cost, this is not likely to happen. This is too bad, as well as alarming, because it enlivens the typical conservative moronic tendency to try to solve complex geopolitical problems with simplistic, reductive military "solutions." This did not work in Afganistan or Iraq (or in the Gulf War, or Viet Nam, or Korea, etc.), and it certainly will not work in Iran or Syria, which appear to be the next entries on the Wish List of that idiot in the Oval Office. Also, it might be a good idea to separate Church and State by thinking twice about committing our troops to what amounts to be holy wars, i.e., the armies of a so-called "Christian Nation" (which is a misconception in itself, as the U.S. is actually a secular country) vs. "Islamic Nations," in what is shaping up as "The Crusades II." Seems Bush is confused whether he is the President of the U.S. or President of those retarded Southern Baptist types in sending the troops of "Our God" up against the troops of "Their God." This is a tremendous misuse of this resource, an insult to the mission of the military, and a gross disservice to our fighting men and women, but Bush and the drooler constituency don't seem to get it, or particularly care.

For those who enjoy drinking from the cup of freedom and liberty everyday, be greatful for those who guarantee your right to do so. For those who thirst for freedom as a man croosing the desert, some of us know your thirst and are willing to sacrifice all to help you taste the liberty in which others wallow. For those who wallow in liberty without appreciating those who would give their lives to guarantee it, I would like to share a passage from 19th century Britesh philosopher John Stuart Mills who said "War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things.  The decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks that nothing is worth war is much worse.  The person who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety; is a miserable creature, and has no chance of being free unless made or kept so by the exertions of better men than himself."   God bless America, our allies, our service man and women, and all those people who suffer under the burden of ignorance and oppression.

My dad was in the Army, so I was always brought up to respect it. The soldiers in the army have a hard job to do and they do it damn well, if you ask me. There will always be conflicts over which branch of the military is best, but I think they're all valuable and honorable.

We will always need infantry in battle. If technology fails we got the grunts!

Everyone trashes on the army until we get into battle. These are the guys who are the front lines while the other branches hide behind their machinery. The Navy is floating miles away from battle, the Air Force is at 60,000 feet with stealth aircraft while our Army is risking their lives at the front line. Don't even get me started about the Coast Guard...The Army deserves a lot more respect than it gets. HOOAH!