I am about to reclass into 11B soon, i am currently a 25D/25B I am married, no kids, but i was just wondering how it was to be in an infantry unit, I heard that you are out in the field alot, but when your not in the field are you at home? Are there such thing as "family time", i wanted a job where i can kick in some doors, do some recon, just have some fun jumping out of planes and doing crazy stuff. Any infantry guys thats been down range can explain to me what they did in Iraq. Thanks

My experience is this...Anyone who ever really wanted to be an 11B (Even just a little bit), loves being an 11B, even if they complain about it now and then. The soldiers that really do not like being 11B's, are the ones that were looking for an easy paycheck or had no other options.

I am an 11B with the 82nd. The 82nd is a great Unit with a lot of history, and a great deal of very good NCO's and Officers. That said, just like everywhere else, you are also going to find some sub-standard soldiers as well. In my experience, you find a lot less here than you do in other some other units.

As an 11B the operational tempo is high deployed. You spend a lot of time on outside the wire, but the good news is the time goes by much faster when you are focused on the job at hand, and not sitting on a FOB e-mailing your family everyday.

Back home, there are ranges/field time, etc., but not too much more than many other MOS's. A lot depends on your COC as well. The year before my 1st deployment, except when we were in the field, we were never at work later than 1430. Not to mention at Fort Bragg, I have not seen a month without at least 1 3-day weekend, and have not seen a stretch of 2 months without a 4-day weekend.

In the end, what you get out of being an 11B comes down to what you put into it. I love my job and I know a lot of other 11B's that do as well.

Good Luck