Readers Respond: Do You Have Experience in MOS Field 25 - - Signals?

Responses: 99

By Rod Powers, About.com Guide

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Share Your Experiences

From the article: Army Enlisted Job Descriptions and Qualification Factors

Have you ever been assigned to a Military Occupation Specialty (MOS) in MOS Field 25 - - Signals? If so, tell us what it was like. Did you love your job? Did you hate it? What was your average day like? Share Your Experiences

bout 25B

i am currently in class as i type this 'TRADOC" is long and i mean long not much freedom since females have been raped overnight pass? or on the 3days or wen u come back from FOB which is the last week of your stay here expect to be taught at a fastpace and alot to be thrown at you with little time you will have three differnt lives..life back home life at the school house(class) and Barracks life (out of class) lol its crazy good luck im in sec+ suppose to test out, 13weeks in and korea is my first duty station HOOHA
—Guest AIT Soldier

25B Experience

I've been a 24B for 5 years and I love the job. As with any army position it all kind of depends on what unit you're with as to how much training/what job you're actually doing. A 25B doing his job will most likely be working on computers, manning a help desk, general BDE S6 stuff. One note about 25B right now as that we are crazy over-strengthed right now, meaning that it's really hard to get promoted past SPC (APR 2012). Other than that have received COMPTIA NET+ and SEC+ certs and am looking to go to a CCNA course soon. I got a little lucky to get all those certs, but a Bravo is definitely in a good position to get them. You will not get those certs in AIT but should have the training available at you're actual duty station. AIT had a couple of hard courses but if you pay attention and study, they try to make it easy to pass... don't expect to learn much in AIT though, you'll learn a lot more from on-the-job-training than you will anything else.
—Guest Kurt Heart

25 U

AIT was very fast paced, didn't even give you the time to really understand what it was been taught, with the excuse of "you will learn that when you get to your unit". Well guess what I got to my unit and I didn't learn anything. I only get to work whenever there's an airborne operation, I need to install radios in the vehicles and troubleshoot them. Besides that, my job is to pick up cigarette butts, police call, custodian etc. It all depends in what unit you get assigned to.
—Guest 25 Uniform

you forgot

25N Nodal Network Systems Operator/Maintainer which is replacing 25F
—Guest torrrens

25B?

I am currently a 68E with an Identifyer of X2, ( Dental Hygenist) I am currently go Colorado Tech University ( CTU ) and I am in the IT Programming Systems Application for my BA, I was want to reclass to the 25B or something related to computers. Is this a good switch? Or should I stay put? Suggestions welcome.
—Guest Rosa/SPC

25bravo

hi..im currently in the process of enlisting into the army were ive taken this mos in consideration the 25bravo unit mos infotechnology,id like some feedback as to what to expect or what exactly i will be getting myself into. Don't really consider my self the wizz I know intermediate levels of usage for computers. as far as i know ill just be working on pc's allday..??
—Guest Steven G

70's Signal Corp

I went thru Basic & AIT at Gordon and it was ok. Back then you stayed with your Basic DI and the courses were self paced. When I ended up with B CO 121st Signal at FT Riley we had 05B, 05C, 31M and 36C in the unit. Our whole CO drove gamma goats with commo rigs... the goats were great and could go anywhere. When were on REFORGER exercises in Germany I spent more time using my goat to pull duece and halfs out of the mud then I did running communications. I was 17 when I joined and had a heck of a lot of fun for 3 years. Best wishes to all those currently serving!
—Guest Sgt Todd

Cable Dawg!

Ah yes..the real days of having Drills instead of platoon Sergeants when it was REAL. However 25Us are the universals. Also that will be changing supposedly when Limas, Us and Cs will be combined as ONE...like a be happy family. Fiber Optics, Man packs and SincGars lets GO!. Oh and stop crying about days off and and yes ask your platoon sergeant permission to take a piss. XD Ya gotta do it, its the army....WELCOME TO THE REAL WORLD!! WAHAHAHA. Voips, DNVTs ahh...brings back memories of DGM units and MSEs well now we are all ESBs so alot of MOSs are obsolete in some units. Lets here it for the Nonembers and Quebecs that got their ranks handed to them as well. /sigh Sad that we have watered down the NCO with horrible leaders. Now we infected the military corp with whiny soldiers..NOW we put our foot down and kicking them out several years later. Oh the IRONY. /Step off the SOAP BOX ~thats my rant
—Guest 25L20 Hell Yes!

25U

I just wanted to respond to the people on here crying about FT. Gordon. AIT isn't time to party. You are there to learn your job and leave. You get weekends off and have to earn your privileges. Platoon Sergeants are baby sitters to shitbags who think the world owes them something. The only advice I have for people heading to AIT is to stay away from the holdovers. I am a 25U and I don't even do my job. What you do as a 25U strictly depends on where you are sent. It really is called 25 universal for a reason. You can work on just about any piece of signal equipment it just depends on where you go.
—Guest 25U

25U

AIT at fort gordon wasnt the greatest, you were force fed all this instruction, and by the time you were report to your first duty station, nothing was retained. I think i learned more about my job, and others, on my first deployment. You really do have to hit the ground running, and be as motivated and trainable as possible. It all comes with time. Admit when you don't know, learn from senior enlisted/ officers. Sometimes its about trial and error, then others its about sitting down and reading a manual( believe it or not, you can still do that) You would not believe how many people don't look at it before they come for help!!! The U really means universal. I played around with sincgars, harris, efjohnson, mbitrs, iridium, i also dealt a lot with computer troubleshooting, STT, CPN, man i could keep going... Higher ups expect a lot out of a 25U, let alone anyone in a signal MOS. So far it has been extremely rewarding, but also extremely frustrating. I wouldn't trade it for anything!
—Guest LSTOUT

Same story just now my kids

I am a Old SatCom Rat from 1985. They did not have a MOS for the rig. I was hooked with the 31C MOS (RTTY Op/Rpr) can you say Old School com gear. I got into Commo as a kid. Dad and I were CB nuts, well my home rig was better then the RTTY. So the ARMY had Motorola build a SatCom rig. I was in AIT and picked to learn the new rig. DUDE do you remember "Stripes", Well That was a movie. Ft Gordon is not going to be a picnic. I did my Basic at Ft Jackson, Ya in the WWII barracks on top of tank hill. I will never forget the night we were awoken by the Drill at 02:30 on 11/01/1984 caught the fire watch a sleep. His old unit "101st" were deployed and word was out India PM Gandhi had been assinated. We didnt stop or sleep for 20 Hrs. He kicked our ass because Fellow Solders were out in the world being Solders. I then learned its not just a job its a FAMILY. BTW on Sunday my Son (USMC) was deployed to aid in the withdrawl of units from Iraq. Happy Holidays?!?!
—Guest Old Dog

25C

Fort Gordon is a joke. Most unorganized base I have ever seen. For the people above talking about the equipment we use might wanna watch that. As for a 25 Charlie your job is to operate and maintain basic military radios. Not allowed to say over the internet what equipment you will be using. Training is 12 weeks long and you are in a college environment. Training is very very easy.
—Guest bravo369

25E???

does anyone have any info on the 25E mos im up for re enlistment and im currently a 12B and i wana get out of the looking for bombs buissness please let me know if anyone has any info for me rocketsarmy@yahoo.com
—Guest tweeder52

Forgot to mention..

a 25N is pretty much the SAME MOS as 25F, just dealing with better equipment. 25F is supposedly a dying MOS. When I went to AIT many people got the opprotunity to change to a 25N. The people who got sent to 2ID in Korea, got a class and reclassed to 25N there.
—Guest FrankRocks

AIT, srsly? 25F20

First off, for the couple people that left comments saying that AIT was a prison, and how your PSG (should still be drill instructors anyways) is a complete dick to you, IT'S SUPPOSED TO BE THAT WAY. You're still in training, it's the US Army, not preschool. If you expect to be able to go where you want, when you want... you picked the WRONG career field. Anyways, although it's a thinning MOS, my time as a 25F has been awesome. You SHOULD be some kinda Network operator. I've dealt with older systems dealing with PA-1, DNVT/DSVTs, VOIP phones and general Data networks. Like Cisco routers? Hopefully you do. But, that isn't just all the fun, you could also be put in an Air Defense unit. I was. I also did Force Protection, not a single thing to do with anything Signal (minus MBITRs). No matter what MOS you pick, just remember that you will do whatever job your command team tells you to. I've seen signal people who've NEVER work in a signal position. Just something to think about.
—Guest FrankRocks