im about into my 3rd week of AIT now. i dont really know what to expect.. ive heard that if i want to do hometown recruiting, i have to pay my own way from here to there, and from there to my unit. ive also heard ill have 14 days of leave, plus 10 days for moving? is any of that true? also, what can i expect when i get to my unit?

If you get recruiting duty you are given orders to do such so they give you a plane ticket, and when you return you get another one. You don't have to pay your way and any food bills, travel bills you eat you file a travel claim once you get to your unit and they re-emburse you.

Now if your on leave you pay your way. Its your vacation.

will i be allowed to take leave as soon as i reach my duty station?

Probally not, honestly you need a few months at your unit. Settle in first. get to know them, then worry about it. It hasn't been that long

Ask for leave for after AIT, during the transit from AIT to your home unit.

After AIT, you go to your unit and do the job you trained for. It's pretty much like working in civilian life. You do your job and you are free to do whatever after work.

Listen to your NCO and officers. Do your job very well and you have no problems.

Especially, enroll in some outside education. Hell they pay for most of it and when approved by your commander, you will be scheduled off so you can attend.
On top of that, enroll in correspondence courses. They are easy and worth a lot in knowledge. Both of these education schemes will give you a whole bunch of promotion points.
Sure it's a pain. But you will really benefit when you see yourself getting promotion way ahead of peers.

Now listen to me. At the rate of pay you now have in the service, open a SAVINGS ACCOUNT in your home town. Get an allotment to deposit a set amount of $$$ into that account and leave it there. Forget about it. In my days, I set $200 a month. You could easily set $500 at today's rate.
When you leave the military, be it in 3, 4, 10 or 20 years, you got a nice big fat account.
$6,000 in 1 year.
$24,000 in 4 years.
$60,000 in 10 years.
120,000 in 20 yrs. Plus combining interest. gee
If you get any bonus, put way half of it in that account.

Keep your nose clean. Stay out of trouble and you are in for a lot of fun.

But basically, it's what you make out of it.

There is a system in the Army. When you get to your unit, observe how the unit funtion and you will see the system of what to do and what not to do. Once you discover that system, make the system work FOR you and not the other way around.

Don't listen to cronick complainers. Be in it for yourself.

God speed.

The guy above me pretty much said it. I have been at my unit in Fort Carson for about a month now. It is pretty chill, but hard work (13B, field artillery.) If you get a 4 day weekend ask your squad leader/platoon sergeant how you would go about getting a pass to go home for those 4 days. A buddy of mine flew home for a couple days over labor day weekend. And yes you will have to pay for your trip if you plan on taking HRAP and leave. But when you start inprocessing in at your unit you will fill out some paper work on where you flew, how many tickets you bought, and how much they costed. I spent around 700 bucks on plane tickkets, and they reimbursed me $550, so its a pretty good deal.

Make sure you workout on leave! I don't know what MOS you are, or how much your unit cares about PT (if you are some admin puke or something, you probably wont have to worry about it) but I am currently sucking right now. The elevation coupled with me getting out of shape from not doing PT when I was on leave...I pobably won't pass this next PT test I ave in 3 days. Other than that, remember your customes and courtesies. Stand at parade rest while talking to any NCO's for the first month or so. After that they will probably tell you to relax and you can just talk to them like normal.

good luck!

Really you guys have to buy your own? Only reason i left boot under my own pay was because i was going on 10 days leave. But keep your fucking recepts if you can show he this stuff cost this much they will re-emberse you 100%.

I just think its amazing that he is on the internet while in AIT.

God damn the Army sucks.

Where are you at for your AIT? I'm currently in AIT as well :)