I can't believe that no one has posted here on either Afghanistan or Iraq. Does it have to be left to the new guy? There has to be some vets that have served there? I have been to Iraq twice and am now in Afghanistan.

I missed out on all other previous 'LFX'. I was at Ft. Bragg going through SF training during Grenada, in college for Just Cause (a friend called me to tell me about it and my statement "Damm missed another"), In Infantry Officer Basic Course for Desert Shield (of which I spent the entire time trying to get lined up to go upon my graduation), I graduated the day the air war started. Sat our Haiti at Ft. Bragg, wife served in the TF HQ and brother went down, but I missed it all. Finally got to Bosnia after 9/11 and then got to play in the sandbox the second time around.

Yup, Oct 83. Don't worry about being young GR, I can remember having the Vietnam Vets around when I first got in and hear them talk about "back in the day" Only thing is some of their stories were very interesting, but you are probably building some of the same type of stories. In 10 or 20 years you'll be saying "back in the day when I was in Iraq..." and you'll have some young punk kid of troop haning on every word.

You can also do a lot through the military for schooling. There are a lot of classes you can do. I knew a Captain back in '90 who had spent 15 years in without a break, starting off as a private. He got his college while active duty. Granted where you are at, will make it much more difficult to do that, but work at it and if you can ever get to the school house for a while you might be able to make some serious work on that. But do get some college, even if you don't ever use your degree or go officer, it's still very good to have.

Believe me, I don't want to give up what I've got, however there is a lot more I can do as a warrant than I can progressing my way through the NCO ranks. After reaching team sgt the rest of the jobs are behind a desk...I hate desk jobs. So between year 10 and year 15 I need to start making my way into the warrant world. I'm leaning more towards year 10 or so, so I can retire atleast a CW3 at a minimum.

As a warrant you can stick around for another 20 years, meaning that you can easily hit the 30 year mark if you want (assuming you start at your 10 year mark) The last Korean War era vetern retired in '93. He had started out as enlisted and then about '71 or so went Warrant. But if you are only planning on doing 20 and then getting out, that would work. You will find though that once you hit CW3 that you may very well end up riding a desk from time to time. As a CW4 you probably would be on a desk, but by then you are getting older and although your desire will still be out in the field (trust me, as much as I hate to admit it, I'm in this catagory) your body will start to say 'slow down' and so riding a desk isn't quite so bad. Enjoy what you're doing now, while you are young. Also keep track of injuries and such as they will catch up with you later. I don't know how many SF guys I've known over the years that have issues that they never adequately documented, cause they were tough and wanted to just keep on going. If you at least document them then you can get compensated or treated for them later when you are older and retired.