RSP or Ship Immediately

[azIce]

I was just wondering which is the best way to go. Do you learn enough with one or two RSP's before you ship to make it worth it? Or, is it best to ship immediately without RSP. Soldiers I've talked to directly said RSP is a waste of time and that if possible ship immediately. But, I see on here that a lot of you find it useful. Any input would be greatly appreciated.

[PFC Nothstein]

I was just wondering which is the best way to go. Do you learn enough with one or two RSP's before you ship to make it worth it? Or, is it best to ship immediately without RSP. Soldiers I've talked to directly said RSP is a waste of time and that if possible ship immediately. But, I see on here that a lot of you find it useful. Any input would be greatly appreciated.
i just finished my first RSP and let me tell you i feel i'll be MUCH more squared away then someone that hasn't been to RSP. i learned a ton in just one drill. i have one more before i ship and i'm sure i'll learn even more. so to me it's worth it. by the way i'm almost 30 years old, much more squared away than most soldiers at RSP and i still feel it was very worth it.

[azIce]

I'm 32, so I hope to the case would be the same for me as well.

[PFC Nothstein]

Do you know how to tear apart an M-16 in less than a minute?
Do you know your General Orders?
do you know how to stand at Attention? Parade rest? At ease?
Do you know who to salute and when?
Do you know the army rank structure?
i could keep on going, but if you don't know those things you will learn them ALL on your first drill weekend.

[azIce]

Ummmm.

no
yes
no
no
yes

So, I would definitely learn something. :D

[PFC Nothstein]

Ummmm.

no
yes
no
no
yes

So, I would definitely learn something. :D
exactly. i knew some stuff from reading my battle book and what not, but i really did learn a ton. not to mention i'm sore as ****. :eek:

[Lance13A]

Do you know how to tear apart an M-16 in less than a minute?
Do you know your General Orders?
do you know how to stand at Attention? Parade rest? At ease?
Do you know who to salute and when?
Do you know the army rank structure?
i could keep on going, but if you don't know those things you will learn them ALL on your first drill weekend.
you will also learn them all your first week of BCT if you don't attend RSP. Regular Army doesn't have RSP and their soldiers turn out okay at the end of a 9 week cycle. If you want to hurry up and go, it's your call. RSP is not that important.

[PFC Nothstein]

you will also learn them all your first week of BCT if you don't attend RSP. Regular Army doesn't have RSP and their soldiers turn out okay at the end of a 9 week cycle. If you want to hurry up and go, it's your call. RSP is not that important.
no kidding you will learn that, but isn't it easier to know that sh*t going into it? i'd say yeah. not to mention you get paid for it and they help make sure you are squared away before you go.

[Chaplain4me]

RSP is totally worth it, if for no other reason the phycoloigcal benifits. The Guard was losing far more contracts until they introduced RSP.

You start getting paid, start kinda feeling like part of the team and so on....you get to speak with all the returning soldiers....it's cool....

we got to break down a M4 and a M249....which was neat. And do some other cool stuff and then there is some not so cool stuff but overall it's pretty cool.

[PFC Lowe]

Isn't RSP only the 4 months leading up to BCT now? I was there for 11 months and because my site had over 120 people every drill we didn't get to do much. The most "high speed" training we did was map reading. 11 months of that got old quick...

[Lance13A]

no kidding you will learn that, but isn't it easier to know that sh*t going into it? i'd say yeah. not to mention you get paid for it and they help make sure you are squared away before you go.
no, it won't make it that easier. everything you'll learn at BCT is completely dumbed down, and force-fed. you will have to try pretty hard to not know your stuff. and you'll get paid way more for BCT than RSP, so i don't know where that argument is coming from. if it were up to me to do over again, i'd ship sooner and get it over with.

[chd]

It'll make your first week awful instead of completely awful and that's about it. As long as you know your general orders, soldier's creed, rank structure, etc. (so you don't have to memorize it at BCT all stressed out and preoccupied), there's nothing else that you'll get out of RSP really by waiting. If you have to wait, then yes, it's a good way to spend a weekend per month before you ship off.

You'll notice that the Guard privates seem more squared away at first (likely due to RSP) and then, once they realize that they're going home soon, the AD ones are pretty much the only ones that care. (You all can debate this and say "not me!" but it's true.)

[azIce]

I'm tentatively scheduled to enlist next Monday. So, I will see what kinda of schedule there is for shipping out. The one at the Benning site seems to not be updated.

[Mizzou]

Ship immediately. Nothing you will learn at RSP will give you much of an advantage at basic. We had a lot of "RSP warriors" the first few weeks who thought they knew everything. When they got cocky with the DS they got smoked to ****, and well they weren't treated too well by the rest of the company when the DS weren't around.

You get a bonus too for "quick shipping" too, unless they did away with that.

[clyde]

I truly found it an excellent experience at the age of 34. Our DS was laid back vs our DS's at BCT. But his job was to insure that everyone would SHIP to BCT. I see why it can be taken as a negative experience. Truth is, you will only get out of it what you put into it. And the same thing is true for BCT. BCT is not near as tough as it probably should have been (non 11B MOS). Either that, or I had some week DS's.

The pro's to RSP for me were:
Learned the chain of command
Addressing NCO's and Officers
Battle drills (I was used frequently as a demonstrator at BCT)
Learned good PT to get me ready for BCT
Given PT test every drill and got to see my improvement
Learned about combatives
Opportunity to learn soldiers creed and other things before going to BCT
Got used to being around 18 year old while doing PT (that was odd at first)
My paperwork was more organized due to it being re checked each drill before going (Only issue I had was with my BAH but they fixed that quikly)


Con's to RSP:
Lots of waiting and wasting time while the NCO's got organized
The drive was 1:30 and had to get up early to leave for drill
lack of discipline
The females would cause all kinds of drama during personal time

We got good food 3 times a day and I was treated like an adult, very respected by the NCO's I'd do it again

[azIce]

Sounds like there are definitely some positives to going to RSP. Whether or not you make use of your time probably determines how much you get out of it.

My recruiter told me that I should be able to RSP in my state until I ship. Not a for sure thing, but a possibility. Has anyone done / heard this?

[Jgradu]

I know in Wisconsin we RSP until we ship, I enlisted in the end of September, and I will be going every month until I ship in July. So far I've enjoyed RSP, but I wouldn't recommend doing any more than three or four months. they're starting to get repetitive. You might not have a whole lot of say when you ship though, I asked to ship in the middle of may, but instead I'm leaving the end of July. Good luck, and have a good time at meps:D

[FutureHooah]

Man, you guys think you had it bad in RSP in terms of repetition, it's nothing compared to what we do in Student Flight (Air Guard equivalent). We don't do anything. Ever.

Basically we report at 0730 on Saturday morning and are dismissed at 1630. The time inbetween is usually spent in classroom going over rank structure, Airmen's Creed, or general military courtesies. And no, we do not have Red, Blue, and White phases in Student Flight which means you're learning the same exact stuff as the "new guys" every single drill no matter how many times you've been. I'm now about to go to my 8th drill. The only cool thing is that a former Military Training Instructor (DS, basically) ran our drill last weekend, so that changed the pace for us quite a bit. Other than that, it's usually run by a Major who kind of got forced to do the job and work with us newbies.

/end rant

[SteveLord]

(Air Guard equivalent). We don't do anything. Ever.


The Air branches never doing anything is not a secret, don't worry. ;)