I will reporting to my first duty station, Fort Riley KS, in less than three weeks. Is there anything I should know?

Well, first off, if you have the northern accent be prepared for everyone to say something about it. I don't even have an accent from MN but for some reason everyone loved to talk to me like I just flew in from Fargo. Next, Riley isn't a bad place. I've only been there a handful of times, and I haven't been there recently, but I don't live far from there and pretty much all of Kansas is the same. Coming from the guard to Active Duty, don't let the schedule overwhelm you in the beginning. It may take a little bit of time but it gets easier. Lastly, expect for people to talk shit about the guard. Take it in stride and work hard to prove to them that you are on the same level if not better than all of them. Good luck and stay out of trouble.

If you know to which Brigade you’ll be assigned I might have a lot of information or I may have very little, concerning your unit. I will say this; in the nearly 17 years I’ve been kicking around this gun club, this is my favorite duty station... by a long shot. You’ll be in rural Kansas so prepare for that, whatever that means for you. Let me know which Brigade you get and I’ll put you in touch with your leadership here. If you don’t have pinpoint orders, I’m sorry that I cannot help.

Working here is challenging because we work hard, just like everywhere. Take your free time and use it to explore the area and do things. The only Soldiers I have that don’t have fun on their time off are the ones who sit around the barracks and do nothing.

92A you’re probably headed for the SSAs, Sustainment Brigade has a large QM battalion, CAB has the best DFAC, if you like the night life, Manhattan is about 30 minutes away it’s a college town try not to get into too much trouble. If you like to hunt or fish there’s a lot of that on or right outside Riley.

If you’re a gym buff then there are some nice ones, Robinson’s is a lot of machines, long is mainly convatives now, theres kings and the new gym also by the CAB DFAC.

If you’re looking to deploy, the division as a whole is pretty high tempo there’s always a brigade deployed somewhere