What is your opinion on army infantry trying to Reach retirement?

Infantry has the best promotion rate of any of the branches. If you're infantry, about a third to half of your career will be doing Force Generating assignments such as Drill, Recruiter, ROTC Instructor, Defense Attaché, some other type of instructor, Inspector General, or EEO. Then once you hit MSG you'll be back and forth between planning and commanding. Of course, you're not actually commanding as a 1SG or CSM, but you are part of the command team. Once you hit E8 you're generally either on the operations section doing the planning, or the command team executing that plan. The first few years for an infantryman are definitely the most physically demanding and also the ones where you really get a chance to set the path and tone of your career.

I spent 9 years in the Infantry. I had to move on. It wasn’t for any other reason other than I had to move on to bigger and better things.

I will say that if you plan to stay in the Infatry that long, earn a Ranger tab.

As a retired infantrymen, I’ll give you a couple pointers since you haven’t signed up yet. I spent 24 years in and out of active duty and my last 3/4 of my time was as an 11B with the 82nd at Ft Bragg.
1.) Be all you can be, you drive your career no matter what your CMF/MOS becomes.
2.) The army will give you anything you ask for, you just have to learn how to articulate the question and to whom you must ask.
3.) there is nothing it upset me more than being called a dumb Grant. Because the grant the infantry man has to be the smartest, articulate, and cunning soldier on the battlefield. You have to know your deadly craft to the nth degree. Because you will have to close with and kill the enemy. If you are a dumb grunt the enemy will kill you.
4.) Education will be your friend and or your enemy. You need to read everything you can get your hands on about great battles and great general and great men. I have just completed reading call sign chaos, written by general Mathes get the book read it and start reading his reading suggestions.
If you do not educate yourself and those around you then you will be a follower, as others that are in the know will be making the decisions. Learn what it takes to do the job to ranks above you as a need to private you need to understand and have the wherewithal to become an Asst team leader, as a SAW gunner or a Grenadier/203. In a combat situation you might have to take over a team. As a PFC E3 you need to learn What it takes to become a team leader,, as a corporal 44 no need to know how to maneuver two teams as a squad leader as Staff Sgt.
5.) Infantry is the pinnacle of all of the CMF’s in the army except for special forces/CMF 18. Infantry is your is platform and your forte foundation for all other schools and skills.
6.) here is my career progression for you, it may be somewhat confusing, anyone else that has read this far can chime in to help.
Don’t sign up for a ranger or special forces contract straight out the door. Reason being if you are injured, or fail a subject, or not get selected, then you go back to the good of the army.
From Enlistment E-1 go to basic and AIT. Then go to jump school, put in for hometown recruiter, and then go to the 82nd Airborne division at Fort Bragg North Carolina.
After spending two years there you’ll be looking at E4, put in for Ranger school, after two years of being in the 82nd you have learned all of your basics of being an Infantryman. as a sergeant E5, go to jumpmaster school, once you complete the requirements for senior parachutist you were a star over your wings. Anybody that sees him knows that you’ve been a jump status somewhere.
as Master Sergeant Castaneda stated above, I’ll start looking around for other opportunities a bigger responsibilities or an airborne ranger. Maybe you need to go to the Ranger Battalion, or some otherSpecial Operations.

Don’t look too far forward in the future as you will stumble on the small stones in front of you. Enjoy your time in the military. Don’t look too far forward in the future as you will stumble on the small stones in front of you. Enjoy your time in the military, as it is part of the rest of your life. Don’t for sake your family and your children for your career. You will be Son, husband, father or, Grandpa to your extended family longer, but you were only be SGT Alex Rydholm for just a short time in the grand scheme of things.

HtH, AATW
Tim