Hello there, my name is Arch. I have been considering joining the 506th IR, but I would like to ask a few questions before I do if you wouldn't mind indulging me.
First, what days and times are the unit's events? I know the official timezone of the 506th is EDT, which is also the timezone I live in.
Second, what is, if any, your threshold for mandatory attendance? I know from experience that most units have them. In the unit I was in before, I was one of the five Officers responsible for running all aspects of the group, and we had a policy where we expected all members to attend at least one main operation per month, and if they could not make it for whatever reason then they were required to submit a Leave of Absence. How does the 506th handle attendance and/or required or mandatory events? I am currently studying Criminal Justice and I have a part-time security job that can sometimes be unreliable as far as scheduling, this is simply why I would like to know how flexible you guys might be with attendance.
I have read up on the way the 506th go about approaching MOS's and unit roles. Do you give members any kind of freedom to choose weapons/gear or is it all pre-assigned? In my previous unit, for about half of our missions, everyone would slot into the server and would have to use the pre-made loadouts that corresponded to the role they selected during the slot-in process. For the other half of our missions, we made use of a standardized loadout system where everyone was required to wear the same exact uniform for IFF purposes, but had freedom to tailor most other things to their specifications. For example, all riflemen were allowed to use any NATO 5.56 weapon as long as it used the vanilla 5.56 rounds, that way we could swap mags during combat as necessary, and riflemen were allowed to choose any optic as long as it had no thermal or NVG setting and was less than 4x magnification. We had similar rules for all roles. I know that under the 506th system, members are assigned an MOS and stick to it, but I was just curious if there was any freedom in tailoring the smaller details of one's equipment, like a rifleman being able to choose an EOTech over an ACOG or anything like that.
I really appreciate your time and I would be very grateful for any insights you could give me, thank you very much!
-Arch
