I read in today's local paper that a young local man, a May 2021 graduate of the local high school, had just completed Basic Combat Training in Field Artillery at Fort Sill. The article went on to say that he has been assigned to a Military Intelligence Battalion at the Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center located in Presidio of Monterey. California. Is this common in today's army? Or is it normal to be assigned to a MI unit while attending the Foreign Language Center? I would have thought that he would have been assigned to some Field Artillery unit. Anyway, just curious.

When I did basic training for 13B (cannon crew member) half of my platoon were not Artillery MOS's. After we graduated, those of us staying at Sill had an extra family day while they out processed and shipped out all the non-artillery guys to their respective bases for AIT. Where you did basic was immaterial in 2007 when I joined as lots of guys went to whatever basic training installation was closer. My mos had been osut, my order even said osut but upon arrival it was not the case. In AIT we had dudes come to our new platoon who did basic at Jackson, benning and Leonard wood.

Fort Sill is now one of five basic training posts. Good chance the young man did basic at Ft. Sill and then to California for what in my day was called AIT.

After I finished the Officers Basic Artillery course, I became XO, and for a time CO, of the HQ battery of the OCS battalion. I spent most of my time running a mess hall. Thank God for those two wonderful mess sergeants. The AXO, who was only junior to me by 4 months, had a master's degree in Hotel-Restaurant management from the University of Minnesota. One those 20-degree, 40 mile an hour windy February days, I was sure glad the Army, in it's infinite wisdom, put me in that nice warm mess hall, and the AXO out on the west range as a safety officer.

Of course, this has been going on a long time. Right after my class of '50 WWII vet dad finished cold weather training, he was sent to the Pacific. No, not in Alaska.

Thanks for the responses. I guess I misunderstood what Basic Combat Training meant. It was the "Field Artillery" part that threw me off. Back in my day, 1966 - 1970, we just called it Basic Training. I never knew the official name. I went through Field Artillery Officer Basic Course at Fort Sill in 1966, then Airborne School at Fort Benning and on to Fort Riley assigned to the 9th Infantry Division. In the 9th ID that had been recently reactivated, some 15,000 draftees went through Basic Training within the division.

It sounds like this particular individua requested to take the Defense Language Aptitude Battery (DLAB) and scored well enough to be assigned to DLI for training to get a foreignlanguagequalificatio. The MI battalion is probably the unit designation of the DLI command. It's similar to the support staff at Ft Sill being designated as the 30th FA Brigade. 30th FA just provides batteries that shoot in support of the classes going through schools at Ft Sill (at least that was how it was organized in 1990).

In the 1960's almost every soldier entering Warrant Officer flight school went thru infantry BCT, most at Ft Polk. Talk about incentive to study.

If you go to Basic Combat Training at Ft. Sill, you will be trained in a Field Artillery Battalion, which is that in name only. They use the FA moniker for historical reasons only, as they are teaching the same BCT as what is taught at any other BCT post. If they were actually becoming gun bunnies, they would be in what is called OSUT, which is One Station Unit Training. Those battalions are also FA battalions, but have a completely different curriculum over their four months training, versus the BCT which is about 10 weeks. After the 10 week BCT, the graduates will be shipped to another post for their actual job, which is called AIT. Some will stay at Ft. Sill for AIT, just depending on what their MOS is.