Can you tell me about the MOS from a tanker's prospective? Not a recruiter, FM or whatever perspective. I heard mostly it's details and maintenence, only a few become part of a tank crew. Can I expect to work with/in those machines if I ever reclassed MOS's or am I just a 42r that's been watching too much Discovery channel?

I was a 13B, but I can tell you that any vehicle-dependant MOS is going to have a LOT of motor pool time, certainly. And any combat MOS is going to have it's fair share of details to put up with, but the up-side is that you also get a SHITLOAD of field time. Been out for some years now, so I can't help you on wether or not you would actually crew one, though I wouldn't think that would be much of a problem (but since we know how the Army works, you can never be too sure ).

Good luck, and for what it's worth, I have NEVER heard a tanker say that they didn't enjoy their job in the field.

ETA: I HAVE heard them complain about uploading ammo, though everybody does that. Apparently, the M1 will hold an astronomical amount of 7.62 ammo.

Sniff, sniff, there are other MOS's than 11B?? If your Mech, lots of motor pool time, track'd vehicles breakdown alot.

Tankers are a 19 series MOS (i'm just assuming you are meaning Army tankers).  I was not a 19K (M1 tanker) but a 19D (scout).  Every tanker is part of a tank crew.  You will do maintainance also, that is part of being a crew member.  Higher echelon maintainence is performed by actual track mechanics.  So have no fear, you sign on as a tanker, you will be on  tank.  I cannot imagine USMC does it any differently.

If you're a 19K, you will be assigned as a member of a tank crew. There are no other 19K slots!

And 'yes,' on doing a lot in the motor pool. It's not actually all that bad. The kicker is doing things like replacing sheared sprockets or fixing snapped track in the field. By the nature of the causes, they almost invariably happen in the most inconvenient, muddiest place possible. (That said, we had one track snap on tarmac, which was nice..relatively)

I love tanking, the only reason I'm considering cross-qualifying 11-series is that there are only two tank companies left in my state, and there are a lot of Bradley type opportunities.

NTM

I tanked for 19 of my 21 years, it's awesome. Been on everything from M48A5's all the 60's series Minus the A2 and the M-1series. A lot of fun and the only reason I switched to 11 series was when my Bde reorganized to Light Inf... (payback for all those years I use to dog the grunts..

Nothing like screaming down a trail at 45 MPH in 70 tons of Death on tracks. Yea, like Moran said, its some ball busting work with vehicle and track Maint. and you always throw a track in the most  F-ed up location. But theirs a lot of Busy work (cutting grass, painting rocks,Post support,etc) as a grunt when your not in the field. much easier to scam in the Motor pool then back in the Company Area...

Everyone thinks Army life is  getting up in the morning and jumping out of Airplanes and wargames every day, not true, a job like any other with busy work and other "Unglamourous" details.

But the Comaraderie of your crews are as tight as any Inf squad and the weapons systems you get to play with are pretty sweet. Nothing like Gunnery Quals...... You live like a king in the field compared to the Grunts and they appreciate the Turbine exhaust after a nice rain shower.... I never ate a cold MRE in my entire career!!!!!
Our Motto was   "Why carry your weapon when your weapon can carry you."...!!!

Plus it's a Known fact that "Chicks dig Tankers"....

The kicker is doing things like replacing sheared sprockets or fixing snapped track in the field. By the nature of the causes, they almost invariably happen in the most inconvenient, muddiest place possible.

Our M109 broke down at Ft Hood out in the boonies, and while we were waiting for maintenance to find us (back then, we had no radios), a tank unit was coming by, and the platoon leader's tank threw a track only a few yards away. Having nothing else to do, we went over to help the guys get it back on. I went to help one of the guys that was busting his ass with a tanker's bar, and holy shit, it was the 1LT! That was the first time I had ever seen an officer actually WORK before, and I was impressed.

I also remember getting an instant sunburn from passing too close to the rear of the vehicle, lol.

Thanks for all the input.

Yeah I was talking about Army tankers. Since the 19 series are OSUT, how would it work if I reclassed? Would I just go to 4 weeks of armor training?

I think training would be more like eight weeks.

There is a lot of busy work. The training schedule looks like this: get 'em dirty - wash 'em off - guard 'em - repeat.

Reserve / NG might not be as bad.

I'm not sure how long the OSUT training for the 19Kilos was, for us 19Deltas it was 15 weeks.  So you can probably count on somewhere around 7 weeks for just reclassifying.