Anyone been to this as a civilian?  Trying to get the details of what is required for a Civ to complete.  Possibility of a 1 year job in a technical field.  Thanks

Went to the Fort Benning Conus Replacement Center almost two years ago.  It was a week of hurry up and wait. The only memorable training was the first aid. Learned about the new bandages with the built in tournequet and the blood clotting stuff.

The cadre that were running it were the most awful, inefficient, snarly little cretins I have encountered in my 29 years in the Army. They give reservists a bad name. Maybe they are overworked, maybe they are undermanned, but they basically had to do the same job every week for a year. You would think they would start getting things right after they have done it 20-30 times.  And...not take out their frustrations on the people rotating in and out.

I would recommend you get a rental car and a room at the VOQ or a local hotel. If you have to economize, buddy up with another civilian and split the costs. (That way you will have the same schedules.)  The CRC barracks were designed to hold basic trainees going through range week. If you want to be jammed 4-6 people in a room the size of a walk in closet for a week and not get any sleep, those barracks are the place for you. It is like being in a minimum security prison.  At night, there is nothing to do. You will want to eat real food, go see a movie, sit in a real church, walk through a mall, and do real person things before you ship out. You will miss being someplace that didn't throb and hum from deisel powered electrical generators 24 hours a day, take a shower without an audience, watch TV shows in real time.

Deploying is a shitty experience, so why would you want to subject yourself to 24 hours of it a day BEFORE you deploy.

A remember, everyone in uniform will be convinced you are making $300k year tax free and will resent you for it.

Interested in this as well as I will either be going through Benning or Atterbury prior to deploying.  A few of my friends that went through agreed that the rental car and hotel is the way to go to alleviate some of the pre-deployment crap.