A Soldier’s Guide to MOS 25B (U.S. Army)
An Army enlistment can feel like forever, no matter your contract’s time-in-service (TIS) obligation.
Some MOS’s (military occupational specialty) require as little as two years active time, and even then, those two years can age you like a damn dog. I’m going to assume that anyone reading this is either a current 25-Buckaroo, an interested applicant, or a grunt who’s tired of using brooms and mops more than their M4 (jokes — don’t be salty).
If you’re a fresh applicant, then read these words carefully: You’re going to be enduring Uncle Sam’s green rod of bulls*** for a hot minute. A little under six years, in fact. (I’m not sure for MOS-T folks.)
However! This MOS is a gold-mine if you take advantage, and it can set you up for a wealth of opportunities when returning to civilian life. I can testify to this as fact because I lived it, and — to this day — I continue to reap the benefits of my former life in combat boots.
Who are you, and why make this guide?
(feel free to skip ahead)
My name is Jonathan Sud, and I served in this nation’s lovely Army from 2014 to 2019 as a 25-Bunny under 5–5 ADA (no, it’s not common to stay with a unit that long). Upon transitioning, I moved to Colorado and got a job doing low-level cybersecurity and systems administration work. A year into that, I quickly moved up to systems engineering, which I continue to do now until enough experience justifies a jump to security architecture roles.
During my time in the Army, I very quickly became the “go-to” guy for all things computers. So much so that my word and opinion on tech carried a significant amount of weight to command staff. Towards the mid of my contract, the battalion stop-loss’d me for our relocation from Joint Base Lewis-McChord to Fort Sill, and I (forcibly — don’t make that mistake) assumed responsibility of the commo shop’s beefy hand-receipt. In Fort Sill, I became the primary POC tech for not only the battalion, but the entire 31st ADA brigade — including subordinate sister battalions therein. I served as the senior desktop support and Information Assurance Security Officer (IASO), and filled an NCOIC billet (as a Specialist, mind you) for the majority of my final year deployed in Afghanistan.
The goal behind this guide is to just give back. I’ve entered a phase in my life where I truly realize sometimes people need help, and I can’t tell you how many of peers would ask me how I did this/that, flat-out don’t do their job, or just didn’t have a sense of direction with what can be achieved through this gig.
Please note that this guide is what you decide to make of it. I’m not here to convince you to follow any particular path. Some people truly enjoy serving while others enlist as a launchpad. Rest assured — there’s something in here for everyone. Take what you will and leave the rest.
For those who lean toward the “launchpad” route — to put it in a way that might make your eyes widen a bit — I went from an E4/Specialist pulling 45k (that’s including allowances), to six Fig Newtons within a year of separation. I was 25 at this point, and the majority of my high school peers who pursued the traditional route of college/trade were still struggling.
This MOS is a gold-mine if you take advantage…
Please note: It’s absolutely not my intent to come across as “braggy” or conceited at all. I just want to be as transparent as possible, and hopefully instill some sense of inspiration for those who need it.
I’ll be referencing bits and pieces of my service throughout this guide to serve as examples when applicable, but for now, just know that I made a lot of mistakes that could’ve royally f***ed me had luck not been on my side. I hope you can avoid the ones I’ll disclose along the way.
Let’s dive in!
WHAT EVEN *IS* A 25B?
(commo, but not really)
Military Occupation Specialty (MOS) 25B is an Information Technology Specialist — falling under the US Army Signal Corp (see above image). Troopers in this role can expect to work in a communications shop, anywhere from the company/battery-size elements and up. Day to day duties can vary from general tech support, managing trouble-ticket systems, account provisioning/de-provisioning, VoIP setup, cabling, software configuration, peripherals setup, baseline image deployment, systems security compliance, and maybe playing with some of the actual military comms equipment — like loading TACLANE keys into radars. (More on all this later.)
I think at some point the recruiter told me I’d learn and use programming. Haha.
This MOS is one of many in the Signal/Communications series, and its most similar sibling is 25U — Signal Support Systems Specialist. There are many areas of overlap, but the bottom-line distinction is that 25-Unicorns often serve as a “jack of all trades”, whereas the 25-Booboo’s scope is limited to IT assets. 25Us are both blessed and cursed with their ability to fill in for pretty much any commo job, and they often accompany 25Bs in that “tech support” role. (If you’re a current Umbrella in this position — this guide is equally for you as well.)
MAKING THE MOST OUT OF AIT
(First and foremost — don’t mess around. You know exactly what I mean.)
Advanced Individual Training (AIT) for this MOS is 20 weeks at Fort Gordon/Eisenhower, GA. You’ll learn the basics of computer hardware/networking/security, as well as environmental training for vendor-specific technologies such as Cisco routing and Microsoft Windows administration. Some of these classes are hard if you are new to tech (Cisco especially), and the pace of instruction is like shoving a fire-hose down your throat. Don’t let it get to you. Keep studying and you’ll be just fine. The provided resources are actually pretty damn top-notch.
Pay close attention to your attitude for each and every class. This is your introduction to some of the biggest specialties of IT out there — hardware, networking, and cybersecurity/InfoSec. It will behoove you to identify areas of particular interest for career outline preparation.
The curriculums that instructors go off of closely mirror CompTIA exam objectives for their respective certifications (A+ for hardware fundamentals, Network+ for general networking concepts, and Security+ for cyber and IA fundamentals). You will have opportunities to receive free vouchers for these very expensive tests — should you score well enough in the class, that is. Only a fool wouldn’t take advantage. At the very least — work your ass off for the Security+ one. You need it to actually do the full extent of your job. (We’ll talk more about certifications in a moment.)
At the very least — work your ass off for the Security+ one. You need it to actually do the full extent of your job.
As far as everything outside of class — it’s pretty chill. At least it was when I went through. There’s formal Drill Sergeants now who oversee students, but, to my knowledge, they still keep it more laid back than BCT. You’ll be fine.
Finally —again, I can’t stress this enough — don’t mess around. I know what it’s like to be a sexually charged young buck after those long months of basic training. Especially when you’re finally allowed to wear civilian clothes. Even more if you play for the same team, cause then it’s just too easy. But it just ain’t worth it. Take care of it yourself, run through a cold shower, buy a Nintendo from the PX ffs. Do anything to distract yourself from that impulse. Don’t be me.
This was probably my biggest f-up in the Army.
Long story short — I got caught, received a field-grade Article-15, and spent three months doing extra-duty at the battalion HQ (and I’d literally just bought an Xbox). It also looked pretty damn bad showing up to my first post as a slick-chested E1/Private (by the time you finish AIT, you’ll be at nine months of service — so at least an E2/Private Second-Class).
Hopefully I don’t have to repeat myself again…?
No? You sure? Cold shower, yup-yup, check rog — moving on.
MADE IT THROUGH! NOW WHAT?
(eight months of craziness later)
First of all, congratulations! You’re a mighty fine, competent, high-speed G.I. Joe/Jane at this point. Welcome to the Army. Now go f**k yourself! (I’ll never convince Officers to distribute this…)
Seriously though — this is just basic Enlisted advice. Embrace the suck. You have to have a high threshold of patience if you want to make it through this contract with your sanity intact. Each job has this rule applicable in its own way. For 25-Barbies, that’ll be people who don’t know how to Google something stupid like saving an email. A “net-outage” that turns out to be a disconnected Ethernet cable. It’ll be a fresh-promoted Captain who finally developed enough of a spine to talk s**t and try to explain your job to you. Simplifying tech jargon for senior-NCOs who think you’re just saying fancy words to manipulate their ignorance.
I wish I could say I was exaggerating, but I’m really not.
Embrace the suck.
The following list of action items are a comprehensive look at all you need to do to be successful in this MOS. None of these are in any particular order of importance — certification being the exception.
GET CERTIFIED
(See the “Resources” section at the bottom for recommended study)
There’s absolutely no going around this priority task. F**k your PT score, f**k your fancy car at 30% interest, f**k your barracks parties. Keep the pedal to the metal — you can’t afford to slow down yet and risk losing all the fresh info that AIT jammed in your head.
Familiarize yourself with DoD 8140 (prev. 8570) roles and requirements — particularly IAT (Information Assurance Technical) and IAM (Information Assurance Manager). Your goal as a 25B will be both IAT-II/IAM-I roles, and if you look closely, you’ll see that CompTIA Security+ serves as a double-whammy for both…nudge-nudge, wink-wink. (Should a green to gold commission or warrant officer selection be something you hope to achieve, then by all means aim for the higher levels.)
Why certify? Well, as a fresh 25B, your duties as tech support are mostly limited to creating trouble-tickets for civilian NEC (Network Enterprise Center) workers to fix. You don’t want that. What you want is to be the go-to person for your unit. You want the kudos, the excuse to get out of motor-pool Monday, the affirmations of being a high-esteemed asset.
How do we do this? Well, obtaining a certification in fulfillment of IAT/IAM roles will justify a request to what’s commonly referred to as “the god card” — an elevated access card that grants a certain level of administrative privileges. Listen to me when I say that having this card will save your ass on so many occasions, and it will be the driving force behind building your precious reputation (which holds its own section of the guide further down).
I will always recommend Security+ as the bare minimum. However —do not jump straight into it without a solid grasp of fundamentals. Be honest with yourself and thoroughly work towards areas of weakness. This was another mistake of mine. I didn’t have a good grasp of networking fundamentals prior to testing out, and — although I passed — it was way too close to even celebrate.
Another crucial mistake if you’re selected for an Army-sponsored class would be a dependency on instructor materials. I have absolutely zero issues calling these people out on plagiarizing and/or flat-out redistributing actual test questions/answers. It’s ethically wrong to cheat your students out of grasping knowledge in favor of memorizing test answers. It may very well be an easy way to certify, but you’ll look stupid in the long run without this, I promise you. It’s the basics. The basics. Like, come on. (Go f**k yourself if your an instructor who does this.)
That all being said — should your unit have slots open for anything else, like A+ , CEH, CCNA, etc— take it with gusto and enthusiasm. It may not satisfy the roles you need, but it’ll be beneficial in the future regardless. Also…I mean, you’re chilling in class for a week instead of at your unit. Common sense, folks.
Understand that you will not do the full extent of your job if you don’t satisfy requirements for these roles. And if you go long enough without … well … guess who the CSM will recommend for training room/PAC or driver duty? You wouldn’t believe just how many of my peers got screwed like this.
(One final note: I’m not sure if this is still a requirement, but in addition to a baseline cert, you may need an environmental/vendor cert — such as MCSA in my case.)
REQUEST A TOP SECRET CLEARANCE
(this one is probably the most difficult)
As a 25B, you’re only required a Secret clearance, but you’ll really maximize prospects both in/out the Army with a boost to Top Secret. Obtaining this can be hard, because it’s not something in your hands to achieve. However — you can put yourself in a position to where it just makes sense. This section is by no means a guarantee of assistance, though. Take it with salt.
To obtain a TS, you’ll need to either apply and be selected for a tasking where it’s required (Special Forces, White House Communications Agency/WHCA, for example) or be nominated for the process at the behest of a senior-ranking individual. For me, it was my first SIGO (Signal Officer). Convincing them to go through that trouble and effort can prove difficult — especially at sub-battalion echelon levels, but I can at least offer my experience to help your brains tick.
After obtaining my god card, I started to proactively build a good reputation throughout the battalion. My SIGO noticed my efforts and decided to put me in for a TS to satisfy requirements for an additional god card — one specifically for classified systems. I forget the sense of urgency with this, but we’d recently gotten an ATO (authority to operate) for the battalion’s vault, and things were already breaking.
I will update this section with sources as they come in. Hopefully someone else knows the additional avenues you can take. One things is for damn sure though — nobody will want to sponsor a slacker. So work on your…
REPUTATION
(it’s everything)
PVT Jonathan Sud was looked at as a young-n-dumb, fuzzy-chested kid with no discipline when he arrived in Fort Lewis. PV2 Sud started to gain some traction when he passed Security+. PFC Sud, however, was looked at as the “the Man” in regards to technology — so much so that he was put in charge of millions-worth of commo assets for relocation to Fort Sill. By the time SPC Sud got out — he was the most esteemed tech in all of Fort Sill (assuming the NEC wasn’t just blowing smoke in exchange for lowering their workload).
Your reputation matters a lot in general as a troop, but when you have even a morsel of power — it’s a far bigger deal. It’s why everyone, regardless of rank, is nicer than usual for certain folks. For example — you’ll understand why even crusty 1SGs are so nice to HR lower-enlisted when submitting for leave. Same deal with this, but I’d argue we have more than a bit of power than most. With the majority of work done on computers these days — you’re kind of a pathway to continued success. Think about it like this — the Command Sergeant Major desperately needs to send a file that’s getting lost due to sync issues with Outlook. Being able to have a god-card and update his Outlook PKI credentials on the spot will earn you reliability points. That same CSM mentions your name when the BN Commander is losing his mind over his account expiring. That same BN Commander overhears the BDE XO complaining about yada-yada — you get my point, I hope.
Please note — I’m not suggesting to be that stereotypical, overly high-speed “yes man”. What I’m saying is to present and adhere yourself to a professional standard in accordance to qualifications. Your job is not to go above and beyond — there’s a very fine line to straddle so you don’t get taken advantage of. I can’t advise you on that part — it has to come naturally, after weighing pros/cons in each moment of “should I now” or “send a ticket”.
My reputation is why I got away with a lot of Army BS. It’s how I got my own office as a Specialist (don’t ever accept Corporal btw). The confidence in my drive/work earned me a referral to CISSP training during a very busy deployment — a certification that has, quite frankly, changed my life (also for context: there were zero enlisted Soldiers in that class asides myself. It’s a senior-level exam).
Take it serious.
IN CLOSING
(fair warning — not good at goodbyes)
I hope I’ve been able to be some kind of help for anyone interested/working in this MOS. I’ll likely update this to keep up with changes to policy and things as such, so consider bookmarking for future reference. If anything in this guide is dated or just plain wrong — please let me know so I can update it ASAP. I’m working off of memory and old notes for a lot of this, so I’m sure there’s hiccups.
Should you have any questions, feel free to reach out! I’ll be more than happy to help, and it may be something worth adding to this article over time. Take care, and don’t take the Army too serious in the meantime. It’s all a game — outwit and conquer, friend.
Hooah and what have you,
Jonathan
