How do you become an infantry soldier?

Answer 1

You'd go to One Station Unit Training at Fort Benning, Georgia. There, you learn some of the basics, and you'll get more specialised training at your unit. MOUT (Military Operations in Urban Terrain) has been a major focus lately. Aside from that, fire team/squad/platoon/company maneuvers, marksmanship, weapons maintenance, land navigation, basic first aid, bayonet training, anti-armor weapons (AT-4.. if you're a designation anti-armor crew member, you'll receive additional training on the Javelin and/or TOW ATGM), mortar crew members are also infantry (11C, as opposed to 11B) and will receive training for that. Personnel going to mechanised infantry units received an additional two weeks of training for that, although I don't know how it works now that there's no distinction between mech, anti-tank, and light infantry (until the reorganisation in 2001, 11B was light infantry, 11C was mortar crew, 11H was TOW anti-tank, and 11M was mechanised infantry.. now it's just 11B for infantry, and 11C for mortar crews). After OSUT, you'll receive any additional training needed (such as jump school, if you're to be parachute qualified), and you'll have the opportunity to attend other courses, once you've put some time in, such as Ranger School, Combat Lifesaver, Field Sanitation, Hazmat handler, etc. Chances are, you'll end up having to be licenced to drive something... you can expect, at a minimum, to be expected to be licenced on the HMMWV and LMTV (cabover job which replaced the old M35 series 2-1/2 ton trucks).

The infantry is a "jack of all trades, master of none" occupation, and you'll do some cross training so as to be able to perform some basic tasks of personnel with other military occupations... you may learn some engineering tasks, such as basic demolitions, you'll learn some basic medical tasks, etc.

Answer 2

Contact an Army recruiter.