Questions about joining the Marines

[Eryca]

So I've been heavily contemplating over the idea of joining the Marines. I've seen a recruiter and have kept in mind the whole (he will say anything to get me enlisted) and have talked to a friend of mine who is currently in the Air Force.

Now my main concerns are life in the Marines (which I understand can sometimes be grueling) and finishing my educational career.

Now the recruiter says that I'll have time to get my degree, however my friend in the Air Force said that the Marines wouldn't give me time and that they don't push me to finish my education like the Air Force would. All in all, he says that being in the Marines in the first few years will comprise of having to do some b.s and deal with it because I'm going to be a nobody in the Marines, and that with all that I won't have time to focus on my studies...

Now I want the opinions of people WHO ARE in the Marines and have gone through the entire experience.

I really do like the Marines... but I really have no clue as to what I'm getting myself into, so other opinions would be nice.

 

[phrogpilot73]

My first question would be: what do you want to do in the Marines? The reason I ask this is that you may or may not want to enlist. I see that you're a HS senior, are you planning on going to college/can you afford it/get a scholarship? Those are big questions that are probably weighing in on your decision.

For what it's worth, I spent 2 1/2 years enlisted in the Marine Corps before I went to USNA, and then spent 9 years as a commissioned officer. I wouldn't trade any of my experiences for a million bucks.

The AF recruiter is simply trying to get the sell over the Marine recruiter. First, it all depends on your MOS what you do when you get to the fleet. However, when you finish your MOS school - you're only basically trained. And someone has to clean the heads. But it's not like that's what you do 24/7. You can expect that most of the day will be you learning/doing your new job and come field day time then you're cleaning the heads/offices/barracks.

Of course, I'm biased - but I think that the Marine Corps is MUCH better than the AF when it comes to looking out for each other. We view it as a brotherhood rather than a job. Once a Marine, always a Marine. Any specific questions we can answer (other than what can be found by a search)?

 

[Eryca]

Well in the Marines, I would like to go into Intelligence, or Legal Services... I'm still weighing the two out. As for college, I do plan to go to college, except I want to do it while I'm in the Marines, I can't afford to go to college on my own, and I have gotten scholarships that barely covers half of the total costs... so I'm pretty much at a rut with the idea of going straight to college...

That and I just want to be part of the Marine Corps to in the end, just be part of something as big and as proud of them.

 

[Crowbar]

Here is a post I made in 2003 (irrelevant parts edited out) but it still applies:

-A couple of hours of college a day? Do you know what your Occupational Field will be? Even with as assigned OccField, the subsequent MOS's can vary so that the working environment and hours of one MOS may not resemble any others within that field. For instance, let's take avionics (my field). Within the Avionics OccField, there are an abundance of individual MOS's. "I-level" MOS's (64XX series) generally work from 7am-4pm (roughly) Monday-Friday, unless there is a large-scale exercise or deployment. They work inside most of the time, and do not do as many deployments. "O-level" MOS's (63XX series) work anywhere from 8-16 hours days, 5-7 days per week. They work outside all the time, get dirty every day, and deploy more often. Even within the same MOS, from duty station to duty station, conditions vary. Someone assigned to or supporting a training squadron will not face as many deployments as someone assigned to or supporting an operational squadron. Expect to deploy somewhere. And probably more than once. Marines deploy a lot. Some more than others.

-As far as how long to finish college, remember that most bases have community colleges nearby (or on base) where you can do your general education classes, but as you progress towards your degree, you will need specialized classes (business, engineering, insert your major here) to finish and that most colleges require you to complete the last 30 hours of your degree "in-residence" at that university. For Camp Lejeune/New River, your best bets are UNC-Wilmington or East Carolina University, each of which is about an hour away. Hard to do when you work that much. For San Diego, there is USD (private college), UCSD, and San Diego State University. All within half an hour (traffic not included) but most of their upper-level classes are offered during the day. Can't really speak for anywhere else, those two places are where I spent the majority of my time. Just something to think about...

-In my first seven years in the fleet, I completed 45 hours of college credit. I know Marines who have been in long enough to retire and have ZERO hours. Not because they don't care or don't want to, but because they NEVER HAVE TIME.

Anyway, to sum up a long post...everything depends on your MOS, duty station, and work section. You won't know until you get where you are going if off-duty ed will be possible. Just remember, work as hard as you can and don't give up. I had the opportunity to take plenty of college classes. Most of it was because of my work schedule and the Staff NCO's I worked for supported me (for the most part). So it IS possible. A Marine that worked for me busted his ass for five years and finished a management degree before he got out of the Marine Corps. He's now an avionics engineer for Boeing. He wanted to graduate college. And he did it. So don't ever give up. Ever...

Good luck, post any further questions here, or send me a message and we will try to help you out.

I know that post doesn't address places like University of Phoenix. I've never dealt with them so I don't know how their programs work.

 

[Crowbar]

For what it's worth, I spent 2 1/2 years enlisted in the Marine Corps before I went to USNA, and then spent 9 years as a commissioned officer. I wouldn't trade any of my experiences for a million bucks.

I forgot to put this in my first post, but I did 10+ years enlisted and a few as an officer. For me--good times, bad times. Some days were great, some were about as cool as a sack full of AIDS, but overall I've loved it and I'm glad I did it.

 

[Rg9]

Why don't you try applying for ROTC or the Academy? Do college FOR the Corps. They pay for it.

 

[Harrier Dude]

-In my first seven years in the fleet, I completed 45 hours of college credit. I know Marines who have been in long enough to retire and have ZERO hours. Not because they don't care or don't want to, but because they NEVER HAVE TIME.

I don't quite agree with you on this one. I know that you are 10+ years prior enlisted, but hear me out.

There are plenty of opprotunities for college while on active duty. If you visit your base education center they will have a college that you can get through and attain a degree in a reasonable amount of time. Is it going to be a Harvard degree in 4 years? Absolutely not. But getting a bachelors degree from Embry Riddle, Central Texas College, Southern Illinois University, Troy State, or the like is completely doable in 4 to 6 years if you put your mind to it. With tuition assistance and the GI Bill, it's even very affordable. You can also get a lot of credit for MOS schools, boot camp, and CLEP tests.

There's no free lunch, though. It will likely take ALL of your free time and be a royal pain in the ass in terms of scheduling and deconfliction. Deployments will affect, though not necessarily halt your progress from time to time.

Most of the people that will be your peers will spend their free time partying, playing video games, drinking, and doing any number of productive and not so productive activities. You won't have time for that. It's a choice that you'll have to make.

To say that "I never had the time" is quite simply an excuse. You have the time, but it's up to you to make the most out of it.

Good luck whatever you decide. In the end, we're all on the same team.

 

[Crowbar]

hear me out.

No no no, I want there to be some name calling and hair pulling before this is over.

To say that "I never had the time" is quite simply an excuse. You have the time, but it's up to you to make the most out of it.

I've seen it both ways. I've known maintainers who were with deploying squadrons for 20 years who didn't get a chance to do college classes. Night crew, mid crew, det here, det there, det everywhere. I'm not talking about CLEP and those shipboard classes, but actually leaving the air station and taking a class at a campus, even if it was a night class.

I've also met people who worked eight hour days in admin for 20 years, with some or most of it in non-deploying billets. I definitely agree those people are just making excuses.

Most of the people that will be your peers will spend their free time partying, playing video games, drinking, and doing any number of productive and not so productive activities. You won't have time for that. It's a choice that you'll have to make.

You said it. I worked with people who did NOTHING but play video games and drink. Not saying there's anything wrong with that from time to time, but it never hurts to have a little ambition in your life. For a while when I was at New River, I was working full time and taking weekend classes 8am-5pm every other weekend. The bitch of it was that I had to work 6pm-midnight every Saturday and Sunday night at a second job to pay for those classes. I'm glad those days are over.

You can also get a lot of credit for MOS schools, boot camp, and CLEP tests.

I've posted my thoughts on this in the past. I'll look for the post, as I'm already doing more typing now than I planned to.

It will likely take ALL of your free time and be a royal pain in the ass in terms of scheduling and deconfliction.

Like I mentioned before, one of my buddies finished his degree (SIUC) on active duty, in between deployments, AND as a single dad. He didn't have much of a life then but he works for Boeing in St Louis now and is doing pretty damn good for himself. Priorities.

Damn you, all I wanted to do was copy an old post of mine and try to answer a question and I've been roped into typing for 10 minutes, all just to say, "Yeah, you're right!" and expound a little bit.

 

[VIZKRIEG]

...cool as a sack full of AIDS

I love it.

 

[Birdog8585]

If you want to know when you are going to be home at night, stay in a sweet hotel when you get deployed, know that you will almost never be shot at, never really have to worry to much about your appearance, don't really want too worry to much about physical fitness and will probably do something amazing - once, then join the air force.

If you want pride, direction, sense of purpose, transformation, leadership, constant motivation, confidence, unity, a hardened body, mind and spirit, and when it comes down to it and your unit gets ambushed while you are forward deployed, you will pull together as a unified fighting force and completely obliterate whoever it is that is shooting at you then join the United States Marine Corps.

My advice, evaluate yourself first. Know what your personality traits are. Come up with a no-shit reason why you are joining the military. Talk to 3 Airman - 1 junior enlisted, 1 senior enlisted and 1 officer (NOT RECRUITERS!). Then do the same for the Marine Corps. These can be either active or retired.

When you have done this, you will know the proper path to take.

Good luck
Semper Fi

 

[tspell314]

Look at the Reserves

The Reserve route is always an option as well, you get to earn your title and get to go to school with the GI bill($300 a month plus drill pay), granted you probably will get deployed but thats just money in the bank (tax free) for you and when you get back, you get to go back to school and get more money from the GI bill ($660 a month with the REAP GI bill). Not really a bad gig...

 

[flopper]

Most of the people that will be your peers will spend their free time partying, playing video games, drinking, and doing any number of productive and not so productive activities. You won't have time for that. It's a choice that you'll have to make.

This is the real realization that you will have to face if you enlist active (in any branch) with plans of getting a degree in your initial enlistment. It sounds to me like you're number one goal is education. If you must join, join a reserve component in which you will still get the training and experience of an enlisted person, but won't have to put up with the everyday bs that accompanies active duty enlisted service. So the bottom line is, join a rserve component and pick a job that has relevance/pays well on the outside (look to places like salary.com for guidance and look to apply to colleges when you return from your initial training. I don't see how anyone could be a reservist for 20 plus years and retire off of that because they are second class service members when it comes to benefits. It is great for people in your situation coming right out of high school and it is so much more flexible than active duty. If you do some homework and look in to ways to maximize what you can get out of the deal (GI Bill kicker, sign on bonus, etc.) you will be well on your way to both of your dreams, an education and joining what less than one percent of Americans will ever know. And as for what branch to join? I am at an Air Guard unit and we get nothing but prior Army and Marine Corps enlisted guys coming in wanting to make the switch to blue falcons, if that tells you anything.

 

[PhillyPhinest]

If you want pride, direction, sense of purpose, transformation, leadership, constant motivation, confidence, unity, a hardened body, mind and spirit

Damn, I missed that recruiting poster

 

[teufelhund0311]

5 years active, 2 active reserves, and now a couple of years commissioned.

First “I'm going to be a nobody in the Marines” is B.S., especially coming from someone in the Air Force. I’ve seen Lance Corporals with more responsibilities in the Marine Corps then commissioned officers in the Air Force. That, and the relationship between Air Force officer and enlisted is heinous from what I’ve seen, O to E and E to O. Much better in the Marines, Navy, and even better in the Army.

Yes, getting school done can be largely MOS dependent. Hard if not impossible to do when your in the field a week or two every month and deployed half the other time. CLEP’s are an option but they are not going to get you a degree. Something like Legal Admin (0800-1600 not very deployable) though and it is very much doable.

I wouldn’t recommend active reserves though, just from my experiences, I think you would be better off to do just 4 years active duty and get the full GI Bill.

 

[Flash]

If you want pride, direction, sense of purpose, transformation, leadership, constant motivation, confidence, unity, a hardened body, mind and spirit, and when it comes down to it and your unit gets ambushed while you are forward deployed, you will pull together as a unified fighting force and completely obliterate whoever it is that is shooting at you then join the United States Marine Corps.

Semper Fi

Yut, yut, devil dog, ooorah, Yut, yut, yut.......devil dog, YUT! OOOORRAAH! Yut.