The other side of the coin

implicature

implicature

Active member
I find it necasary in my life to research a topic fully before i am capable of understanding it. i know that my decisions are totaly up to me. I know too that i should do what is in my heart. I am considering enlisting in The Marines.

i would like to know if you please the stories and valid personal reasons veterans regret joining the services. Things like their age or them not preparing and even horror stories. i want to know the things that other ppl know but won't say.

please help me out with this i want to go in the services knowing both sides of the coin. Please be objectional about your posts so that none are deleted because of flaming.

Thank you all for your help and your Services!
 
I will tell you my story because I was on both sides of the coin

I joined the Army in 97 as a forward observer. After AIT, I was stationed at Ft. Campbell. It took some work, but I became a pretty good soldier. After being deployed to Kosovo, I decided to get out. The grass seemed greener on the civilian side. After I got out, I went to college. I could not find a decent job to save my life. Also, college was not what I thought it was gonig to be. I joined the reserves to keep the Army option open. In NOV 02, I volunteered for a deployment that took me to Iraq. Once I got back from Iraq, I evaluated my position. I already had 5 years of active duty. That meant only 15 more years to retirement. My wife (gf at the time) surgested I study history since I am a history freak. I looked at becoming a teacher. Life would be pretty good with a military pension and a teaching position so I joined back up.

There are draw backs to being in the military. For me, there were more drawbacks being in the civilian world.
 
I can say I do not regret joinin in the least. There are good units, tough units and bad units. The way you think of your military experience is goin to be soley based upon the units you are with. It is a persons attitude while they are in that once you are out will make you a person that is resentful and hated every minute of it or look back and not regret a second.
 
The Corps is what you make of it. Like Sooner said it'syour attitude. Yes you will do things you would rather not, but thats life.
I regret not one day I served.
 
The Corps is what i make of it... I never thought of it that way. I always thought of everyone telling me what to do and getting the "short" end of the stick when it comes to my contract. I guess if i cover my six as far as all of the things that i DO have control over it would be a denefiting experienc.

as far as horror stories go has anyone had a recruiter that said one thing and after you signed found out that the contract said another? that is one of the things that i am worried about.
 
My Recruiter was up front with me. I wanted 0300 Infantry and thats what I got. You need to remember that the Corps can guarantee a field say Infantry, Artillery, Engineers, but they cannot guarantee a specific MOS.
With that in mind if you go in wanting to be a 0331 Machine Gunner and end up being an 0341 mortar man it is not because your recruiter lied it's because thats where and what the Corps needs you to do.
 
03USMC said:
My Recruiter was up front with me. I wanted 0300 Infantry and thats what I got. You need to remember that the Corps can guarantee a field say Infantry, Artillery, Engineers, but they cannot guarantee a specific MOS.
With that in mind if you go in wanting to be a 0331 Machine Gunner and end up being an 0341 mortar man it is not because your recruiter lied it's because thats where and what the Corps needs you to do.
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Better yet, I went "Open Contract", my goal was to let the Corps put me into they thought was the best....ended up at Camp Geiger. I have never regretted the decision to go into the Corps, now I have thought about why I never took the MCECP option I was offered, but that's a different story. The two above are correct, the Corps is what you make of it, nothing more.
 
thank you all for your posts and please keep them coming.

is it true that The Corps enters every person as infantry and then disperses them according to their needs? is there anyone who regretted letting someone else make this choice? i don't think that i will because logic tells me that if i suck at something no one will want me doing it.

the reason i ask is if i do not go career ( which i don't think that i will but who knows) i will need skills that i can base a career off of. i have been to a couple different topic posts and have gotten different information. can someone sett his straight for all time.

i know i will have all kinds of general personal skills after my term is up but i need corporate or job specific skills as well as a civilian. i am currently a freshman in college with almost forty hours. i don't plan to graduate (due to my funding) until after the services.

also if i join the army i go through training and then off to my MOS is is the same in The Corps or is it as i stated above.

thank you all for being supportive i wish my family and friends were as supportive as you are.
 
First off, every Marine is a rifleman. The whole logic behind that is that every Marine will be able to survive in the field no matter what his/her MOS. I went in to my recruiter and told him I wanted to be infantry, because I wanted to be an 0331 which is a machinegunner. I had an open contract and somehow I got what I wanted, so I am not a good one to answer about that. I can say I do not regret it at all. As far as career's go, you are kinda on the money there, I am perfectly qualified to be a hit man or somethin like that, not very applicable. Take an ASVAB, then look and see what you are interested in and go from there. A recruiter is the thing you really could use to talk to. Talkin to them doesnt mean you are signin up.
 
Doody said:
My wife (gf at the time) surgested I study history since I am a history freak. I looked at becoming a teacher. Life would be pretty good with a military pension and a teaching position so I joined back up.

There are draw backs to being in the military. For me, there were more drawbacks being in the civilian world.
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Basically the reason I am joining up. I already have my BA in History, Poli Sci, and Historical Preservation.

Eventually teacher is my goal but the new licensure program is expensive. And if you don't have experience forget it.

implicature- Listen to what your head tells you, ignore the recuiter. Write a list of Pro's and Con's. Look into retirement, and where you want your life to be in 5, 10, 15, 20 years. Find the correct path and go for it. Sometimes the military is a means to the end for a lot of people.

I wish you all the luck.
 
Don't get the wrong idea though. You will get jobs/tasks/assignments or whatever you want to call them that you will either think is stupid, doesn't make sense, or that you just don't understand why you're doing it. So making the most of it means are you going to do your job considering the above, or are you going whine and complain and not be part of the team? It's not Burger King and sometimes you've got to do things you don't want to. If you think it's stupid and ask "Why am I doing this?", usually you just don't see the big picture yet, or sometimes it is down right stupid. Keep in mind that some people stick around long enough in the Corps to be in a position to make decisions, but may not be all that smart. Overall I believe there is a lot of job satisfaction, but again that depends on the particular command you are in. There's so much more to say. The bottom line is sometimes you have to grow up, take some chances and take the good with the bad.
 
From what i can tell the Marines offer me more good than bad. Of course this is true with the army as well... i guess i need to really hunker down and talk to my recruiters to see which one will fit me best. Another thing that i thought about was that if someone enlisted or was drafted and ended up hating it why would the be in a forum about something they hate. guess i hadn't put a lot of thought into the original post.
 
Update:

I just wanted to say thank you to all the people that posted here. I am enjoying my time in the Marine Corps and don't regret it at all.
 
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