Marines or Army?

[grupps]

I am thinking of joining into the services, which would you prefer or should I say, which would you recommend, and why...

[Koosh]

this has been covered a number of times... no offense to you or anything, but alot of good advice has been given in previous threads.

If it were my life (and it just might be...) I would join the Marines. Mainly because the marine recruiters up here are what I would most like to become. Funny, nice, always have an answer, always joking around, but they maintain strict discilpline.

Plus a two guys I know have just joined, one just got back from boot and is at MCT now, while the other is 2 months into boot. They both really like it, and if I wasn't going to college, I would seriously consider it.

But this is my situation. Every person is different, the best advice I can give would be to call the recruiters office and schedule appointments with all the branches, and see what they all have to say. There are a number of members on here that will offer good advice as well (just look at the name of one of the mods, Army), and I'm sure they'll chime in here too...

[Jack_Dubious]

Marines. But then ive always wanted to be a Marine. I feel thier training and operational doctrine is better...

What do you see yourself doing in the Military?

JDub

[Mango]

I've got to say, and this is no indicator what so ever, but of all the prior service guys in my Academy Class, the Army and Air Force guys seem to be the most intelligent and squared away of all of them. We have almost 30 prior service, with almost equal numbers from the Navy, Air Force, Army and Marines. The Marines in the class are like big jokers, they cause the most problems but two of them are in great physical shape. The Air Force and Navy guys are smart, but not in very good shape. And the Army guys are in good shape and seem to be the most well rounded. One of them is a Master Sgt. who put in 21 years, and he is in excellent shape and dosn't take crap from anyone. I have a great deal of respect for him most definetly. Even though he is retired we all still call him Master Sgt.

[lopxtc]

As a former Marine myself I will offer you this advice ...

What are you wanting out of the military? If you want to get an education and excellent technical skills, then the Air Force is the way to look. They have some of the better high end technical fields, and honestly treat their people to a higher end lifestyle then other services. While there are technical MOS's in the Marines also, allot actually, you have to remember that "Every Marine is a rifleman" so no matter what you are trained to do there will also be the combat aspect around you.

The army is nice, and they have their cute little black berrets now ... but aside from specialized units (Rangers, Delta, Green B's, PsyOps) they seem to have degenerated down to an "Occupation Force" more then anything else. Of the units that I got to work with along side with, there just never seemed to be that sense of team work and sense of "Esprit de Corps" that you will find in a Marine unit. Even their slogan "Army of One" leaves me with the impression of a unorganized group of individuals and not a solid fighting unit ... There also seems to be a greater sense of unit pride and accomplishment amoung Marines.

I was a Combat Engineer while in the Marines, basically a smart grunt, and loved every minute of it. The military is a job that is as easy as you want to make it. Do your job, listen and follow orders and you will find that you can very far. The units I was with were always filled with excellent Marines and a command staff that was always on top of things and always aware of the Marines under their command.

The Marines are a great service, you will find that amoung former military members there tends to be a greater bond between Marines then any other branch.

I would love to talk to you more about the Marines if you would like to know more, or have any questions .... Just drop me a PM.

Aaron
USMC Cpl. Combat Engineers

[Smoke]

Marines are all around the best fighting force in the world. Their training is more intence, and they are constantly being deployed, about every 6 weeks, maybe even less than that. A perfect example of motivated marines was in the Gulf War. A squad of marines charged over open ground at about 50-100 Iraqies. The Iraqies dropped their weapons and surrendered in pure fear, because the marines (maybe about 20 or so) were so tenacious and showed absolutly no fear. Also, marines are the best marksmen in the world. You can take any marines, even a cook, and place him in the front, and he can still be effective, because all marines are riflemen.
SEMPER FI!! OOO-RAH!!!


*EDIT* Posted before me, darn!

[Jack_Dubious]

Originally posted by lopxtc
The army is nice, and they have their cute little black berrets now ...

LOL!! Thats the funniest thing ive read all day.



JDub

[-J�ker-]

im for both, but there are advantages and disadvangtages for both. ill name a few... but before you decide check out all aspects of the service

ok for the army you can pick anywhere in the world you want to go and basically have a contract of what your going to do and there are several special forces type groups including airborne


marines... you have SEMPER FI OOOOOOORAAAAAH and lots of it.. its a great thing when everybody is so dang proud! you get a 2nd family with the marines... but you dont have a contract with the marines saying what your job will be and where youll go. lets say you enlist and want to go lets say force recon it will be very hard very very hard to get it in the first place (even harder to get in that great of shape) so theres no guarentee that you will get in... now there are similar things that can happen in the army but they make more sense heres an example lets say you wanna get your airborne wings but your job is somthing like a tank driver... highly unlikely you could get in airborne school with that job


i hope that helped, if i were you id goto college get in army rotc through scholorship have 4 years of college paid for plus a stipend monthly for being in rotc on scholorship and have access to airborne and air assault school before you ever are serving! its a great way to get college paid for and have a job as soon as you get out of school

[PolishSausage]

Originally posted by automagfreek
Also, marines are the best marksmen in the world. You can take any marines, even a cook, and place him in the front, and he can still be effective, because all marines are riflemen.

The only thing that makes you a good marksman is the time you put into it, NOT being a Marine. Regardless of how much PT and Basic they get, the only thing that will make one a great marksman is time, effort, and desire...

so again:

[FutureMagOwner]

Originally posted by lopxtc
I was a Combat Engineer while in the Marines, basically a smart grunt, and loved every minute of it.
Aaron
USMC Cpl. Combat Engineers

hey lopxtc,

when i was looking around at marines and army combat engineer looked interesting but i wasnt sure exactly what they did, i was also thinking either some form of recon or spec ops or of course tank commander or medium machine gunning.(BTW im still interested i just am not doing as much research as i was i plan on talking with both army and marines when they come by school again

[gink bob]

marines would be my choice. from my experince they are they professional, and defintly shoot the best.


but do remember one thing, "how do you tell when a recruiter is lieing? his lips are moving." so dont think think that one is your buddy, his job is to get you to sighn your life away.

[giblit]

it all depends on how hard you want to work, i had a teammate that left to join the army and he said its actually not bad at all, he said its better then working 40 hours a week in an office, now for the marines, i would never join that, way to hard they put you through so much hell, my uncle was a marine and he went in when he turned 18 and was a football player and he said he never worked so hard in his life. he was 180 pounds when he started and they classfied him as over weight and when he was done with basic training he was 125 pounds.

[PolishSausage]

Originally posted by gink bob
and defintly shoot the best.

Ugh, he wants opinions, not biased statements, see my other post up there ^^

[grupps]

As far as what I want, I'm not so sure. You have to understand, I'm a big guy, overweight and very undisciplined, but that can be changed in a moment's notice by these guys. I'm generally more of a computer guy, although I can't say that I know a whole lot about that. Any comments you have as to regarding this, keep posting, I'd love to hear more. I really just want a place to get my life in order for now, yet learn a trade and be a better person, if that can make sense to you. Thanks,

Ryan

Oh yeah, as far as marksmanship, I'm a great marksman, however my fairly poor eyesight has begun to limit me somewhat, I can still hit my mark no problem. I always did want to become a sharpshooter

[Koosh]

well no matter what I would suggest to join a gym, start working out and running on a regular basis. You will have to meet minimum physical standards (not saying you can't now, but you will get your butt kicked during boot). Plus even if you don't, you'll start to look nicer for the ladies