Should i join the Army or Marines?

[hardr0ck68]

Ok, so i am a college grad, 24 in good shape and all that; and i want to sign up. I want to be infantry; but not necessarly a typical grunt. I can go to officers training school but im worried about being made to ride a desk for 3 years.

The Army will pay a signing bonus and if i go enlisted they will pay my college loans (i owe 30G). The recruiters have been doing nothing but bashing the officer side of things so i dont know anything about that. Im guessing these guys were told to recruit every bullet catcher they can get their hands on, otherwise i doubt they would be telling me the officers life blows.

The Marine recruiter has been much more up front with me, earning many bonus points. He told me i would be a fool to go enlisted and count on my CO to submit my packet to become an officer (if i want to persue a career). He is pushing me to become an officer; because he believes its the better choice for me (or maybe he earns some kind of bonus IDK). I like him because he SEEMS to be telling me the truth. The only issue with the Marines is i would not pass the physical exam to submit my packet, so i would first need to sign up as a reservist and go to basic. Then after beaten into shape i could pass the physical exam and then submit my packet (through a hopefully non-bias recruiter NOT my CO) and hopefully be accepted to officer candacy school.

So yeah i know alot of you out there are former and or current members of the above mentioned services, so yeah im just lookin for advice and information. What does a Lieutenant do? Is there any chance of someone who did not go through ROTC being in the field leading troops? Or would i simply be shuffled off to crunch numbers somewhere? Should i just say screw it all and join a commune somewhere in the backwoods of Canada?

[Recon by Fire]

There are a lot of good recruiters and some bad ones as well. In general, be leary of anything I recruiter leads you to believe and if it is not on your enlistment contract - you are not getting it! The Liason at the MEPS station can really be your best friend. He is the one who gets you suared away there, teh recruiter just makes sure the basic paperwork is order and gets you there.

You have to really decide if you want to lead a combat unit or not. It is not for everyone and there is nothing wrong with not wanting to have that task. If you do want to be an officer and possibly lead, then go to ROTC. Beware that this is not a fast track into combat and not all officers get to choose their designations (artillery, infantry, supply!). The top cadets in the class get their choice, after that you get assigned on the needs of the service! The other way to become an officer is to join enlisted and later go to OCS, you should have to be a Sergeant/E-5 before taht is even a possibility.

Marines or Army is all up to you. Marines have some nice infantry units like Expeditionary or FAST (Fake *** Seal Team -LOL- as they like to dub themselves). Army of course has Rangers, Special Forces/Delta. If you sign up Enlisted I would definitely advise Army as I believe you can get your options for airborne, ranger, etc...easie bundled into your intial contract.

You said you were in good physical condition, so either way you should be able to join and go through training and pass the physicals. They are not that hard!

Even going enlisted (you will get bumped to E-3 right away for your schooling) you can still lead combat units. But it will be as a NCO leading teams, squads, up to platoons, companies, etc...

There is always Warrant Officer if you want to make use of your degree but not end up in a "ground combat" type role. Alot of pilots and technical jobs are WO's.

No matter what you choose though, be warned that if you wash out and fail any part of your training you can get reassigned as they see fit and end up in a position you don't like or just a run of the mill grunt.

Either USMC or USA you better plan on seeing a rotation or two in Ira or Afghanistan, or both!

I've been out of service for a good while, some of the more recent fellows can lend more advice like, Army.

Either way, I salute your decision to serve the country!

[Vex]

I am former enlisted Air Force. While I can't speak from personal experience about being an officer, I will share my opinion with you.
If I chose to join a different branch of service, other than the Air Force, it would have been the Army: no way I'm spending six months at a time on a boat or am I going to be a jarhead (nothing against 'em, just not my bag...)
The Army pays the most for college and they have a TON of career choices. I know you want infantry though.
My best friend is a former enlisted Army infantryman and current commissioned Air Force C-130 pilot. He tells me all the time that the officer way of life is better; however, it comes with a different set of rules and stipulations. Your behavior is under more of a microscope, whereas with the enlisted guys, they are sort of given enough rope...you know the saying.
Being an officer will pay more; be more of a status symbol (important to some); will actually give you a chance to use your education for something.
After spending 8 years enlisted in the Air Force; if I had to go back in, I'd definitely go the officer route.
If your Army recruiter isn't being too upfront with you, tell him. Also, there are other recruiters that you can go to. It would suck for him to loose you to another recruiter who's farther away.
I respect that the Marine recruiter has apparantly been upfront with you. That is a good thing. I always held my recruiter high in respect for telling me things straight up. It actually made my entire enlistment easier because I actually knew what to expect going in.

Well, as I said before, this is just my opinion. Whatever you choose, good luck!
Thank you for your desire to serve!

[kosmo]

The only way you should consider enlisting as an infantryman would be if you plan to go the SF route (but if you are going to do that you might as well do it as an officer). Im not going to go so far to say that doing otherwise would be a waste, but you will make so much more of yourself if you go SF, the money is a lot better, and the future job opportunities are a lot better. You will also be working with a much higher caliber of soldier, both physically and mentally. If you do decide to enlist though, be absolutely sure that they are giving you what you are due. If you have a bachelors degree, you are supposed to come in as an E-4. I know very few people who successfully did this, because they will give every single excuse in the world why they wont count your college credit towards being a SPC (army side of things).

Also, be absolutely sure that you want to go infantry before you commit to it. There is an inherent amount of danger in being in the service, in most any job you choose. And its not from being shot at or bombed. The things you do will break you down. If you are genetically blessed, you wont have that problem, but things will go wrong with your body and a lot of permanent damage can occur. Because of this, it is very important to be sure that what you are signing up to do is the best thing for your future. There arent too many job fields when you get out that time served as an infantryman directly applies to. You could always sign up for a different job that would be something youd like to do for the rest of your life, get the training, then go to special forces school to have your fun as a ground pounder.

[Pacifist_Farmer]

I've a lot of respect for the armed forces and those who serve.

Recon's post brought something to my mind. A friend whos life goal had been to be an Army Ranger tried unsuccessfully three(?) times to pass the physical tests. It came down to doing his push-ups. He would get to his last push up (50?) and the officer would continue to count 49 as he did push-up after push-up. Now it could just be that they didnt like him, or didn't think he would be able to cut it in the long run, but I would play it safe and start as high as you can.

(man I wish I had joined)

Oh that friend is getting stuck as a grunt, I would guess because thats where they need him.

[Eagle]

Well, as someone who just got out of the Navy, I'll say the only good Marine is a Submarine My recruiters 5+ years ago never lied, but they certianly left a lot of info out, that caused me to have to play catchup once I hit boot. And the detailer at MEPS screwed me out of $5000 (I should have gotten $11000 sign on instead of $6000) and almost screwed me into another year on my contract. A guy who I served with, his bro finished Marine boot about a year ago and before he ever left boot they told him what unit he was going to and that within weeks of reporting the unit was heading to Iraq. My only beef about thatis that the rest of the unit went through 6 or more months of pre-deployment training to prepare them, when this guy hadn't even been in the Corp that long.

As for the whole OCS thing, a scam that alot of Navy guys do is that they enlist, get their education paid for, either go to school while in the Navy or after their contract is up, then re-enlist, get a re-up bonus, then put in for a commisioning program. They become an officer but get to keep their re-up bonus. As for the officer bashing, get used to it. Every enlisted guy does it a little. Acadamy grads tend to get it the worst, but they tend to be the most arogant too. In my 5 years in the Navy, I only met 1 Acadamy grad I liked, and as prior enlisted, he bashed his fellow Canoe U grad almost as much as the rest of us.

My recommendation is before you sign on the dotted line, attend a few MEPS meetings, meet the other recruits, and see what deals/programs/ect. they are getting, maybe there is something out there your recruiter has left out that you might want to consider.

[Dayspring]

You realize Rocco that this will require you to cut your hair and wash using soap...

[Muzikman]

You realize Rocco that this will require you to cut your hair and wash using soap...

[Destructo6]

If you decide to enlist, only do so if you have a guaranteed specialty. Do not let them convince you to go "open contract" or such, as that will only allow you to select form a short list of undesireable jobs towards the end of bootcamp (ie cook).

Talk to officer recuruiters. They can give you the straight dope on the various routes to becoming an officer.

In my experience, enlisted guys might get several opportunities to get into special warfare stuff, while officers will only get one.

[hardr0ck68]

You realize Rocco that this will require you to cut your hair and wash using soap...

all the hair is gone man....it got chopped about a month back, its my grandma's x-mas present. She has been wanting me to look respectable for years now, i figured i should do it cause shes like 85 and all. My girl cried and is super upset about it all. sigh.

Now onto the signing up stuff; when exactly do i sign a contract? will that be the recruiter that sets me up with that or one of these MEPS thinggys? This is all sooo confusing, mostly because everything has some odd name like MEPS WTF IS A MEPS?

i swing back and forth over the decisions i have infornt of me.

How much indoctornation and behavior modifacation should i expect? The feeling i get is that the Marines are much worse with all that than the Army. I do still want to be myself when im done with this all, maybe different but still reconabizable as Rocco.

From what im hearing here i think officer might be out of the running, because i dont want to reide a desk or be is some office building looking over piles of paper; not my thing at all. Maybe SF but im not in great shape now; i would immagin my 3mile time arround 23min, i could do probably 30 push ups and 1 pull up. Nothing to brag about, but i have been drinkin and reading more these days than running and lifting.

How far can you push the recruiters? i have tried being fairly passive, and yeah that gets me walked all over; then i tried being more aggressive and they got defensive and started working as a pair not just one on one. I'm wondering if i go in and say "this is what i want or im heading out now" what they will do? Just blow me off, or for once put me in control of the conversation.


Is there anywhere i can go for some reading on all this?? HELP ME!!!

[Recon by Fire]

MEPS = Military Enlistment Processing Station ...or close enough

You will NOT be a different person as in you will brain altered, LOL. You will be a different in respect that you will learn what you thought were your physicl limits were only illusions of weakness. You willgain confidence, develope responsibility (not just for yourself but others - that last one is the hardest!). best thing about it all is to remember than you get out of it what you put into it! Some units are lax others are disciplined, that is usally a REMF vs combat arms thing, but not always!

The recruiter is just there to help you with getting to MEPS. MEPS is where all the important action takes place! Testing, physical exams, contracts, swearing in! Contracts and swearing in are at the bottom of the list of things you do. After that it's just waiting for your departure date. I don't know any great online resource sites for enrollments, sorry!

[Boski51]

I am a former enlisted Marine. I will give you a slanted viewpoint with this reply. Become a Zero Hero (officer). Three reasons.

One: As an Officer in the Marines you will not ride a desk, if you don't want. The Marines are a combat unit and each member is a rifleman-even officers.

Two: You will get more money, more training, better assignments, more opportunites in the service. Better housing and better looking dates.

Three: After the service, you will have a ton more opportunites for jobs as a junior military officer than you will as an enlisted grunt. Sad, but true.

I would suggest you join the USMC as an officer. There really is no other choice if you want to lead the best instead of the rest.

[hardr0ck68]

How much choice do officers get in there assingment in the Marines? and/ or in the Army? I know that you dont get to stright out chose your job as you get to ar a grunt; however if i get stuck as an accountant is there anything i can do? I guess in a morbid way im lucky; i would think with a war on and all infantry (both officer and grunt) is rather low on most people's lists.

What are the critical things to ask or know?

To all you who have served, please tell me whatever you wish someone had told you on your way in!

The money is really second to finding my way into a place where i want to be; but im not quite sure how to name that place and insure its where i end up. sigh....

[Vex]

There really is no other choice if you want to lead the best instead of the rest.

You ex--oops, I mean, former jarheads are funny!

Overall, I concur with Boski's reasons to become an officer. There really is no downside if you are going in to a combat unit. Why do you think that all officers push paperwork? Who do you think leads combat units--enlisted guys? While an enlisted person may lead one part of a unit, they have an officer who's above them--guess who that would be?

I'm not knocking your desire to serve, but why are you so hell-bent on going infantry?




*MEPS stands for Military Entrance Processing Station*

[hardr0ck68]

I'm not knocking your desire to serve, but why are you so hell-bent on going infantry?

well i have a bunch of reasons; i ushally pick and chose the one that best suits the occasion (political, ethical, personal beliefs, family history) all of which could be picked apart if attached to hard but the end all of it is that i want to see what i can do and where my limits are (physical i have an idea but im sure to expand that; mental...i dont really know). and its the only thing i CURENTLY have a real desire to do in the military.