Marines

That's the recruiters job.

How old are you?  What are you interested in doing in the Marines? Do you have a steady job?

Are things not going your way in life?

merc wrote: is it really 8 now? everyone should do at leaste 4 for their country/community. buck up and do it

Any combination to 8. Be it 4 active, 4 reserve, or 6 active, 2 reserve, etc etc.

Edited by Linus - 09 May 2010 at 10:58am

I was a Marine for 5 years, some of the best and worst times of my life.

thats at boot camp. once your at your duty station you'll make a lot more and you can get some rediculously awesome benefits.

I love the military life but it all depends on what MOS you choose, I have buddys from basic that regret going cook or fuel supply specialist. If your joining up make sure your doing something you'll like. 

That's why I put 'easy' in quotation marks :) Many people DO think it's the easiest way to get money for college.

As Bounty said, choose an MOS you want to do. But also keep in mind you are NOT guaranteed that MOS, and if the Corps wants you to be a cook when you signed up for Infantry, you will be a cook. (Granted, "Every Marine a rifleman")

Get everything your recruiter says in writing, especially anything that has to do with bonuses, if you're lucky enough.

Marines FTW.

Made my best attempts to join, but was chicken blocked by my asthma. You won't find a branch that will look better on a resume.

It seems from your posts that you're fairly level headed about the situation, so if you've thought it through, go for it.

Just understand the sobriety of your decision. You'll join an organization that prides itself in stepping three inches from death at all times (I'm stretching it a bit, but you get me...), and you need to understand there's a good chance you won't come back the same person you left, if at all.

And the Marines won't make you a beer drankin', womanizin' hard ass, it's a profession with pros and cons like anything else. Look at the military with the same mindset as if you were choosing your professional path in college. Too many people join out of a sense of obligation, or they feel cornered in life, or worse yet they think it'll elevate them
to Steven Seagal status.

The Marines are a good option, but understand what you are getting into. First issue should be career potential. The promotion pyrimid gets pretty narrow at E-4 and harder to make E-5 (Sergeant) and higher due to smaller service less command slots available. MOS selection, rank will come faster with combat arms MOS's (Infantry, Armor, Artillery) service and support MOS's not so fast. Joining the Marines is a guarenteed trip to the sand pile based again on smaller service.

Plus points. Will look good on job resume, NCO is a leadership plus on resume, and believe it or not employers are more inclined to look at servicemen for attention to detail, leadership, and dedication more than the college 'party' crowd. I got jobs after my retiremnt (E-8 Army) over college people younger than me, based on my leadership and attention to detail skills alone. Hit and miss college, but no degree.

No matter what you do, if you join the Marines, there will always be a brotherhood and a sense of accomplishment many who never consider the military ever get to expieriance. And it is true 'Once a Marine, always a Marine' and the 'ring knocking' in post service job search will be a lot easier when another Marine is the HR interviewer.

BTW it is not the Branch that looks good on the resume, it is the Leadership that employers are looking for. A E-7 Air Force aircraft crew chief, and a E-7 Marine Platoon Sergeant have the same effect on a never been military HR type doing the hiring. The resume is secondary reinforcement, it is the military learned bearing and command presense you exibit at the interview, and that in itself puts you ahead of the 'college' crowd.

Good Luck, but my advise is to go Infantry 1st enlistment, make rank fast then if you are going to re-enlist go for a job skill MOS, you will have rank at the job, and 3 plus years of speciality expieriance to sell to future civilian employers.

I gave some serious thought into joining the Army about a year ago (even posted here about it) but ultimately decided against it. I wanted to join since I was a freshman in high school but decided to just go to college instead. Then the idea of joining started looking real good again when I looked into the benefits (college loan reimbursement, paid tuition, medical/travel benefits, etc.) and I still did want to serve my country as I feel everybody should. However, I spent a lot of time thinking about it and talking to those who have been through it and decided not to. The primary reason for my decision is the lack of control over your life. Once you sign that contract, they own you for 8 years. They make it sound like you can do whatever you want and just show up every now and then but, especially now, you'll most likely get sent out for 18+ months at a time to serve in Afghanistan or Iraq as soon as you're trained and on top of that, you aren't guaranteed to get the MOS you want.

If I didn't have a girlfriend or anything else I didn't want to leave behind for extended periods of time and I could definitely get a MOS I would enjoy then this wouldn't bother me. However, I do have a lot of things I wouldn't want to leave behind so that would have been hard for me to deal with. I wanted to join and do something IT/computer related and had a few other areas I would have settled for but I felt like they'd give me the shaft and just assign me to infantry. Since I'm capable of more than just firing a gun, I felt that would be a huge waste of my skills and I wouldn't be happy doing it as a result. The worst part would be that I would have signed a contract forcing me to suck it up and deal with it for 8 years. This is the kind of stuff you should think about before signing.