I may be joining the military.
 

Well I've been in college for a year now and I'm the odd individual who doesn't partake in frats, house parties, beer pong, or any other manner of cliché comedy central day-time movie college events. I'm an advertising major (mass communication) and really enjoy it, creativity, working with media and related to public affairs. But also I feel like I'm missing my chance on doing something in the military...as some of you know I'm kind of a military dork and wanted to go after HS but found out I was colorblind and couldn't do any of the 'cool guy' jobs etc etc. Well now that I figured out what I want to do with my life career wise, I think I could learn a lot of after 4 years in the military specific to what I'm going to college for. If I go in I plan on enlisting after next summer's semester, and then continuing college after I'm done, or going straight into work if I can (don't need an advertising degree if you're good enough at it and can show it).

I'm going to go to the USMC recruiting office in town this week, hopefully tomorrow and get as much information as I can about the Combat Correspondent MOS (4341). After doing some reading it basically seems like a mass communication job field where you record and share media between the Marine Corps and the civilian world, they do photography, work with print media and do public affairs work. It's not a cool guy job where you blow shit up or even fire your rifle but they do go outside the wire and many of the photos you've seen from OEF or OIF of Marines have come from combat correspondents. I'm not sure how advertising for the USMC works, if it's done internally or contracted out to a civilian agency but I'll see if they can tell me anything about that at the recruiter, if it's something done internally maybe I can get into a program that allows me to commission after college, but if it's not I'll just enlist.


Just something I wanted to say. lol

Thats cool.... My dad retired last year from the Marines... He talks smack to me all the time because I'm in the Air Force.

lol.. You should do it man!

i think a tour in the military should be mandatory for everyone.

4 years USAF here.

I perdicted this yesterday:D

I say go for it. There is alot of benifits later on.

I say go for it. The military isn't for everyone but you seem like you would fit right in. I spent one year in the Army and got a medical discharge :o

CHAIR FORCE!


<---- 4 years Army, M1A1 abrams tanker crewmember. (active army, not guard)

being in the army was fun, but it sucked at the same time. i have no idea about the Marines, so i aint the best person to ask. but career wise, it is a wise choice.

I was in between 1996 and 2000. There was nothing going on at the time. I figured if i got sent to saudi, at least i would have air conditioning in my tent.

lol

I intervied a retired Marine Master Sergent a couple of weeks ago. I was awestruck by this guy's awesomness. I kept thinking "You know, I bet this guy could kill me within 30 seconds if he wanted." I don't see how enlisting would be a bad idea. From what I hear you gain tons of valuble work/ life experience that will help you for ever. I always wanted to joing the Marines but it just wasn't in the cards for me after high school. I may still look into the Air Force after I get my degree.

[Stands up and salutes[/]

Except as a crew member I assume you were a NCO. What rank did you get out at?

Drop off your car over here when you deploy..........:t:

good luck man. just remember, in the marine corps, its not a job, its a lifestyle, lol. seriously though, in the field of work that you want to go in, the civilian job market can be very competitive, and if you have work experience, it will definetly put you over the top when you enter the private sector. you'll be interviewing against ppl that have never done more then write for their college paper, while you have experience reporting about things overseas and in combat.

i would also look into the navy, they have a similar program, and it would be good not to put all your eggs in one basket.

Really been debating the same thing..

Don't get me wrong, I already put myself in a career, but I'm 2.5 years into it, and begining to have my doubts. Would much rather put myself in one of the branches and give my time, and then come back and go for a police officer/highway patrol job hell, if I did well enough maybe look into engineering or something... idk..

Just thinking about the difficulties of being away from loved onces (my fiance, my dad, grandmother and my car) has steered me away some..

My hats off to all you guys!!!:t:

I did some more researching of my own today trying to figure out what would be the best move career-wise, I discovered the Marine Corps PLC program where you attend a 10 week OCS course during summer break as a junior in college and aren't pulled away from your schooling, and are paid to attend training, upon completion of the program (and graduation from college with a Bachelor's) you can choose whether or not to accept a commission into the USMC for 3.5 years as a ground officer. The Public Affairs officer's job description looks to be the best thing for me related to what I'm studying and interested in as a civilian career afterwards. I figure with a Bachelor's and 3.5 years of experience as a USMC officer I would pretty much be set in my future career choices. This is looking real attractive to me as I know being an Officer always looks more appealing on a resume rather than an enlisted person..even though I know enlisted guys in many cases are more dependable than officers. I'm going to apply for PLC and if I meet the requirements (I know I fail PFT right now as I can't even complete a 3 mile run, lol) and hopefully get accepted into the program. I have to start pt'ing my ass off starting now, though.

I'm going to call the OSO in Tallahassee tomorrow to get some more info on the program.

I'm pretty sure you will also get a pretty nice "sign up" bonus. I think you get half at sign up and the rest after your enlistment time is up.. Good luck either way Bro.. I kinda wish I would have done this in my younger days. I grew up a military brat so that kinda made me think twice.. My dad was a very strict Army Sgt Major, so I indeed grew up with 2nd hand military rules.. But even that taught me the value of hard work, and no nonsense attitude toward task's at hand.. ;).

Just make sure that you pay attention to EVERYTHING that is said to you and read everything you sign.

Remember recruiters are the same as car salesmen....except they-re not selling you a car, they're putting you in a long commitment to the military. Be careful.

And DO NOT be afraid to ask questions!

I keep debating that as well. The Marine Corps is my backup plan in case I lose my job. I did very well on both the pre and actual test (can't remember what it's called.) My highest score was mechanical with clerical being my lowest. I'm not sure how well I would do if I joined up though..

Your thinking of the ASVAB. Yeah its not hard to do well just a little bit of studying can do you fine.

I would suggest doing OCS. My grandfather did OCS while he was in college and joined the Air Force, chasing Typhoons in the Pacific and retired at a full bird (Col. for you non-military types). Just know that OCS isnt easy either, and you are going to have to work to get through that. Just remember you might not get that big-ass bonus if you do OCS, thats for people who enlist, at least that's my understanding. However, your pay will be higher, and you will be an Officer.

I would do some form of the military, but unfortunately I have a mental disorder that prevents me from enlisting or joining OCS, which sucks, because I wanted to join the USAF and fly planes. I've got the math and science understanding with ease, but unfortunately they forbid people with this condition to join at all.

This is what I was going to tell you to do.

I tried but the Clinton era military downsizing made things difficult. Bad hearing by 1dB in 1 ear and not even a senator requesting a waiver on my behalf helped.

Hey.. post your ASVAB scores. First run was a 91, the following year (this time not strung out on drugs) 98. One of my friends actually flunked it... got a 26 and really tried hard. Imagine that... too stupid for the military. He was crushed. We always knew he was dumb as a box of hair but to have a test tell you that, no, in fact you're quite a bit stupider than even that, well that's just funny as hell.

I didn't study at all. I didn't even know WTF the test was going to be made up of until I started taking it. I felt bad for another guy that was in my group though.. Apparently he had taken the test quite a few times. The day that I took the test he was finally able to pass it (barely.)

My highest line score was Mechanical at 149. I have no idea how that translates in terms of how well I did overall on the test. I was happy with that, seeing as how they told me that most of the mechanical/maintenance type jobs in the Marine Corps only require a 105 for eligibility (which is what I planned on doing if I went in.)

73 overall

Don't remember group specific scores

What do you mean combat corispondent isnt a "cool guy job"? havent you ever seen full metal jacket, joker was a CC and he bought a hooker for 10 dollars and got to shot a 12 year old in the face. if thats not cool i dont know wat is... lol. also i dont know how one studies for the ASVAB the test i took was really general in each catagory. ill post my scores if i can find my score sheet laying around

I never considered studying for it... it seemed like it relied little on existing book-learnin' kind of knowledge and more on basic ability to figure stuff out.

LOL. I liked that part where they give you sets of meshed gears, and you have to have to figure out how many revolutions the last gear makes based on the movement of the first gear. That was like 5th grade all over again :p.