WHAT happened to my Marine Corps??

[mikeheitz]

Avx...

I was in the Marine Corps Officer candidate program while in college. Unlike ROTC, they give you no money. You prove you can handle it, go to Quantico for two summers, and are a commisioned officer upon graduation. It's what I wanted to do more than anything. Unfortunately, a serious knee and ankle injury during a pickup basketball game decided my fate for me. I was dropped from the program. If I hadn't been, I'd be in Iraq with my college roommate right now. He's flying copters for the corps.

My reference was to the fact that MOST people are not willing to give up their "personal freedoms" to join the military. There are obviously many people that WANT to and do join. But the original post was referring to the Corps in the 60's. My dad was in the army in the 60's; drill instructors could pretty much do whatever they wanted to recruits.

In today's age of "bleeding heart liberals ruining all our fun", the military would be facing loads of lawsuits for harrassment for what was once S.O.P.

As far as family paying for college... get in line. I paid for it myself. Heck, I'm still paying. It's called the student loan program. If I could do it all over again, I'd go Corps then College. What can I say? I was 17 & stupid.

[avx]

EDIT: Im already skating on thin ice, Im not gonna get another warning for something as trivial as this.

Dont call years of tradition, and honor "B.S.". Lets just leave it at that

[LocoCoyote]

spyder003
You are off course here. I have been in the Army for 20 years now (retiring in November). My entire time has been forward deployed (never gotten closer to the states than Germany (after training)) and in combat arms units (Armor and Infantry) Belive me asisde from the GI Bill, there are many many many opportunities to get your degree. 100% tuition assistance for both post sponsored collages and online courses. Free SmartForce training, cooraspondance courses, video courses...all free or low cost to you. Then when you are done you still have all that GI Bill. Most commands find the time to let soldiers get to class. You might be surprised.

[glc]

avx: You will learn very quickly that along with the honor and tradition, there is a TON of "B.S.", it ain't all glory and air medals. I don't think you are qualified to make the comments you are making until you experience things first hand. I'm not dissing the service, but I and several of the other contributors to this thread have been there, you haven't - yet. If I thought that it was THAT bad, I wouldn't have spent 8 years on active duty and 16 years in the Reserves. If I had it to do all over again, I would probably do the same thing.

[spyder003]

ahh sure if you're single and have no life besides work, you'll have plenty of time for school. it's a little tougher being married with a kid, with all the military BS. granted it depends on your career field.... i get flip flopped between all three shifts almost every week. in my military experience, there's just not enough stability in the work week for school, aside from CLEP's that is.

[LocoCoyote]

Nice try Spyder...Married 5 sons. Still make time. 1AD is good about schooling. They let us use a bit of duty time 3x week.

[LocoCoyote]

Spyder....time management man...

[avx]

Originally posted by glc avx: You will learn very quickly that along with the honor and tradition, there is a TON of "B.S.", it ain't all glory and air medals. I don't think you are qualified to make the comments you are making until you experience things first hand. I'm not dissing the service, but I and several of the other contributors to this thread have been there, you haven't - yet. If I thought that it was THAT bad, I wouldn't have spent 8 years on active duty and 16 years in the Reserves. If I had it to do all over again, I would probably do the same thing.

Your right glc, but I just didnt appreciate the way he called it *only* B.S....Im sure there is a lot of hassle you got to deal with while your in...but there is a lot more to it than that, a lot of people I have talked to say their years in the military were some of the best in their lives. Mike just made it seem like it was one big hassle, which isnt true....I hope

[mikeheitz]

Guys... sorry if that's the way my comments came across. I certainly didn't mean to make it sound that way. It's been a rough week.

AVX, I seriously wish you the best. You WILL NOT regret going into the service. My college roommate and I had grand plans of being in together. Kinda fell apart. He's on his way to a Masters when he gets back from the Middle East, so there are plenty of opps for education while in the service.

[avx]

No need to apologize. I look at it now and dont realize why I got so prissy...maybe it was just an anal mood. Sorry about that.

[docrichards]

I have never regretted going into the military either, you just need to know that the only kind of degree you will be able to get on post is in business management, or law enforcement, and possibly sociology or psychology. If you want anything advanced like mathmatics, physics, biology or chemistry. or advanced computing you are out of luck! I did get a degree finally. I got a Master's in cell and molecular biology, but I did it after I got out of the military on the GI Bill.

Docrichards

[avx]

Thats what Im gunnin for...a degree in advanced computing.

The thing is though, I dont really think college is for me. No offense to any college students or anything, but I think 90% of college students are idiots...I base this on first hand expierince with *certain* college students, andthat show Fraternity Life on MTV...Finally! A show worse than the real world

Im goin to a tech school when I get out...If I decide to get out that is...

[SARGE]

Originally posted by avx No offense to any college students or anything, but I think 90% of college students are idiots...I base this on first hand expierince with *certain* college students, andthat show Fraternity Life on MTV...Finally! A show worse than the real world

Me thinks you need an expanded dossier of examples.

[DragonBreath]

Sarge I agree, it has gotten soft even from when I was in 92-96. It's the 10% the DIs allways talked about. Them writing home to mommy, "mom they hurt me feelings and i got blisters on my feet waaaa Mommy help me" It's those little pukes that were'nt meant to be Marines in the first place that caused the loss of tradition in the Corps.
There are too many benifits to even begin to go into here about being in the Marines, Things that you can take advantage of while your in as well as when you decide to leave. Best of wishs to you avx. And study your general orders 11th Walk my post from flank to flank and take no sh*t from any rank.
As far as having the same rights as everyone else, that is not true. Military members are governed by the UCMJ (Universal Code of Military Justice) There are many more resrictions as far as free speech while you are military personal. You are in a sense property of the USMC. As Gunnery Sergeant Hartman put it "While your heart may belong to the Lord, your ass belongs to the Corps"

Semper Fidelis
db

[SARGE]

Originally posted by DragonBreath "While your heart may belong to the Lord, your ass belongs to the Corps" Semper Fidelis db

Yup.

[mikeheitz]

DocRichards,

The corps wants to send my college roomie for a Masters in Info Technology. Times may be changing. His bachelor's is in Civil Engineering Tech... not sure how that made him a helicopter pilot! Of course, the whole Iraq thing pretty much put his timetable off a bit.

[avx]

LoL - "The whole Iraq thing"...Its so funny to hear it referred to as only that...

Remember the weeks leading up to the war?

"We are getting into something we cant handle", "Its gonna be a blood bath", "Negative effects for years to come", "Y2Iraq!!"...

ahahaha, yeah, right, sure....

[docrichards]

Mike Heitz;

Chances are, that since he came into the corp already in possesion of a degree, he will have more opportunities than the average enlisted man. The military has some awesome graduate schools for the officer types. The one that immediately comes to mind is the Naval Postgraduate Institute in Monterey California. And no it doesn't surprise me that the corp is takeing a civil engineering helicopter pilot and trying to make him into the IT guy. If you hang around the corp long enough you will learn that they always do the unexpected.

Docrichards

[TimPoet]

If there's a billet, they gotta fill it!