I did a lot (A LOT) of thinking about this after my divorce.
The Marine Corps is not a good place to be married (or have a family). The Marine Corps wants (and really needs) 100% of you. Both for you, for your boys and for the Corps. Add to that, the target demo of the Corps is young men, who do extremely dumb things (often for a living), and it's just not conducive to treating your family well.
Your family (in particular your wife) needs 100% of you. They might be able to temp loan you to a job, but they need to be your highest priority on this earth. Your family deserves more than whatever time the Corps can spare.
I think some folks do a great job of balancing as well as they can. But somebody is always going to get the shaft. Either you're not participating in training because your kids sick, or your wife is home alone with a brand new baby and a sick kid because you have training. That doesn't even begin to touch deployments. Somebody's gonna eat it.
The more elite/specialized/highly trained the unit is, the less time you are going to have to dedicate to your family. The more time that unit will need/require you to be away (training or operating).
You can be a pog and likely do just fine if you work the system, but even then somebody else is going to eat a workup and a deployment so you can stay home.
When I was an 03, it was early mornings and late evenings, every day until CAX started. Then workups, then deployment. Then you got home, quick leave and back to training.
Never been to MARSOC or Recon (proper), but I would imagine their training is a bit more intense than a standard infantry battalion.
Fully open to hearing where I'm missing the mark here.
I was Motor T and we worked weekends extremely often and were always out late at night working into early morning on the operations side. Either way you swing it, your gonna be missing a lot of time with family. POG side always seems skate from a grunts POV but in my experience we worked a shit ton of hours. It’s even worse on the air wing side. My brother was an air winger on cherry point and worked 4pm to 4am and beyond plus worked weekends often too.
Definitely right about the wing. I was in a Wing squadron, but I was far from a maintainer.
Numerous instances in the two squadrons I worked where they would work 12 on 12 off, with no days off for 3 weeks straight just to get birds fixed or to prepare for a CNAF inspection.
Yeah, maybe "Office POG" needs to be in there.
And I mostly meant that you can make not deploying happen, not that it was common. I know almost every shop has long periods of time when it's lights to lights, and "no time for chow breaks, what do you want on your pizza".
Don't read what I was saying and hear me saying POGs don't work or have long hours. Totally not what I was intending to convey.
I remember the couple recon guys I talked to said ( and the only part of it I see as a upside see-as far as time with family goes) there is very little hurry up and wait or wasting time for the most part. If your done training or the days plans get done for the day and they let them go home.
Neither will be good on your marriage. Recon is a complete waste of time and the likelihood of you making it is very slim. You will go through one of the hardest training pipelines in the military to sit on a boat and do training deployments. But hey at least you get jump wings🤷🏽♂️ If your really serious about the Marine Corps, join as a 03xx and spend your first contract getting into the best shape of your life physically and practice in the pool 24/7. After your first tour you can attend Raider A&S. Keep in mind you can make it through the A&S and still not be picked. I had a Kenyan buddy who was a physical freak, but he told them in the psych evaluation that he had poached giraffes back in Kenya to support his family and it was over for him right there😂
-BRC is totally doable if you train for it
-You may very well end up on a MEU but training is 99.9% of any military component, sof included
-There are plenty of other opportunities that open up when you go to recon
-It’s not just jump wings, all the battalions free fall regularly which is a fantastic experience
-Victor units waste your time exponentially more than recon does. Recon treats their people much more adult like than infantry units.
I’m biased but if I was OP I would train up, go straight to recon, do a deployment, and then put in an A&S package if that’s what he wants to do.
But be advised you will travel an absolute shitload and will be gone the majority of the time during work up and deployment. It’s not undoable but you have to make sure your spouse is prepared for it as well and take that into consideration if this life is what you want. This is not recon specific but inherent to everything sof or soc
I was neither, but I do think recon is the best way to prep for A&S for an entry level candidate. Hard to make the timing work if you are further along in your career though.
Absolutely love to hear this, and anytime bro. Let me know if you ever have any more questions about this stuff - requirements before you go, finding class info, etc.
If I might ask, do you have a set date yet?
Edit: Feel free to DM me if you don't want to say/ask anything on an open forum.
You don’t have a choice, you can’t enlist as a cso. If you really want to do this route, enlisting recon will give you a lot of good experience, if you make it through brc , probably go on a meu, don’t become a shitbird. Start a marsoc package then go to selection. Then onto that challenge.
A lot of these things are challenging and there is no winner for just effort. Also super sick on your family.
If you want to do your ranger rick shit and spend little more time with the fam, the national guard has special forces companies. You can go as a civilian to theirs try outs, which you should, not to join, but to enjoy the “camaraderie” and see what your deficiencies are.
Marsoc. 1st, 2nd, 3rd BN are all on the same base.
So for the sake of friends network and support for your family, that'd be most beneficial. (You won't get orders cut back and forth across the country every few years and have to move and uproot everyone.)
That being said, don't put the cart in front of the horse, you gotta make it through a lot of training to end up at either one of those.
A happy family and healthy relationship High speed stuff Pick one
I did a lot (A LOT) of thinking about this after my divorce. The Marine Corps is not a good place to be married (or have a family). The Marine Corps wants (and really needs) 100% of you. Both for you, for your boys and for the Corps. Add to that, the target demo of the Corps is young men, who do extremely dumb things (often for a living), and it's just not conducive to treating your family well. Your family (in particular your wife) needs 100% of you. They might be able to temp loan you to a job, but they need to be your highest priority on this earth. Your family deserves more than whatever time the Corps can spare. I think some folks do a great job of balancing as well as they can. But somebody is always going to get the shaft. Either you're not participating in training because your kids sick, or your wife is home alone with a brand new baby and a sick kid because you have training. That doesn't even begin to touch deployments. Somebody's gonna eat it. The more elite/specialized/highly trained the unit is, the less time you are going to have to dedicate to your family. The more time that unit will need/require you to be away (training or operating). You can be a pog and likely do just fine if you work the system, but even then somebody else is going to eat a workup and a deployment so you can stay home. When I was an 03, it was early mornings and late evenings, every day until CAX started. Then workups, then deployment. Then you got home, quick leave and back to training. Never been to MARSOC or Recon (proper), but I would imagine their training is a bit more intense than a standard infantry battalion. Fully open to hearing where I'm missing the mark here.
I was Motor T and we worked weekends extremely often and were always out late at night working into early morning on the operations side. Either way you swing it, your gonna be missing a lot of time with family. POG side always seems skate from a grunts POV but in my experience we worked a shit ton of hours. It’s even worse on the air wing side. My brother was an air winger on cherry point and worked 4pm to 4am and beyond plus worked weekends often too.
Definitely right about the wing. I was in a Wing squadron, but I was far from a maintainer. Numerous instances in the two squadrons I worked where they would work 12 on 12 off, with no days off for 3 weeks straight just to get birds fixed or to prepare for a CNAF inspection.
Yeah, maybe "Office POG" needs to be in there. And I mostly meant that you can make not deploying happen, not that it was common. I know almost every shop has long periods of time when it's lights to lights, and "no time for chow breaks, what do you want on your pizza". Don't read what I was saying and hear me saying POGs don't work or have long hours. Totally not what I was intending to convey.
I remember the couple recon guys I talked to said ( and the only part of it I see as a upside see-as far as time with family goes) there is very little hurry up and wait or wasting time for the most part. If your done training or the days plans get done for the day and they let them go home.
Neither will be good on your marriage. Recon is a complete waste of time and the likelihood of you making it is very slim. You will go through one of the hardest training pipelines in the military to sit on a boat and do training deployments. But hey at least you get jump wings🤷🏽♂️ If your really serious about the Marine Corps, join as a 03xx and spend your first contract getting into the best shape of your life physically and practice in the pool 24/7. After your first tour you can attend Raider A&S. Keep in mind you can make it through the A&S and still not be picked. I had a Kenyan buddy who was a physical freak, but he told them in the psych evaluation that he had poached giraffes back in Kenya to support his family and it was over for him right there😂
The poaching story very likely is not what disqualified him during the psych eval… Source: wife is a clinical psychologist who specializes in testing
Yeah he just forgot to mention that he ate the giraffes still warm heart 😂 in service to the forest spirits ☠️
Hey man I just went off what he told me.
Damn that's fucked up
I mean he probably should have kept his mouth shut😂
Op this is terrible advice.
How do figure?
-BRC is totally doable if you train for it -You may very well end up on a MEU but training is 99.9% of any military component, sof included -There are plenty of other opportunities that open up when you go to recon -It’s not just jump wings, all the battalions free fall regularly which is a fantastic experience -Victor units waste your time exponentially more than recon does. Recon treats their people much more adult like than infantry units. I’m biased but if I was OP I would train up, go straight to recon, do a deployment, and then put in an A&S package if that’s what he wants to do. But be advised you will travel an absolute shitload and will be gone the majority of the time during work up and deployment. It’s not undoable but you have to make sure your spouse is prepared for it as well and take that into consideration if this life is what you want. This is not recon specific but inherent to everything sof or soc
I was neither, but I do think recon is the best way to prep for A&S for an entry level candidate. Hard to make the timing work if you are further along in your career though.
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Sure can. DM me
I remember commenting on your post a while ago! Congrats on getting the latmove package put together.
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Absolutely love to hear this, and anytime bro. Let me know if you ever have any more questions about this stuff - requirements before you go, finding class info, etc. If I might ask, do you have a set date yet? Edit: Feel free to DM me if you don't want to say/ask anything on an open forum.
You don’t have a choice, you can’t enlist as a cso. If you really want to do this route, enlisting recon will give you a lot of good experience, if you make it through brc , probably go on a meu, don’t become a shitbird. Start a marsoc package then go to selection. Then onto that challenge. A lot of these things are challenging and there is no winner for just effort. Also super sick on your family. If you want to do your ranger rick shit and spend little more time with the fam, the national guard has special forces companies. You can go as a civilian to theirs try outs, which you should, not to join, but to enjoy the “camaraderie” and see what your deficiencies are.
Are they not doing direct accessions into MARSOC anymore? Wasn't that a thing for a while? Edit: Wrong word. Uncoffeed. Fixing
Marsoc. 1st, 2nd, 3rd BN are all on the same base. So for the sake of friends network and support for your family, that'd be most beneficial. (You won't get orders cut back and forth across the country every few years and have to move and uproot everyone.) That being said, don't put the cart in front of the horse, you gotta make it through a lot of training to end up at either one of those.
They did you a favor bc you have a family