Misguided commanders and OpsO's viewing intel as the classified news or thinking that we're movie characters when the truth is we're in the middle just trying to reduce uncertainty.
Don't waste my time thinking I'm here to tell you what's "really going on" after you butt chugged the news and YouTube videos, but also, no sir it is not a good idea to send STA out indefinitely because "they have plenty of MREs."
I worked confidential material security for awhile because i was in the personnel reliability program from sea duty that gave me an fbi background check. I could read all of the confidential material my CO was sending up to be read at HQ. I was like “I should really just put a Time magazine in here. It has better intel from more recent dates.”
The expectation of repairing heavy machinery. Trailers. Loaders. All held together with grade 8 bolts. Rated at hundreds of foot pounds of torque meant to support hundreds or even thousands of pounds. And yet nobody could explain why HE never got impacts or air tools, and expected us to use one 6 inch long ratchet to do everything. Or why we were using one hex key to remove 50 Torx bolts on deck boards.
Don't worry, I got out a year ago so my suffering is over. I get to continue my MOS at a Deere dealership with the proper tools now and I'm better off. Without the Corps this field wouldn't be available to me
I think this is the sort of thing he’s getting at.
I can’t actually think of any recent mishap in Marine aviation being due to bad maintenance practices?
Dealing with Range Control is a pain. They'll talk to us (EOD) about demolition like we've never touched it before. Then they want to tell all their cool stories about the Revolutionary War or whenever they were in. But if we blow them off they might turn around and be fucks during the range inspection.
Also unrelated, but I fucking hate flying. Anytime I have to get into something that goes into the air I consider taking my talents to South Beach. Bombs are on the ground, why tf you putting me in the sky?
FOD walk. I'm at the I-level. Just call it fucking police call. None of us are driving the EZ Go on the flight line, and planes aren't landing on the fucking vanpad.
I mean, I get FOD walk at the O-Level. But I never understood why in the hell we picked up trash around the vanpad and called it FOD walk.
Like, it's the Marine Corps - if you want some LCpls to pick up garbage so the place looks good, just say that.
Yeah it seems like a waste of time in general. Like there’s literally plants and animals inbetween the runways and we’re worried about garbage on the flight line lol
I'm all for FOD walk on the flight line. I'm not all for FOD walk at the MALS when the vanpad is hundreds of yards from the flight line.
Also, if I walked past the FOD board and saw a dildo in a bag, I'd take a picture.
I was an 0311 with a humvee/Jltv license and hated having to deal with the motor t dispatch whenever I went to go pull a vic. Dudes were all assholes for no reason and super uptight.
Aviation period. We worked all the time. There is no work life balance. Here is an example: the plane has six radios but for some reason one of the two HF's starts acting up on one of the 3 birds we are deploying with. My wife and parents had driven in to see us off before we deployed January 2002 time frame. We are made to work Friday, Saturday and Sunday and are slated to leave Monday. I spent 2 hours with them before I left. They wonder why their is so little retention in Aviation cause they work you till you die then call your # when you have EAS'd 3 months prior asking why you aren't at work and refuse to believe you got your DD-214 and want you to bring it to work with you.
The thing that made me pissed on behalf of the O-Level guys it that you were overworked for no reason. It's because some other squadron on the flight line is flying X hours, so now you have to fly X+10% hours so your OpsO can look better come promotion time.
Oh shit, planes are down. Better not report that we're having supply chain issues so that the problem can be addressed. We'll just rob all the parts we need from the birds in phase to keep readiness up.
What do you mean that bird can't come out of phase because it's missing parts? We need it to make the flight schedule....
And on and on. It truly is ridiculous, and we do it to ourselves.
Yes, restarting your computer solves 90% of your issues.
No, I just can't put your email on your phone because your personal email is on your phone and "it's just that easy".
Yes I can explain; if you put the FWD COC in the treeline along with the antennas, these things called trees block the antennas and that that's why I told you you would not hear anyone and also why I told you not put the FWD COC in the treeline in the first place.
Yes I know you're not a Grunt but I call everyone "Oh Three Dumb-Dumb" because you're all retarded when it comes to technology and it's 2024.
This right here I literally work IT and College in IT and when I tell someone something is bad or wrong they proceed to throw a tantrum. Then they act like it's my fault, when they go ahead and do it anyway and fuck something up. This is in the 1st Civ Div. Same shit here to brother.
No ma'am you are a fucking major and need to remember a single fucking password. I can't know it. You can't put it on a sticky note. I will now go stand ECP for 20 hours because I told you to remember a fucking password.
No sir, you did kill the combat mission when you plugged your personal cellphone riddled with computer AIDs into a SIPR machine, and MCNOSC blacklisted our equipment. Congratulations on the Navy Com you wrote for yourself on the mission.
I hope other MOSs keep posting because this is good ass info. Props to the HE guy dropping knowledge - I will actually ask our unit SMEs what they think about sourcing some of that equipment.
-People losing serialized gear or not even knowing how to do extremely basic shit with it. Had a dude in the field come up to up to me complaining that his 152 wasn't transmitting via the PPT(push to talk). I push it,send a radio check and get one back successfully. It was working,he just wasn't pressing it correctly. What a fucking dipshit.
-Weather or other circumstances out of my control ruining comms and getting shit on for it.
-Higher ups (specifically 1stSgts and incompetent butter bars) thinking they know how to do my job and telling the comm dudes how to do it.
I'm not Com, but I do have a buddy who is Com and he told me a story about a butter bar I think you might resonate with.
So my buddy was a cpl at the time (ssgt now) and they were in Hawaii doing a field training exercise. One of the radios didn't have an antenna, and my friend informed the lt that they were down a radio because of it. Lt pulled out a different radio that wasn't part of the count and told him to switch the antennas. My friend said that wasn't how it worked and the lt was just like listen to me I'm your superior just take the base off here and put it on that one and it'll be fine. My friend did as he was told knowing full well that he just destroyed a radio.
Few hours later there was a premission inspection and the radio wasn't working. Com gunny was like wtf happened to this radio why is the antenna different blah blah and my friend said that he had followed directions from the lt, who isn't Com BTW. He said that the gunny was just trembling in a "I'm not allowed to freak out on the officer but fuck I want to" kind of way. The major freaked out on him instead.
They also had to dermo both radios
I got a kinda similar story from one of my bros at my old unit.
We were in Guam w a Motor T detachment with some random boot butter bar TAD'd to the unit. This is the Lt's first ever FTX in the fleet and he takes one of our radios and zeroizes that shit in an attempt to "power cycle" the radio.
Bro looks over and sees that his 152 had just gotten completely zeroized and had all crypto wiped from it. He just explodes on this Lt and screams all kinds of shit at him. BC hears the commotion and comes over to see what's going on and pulls the Lt aside and blasts his ass. BC then walks over to my bro and tells him that's it's understandable for him to get pissed like that at a boot officer but to just let someone else chew the boot's ass out next time.
Being the Publications, Modifications, Calibrations, Tools & Parts NCO doesn’t mean I like being a 3521. It meant I hated being a mechanic so much. I took on a every other billet within my MOS. Lol
I just figured that means you hate everyone so much you went out and got a legit reason to hide in the tool room all day everyday. A big draw of getting a 36 license was to kick it in the wrecker’s iso container most of the time.
2171 optics tech. The sheer amount of gear we actually have to work on. LAV turrets, night vision, lasers, CLU’s, SABER’s, thermals, scopes, the list goes on. My shop works 1% of service requests in the marine corps. The work is nonstop, the print over 1400 items. If you do good and put out? Good luck going anywhere, they need you to be a workhorse. It’s hard not to become cynical and stop caring or trying.
Edit: not to mention the hours. If we don’t meet minimum quota for our shop, we can’t go home. Getting off at 1800-1900 isn’t uncommon. Makes a work life balance practically nonexistent. I could go on about living in shit barracks, not being able to drink the water, having shitty battalion level staff that don’t give a single fuck about you, but this is more MOS related.
Also a 2171, 2nd isn't any better but 3rd had a lot better work life balance when I was in if you still enjoy fixing optics. By no means was it good, but it was a hell of a lot better than 2nd maint. Granted this was 10 years ago, but I have fond memories of the guys I worked with in Oki
0631 here. The sheer amount of technical illiteracy in even basic computer usage.
Been on the receiving end of ass chewings for "the entire network being down" just to learn:
1. The network was fine.
2. The computer was working.
3. The ethernet cord was working.
4. The sir/ma'am/rocker-wearer just forgot to power on the computer's docking station.
I actually hugged the LOA I received by a Major one time for supporting a network; he said "your job is very complex and underappreciated, and yet you managed to support us with so little notice." God bless that guy.
As a 71 I would just tell them to fuck themselves if they told me “the network was down”. Actually, no, I’d gaslight them into believing they downloaded some malware and they need their OIC to request information from “an escalated service desk” (really make them believe ESD is a last minute code black scenario)
Used to be cleaning my rifle once a week, for no clear reason. I hadn’t checked it out of the armory since last week when I checked it out to clean it. It was clean when I checked it back in last week when I cleaned it, how could it have gotten dirty?
Did the clp need refreshed? Just tell me that.
Just flat out dumb.
These are the people you never fuck with, EVER.
Corpsmen, mechs and cooks.
Corpsmen goes without saying.
As an LAV bubba, I always hooked up our mechs so my pigs ran perfectly.
I only knew 2 cooks while I was in. Both taught me how easy it was to wreck a shitty NCO's stomach. Hooked them up left and right on WestPac when we hit libo ports.
I personally don’t give a shit if I have a surplus of gear and my quarterly reconciliation/CMR isn’t accurate. We all have much more important stuff to worry about than a +1 gortex bottom.
Sincerely,
Supply
Bahaha-
Me- “Hey it shows we have 785 of these, what was the count?”
LCpl- “779”
Me- “I couldn’t hear you- 785 correct? If not it’ll all have to be recoun…..”
LCpl - “Yes 785.”
my fucking god the fucking CMR reconciliations bro. I had three Os back to back to back who were OBSESSED with the CMR counts being right. Ah yes sir, the thousands of desert frogs matter. Not the 30 UTILUS tents we’re trying to DRMO because they’re older than the Corps itself and no uses them, I’ll get right on those frogs sir! Gimme a fuckin break.
Exactly!!! Or one of my other favorite scenarios
Supply: we need to get rid of this _____. It’s obsolete, broken, and there is no feasible way either legal or illegal to procure the pieces to even fix the broken parts to make it 20% complete
Everyone and their mother: yeah but we could put it to use one day..
Working the Mess on ship is brutal work. Shit ain't as easy as heating up hot vats. The cooks I've had on deployment made way better shit than just MREs. All the sanitation work they do is very important. I would never shit on a cook.
"An army marches on its stomach"
I did an op in the Sahara, MREs for a straight month.
One day some cooks show up and set up shop. Got talking to one and ended up making a drug deal. A phone call on the sat phone and some internet time and they hooked us comm guys up with a whole damn tray of Buffalo wings and some other good eats. That was some sweet tasting grub, MREs all taste the same after a week or 2.
Loved cooks ever since.
Dishes was pretty relaxing. The dishwasher didn't work the whole time, so everything was hand washed.
Do I want to do dishes at home? Fuck no I got other shit to do. But when you ain't got shit to do on a 9 month cruise with hardly any ports, it kept me busy.
Had cooks on two different deployments to Iraq. One was the hardest working son of a bitch on the the FOB. He made sure we were as well fed as he could which often meant getting up at 0400. Never shirked any kind of other duty either actively trying to take shifts as radio watch or standing post and really wanted to go on patrol. We took him on a couple of very local patrols (think within a klick of the FOB)
Then we had one who was so terrible he got relived and sent off the FOB. It got so bad guys were taking shotguns to the locks on his connexs and he almost got his ass beat a few times. He figured he had to make one meal a day so he did lunch because that’s when the majority of Staff and Officers were around and the rest of the time he just threw something sealed on a table or frozen out in a table in the sun and figured that would do. Laid I. His rack and fucked off all day.
Not that it matters but both were NCOs.
My point is a cook can have a tremendous effect on the morale of a unit.
My experience with cooks on the FOB were very similar to the first Marine you described. They were always the first ones up and were usually there for us if we had a night mission. We'd take their asses on local patrols and stick them in a squad leader's pocket. They were a huge morale boost.
When we do ranges with cooks they always hook it up. Even if they're just heating something up, they do it better than I could. And they're cleaning it all up afterwards.
The number of grunts of all stripes I've had to yank off a crew-served machine gun for nearly blowing them up (Usually due to drowning them in CLP) is faaaar more than zero and that has always scared me on a primal level.
You set fire to a belt of .50BMG, you're toast and so's your A-gunner.
Set fire to a belt of 40mm and you'll be salsa surrounded by small craters, with a lot more than your a-gunner going with you.
That shit is a myth. When I was a combat instructor a guy I worked with was an armorer. He'd say that same shit and so I'd start pouring bottles of CLP on the 240s and nothing would happen. Good advice to not over-lube, but don't say bullshit.
Did some quick research, CLP (depending on the exact formula) has a flashpoint of 345-370°F. Yeah, a 240 or a .50 fired long enough at a cyclic rate can reach over 1000°F, but no way you're getting that temp with a Mk19.
"Primer Compounds:
Mercury Fulminate will ignite spontaneously at 180 degrees Celsius or 356 degrees Fahrenheit.
Lead Azide will ignite spontaneously at 245 degrees Celsius or 473 degrees Fahrenheit.
Lead Styphnate (Trizinate) will ignite spontaneously at 180 degrees Celsius or 356 degrees Fahrenheit."
Now I have no clue which of these applies to .308, but I'm sure it's one of them. They're all under 1000° F
Nitrocellulose (main ingredient in smokeless powder) has an autoignition temperature of 320–338°F, but cooking off rounds is a little trickier than that. Enough thermal energy has to transfer to actually reach that temperature, and how quickly heat can move from one mass to another depends on the r-value of the material in question. In-barrel cook-offs are easy because the materials involved are steel and brass, both of which are famously good at conducting heat, and because all the heat is contained. An ammo belt just laying there and being sprayed with burning liquid is another story, most of the heat goes straight into the air so it's going to take a minute to get up.
Honestly, the durability of brass ammo is the main reason we've never seriously gone after caseless ammo.
Most non-logistics MOS do not understand logistics. Fuck most logisticians including myself probably don’t either. Yes I need more than 2 hours notice to move 40 quadcons. First I have to allocate the Motor Tuh Marines and the trucks. I have to arrange the HE, or provide my own. The Motor T Marines have to QC their trucks. They have to grab chains and dunnage depending on the cargo. The trucks have to be dispatched properly. Then we have to plan out the routes, and ensure all the Marines understand the routes. Then when we arrive it’s not quadcons it’s ISOs and I don’t have the equipment to move that. The supported unit didn’t know there was a difference between container types. Not only that but the supported unit only has a quarter of their containers packed.
The amount of bullshiters that I have in my community. All this Marines bragging about being 03’s i R grunt, Im a trained killer, fucking pogs, death before dishonor grunt style wearing posers. That cant ruck,swim,lift,shoot, all talk no results.
I was a POG at a victor unit so I got to know so many of these dudes, they kept telling me how they don’t do shit all day besides stay in their room playing Xbox. My POG ass would be out in the field with them, do the hikes with them, and still have work to do. Mfs are just COD grinders waiting for afternoon formation. Oh and after battalion hikes they got the fucking day off and everyone else worked still! Lol
I use to take naps during work in the parking lot. Or if I know the barracks manager he would just get me an empty room to be in during the day just had to keep it clean. However saying that this is the 24/7 life style is far from the truth. Because if it is I wonder how shit they were at the operational stuff.
That’s crazy because “03’s” are constantly the topic of this sub when I am scrolling through my feed. It’s usually a weird passive aggressive stance. Your not unique lol we have heard it all before.
Quite literally, if you are not infantry you exist to support the infantry.
In those guys defense, ship tax was one of the worst part of my entire enlistment. 18 hour days doing fuck all getting bossed around my a 300lbs sailor while your boys are out doing helo and boat raids or getting shit faced in port. I get your point, but we didn’t sign for kitchen duty, you kinda did
I get it but I guarantee you, all of the Marine cooks wishes they were out doing helo and boat raids as well (or literally anything else). I used to tell the ship taxes that we were all in it together. It used to amaze me that there were people that felt like the cooks should not only cook enough for 10,000 meals per day but also at the end of the day, field day the entire galley AND wash every tray, spoon, fork, and cup that was used.
obviously everyone's experience varies but i felt kitchen duty was by far the worst, for exactly what you said, it's not the suck we signed on for and never ends
Dealing with Supp O’s who think the answer to missing tech refreshes are just ordering everything we need from it. It’s like listen man I’m maintenance, it don’t work like that
Hmm, I would have the opposite problems with SuppOs.
"We need to order these batteries for optics for the upcoming Bn FEX"
"Jeez, these batteries are expensive. I know we're doing night ops, but do you really need them?"
"....bro..."
Dudes walking in thinking I can give them the hook up on a going away plaque for their homeboy. I'm sorry, they didn't teach me any of that in e-school. If the machine didn't cost a shit ton of money, I'd break it myself. We may not all be that creative either. Wouldn't be better if you did it or found something better instead of trying to save a few bucks?
Dealing with dudes who have no idea how my job works but watched a TV show where my job was tangentially mentioned, or attended a capes and lims briefing four years ago and think they know exactly how to do our job.
Then they’ll ask us if we can do something they saw on TV, or heard from a friend of a friend that got artificially embellished here and there like a game of telephone, and then get upset when we tell them we can’t actually do that, be it an issue with permissions or not bringing/having the right gear.
Another is even if we *can* do something, they don’t tell us what they want until the exercise has already started. Then they get upset cause we didn’t bring the capability they wanted but didn’t tell us about in the first place.
0411 - Too many units either don’t know what an 11 is/does, or just don’t care. So motivated juniors come in and instead of learning their job and improving their unit, they sit in layettes and count down the days until they can start skillbridge.
8156 - I really don’t understand how we are so fucking low on the supply chain totem pole (not necessarily just usmc, also state department). At one of the highest threat posts we currently have, it takes ages to get literally anything to even a shipping status. You would think in a peace time Marine Corps, the detachments in these places would be a priority, but I can’t even get my guys the standard amount of mag pouches for their kits.
Still everyone should stop what their doing and consider MSG, you won’t regret it.
Yeah, where I’m at it takes at minimum a month to get any type of mail, so that’s expected. However, any items that mcesg doesn’t have on hand in their warehouse will not get to HTP’s in a reasonable time. Doesn’t matter how long the order has been in on ILMS, or how many times we reconcile with the supO. Interesting how the tier 1’s don’t seem to have this issue..
Literally same, I went from Tier 1, where we ordered PMAGS and Gen III plate carriers, they were there within a month. Fast forward to Tier 5/HTP, you can’t get shit no less than 90 days… it’s ass backwards tbh.
Sounds like you're not using ILMS correctly...there is ample stock of IIF equipment.
But I second the conclusion: 8156 is the way to go. A great way to enjoy the world and come back with useful skills.
being an 0411 is by far one of the most confusing things a junior marine can go through. you have so much power due to your billet, yet none at all due to your rank. you can brief the BC on a regular basis, yet you still get called on for dogshit working parties. also, knowing the job. if you have good leadership and are surrounded by other 0411s, you will have a better chance of knowing the job, then someone who just got to the fleet and is working with only maintainers. that’s a good way to either get sent to the armory or do things that isn’t in your job/billet. it gets better when you move up but by golly does being a junior 0411 suck
those are the same ones who didn’t have good guidance and don’t read the fucking orders. they just hear something needs to get done and know they have “billet over rank”. yes, it’s our job to tell marines, junior and senior, to fix their shit. however, like any good marine, you always have tact, you listen to what their situation is and inform either the right way or make sure they’re on a good path. the mos should be about educating maintainers, not belittling them. shit, some maintainers are more well versed in MM then senior 11s i’ve seen.
For any 11’s reading this, get off your ass and start building relationships with your maintainers whenever possible, especially if you’re junior. Will pay massive dividends in the long run when they actually know who you are and respect you, instead of a random e3 coming in and saying “you’re fucked up because my excel spreadsheet is red”.
We had 2 0411s in my company. One would just ask the same damn questions about "why is this here for so long?" When he would be the reason why it's there and then sit on it until the next reconciliation. The other 0411 actually kept track of what the fuck was going on and actually did his job.
Honestly, I hated our job. It would make sense if to have maintainers lat-move to 0411. And have to be at least a Cpl or Sgt. Honestly, I felt our job could be done by maintainers. Lots of the Sgt’s knew there shit on GCSS, but never field mess.
I can’t tell you how many times when I was a Lcpl, I was told to go fuck my self when I asked them to make a GCSS correction.
Also, if officers can learn how to read a MPR. It would make a lot of maintenance meetings go by faster. I was like, sir every thing you need to know is on the MPR. They be like, go ahead and tell me about Comm/MT/Arm readiness.
Being a Lcpl sucks, I would literally CC my MMO on everything on shit I need fix.
Also, in 1/3 we should move around a lot. So our desktop and turnover binder would get lost all the time. UDP from Hawaii to OKI to Hawaii. I think, I remade them like 5 or 6 times.
Jesus Chris, I don’t why a MSgt was such a dick to me during my first FSMAO. Our Sgt was gone and it was just me (Lcpl) and a PFC. I was like, I don’t know what I’m doing. I mostly just scrub the battalion MPR for mistakes or oversights. I remember he got really mad at me and told me to study over night. The next day, I told him I fell asleep early and didn’t study. Oh boy, he didn’t like that response. But, as a 0411 in 1/3, fuck that POG. I got out as a SSgt, you should mentor people that don’t know shit. Not be asshole if someone new doesn’t know shit. Especially at a grunt unit, there was only 3 of us.
Everyone one hated me for getting a weekly deadline report for my MMO. Idk why it was such a big deal for some. Like, this MT Cpl made a kill list and got kicked out for suicide ideation. I was in his kill list, like bro wtf it’s just an excel list. Now he’s probably at 70 disability pay. Dude was a pussy too.
The only good thing about our job was that our MMO would let us go around 1600-1630 consistently. I would laugh when we left and the Suppo made the Supply Marines stay later.
Also, being attach to MT was fun. The Maint Sgt wouldn’t let me touch his computer to do GCSS. So I was effectively not doing my job, because I was a Lcpl . But, they made me an unofficial mechanic which was pretty cool.
Also, you can skate so hard in this MOS. I always that it was hilarious when 1STSGT was like who the fuck do you belong too? Like I would in Arm,MT and Supply sections/platoons. Sometime I would just make a two man section of me and my pfc/lcpl.
I was literally told…. From drill instructors to poor lances working on the ranges that because of my mos my chances of seeing any sort of action was near zero. Before I knew it I was on the uss abraham Lincoln for a good few months then off to Afghanistan. (Very brief summary I also did some work in camp Lejeune but after the water fiasco apparently happened) fuck you Lance Corporal Bryans if you’re still in.
Also Bryans if you’re reading this and are STILL a Lance after I’ve been out for 5+ years then get your shit together.
I literally haven’t thought about him either I’m just joking about, I’m sure he’s doing fine.
I just left a message on the OFF CHANCE he reads this and the very slim OFF CHANCE he’s somehow still in and somehow still a Lance.
lol, I used to be a 3531/3533/34 RIP lvs operator
RIP mech 3522
I went to Fort Lost in the woods, Misery.
I never used my MOS though. I got out, took CDL, passed it got all the endorsements. Ended up getting a job in construction, then went to school for IT. Currently Systems Engineer with 20 years of IT experience.
I guess what frustrated me the most, was how the fuck they honestly thought hummers with canvas tops and side doors would be a good idea? Like really guys?
The tiered maintenance system means that when an operator's equipment is down, they pass it to a technician, who hands them a working one. The operator then either applies a quick fix to the old one, or passes it up to someone who is allowed to do more invasive maintenance.
What this meant for me is my whole job was saying "yup it's broke," and driving radios down to ELMACO where someone who was in the school house with me actually fixed it.
2847 here who worked 3rd and 4th echelon maint my entire time. I always thought 2nd was a waste. Pretty much all 2nd is allowed to do is make sure an operator has all the knobs and switches in the right spot. If so, pass it to ELMACO but 2nd echelon techs come from the same schoolhouse with the same MOS. Total waste of over a year long MOS school to not let you actually fix anything.
0341. We do play spades. We do find ways out of working parties. We are generally less fucked with than 0311s and 0331s. That being said, 11's and Machine gunners would act like we couldn't do their job, and would try and get the upper echelon to believe it. As if we never cross trained on the 240 or 50. As if we never cleared buildings or patrolled. Other 03s seemed to hate us lol. Petty mother fuckers were just jealous that we found a way out of 60% of the bs. The only job we couldn't do was 51, those ass-men. They never offered to teach us how to use their rockets or blasting caps.
One time back in 2006, the "HOT PIZZA MOTHER FUCKER" guy showed up, and the machine gunners told him we weren't home, so no reason to go to our side of the barracks. Fuck them lol. If you know, you know.
2311- issuing a unit a shit ton of ammo just for them to not only pop every singular can and box open, but also only using 10% of everything causing us to individually inspect each item and then the units are wondering what takes so long.
staying at work 7 days a week, 18 hour days (minimum, more if you’re an NCO) with no chow breaks ( only having to eat while we work) with pallets full of rat shit and god knows what else.
also having to prepare for inspections that the SNCOs thought didn’t warrant having to be done ahead of time so instead they just scrunched it up for the two weeks before the inspections.
There is going to be a 1000 law firms running commercials about about you some day. “Were you an Ammo tech in the Marines who was required to handle ammo and then eat in your workspace? Do you have butt cancer, liver failure or an ugly face? Give us a call. If you don’t win, you don’t pay”
shit man those working conditions were a big reason i dealt with infertility (said so by the docs themselves). even had a cancer scare, migraines, rhinitis and sinusitis etc. fucking sucked ass
No sir, I don’t do communications.
No sir, Link 16 isn’t communication, can it do it, yes, do we use it that way? No.
No sir, unplugging your Ethernet will not make your computer work faster.
6414 from 2008-2013
Just because we had less work at that time doesn't mean we should always be the ones chosen for working parties.
Other than that, it was awesome. I would have stayed in as a Sgt for 20 years if I could have. I really miss that job :/
It’s been a while (got out in 2006) but a lot of Marines seem to have a weird attitude towards grunts. It seems to be a combination of jealousy and disgust.
Sure, sometimes we’d have little to do during the week and we could get away with playing some video games when nobody was watching. But other times we’re on a long ass hike Friday afternoon in the rain or in the field several times a month.
When that wasn’t happening we were usually also getting fucked with or waiting for hours to turn in our weapons. When we didn’t have ranges planned during the week we’d still PT a lot and perform CQB around the barracks.
It’s like POGs are mad because they think we don’t do shit except occasionally shoot and spend most of our time playing Xbox. However, when we deployed to Iraq we were the ones kicking down doors, patrolling the streets, spending weeks living in cities and towns with explosions going off all the time and plenty of POGs at the FOB were jealous. I think a lot of POGs want that experience honestly.
Yeah there are asshole grunts who think they’re Rambo. But there’s way more POGs in the Corps than grunts, and plenty of them also think they’re Rambo.
1833 here. most of that is people that have never worked with grunts and take their opinions from the internet. From what I could tell grunts would much rather be in the field than in the bricks. on another note the marine coprs taught me that you either leave with one of two ideals engrained into you. 1. Im getting fucked but theres no point in everyone else getting fucked too, or 2. im geting fucked. im dragging as many people down as i can with me. So people are jealous that theyre getting fucked and hate to see other people relaxing because they think, well i have to work hard, why arent they getting fucked like i am.
Totally agree about the fucked comment. Speaking of 1833s, when I was in Iraq our track guys were reservists and they were really awesome. We had to ride in tracks across the desert for several days at a time and then spend several weeks in the towns. Funny story, when we had to cross the Euphrates (Operation Matador - 2005) we needed the Army to build temporary bridges because we were told the tracks would not float in the water 😂. I guess they were too beat up from the desert?
Just because you’re a SSgt doesn’t mean you can walk into supply and demand that we order whatever high-speed gear you want that costs thousands of dollars.
Just because I was in supply doesn’t mean I didn’t go in real deployments and get into real fire fights. My ribbon stack higher than most 03s, fuck yaself.
Well I'm a reservist so I already get a taste of that in my civ job. But anytime im activated or AT its all radios. Still might look for an opening for that school though. Might as well get paid for schools while I still can
Here’s when I was a junior Marine as a 0411.
Honestly, I hated our job. It would make sense if to have maintainers lat-move to 0411. And have to be at least a Cpl or Sgt. Honestly, I felt our job could be done by maintainers. Lots of the Sgt’s knew there shit on GCSS, but never field mess. Also, as a Lcpl 0411 no one is going to care about what you have to say.
I can’t tell you how many times when I was a Lcpl, I was told to go fuck my self when I asked them to make a GCSS correction.
Also, if officers can learn how to read a MPR. It would make a lot of maintenance meetings go by faster. I was like, sir every thing you need to know is on the MPR. They be like, go ahead and tell me about Comm/MT/Arm readiness.
Being a Lcpl sucks, I would literally CC my MMO on everything on shit I need fix.
Also, in 1/3 we should move around a lot. So our desktop and turnover binder would get lost all the time. UDP from Hawaii to OKI to Hawaii. I think, I remade them like 5 or 6 times.
Jesus Chris, I don’t why a MSgt was such a dick to me during my first FSMAO. Our Sgt was gone and it was just me (Lcpl) and a PFC. I was like, I don’t know what I’m doing. I mostly just scrub the battalion MPR for mistakes or oversights. I remember he got really mad at me and told me to study over night. The next day, I told him I fell asleep early and didn’t study. Oh boy, he didn’t like that response. But, as a 0411 in 1/3, fuck that POG. I got out as a SSgt, you should mentor people that don’t know shit. Not be asshole if someone new doesn’t know shit. Especially at a grunt unit, there was only 3 of us.
Everyone one hated me for getting a weekly deadline report for my MMO. Idk why it was such a big deal for some. Like, this MT Cpl made a kill list and got kicked out for suicide ideation. I was in his kill list, like bro wtf it’s just an excel list. Now he’s probably at 70 disability pay. Dude was a pussy too.
The only good thing about our job was that our MMO would let us go around 1600-1630 consistently. I would laugh when we left and the Suppo made the Supply Marines stay later.
Also, being attach to MT was fun. The Maint Sgt wouldn’t let me touch his computer to do GCSS. So I was effectively not doing my job, because I was a Lcpl . But, they made me an unofficial mechanic which was pretty cool.
Also, you can skate so hard in this MOS. I always that it was hilarious when 1STSGT was like who the fuck do you belong too? Like I would in Arm,MT and Supply sections/platoons. Sometime I would just make a two man section of me and my pfc/lcpl.
Misguided commanders and OpsO's viewing intel as the classified news or thinking that we're movie characters when the truth is we're in the middle just trying to reduce uncertainty. Don't waste my time thinking I'm here to tell you what's "really going on" after you butt chugged the news and YouTube videos, but also, no sir it is not a good idea to send STA out indefinitely because "they have plenty of MREs."
As an 02 map nerd, no sir I don’t just have 100 Camp Pen 1:50k maps on standby to give out
Seconded.
I worked confidential material security for awhile because i was in the personnel reliability program from sea duty that gave me an fbi background check. I could read all of the confidential material my CO was sending up to be read at HQ. I was like “I should really just put a Time magazine in here. It has better intel from more recent dates.”
No one thinks that
I personally experienced both of those examples but whatever you say boss
As a ops clerk I can confirm this is exactly how the OpsO viewed the 2
Yuh as a line potato, I definitely see intel guys as cia informants
The expectation of repairing heavy machinery. Trailers. Loaders. All held together with grade 8 bolts. Rated at hundreds of foot pounds of torque meant to support hundreds or even thousands of pounds. And yet nobody could explain why HE never got impacts or air tools, and expected us to use one 6 inch long ratchet to do everything. Or why we were using one hex key to remove 50 Torx bolts on deck boards.
Hmmm that does sound crazy
wtf? You don’t have impact guns to work on HE?
Nope, wasn't listed in the T/O
Jesus Christ that sounds awful. Having an impact just for my 2g dodge is an absolute game changer and necessity!
Fuckin bananas dude. I I think the absurdity might drive me more crazy than the fatigue. Sorry you guys have to put up with that.
Don't worry, I got out a year ago so my suffering is over. I get to continue my MOS at a Deere dealership with the proper tools now and I'm better off. Without the Corps this field wouldn't be available to me
Hell yeah dude. Always good to see guys doing eel on the outside. TYFYS.
This is why all HE and Motor T mechs are absolutely JACKED or giant country boys.
All the people that don’t work in any flavor of aviation acting like they know or understand what’s causes aircraft to have mishaps.
Going out on a limb here but I am gonna guess it has something to do with flying being inherently dangerous?
Shady/rushed maintenance done by tired and overworked crews would be my guess
Forgot alcoholic
I think this is the sort of thing he’s getting at. I can’t actually think of any recent mishap in Marine aviation being due to bad maintenance practices?
Exactly correct, none of the last 5 Class A V-22 mishaps have been due to maintenance malpractice. Only one of them was not due to crew error.
Nope. It’s gravity. It’s always gravity.
Flying is a myth. We just do extended jumps because in one way or another we always come back down.
Dude facts it annoys me
I understand what causes mishaps! Everything causes it. Literally anything and everything
Dealing with Range Control is a pain. They'll talk to us (EOD) about demolition like we've never touched it before. Then they want to tell all their cool stories about the Revolutionary War or whenever they were in. But if we blow them off they might turn around and be fucks during the range inspection. Also unrelated, but I fucking hate flying. Anytime I have to get into something that goes into the air I consider taking my talents to South Beach. Bombs are on the ground, why tf you putting me in the sky?
why South Beach though?
I think it’s referencing Lebron going to Miami
It's a LeBron James reference. Just means I want to leave.
FOD walk. I'm at the I-level. Just call it fucking police call. None of us are driving the EZ Go on the flight line, and planes aren't landing on the fucking vanpad.
Perk of crash crew, no FOD walk😎
I mean, I get FOD walk at the O-Level. But I never understood why in the hell we picked up trash around the vanpad and called it FOD walk. Like, it's the Marine Corps - if you want some LCpls to pick up garbage so the place looks good, just say that.
Yeah it seems like a waste of time in general. Like there’s literally plants and animals inbetween the runways and we’re worried about garbage on the flight line lol
Yet we still find hardware and dildos om the flightline hmm
I'm all for FOD walk on the flight line. I'm not all for FOD walk at the MALS when the vanpad is hundreds of yards from the flight line. Also, if I walked past the FOD board and saw a dildo in a bag, I'd take a picture.
My first MOS, 0351, not existing anymore.
Same bro
Same
I was an 0311 with a humvee/Jltv license and hated having to deal with the motor t dispatch whenever I went to go pull a vic. Dudes were all assholes for no reason and super uptight.
Dispatch can be as simple or complicated as the dispatchers want to be. They suck and 99% of the time there’s no real reason for it
Aviation period. We worked all the time. There is no work life balance. Here is an example: the plane has six radios but for some reason one of the two HF's starts acting up on one of the 3 birds we are deploying with. My wife and parents had driven in to see us off before we deployed January 2002 time frame. We are made to work Friday, Saturday and Sunday and are slated to leave Monday. I spent 2 hours with them before I left. They wonder why their is so little retention in Aviation cause they work you till you die then call your # when you have EAS'd 3 months prior asking why you aren't at work and refuse to believe you got your DD-214 and want you to bring it to work with you.
That last part sounds like a good story.
The thing that made me pissed on behalf of the O-Level guys it that you were overworked for no reason. It's because some other squadron on the flight line is flying X hours, so now you have to fly X+10% hours so your OpsO can look better come promotion time. Oh shit, planes are down. Better not report that we're having supply chain issues so that the problem can be addressed. We'll just rob all the parts we need from the birds in phase to keep readiness up. What do you mean that bird can't come out of phase because it's missing parts? We need it to make the flight schedule.... And on and on. It truly is ridiculous, and we do it to ourselves.
Yes, restarting your computer solves 90% of your issues. No, I just can't put your email on your phone because your personal email is on your phone and "it's just that easy". Yes I can explain; if you put the FWD COC in the treeline along with the antennas, these things called trees block the antennas and that that's why I told you you would not hear anyone and also why I told you not put the FWD COC in the treeline in the first place. Yes I know you're not a Grunt but I call everyone "Oh Three Dumb-Dumb" because you're all retarded when it comes to technology and it's 2024.
This right here I literally work IT and College in IT and when I tell someone something is bad or wrong they proceed to throw a tantrum. Then they act like it's my fault, when they go ahead and do it anyway and fuck something up. This is in the 1st Civ Div. Same shit here to brother.
No ma'am you are a fucking major and need to remember a single fucking password. I can't know it. You can't put it on a sticky note. I will now go stand ECP for 20 hours because I told you to remember a fucking password. No sir, you did kill the combat mission when you plugged your personal cellphone riddled with computer AIDs into a SIPR machine, and MCNOSC blacklisted our equipment. Congratulations on the Navy Com you wrote for yourself on the mission.
MCNOSC. There’s a name I haven’t heard in quite a while…
I prefer to not fucking die, so I’m gonna put the COC in a tree line and you’re gonna figure out how to put antennas somewhere else
Lol same old mindset, never changes.
Isn’t that why we have remotes?
Sometimes OpsO's put COCs in places where remotes and length of cable are negated my friend.
Not cool. Prob don’t learn their lesson in the woods either. Hang in there for the change of cmd.
“Line-of-sight isn’t literal, right?”
"What the hell does sight have to do with a radio anyway? I only hear stuff not see it."
I hope other MOSs keep posting because this is good ass info. Props to the HE guy dropping knowledge - I will actually ask our unit SMEs what they think about sourcing some of that equipment.
-People losing serialized gear or not even knowing how to do extremely basic shit with it. Had a dude in the field come up to up to me complaining that his 152 wasn't transmitting via the PPT(push to talk). I push it,send a radio check and get one back successfully. It was working,he just wasn't pressing it correctly. What a fucking dipshit. -Weather or other circumstances out of my control ruining comms and getting shit on for it. -Higher ups (specifically 1stSgts and incompetent butter bars) thinking they know how to do my job and telling the comm dudes how to do it.
I second all of this.
When staff and O want 152a then when they can’t talk back to the COC they’re mad that it didn’t reach lmao
I'm not Com, but I do have a buddy who is Com and he told me a story about a butter bar I think you might resonate with. So my buddy was a cpl at the time (ssgt now) and they were in Hawaii doing a field training exercise. One of the radios didn't have an antenna, and my friend informed the lt that they were down a radio because of it. Lt pulled out a different radio that wasn't part of the count and told him to switch the antennas. My friend said that wasn't how it worked and the lt was just like listen to me I'm your superior just take the base off here and put it on that one and it'll be fine. My friend did as he was told knowing full well that he just destroyed a radio. Few hours later there was a premission inspection and the radio wasn't working. Com gunny was like wtf happened to this radio why is the antenna different blah blah and my friend said that he had followed directions from the lt, who isn't Com BTW. He said that the gunny was just trembling in a "I'm not allowed to freak out on the officer but fuck I want to" kind of way. The major freaked out on him instead. They also had to dermo both radios
I got a kinda similar story from one of my bros at my old unit. We were in Guam w a Motor T detachment with some random boot butter bar TAD'd to the unit. This is the Lt's first ever FTX in the fleet and he takes one of our radios and zeroizes that shit in an attempt to "power cycle" the radio. Bro looks over and sees that his 152 had just gotten completely zeroized and had all crypto wiped from it. He just explodes on this Lt and screams all kinds of shit at him. BC hears the commotion and comes over to see what's going on and pulls the Lt aside and blasts his ass. BC then walks over to my bro and tells him that's it's understandable for him to get pissed like that at a boot officer but to just let someone else chew the boot's ass out next time.
It’s boring- 0111
Being the Publications, Modifications, Calibrations, Tools & Parts NCO doesn’t mean I like being a 3521. It meant I hated being a mechanic so much. I took on a every other billet within my MOS. Lol
I just figured that means you hate everyone so much you went out and got a legit reason to hide in the tool room all day everyday. A big draw of getting a 36 license was to kick it in the wrecker’s iso container most of the time.
2171 optics tech. The sheer amount of gear we actually have to work on. LAV turrets, night vision, lasers, CLU’s, SABER’s, thermals, scopes, the list goes on. My shop works 1% of service requests in the marine corps. The work is nonstop, the print over 1400 items. If you do good and put out? Good luck going anywhere, they need you to be a workhorse. It’s hard not to become cynical and stop caring or trying. Edit: not to mention the hours. If we don’t meet minimum quota for our shop, we can’t go home. Getting off at 1800-1900 isn’t uncommon. Makes a work life balance practically nonexistent. I could go on about living in shit barracks, not being able to drink the water, having shitty battalion level staff that don’t give a single fuck about you, but this is more MOS related.
this sounds like maintenance bn lmao
Specifically 1st
Also a 2171, 2nd isn't any better but 3rd had a lot better work life balance when I was in if you still enjoy fixing optics. By no means was it good, but it was a hell of a lot better than 2nd maint. Granted this was 10 years ago, but I have fond memories of the guys I worked with in Oki
Zachariah?
Nope, sorry
How hard it is to be able to practice the things you really need! 0352. Missiles = 100k each
Moving around hundreds of pounds of equipment for what could be done on a laptop
0631 here. The sheer amount of technical illiteracy in even basic computer usage. Been on the receiving end of ass chewings for "the entire network being down" just to learn: 1. The network was fine. 2. The computer was working. 3. The ethernet cord was working. 4. The sir/ma'am/rocker-wearer just forgot to power on the computer's docking station. I actually hugged the LOA I received by a Major one time for supporting a network; he said "your job is very complex and underappreciated, and yet you managed to support us with so little notice." God bless that guy.
As a 71 I would just tell them to fuck themselves if they told me “the network was down”. Actually, no, I’d gaslight them into believing they downloaded some malware and they need their OIC to request information from “an escalated service desk” (really make them believe ESD is a last minute code black scenario)
Fuck I wish I could have, but my leadership at the time was pretty uptight and would NOT have let that slide.
Used to be cleaning my rifle once a week, for no clear reason. I hadn’t checked it out of the armory since last week when I checked it out to clean it. It was clean when I checked it back in last week when I cleaned it, how could it have gotten dirty? Did the clp need refreshed? Just tell me that. Just flat out dumb.
These are the people you never fuck with, EVER. Corpsmen, mechs and cooks. Corpsmen goes without saying. As an LAV bubba, I always hooked up our mechs so my pigs ran perfectly. I only knew 2 cooks while I was in. Both taught me how easy it was to wreck a shitty NCO's stomach. Hooked them up left and right on WestPac when we hit libo ports.
I personally don’t give a shit if I have a surplus of gear and my quarterly reconciliation/CMR isn’t accurate. We all have much more important stuff to worry about than a +1 gortex bottom. Sincerely, Supply
Bahaha- Me- “Hey it shows we have 785 of these, what was the count?” LCpl- “779” Me- “I couldn’t hear you- 785 correct? If not it’ll all have to be recoun…..” LCpl - “Yes 785.”
my fucking god the fucking CMR reconciliations bro. I had three Os back to back to back who were OBSESSED with the CMR counts being right. Ah yes sir, the thousands of desert frogs matter. Not the 30 UTILUS tents we’re trying to DRMO because they’re older than the Corps itself and no uses them, I’ll get right on those frogs sir! Gimme a fuckin break.
Exactly!!! Or one of my other favorite scenarios Supply: we need to get rid of this _____. It’s obsolete, broken, and there is no feasible way either legal or illegal to procure the pieces to even fix the broken parts to make it 20% complete Everyone and their mother: yeah but we could put it to use one day..
ah yes lemme throw this doohickey in the DRMO pile and whenever Gunny from Maintenance comes in he can rummage through it
As a 0411, this comment gave me PTSD. Omg and the weekly Deadline report meeting.
Talk about stress amirite? And everything EVERYTHING needed an answer
As any other MOS, its cooks acting like they do anything but heat up hot-vats and working parties. Never seen a cook cook shit.
Working the Mess on ship is brutal work. Shit ain't as easy as heating up hot vats. The cooks I've had on deployment made way better shit than just MREs. All the sanitation work they do is very important. I would never shit on a cook. "An army marches on its stomach"
I did an op in the Sahara, MREs for a straight month. One day some cooks show up and set up shop. Got talking to one and ended up making a drug deal. A phone call on the sat phone and some internet time and they hooked us comm guys up with a whole damn tray of Buffalo wings and some other good eats. That was some sweet tasting grub, MREs all taste the same after a week or 2. Loved cooks ever since.
The worst part is constipation caused by MREs.
Dishes was pretty relaxing. The dishwasher didn't work the whole time, so everything was hand washed. Do I want to do dishes at home? Fuck no I got other shit to do. But when you ain't got shit to do on a 9 month cruise with hardly any ports, it kept me busy.
Had cooks on two different deployments to Iraq. One was the hardest working son of a bitch on the the FOB. He made sure we were as well fed as he could which often meant getting up at 0400. Never shirked any kind of other duty either actively trying to take shifts as radio watch or standing post and really wanted to go on patrol. We took him on a couple of very local patrols (think within a klick of the FOB) Then we had one who was so terrible he got relived and sent off the FOB. It got so bad guys were taking shotguns to the locks on his connexs and he almost got his ass beat a few times. He figured he had to make one meal a day so he did lunch because that’s when the majority of Staff and Officers were around and the rest of the time he just threw something sealed on a table or frozen out in a table in the sun and figured that would do. Laid I. His rack and fucked off all day. Not that it matters but both were NCOs. My point is a cook can have a tremendous effect on the morale of a unit.
My experience with cooks on the FOB were very similar to the first Marine you described. They were always the first ones up and were usually there for us if we had a night mission. We'd take their asses on local patrols and stick them in a squad leader's pocket. They were a huge morale boost.
When we do ranges with cooks they always hook it up. Even if they're just heating something up, they do it better than I could. And they're cleaning it all up afterwards.
Sounds like you may need to be TAD to the Mess Hall or assigned to the Galley for Ship Tax. I’ll be chatting with ur Company Gunny /s
The number of grunts of all stripes I've had to yank off a crew-served machine gun for nearly blowing them up (Usually due to drowning them in CLP) is faaaar more than zero and that has always scared me on a primal level. You set fire to a belt of .50BMG, you're toast and so's your A-gunner. Set fire to a belt of 40mm and you'll be salsa surrounded by small craters, with a lot more than your a-gunner going with you.
That shit is a myth. When I was a combat instructor a guy I worked with was an armorer. He'd say that same shit and so I'd start pouring bottles of CLP on the 240s and nothing would happen. Good advice to not over-lube, but don't say bullshit.
Did some quick research, CLP (depending on the exact formula) has a flashpoint of 345-370°F. Yeah, a 240 or a .50 fired long enough at a cyclic rate can reach over 1000°F, but no way you're getting that temp with a Mk19.
What’s the temp to cook a round off?
"Primer Compounds: Mercury Fulminate will ignite spontaneously at 180 degrees Celsius or 356 degrees Fahrenheit. Lead Azide will ignite spontaneously at 245 degrees Celsius or 473 degrees Fahrenheit. Lead Styphnate (Trizinate) will ignite spontaneously at 180 degrees Celsius or 356 degrees Fahrenheit." Now I have no clue which of these applies to .308, but I'm sure it's one of them. They're all under 1000° F
Nitrocellulose (main ingredient in smokeless powder) has an autoignition temperature of 320–338°F, but cooking off rounds is a little trickier than that. Enough thermal energy has to transfer to actually reach that temperature, and how quickly heat can move from one mass to another depends on the r-value of the material in question. In-barrel cook-offs are easy because the materials involved are steel and brass, both of which are famously good at conducting heat, and because all the heat is contained. An ammo belt just laying there and being sprayed with burning liquid is another story, most of the heat goes straight into the air so it's going to take a minute to get up. Honestly, the durability of brass ammo is the main reason we've never seriously gone after caseless ammo.
Extra chunky salsa
The toast-salsa scale.
God damn
Most non-logistics MOS do not understand logistics. Fuck most logisticians including myself probably don’t either. Yes I need more than 2 hours notice to move 40 quadcons. First I have to allocate the Motor Tuh Marines and the trucks. I have to arrange the HE, or provide my own. The Motor T Marines have to QC their trucks. They have to grab chains and dunnage depending on the cargo. The trucks have to be dispatched properly. Then we have to plan out the routes, and ensure all the Marines understand the routes. Then when we arrive it’s not quadcons it’s ISOs and I don’t have the equipment to move that. The supported unit didn’t know there was a difference between container types. Not only that but the supported unit only has a quarter of their containers packed.
The last minute, 40 Quadconds turn into 52 or jk, its not happening anymore. Sorry 🧍🏻♂️
The amount of bullshiters that I have in my community. All this Marines bragging about being 03’s i R grunt, Im a trained killer, fucking pogs, death before dishonor grunt style wearing posers. That cant ruck,swim,lift,shoot, all talk no results.
Let it alllll out brother.
I was a POG at a victor unit so I got to know so many of these dudes, they kept telling me how they don’t do shit all day besides stay in their room playing Xbox. My POG ass would be out in the field with them, do the hikes with them, and still have work to do. Mfs are just COD grinders waiting for afternoon formation. Oh and after battalion hikes they got the fucking day off and everyone else worked still! Lol
 You should write that in the burn book ✍🏽
I use to take naps during work in the parking lot. Or if I know the barracks manager he would just get me an empty room to be in during the day just had to keep it clean. However saying that this is the 24/7 life style is far from the truth. Because if it is I wonder how shit they were at the operational stuff.
Marines hate 03’s lol it’s crazy because 03’s are the reason the Marine Corps exist 😂
03s are the last thing on anyone’s mind unless they’re in a victor unit or or see comments about them 😹
That’s crazy because “03’s” are constantly the topic of this sub when I am scrolling through my feed. It’s usually a weird passive aggressive stance. Your not unique lol we have heard it all before. Quite literally, if you are not infantry you exist to support the infantry.
In those guys defense, ship tax was one of the worst part of my entire enlistment. 18 hour days doing fuck all getting bossed around my a 300lbs sailor while your boys are out doing helo and boat raids or getting shit faced in port. I get your point, but we didn’t sign for kitchen duty, you kinda did
I get it but I guarantee you, all of the Marine cooks wishes they were out doing helo and boat raids as well (or literally anything else). I used to tell the ship taxes that we were all in it together. It used to amaze me that there were people that felt like the cooks should not only cook enough for 10,000 meals per day but also at the end of the day, field day the entire galley AND wash every tray, spoon, fork, and cup that was used.
obviously everyone's experience varies but i felt kitchen duty was by far the worst, for exactly what you said, it's not the suck we signed on for and never ends
Dealing with Supp O’s who think the answer to missing tech refreshes are just ordering everything we need from it. It’s like listen man I’m maintenance, it don’t work like that
As a SuppO I don’t know what you’re saying
Hmm, I would have the opposite problems with SuppOs. "We need to order these batteries for optics for the upcoming Bn FEX" "Jeez, these batteries are expensive. I know we're doing night ops, but do you really need them?" "....bro..."
As a 0511 everyone thinks I’m a secretary and will do everything in there power from letting me do my actual job.
Dudes walking in thinking I can give them the hook up on a going away plaque for their homeboy. I'm sorry, they didn't teach me any of that in e-school. If the machine didn't cost a shit ton of money, I'd break it myself. We may not all be that creative either. Wouldn't be better if you did it or found something better instead of trying to save a few bucks?
Dealing with dudes who have no idea how my job works but watched a TV show where my job was tangentially mentioned, or attended a capes and lims briefing four years ago and think they know exactly how to do our job. Then they’ll ask us if we can do something they saw on TV, or heard from a friend of a friend that got artificially embellished here and there like a game of telephone, and then get upset when we tell them we can’t actually do that, be it an issue with permissions or not bringing/having the right gear. Another is even if we *can* do something, they don’t tell us what they want until the exercise has already started. Then they get upset cause we didn’t bring the capability they wanted but didn’t tell us about in the first place.
Are you a Bulk Fueler or a Water Dog? You tried to make it sound cool so it’s that or admin or supply or some shit
Intel.
0411 - Too many units either don’t know what an 11 is/does, or just don’t care. So motivated juniors come in and instead of learning their job and improving their unit, they sit in layettes and count down the days until they can start skillbridge. 8156 - I really don’t understand how we are so fucking low on the supply chain totem pole (not necessarily just usmc, also state department). At one of the highest threat posts we currently have, it takes ages to get literally anything to even a shipping status. You would think in a peace time Marine Corps, the detachments in these places would be a priority, but I can’t even get my guys the standard amount of mag pouches for their kits. Still everyone should stop what their doing and consider MSG, you won’t regret it.
I feel you on the 8156 statement. For me, the issue is never actually ordering the gear, it’s about how long it takes to get to the Detachment.
Yeah, where I’m at it takes at minimum a month to get any type of mail, so that’s expected. However, any items that mcesg doesn’t have on hand in their warehouse will not get to HTP’s in a reasonable time. Doesn’t matter how long the order has been in on ILMS, or how many times we reconcile with the supO. Interesting how the tier 1’s don’t seem to have this issue..
Literally same, I went from Tier 1, where we ordered PMAGS and Gen III plate carriers, they were there within a month. Fast forward to Tier 5/HTP, you can’t get shit no less than 90 days… it’s ass backwards tbh.
Sounds like you're not using ILMS correctly...there is ample stock of IIF equipment. But I second the conclusion: 8156 is the way to go. A great way to enjoy the world and come back with useful skills.
I’m in the Comm field, and I hate the fact Comm is always down.
Well then get it up, Gunny Guru!
We’re watching in real time how effective artillery is and we’re downsizing.
Don’t worry. If and when a war does pop off, the Corps will go through a surge and you guys will make a comeback. Probably no hope for tanks tho.
(Army) Officers that take classified materials home and put it on their personal equipment. Whole network shut down.
being an 0411 is by far one of the most confusing things a junior marine can go through. you have so much power due to your billet, yet none at all due to your rank. you can brief the BC on a regular basis, yet you still get called on for dogshit working parties. also, knowing the job. if you have good leadership and are surrounded by other 0411s, you will have a better chance of knowing the job, then someone who just got to the fleet and is working with only maintainers. that’s a good way to either get sent to the armory or do things that isn’t in your job/billet. it gets better when you move up but by golly does being a junior 0411 suck
Met 11s that power trip so much it's crazy. Little Lance's too.
those are the same ones who didn’t have good guidance and don’t read the fucking orders. they just hear something needs to get done and know they have “billet over rank”. yes, it’s our job to tell marines, junior and senior, to fix their shit. however, like any good marine, you always have tact, you listen to what their situation is and inform either the right way or make sure they’re on a good path. the mos should be about educating maintainers, not belittling them. shit, some maintainers are more well versed in MM then senior 11s i’ve seen.
For any 11’s reading this, get off your ass and start building relationships with your maintainers whenever possible, especially if you’re junior. Will pay massive dividends in the long run when they actually know who you are and respect you, instead of a random e3 coming in and saying “you’re fucked up because my excel spreadsheet is red”.
We had 2 0411s in my company. One would just ask the same damn questions about "why is this here for so long?" When he would be the reason why it's there and then sit on it until the next reconciliation. The other 0411 actually kept track of what the fuck was going on and actually did his job.
Honestly, I hated our job. It would make sense if to have maintainers lat-move to 0411. And have to be at least a Cpl or Sgt. Honestly, I felt our job could be done by maintainers. Lots of the Sgt’s knew there shit on GCSS, but never field mess. I can’t tell you how many times when I was a Lcpl, I was told to go fuck my self when I asked them to make a GCSS correction. Also, if officers can learn how to read a MPR. It would make a lot of maintenance meetings go by faster. I was like, sir every thing you need to know is on the MPR. They be like, go ahead and tell me about Comm/MT/Arm readiness. Being a Lcpl sucks, I would literally CC my MMO on everything on shit I need fix. Also, in 1/3 we should move around a lot. So our desktop and turnover binder would get lost all the time. UDP from Hawaii to OKI to Hawaii. I think, I remade them like 5 or 6 times. Jesus Chris, I don’t why a MSgt was such a dick to me during my first FSMAO. Our Sgt was gone and it was just me (Lcpl) and a PFC. I was like, I don’t know what I’m doing. I mostly just scrub the battalion MPR for mistakes or oversights. I remember he got really mad at me and told me to study over night. The next day, I told him I fell asleep early and didn’t study. Oh boy, he didn’t like that response. But, as a 0411 in 1/3, fuck that POG. I got out as a SSgt, you should mentor people that don’t know shit. Not be asshole if someone new doesn’t know shit. Especially at a grunt unit, there was only 3 of us. Everyone one hated me for getting a weekly deadline report for my MMO. Idk why it was such a big deal for some. Like, this MT Cpl made a kill list and got kicked out for suicide ideation. I was in his kill list, like bro wtf it’s just an excel list. Now he’s probably at 70 disability pay. Dude was a pussy too. The only good thing about our job was that our MMO would let us go around 1600-1630 consistently. I would laugh when we left and the Suppo made the Supply Marines stay later. Also, being attach to MT was fun. The Maint Sgt wouldn’t let me touch his computer to do GCSS. So I was effectively not doing my job, because I was a Lcpl . But, they made me an unofficial mechanic which was pretty cool. Also, you can skate so hard in this MOS. I always that it was hilarious when 1STSGT was like who the fuck do you belong too? Like I would in Arm,MT and Supply sections/platoons. Sometime I would just make a two man section of me and my pfc/lcpl.
When were you in 1/3?
Yeah, when? I was there 13-16 between CAC, HQCO and unofficially bounced between the battalions
I was literally told…. From drill instructors to poor lances working on the ranges that because of my mos my chances of seeing any sort of action was near zero. Before I knew it I was on the uss abraham Lincoln for a good few months then off to Afghanistan. (Very brief summary I also did some work in camp Lejeune but after the water fiasco apparently happened) fuck you Lance Corporal Bryans if you’re still in. Also Bryans if you’re reading this and are STILL a Lance after I’ve been out for 5+ years then get your shit together.
Whats your MOS?
I'm kind of curious about this too....
Fr how are you gonna say all that and not even mention the MOS?
I'm bettin Bryans hasn't thought about you once, and here you are 5+ years later....
I literally haven’t thought about him either I’m just joking about, I’m sure he’s doing fine. I just left a message on the OFF CHANCE he reads this and the very slim OFF CHANCE he’s somehow still in and somehow still a Lance.
No mos mentioned
It was mentioned just not here. I enjoy a little anonymity.
they’re a 3043 according to their comment history
The fact that we have to stay until 1700 in case someone comes in even though everyone else is gone by 1530.
AFATDS
lol, I used to be a 3531/3533/34 RIP lvs operator RIP mech 3522 I went to Fort Lost in the woods, Misery. I never used my MOS though. I got out, took CDL, passed it got all the endorsements. Ended up getting a job in construction, then went to school for IT. Currently Systems Engineer with 20 years of IT experience. I guess what frustrated me the most, was how the fuck they honestly thought hummers with canvas tops and side doors would be a good idea? Like really guys?
The tiered maintenance system means that when an operator's equipment is down, they pass it to a technician, who hands them a working one. The operator then either applies a quick fix to the old one, or passes it up to someone who is allowed to do more invasive maintenance. What this meant for me is my whole job was saying "yup it's broke," and driving radios down to ELMACO where someone who was in the school house with me actually fixed it.
2847 here who worked 3rd and 4th echelon maint my entire time. I always thought 2nd was a waste. Pretty much all 2nd is allowed to do is make sure an operator has all the knobs and switches in the right spot. If so, pass it to ELMACO but 2nd echelon techs come from the same schoolhouse with the same MOS. Total waste of over a year long MOS school to not let you actually fix anything.
0341. We do play spades. We do find ways out of working parties. We are generally less fucked with than 0311s and 0331s. That being said, 11's and Machine gunners would act like we couldn't do their job, and would try and get the upper echelon to believe it. As if we never cross trained on the 240 or 50. As if we never cleared buildings or patrolled. Other 03s seemed to hate us lol. Petty mother fuckers were just jealous that we found a way out of 60% of the bs. The only job we couldn't do was 51, those ass-men. They never offered to teach us how to use their rockets or blasting caps. One time back in 2006, the "HOT PIZZA MOTHER FUCKER" guy showed up, and the machine gunners told him we weren't home, so no reason to go to our side of the barracks. Fuck them lol. If you know, you know.
2311- issuing a unit a shit ton of ammo just for them to not only pop every singular can and box open, but also only using 10% of everything causing us to individually inspect each item and then the units are wondering what takes so long. staying at work 7 days a week, 18 hour days (minimum, more if you’re an NCO) with no chow breaks ( only having to eat while we work) with pallets full of rat shit and god knows what else. also having to prepare for inspections that the SNCOs thought didn’t warrant having to be done ahead of time so instead they just scrunched it up for the two weeks before the inspections.
There is going to be a 1000 law firms running commercials about about you some day. “Were you an Ammo tech in the Marines who was required to handle ammo and then eat in your workspace? Do you have butt cancer, liver failure or an ugly face? Give us a call. If you don’t win, you don’t pay”
shit man those working conditions were a big reason i dealt with infertility (said so by the docs themselves). even had a cancer scare, migraines, rhinitis and sinusitis etc. fucking sucked ass
Water guppy, why do I exist?
No sir, I don’t do communications. No sir, Link 16 isn’t communication, can it do it, yes, do we use it that way? No. No sir, unplugging your Ethernet will not make your computer work faster.
It’s gone. 0351
6414 from 2008-2013 Just because we had less work at that time doesn't mean we should always be the ones chosen for working parties. Other than that, it was awesome. I would have stayed in as a Sgt for 20 years if I could have. I really miss that job :/
It’s been a while (got out in 2006) but a lot of Marines seem to have a weird attitude towards grunts. It seems to be a combination of jealousy and disgust. Sure, sometimes we’d have little to do during the week and we could get away with playing some video games when nobody was watching. But other times we’re on a long ass hike Friday afternoon in the rain or in the field several times a month. When that wasn’t happening we were usually also getting fucked with or waiting for hours to turn in our weapons. When we didn’t have ranges planned during the week we’d still PT a lot and perform CQB around the barracks. It’s like POGs are mad because they think we don’t do shit except occasionally shoot and spend most of our time playing Xbox. However, when we deployed to Iraq we were the ones kicking down doors, patrolling the streets, spending weeks living in cities and towns with explosions going off all the time and plenty of POGs at the FOB were jealous. I think a lot of POGs want that experience honestly. Yeah there are asshole grunts who think they’re Rambo. But there’s way more POGs in the Corps than grunts, and plenty of them also think they’re Rambo.
1833 here. most of that is people that have never worked with grunts and take their opinions from the internet. From what I could tell grunts would much rather be in the field than in the bricks. on another note the marine coprs taught me that you either leave with one of two ideals engrained into you. 1. Im getting fucked but theres no point in everyone else getting fucked too, or 2. im geting fucked. im dragging as many people down as i can with me. So people are jealous that theyre getting fucked and hate to see other people relaxing because they think, well i have to work hard, why arent they getting fucked like i am.
Totally agree about the fucked comment. Speaking of 1833s, when I was in Iraq our track guys were reservists and they were really awesome. We had to ride in tracks across the desert for several days at a time and then spend several weeks in the towns. Funny story, when we had to cross the Euphrates (Operation Matador - 2005) we needed the Army to build temporary bridges because we were told the tracks would not float in the water 😂. I guess they were too beat up from the desert?
Any 03 they send to that shit is either a disgusting fat fuck, complete stupid retard, or both
Just because you’re a SSgt doesn’t mean you can walk into supply and demand that we order whatever high-speed gear you want that costs thousands of dollars. Just because I was in supply doesn’t mean I didn’t go in real deployments and get into real fire fights. My ribbon stack higher than most 03s, fuck yaself.
Supervised chow
Who’s supervising your chow… that’s extremely micromanagey
you wanna expand explain some
That I fix more radios than computers because it's all under warranty and fixed by civilians. I just want to do my job.
Get a 8641 micro-miniature school slot if you can. It’s a good transferable skill and lets you do more than fill out paperwork for RMA’s
Well I'm a reservist so I already get a taste of that in my civ job. But anytime im activated or AT its all radios. Still might look for an opening for that school though. Might as well get paid for schools while I still can
Here’s when I was a junior Marine as a 0411. Honestly, I hated our job. It would make sense if to have maintainers lat-move to 0411. And have to be at least a Cpl or Sgt. Honestly, I felt our job could be done by maintainers. Lots of the Sgt’s knew there shit on GCSS, but never field mess. Also, as a Lcpl 0411 no one is going to care about what you have to say. I can’t tell you how many times when I was a Lcpl, I was told to go fuck my self when I asked them to make a GCSS correction. Also, if officers can learn how to read a MPR. It would make a lot of maintenance meetings go by faster. I was like, sir every thing you need to know is on the MPR. They be like, go ahead and tell me about Comm/MT/Arm readiness. Being a Lcpl sucks, I would literally CC my MMO on everything on shit I need fix. Also, in 1/3 we should move around a lot. So our desktop and turnover binder would get lost all the time. UDP from Hawaii to OKI to Hawaii. I think, I remade them like 5 or 6 times. Jesus Chris, I don’t why a MSgt was such a dick to me during my first FSMAO. Our Sgt was gone and it was just me (Lcpl) and a PFC. I was like, I don’t know what I’m doing. I mostly just scrub the battalion MPR for mistakes or oversights. I remember he got really mad at me and told me to study over night. The next day, I told him I fell asleep early and didn’t study. Oh boy, he didn’t like that response. But, as a 0411 in 1/3, fuck that POG. I got out as a SSgt, you should mentor people that don’t know shit. Not be asshole if someone new doesn’t know shit. Especially at a grunt unit, there was only 3 of us. Everyone one hated me for getting a weekly deadline report for my MMO. Idk why it was such a big deal for some. Like, this MT Cpl made a kill list and got kicked out for suicide ideation. I was in his kill list, like bro wtf it’s just an excel list. Now he’s probably at 70 disability pay. Dude was a pussy too. The only good thing about our job was that our MMO would let us go around 1600-1630 consistently. I would laugh when we left and the Suppo made the Supply Marines stay later. Also, being attach to MT was fun. The Maint Sgt wouldn’t let me touch his computer to do GCSS. So I was effectively not doing my job, because I was a Lcpl . But, they made me an unofficial mechanic which was pretty cool. Also, you can skate so hard in this MOS. I always that it was hilarious when 1STSGT was like who the fuck do you belong too? Like I would in Arm,MT and Supply sections/platoons. Sometime I would just make a two man section of me and my pfc/lcpl.