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I had my first PT with the marines two days ago, and I'm still fucking sore everywhere. It hurts just to walk around. Fuck fuck fuck.
Anyway, so it wasn't the greatest experience, but it was rewarding still, and I'm glad I forced myself through the whole thing, and didn't just throw up my arms and walk away even though noone would've stopped me. I'm sure noone here cares what exactly they had us do, and I don't really want to rack my brain trying to remember it all. Needless to say, it was a pretty grueling two and a half hours.
Except for one other guy, I'm easily the least fit person in the squad. Add five to the number of starleagues stork will ever win, and that is how many pullups I can do. To give you a better idea: I weigh 130 lbs, and I'm 5'9". I'd say maybe every other guy except one was in the 150-175 lb range or were runners of some kind, and several were football players. Normally I am a moderately confident dude, but I have to admit the whole experience was a little humiliating. I didn't walk away red faced, but I couldn't help feeling like everyone was wondering what the fuck this scrawny asian dude was doing there.
Course, that's no reason to quit the marines. I feel like if I really wanted it, I could shape up physically. I have strength of will, but I don't know if I really want it enough. The practical benefits, like free tuition, guaranteed employment, resume booster, etc. etc. are important to me, but I think maybe I'm doing this more so I can prove something to myself and others than because I really want to be a marine. I'm sure that's not reason enough to join up, but I also don't want to give up on something I've started. Part of me still believes that I'll be happier as a marine than not, but I'm starting to have doubts.
I posted this in the hopes that some of you who are in the military or are marines can tell me about military life, so I can make a better decision about whether to join up. What are the people like? What's the day to day thing? What made you join up? Are the career prospects as good as recruiters say they are?
By the way, I'm really grateful to those of you who gave me advice in my last blog. It was better input than almost anything my friends and family had to offer. Especially those of you who took the time to write a lot, it meant a lot to me. I'd really appreciate if you could contribute again =).
  
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Don't be embarrassed by the fact you couldn't keep up with other people. Every time I work out with someone new, and I do more weights(heavier than theirs) they start to say shit like, "Oh man, I look like the bitch of the group." You shouldn't be thinking that way. They didn't get there in one day, and with all the training you'd get in the Marines there's no doubt you wouldn't progress.
I can tell you how people are like once I go to my cousin's daughter b-day. Her husband is a Marine being deployed to Iraq, but I'll ask him questions, and I'll send you some feedback. But, thats about sometime in the middle of May.
My friend is the Navy, I haven't spoken to him in a two years. Found him on AIM the other day on his wife's sidekick. He said, he wished he never had joined the Navy, and that he went to school first. He's going to re-enlist, and go to school.
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this is my first post in like 3mths, but your blog randomly caught my attention. Ive done 4yrs in the Air Force, and ill be first to admit we are laziest for the most part. There are some 'huah' jobs you can do, like special forces and stuff, but we make up for it in standard of living, quality of life stuff. Our quality of life, our work schedule, our bases, our barracks, our rooms, everything is 10x better than all the other services. When i was in, i worked probably 20hrs a week less than the army/marines, i had a second job at a security place making 18$/hr. I also did intel while i was in, which led me to where i am, making some good money working for the govenrment. I strongly reccomend you do the AF instead, you can always join an MMA gym or something like that to feel baddass, id take the benefits of being in the AF. If you wanna talk more about it, you can PM me. I was stationed on a joint base, so i know alot about the other forces.
edit: basic training is 6 and 1/2 weeks with the AF vs like what 12+weeks for the marines?
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Kennigit
Canada19447 Posts
On April 27 2008 09:30 ahrara_ wrote:
I had my first PT with the marines two days ago, and I'm still fucking sore everywhere. It hurts just to walk around. Fuck fuck fuck.
Aren't you on basic? How do you have access to Internet :o . Dont quit. It will make you hard as fuck.
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Please, oh God, do not join the marines.
Please.
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I haven't signed up yet. I'm showing up to workouts with other recruits and people headed to boot camp. It's the same thing, except once a week and for 2 hours at a stretch.
Rayzorblade: elaborate
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Snet
United States3573 Posts
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iNcontroL
USA29055 Posts
stick to it. Don't give up. Good luck!
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Ive known a handful of people that have served in military services. The marines will change who you are much, MUCH, more then any of the other branches (from my experience of course). I dont wanna throw the word brainwash out here because I dont wanna offend anyone (I have great respect for marines) but personally I think its kinda scary.
Fun fact: As a child my siblings and I would argue over who had to wake dad up for breakfast because his first instinct is to swing at *an enemy* trying to attack him in his sleep - we would usually have to poke him with a stick. Hes a 60+ year old man now, and he STILL does this, among many other little things they "taught" him. Now before you jump on me and tell me your a marine and you dont knock someone out for waking you up, thats great im sure its not 100%. But this is my experience with it, and personally I dont like it one bit.
As far as friends I know, well 2 outa 3 lost their artistic sides and are basically more ignorant and closed minded then they used to be, listen to nothing but music that pretty much induces anger (like metal, which is what they listened to in training) walk around like they hate everything and wanna hurt people, and are just all about being the 'best' country and the 'best' branch of the military, like I said just really hugley ignorant. I no longer see qualities in them I enjoy being around and we basically dont talk anymore. (the 3rd friend didnt complete his training). Again this is just MY experience with a handful of people that were once close friends, Im sure everyone isnt effect the same.
Now Im not saying you should give up cause this intense physical training can do wonders for you as a person, but please consider your other options. AF is kushy like someone mentioned as well as the Navy. I have a buddy that has been in the Coast Gaurd for 6 years and he absolutley loves it.
Goodluck - Cheers
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I live near very close to a large Marine base, so I have tons of friends and a couple family members who are involved with it all.
PT is tough. I can always tell when PT is about to start because I see lots of marines (I can pick out marines in a crowd very easily; it's almost second nature to me.) start training by themselves by running or hitting the gyms in preparation a month in advance. It's not something you can just be fit enough to do whenever it comes up. You have to train for it. Don't be discouraged if you have a tough time with what you are doing now, just keep preparing so you will be ready when it comes around again.
What are the people like? I would say that the Marines run a 50/50 ratio with total assholes who assume they are better than everyone else because they are a marine and friendly, good natured people who are fun to hang out with and who will always try to help you out if you need it. This being said, most people I know (including myself) generally have a bad view on marines. The 50% who are douchebags are REALLY fucking retarded and just spoil it for everyone else. My mom has to drive through base to get to her work and she has said before that she gets scared sometimes that if her car breaks down, she wouldnt know if the marine that came to help her would beat her up and rape her or spend two hours of his time trying to help fix her car. I don't know if her fears are warranted, but if someone calls you a marine (or oftentimes a 'skinhead') in my town, it has a negative connotation attached to it much like nigger/cracker does for black/white people.
All this being said, though, I am friends with a lot of marines, too. Most of them are just chill guys to hang out with, although fairly crazy. In general, the older marines (retired and career) are usually nicer as long as you present yourself respectfully.
What's the day to day thing? Lots of busywork to fill up your time and brainwash you, specially when you first get in. Once you get a solid job going, though, that stuff starts to slack off a little bit and you have more free time to yourself. Be prepared to wake up early every day and go to sleep exhausted at nights. I'm not sure of a specific schedule as I have never been in the marines nor cared to ask any of my friends.
I was thinking about joining up myself, so I asked a close friend the same things. He gave me a lengthy, well thought out response. I'll put it in a spoiler here, editing out the sensitive parts
+ Show Spoiler +
the marine corps has 14 leadership traits that they take very seriously. i do not see them brought up many places in the civilian world but they pay off to have.
JJDIDTIEBUCKLE
justice
judgement
dependability
integrity
decisiveness
tact
initiative
endurance
bearing
unselfishness
courage
knowledge
loyalty
enthusiasm
it may seem geeky at first to follow these but i have had some great leaders who really tried to lead by example and were not, in front of me or to my knowledge, hyporcrites. at times i am very glad i joined. i had been told by many marines not to join. i do not know what to tell you. it has given me a sense of worth and morality not based on a god, but on a group of men with the highest of expectations of me, who have have faith in me.
it all depends on your job. my job is xxxxxx. this involves xxxxxx and this does not take many months to do. so, since i am a "training" mos i am put in xxxxxx company. this is a staff section called xxxxxx. w/e, basically i conduct PFTs (physical fitness tests) and put tape around overweight marines like a tailor. marines in the unit get in contact with me to get into classes for driving or swimming or shooting or harrier repair or w/e their job is. this does not always seem rewarding. there are also reports i have to send up the chain of command. i am learning a lot though about the real world, more than i thought i would.
but when we go to iraq i will be in the xxxxxx or some shit. i have a security clearance that was free to get, a big bonus in the real world. the responsibility in the marines is also rewarding.
almost all marines complain about "i wanted to be a grunt." so did i, but w/e. now i sorta vascillate back and forth. hahah retarded word but i think it means what i needed.
you will not get to be a grunt if you do well on your asvab, they will say "up, grunts are full but you can join this and that job and then lateral move to the grunts" but if your score is too high you can only move to certain jobs. xxxxxx can only lat move to Intel or xxxxxx, which sounds fucking fun! and these jobs have high bonuses of like 14-20 gs. also i think the new commandant is paying 10 gs to reenlist for all marines. also, reenlisting is tax free in iraq, also so is pay for the entire time in iraq.
my view of the corps is different today than last week:
i got a speeding ticket on a revoked license which was SO GAY. soooo now my whole chain of command thinks i'm a total fuckupretard and i have lost their trust completely. this makes me feel terrible and i am a total fucking hester prynn in the shop.
PT is regular and always fun. some sergeants or whoever runs it change it up, sometimes we go to the pool or play football. this is all very fun. some pt leaders will make you always and only run. which gets old, but yesterday we ran 5 miles through these trails in the woods it was very not boring.
but as a rule running is gay.
other jobs are motor t, heavy equipment, computer jobs that my buddy can tell you more about, fucking maintenace jobs for all types of equipment. some avionics maint schools areover a year long. ordnance, ground or air, is pretty cool. um intel is sweeeeet you'd be a great candidate for that and a huge payoff too. xxxxxx is cool i like it an dhave pride in it. there's admin jobs that are pretty gay even tho i'm on a computer some days too, they're on it all the time. don't get me wrong people still respect them bc they deal with their pay and whatnot but...idk. you're still a marine but it's gay.
then there is how people view the corps. one time i got stuck on recruiting duty for a month or so - TOTALLY GAY DO NOT DO EVER EVER EVER- and this lady bought me some food or whatever bc i was in my uniform idk. people love taht shit. fucking latch onto it.
bearing is a quality that you can use anywhere at any job. or in a fight. idk. confidence is good to have.
i really like it. sometimes it's hard to see.
boot camp was shitty bc we always got fucked up and you were always waiting for someone out of your 70-80 man platoon to fuck up you knew it would happen at any minute and you'd all be slaughtered. the phrase "i will pt you until you fuckin die" def applies. its' just that you're scared to put out all the way, bc you know the other 17 hours of the day will not be easy ones either. BUT THE EXISTENTIAL BENEFITS OF BOOT CAMP WERE FUCKING GREAT.
you don't even notice it at first, but the sleep is AMAZING. the food IS AMAZING you can't get enough. i sort of liked to look out the window - we'd go to sleep when it was light and wake up at like 330- but i'd like to look at the trees. parris island was the most beautiful place i'd ever seen. the weather was mild, a breeze most days, still hot but. they ahve these trees with this spanish moss or whatever hanging down off it. man! so it's good for dreamers.
just yell loud and with confidence. "the sky is blue sir!!!" type shit.
it helps you prioritize your shit sort of and plan for the future. it helps you deal with criticism bc you get really really high quality ass chewings.
running in formation is very motivating. motivating=moto. very very moto.
um the hazing is very creative bc they don't want to get caught ..for....hazing. no shit. so they make up crazy shit. it's not as bad as you think. i have not spoken to my infantry buddies their is probably worse. but i know lots of very mortal skinny infantry guys.
the corps will never just "expect you to do be able to do something." there will always be refresher training, OJT on the job training, initial schools and combat training to attend. even before a mission, marines rehearse that shit and run through it so everyone knows their parts and signals and the timeline.
be sure to investigate the different jobs. some gay jobs like fucking chow hall.
i live in a barracks with all 300 people in my squadron. like a dorm. married marines get to live in town. sometimes the duty (marines who stay at the barracks for 24 hours, then get the next day half off) will knock on your door at 0500 and tell you you have morning cleanup. we usually don't asnwer bc that's all he ever says, but lately bc of my guilty feeling about being a shitbag i answer it. it is very gay. jr marines do lots of cleaning and gay shit. every thursday in the corps is field day. this is when you clean your shit real good and it gets inspected the next day. liek your room and the commons area. i pick up lots of cigarette buts we call this police calling or "policing the area." their are lots of opportunities for ambitious or strong willed leaders or people with initiative to succeed in the corps.
sometimes people seem to get promoted just bc they don't fuck up and stay in long. this is true, but most marines who move up really accept the lifestyle. i am not sure yet if i'll stay in after my 4, i am sometimes not real keen on correcting people all the time. the corps loves that shit, fixing guys who are fucked up. there are lots of rules about how to dress in uniforms or out of them and if you see someone walking in uniform you are supposed to "hey devil" them we call it. "HEY DEVILDOG WHY THE FUCK ETC ETC." i am getting up in rank where soon they will expect me to fucking hey devil people and be all gung ho. idk. new guys are mocked bc we're uptight and all fucking gung ho worreid about this or that will we get in trouble is this how you do it etc etc. idk. i did not realize how much my corporal and master sergeant cared about my welfare until i fucked up and fucked them over and now they hate me. they are both getting out in a month or two so i will never earn back their trust. this is not a good feeling.
i'll try to give you more as i think about it.
but it is good to have a steady paycheck that never changes. sometimes work is easy somtimes it is gay. we're not allowed to put our hands in our pockets ever. this is gayer than it sounds. older guys do it all the time, so i did it once the other day sort of secretly. we were on a field op in the fucking ...literally in a goddamn field with tents and shit and i did that some loser sgt fucking called me over and hey deviled me. gay.
sometimes you gotta brush that shit off.
but people notice what you do more in the marines than in any other job. they values your actions and morals bc someday they will trust you with their life. and even if your very unskilled or a dumbass, there is or has been someone dumber than you. they will never quit on you. they will get you throught. xxxxxxx school is pretty hard and 3 mo long. my roomate passed and he is not too smart. they will drag you along by your bootstraps and help you on their offtime.
i tell people usually either "the marines? oh it's good."
or "the marines is gay." but there's a little more to it than that. it is hard for me to tell bc i am in it now, and not out. so i only really know in for the time being.
making friends in the usmc is like it is anywhere else except that it is a leeetle more dependent on "well now that i'm stuck here and they told me to go to this place that i had no say in and now i'm very poor..." haha you need friends, be it your neighbor in the barracks or other new guys. or you can read or play sports there is lots of social/antisocial activities that i know you would enjoy. also you can bring your laptop and play games or surf the web. do not worry about fitting in i do not think anyone else i know in the corps ever thoguht about that. after bootcamp it doesn't matter bc everyone has stories and a common "this one time at bootcamp" background.
key usmc skill:
fucking with people.
you need to be able to fuck with guys for fun to pass boredom and also if someone your in charge of messes up you need to play fuck-fuck games with them to get them to perform, etc. to punish them.
I hope you find all this helpful. If you have any more questions, just shoot me a pm.
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As usual, thanks you guys so much for the input. I will try to explain more when I get time, and I have some questions too. I've got a philosophy and pscyh paper to finish, meanwhile.
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I think that right now is about the absolute worst time you can join the military.
You seem like a smart guy. You always have other options, be careful to not make a decision like this too quickly.
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Army military life sucks, I hate this damn job. I can imagine the Marine Corps being worse though.
On a positive note, I don't ever regret joining. It is definitely a different experience vs. say an academically-oriented lifestyle. I've learned a lot of things that I wouldn't have learned in a university setting, and they will have quite an impact on you. Once I'm done with my service I don't plan on re-upping anytime soon however. There's also the chance you might become a heavy smoker/drinker if you aren't already. I got a lot of friends who do nothing but drink their sorrows away on the weekends...they think it's fun but I think otherwise. What one gets from the military depends on the person, where he is deployed, etc. There's too many variables and chance factors to consider and that itself is a downer I'll admit. The military cannot guarantee your life.
Brainwashing? Surprisingly there's hardly any because there's no need to. You are in the military of your own accord. They didn't force you to become a soldier for them, that was your own decision to begin with for whatever reason. Unless you call reverse psychology a form of brainwashing but that's all there really is to it. The draft hasn't happened for like forever.
And yea, you'd probably don't want to be joining up right now, you know how things are going down at the moment (well, there's always the Navy/Air Force, no offense to you guys).
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Thanks Agent, and Jack, riotjune and especially Zapling. I think I've pretty much decided military life is not for me, and that I was doing it for the wrong reasons. You guys helped a lot in coming to this conclusion, so thanks =). I owe you.
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EPT
