achilles097
12-30-10, 02:08 PM
I've been talking to a recruiter in the past month because I really want to become a Marine. This may be confusing and I have done my best to condense it. I have looked at the other MOS's, but I'd like to be Infantry.
A little backstory: My dad is a foreign service officer with USAID (a segment of DOS) and we have moved around country-to-country before I turned 7. I always remembered the Marine Guard at the embassies and looking up to them. I have since lived in the U.S. since I was 7, living on occasion with my dad if he's back from assignment in Arlington, Va. I grew up with a huge influence living nearby the Iwo Jima monument and Quantico, VA (that new museum that opened a few years ago is great) and I always fondly liked learning about the history of the Marine Corps. My uncle enlisted before Vietnam and was a grunt during the war. Several of my best friends are in the Marines. I have had strong desires to serve since 2006.
Now to the situation:
I have a few medical conditions but my recruiter said none of them were DQ'able. I have flat feet, but it doesn't give me any pain when I run. I had ADHD ,but I have been off for a year with my doctor's recommendation. Since then I received some of my best grades in high school without meds. He's told me nothing about waivers for the flat feet. Is this usual? If so, it appears I am fully qualified unless MEPS decides something else not to my knowledge.
My main concern: I go to college in the middle of virginia, three hours away from my house. College isn't working out mostly because I went to college to please my dad. I wasn't able to enlist in 2009 during my senior year because I had to be off meds for a full year which was in December 2010. I am trying to enlist at the recruiters in town and ship out in May. I went in mid-December, just before finals, and they told me they only had a certain number of AD "spots" and they are mostly for high school seniors. The recruiters really wanted me to enlist quickly before their VERY last AD spot was gone. I couldn't enlist at the time because I was at college and my father at the time was serving in Nicaragua and we had no access to my documents. From what they told me, they are not obligated to reserve a spot, so if anyone else came in and asked for a AD spot with all his paperwork, they'll give it to him. I don't know yet if anyone else has tried to enlist because I am in Colombia on vacation without a phone.
As I said, the earliest ship date they quoted me was May so I agreed on attending another semester of college, but recently I found out that I was put on academic suspension. I won't go into many of the details, but several of my friends died during the school year and this is the first year of my dad having prostate cancer and this was the first thanksgiving I had to spend without my family. My uncle I mentioned is in poor shape and his lung collapsed, but now is out of the hospital but we don't know if he'll last another year. I know it's his dream (and mine) to see me as a Marine, and I would love to help him see that before he passes away. I wasn't academically focused because I didn't want to be in college, my family was sick and some of my good friends passed away. I stayed out of trouble and never drank. I expect them to accept the appeal, but if they don't I'll be forced to live by myself in northern Virginia without a car until my dad gets back from Nicargua in March (my dad said I could go with him to Nicaragua but that would mean I cannot enlist because I would be overseas and not attending poolee functions from what i was told). I don't know whether the recruiters in Arlington,VA would be allowed to drive me to poolee functions, but I will drive the bus, ride a bike or run in the ****ing worst weather imaginable to be at each one. My dad isn't excited that I'll be living by myself and he's worried about me having no support if something went wrong, but I think I'd be fine.
If my appeal is accepted and I do go back to school with that last spot, then I have that open contract and I don't know if that's bad or not. So, generally what I want to know is if I should live by myself or stay at school? I would have enough money to sustain myself and definitely a job. Staying in school past the next semester if they accept the appeal isn't really an option because my dad and I both agreed if my heart is not with college at the moment there's no use keeping me there, because right now my motivation has always been with serving.
A little backstory: My dad is a foreign service officer with USAID (a segment of DOS) and we have moved around country-to-country before I turned 7. I always remembered the Marine Guard at the embassies and looking up to them. I have since lived in the U.S. since I was 7, living on occasion with my dad if he's back from assignment in Arlington, Va. I grew up with a huge influence living nearby the Iwo Jima monument and Quantico, VA (that new museum that opened a few years ago is great) and I always fondly liked learning about the history of the Marine Corps. My uncle enlisted before Vietnam and was a grunt during the war. Several of my best friends are in the Marines. I have had strong desires to serve since 2006.
Now to the situation:
I have a few medical conditions but my recruiter said none of them were DQ'able. I have flat feet, but it doesn't give me any pain when I run. I had ADHD ,but I have been off for a year with my doctor's recommendation. Since then I received some of my best grades in high school without meds. He's told me nothing about waivers for the flat feet. Is this usual? If so, it appears I am fully qualified unless MEPS decides something else not to my knowledge.
My main concern: I go to college in the middle of virginia, three hours away from my house. College isn't working out mostly because I went to college to please my dad. I wasn't able to enlist in 2009 during my senior year because I had to be off meds for a full year which was in December 2010. I am trying to enlist at the recruiters in town and ship out in May. I went in mid-December, just before finals, and they told me they only had a certain number of AD "spots" and they are mostly for high school seniors. The recruiters really wanted me to enlist quickly before their VERY last AD spot was gone. I couldn't enlist at the time because I was at college and my father at the time was serving in Nicaragua and we had no access to my documents. From what they told me, they are not obligated to reserve a spot, so if anyone else came in and asked for a AD spot with all his paperwork, they'll give it to him. I don't know yet if anyone else has tried to enlist because I am in Colombia on vacation without a phone.
As I said, the earliest ship date they quoted me was May so I agreed on attending another semester of college, but recently I found out that I was put on academic suspension. I won't go into many of the details, but several of my friends died during the school year and this is the first year of my dad having prostate cancer and this was the first thanksgiving I had to spend without my family. My uncle I mentioned is in poor shape and his lung collapsed, but now is out of the hospital but we don't know if he'll last another year. I know it's his dream (and mine) to see me as a Marine, and I would love to help him see that before he passes away. I wasn't academically focused because I didn't want to be in college, my family was sick and some of my good friends passed away. I stayed out of trouble and never drank. I expect them to accept the appeal, but if they don't I'll be forced to live by myself in northern Virginia without a car until my dad gets back from Nicargua in March (my dad said I could go with him to Nicaragua but that would mean I cannot enlist because I would be overseas and not attending poolee functions from what i was told). I don't know whether the recruiters in Arlington,VA would be allowed to drive me to poolee functions, but I will drive the bus, ride a bike or run in the ****ing worst weather imaginable to be at each one. My dad isn't excited that I'll be living by myself and he's worried about me having no support if something went wrong, but I think I'd be fine.
If my appeal is accepted and I do go back to school with that last spot, then I have that open contract and I don't know if that's bad or not. So, generally what I want to know is if I should live by myself or stay at school? I would have enough money to sustain myself and definitely a job. Staying in school past the next semester if they accept the appeal isn't really an option because my dad and I both agreed if my heart is not with college at the moment there's no use keeping me there, because right now my motivation has always been with serving.