Reserve Marine advice?

[SoonToBe3521]

I've had the plan to go Marine Corps Reserve throughout my entire interest in enlisting. Can someone give me some pros and cons to it? I'm going to be Reserve anyway, but I just read that going Reserve to "test the waters" before deciding on Active Duty is a horrible idea and it turns out badly for most. I just really want to serve more than anything, but I still want the ability to have a family and allow them my attention as much as possible and all when I'm a little bit older. If you were a Reserve Marine, did you enjoy it or wish you would have gone Active? Thanks in advance.

-A. Jarrah

[Lisa 23]

If you haven't already, use the search bar. Marine Reserves has been covered before.

[josephd]

Going on 3 years now in the Corps/reserves and I wish I would have gone active duty every day. Reserves sounds like a cakewalk from the outside but it is a lot to handle.

Not only do you have to be a Marine that one weekend a month but you need to play the part every day keeping yourself PME complete and in shape. On top of that you also have to hold down your civilian life with a job, bills, residence, family, etc.
Reserves have to have all the same annual training complete as the active counterpart but we have MUCH less time to do it in.

My advice to you and all the others questioning reserves vs. active dilemma is to just go active duty unless you have a good job/career to go back to or you are already a college student and dead set on graduating soon.

[SoonToBe3521]

This won't hinder my decision at all, but out of curiosity, does the Reserve deploy often?

[josephd]

This won't hinder my decision at all, but out of curiosity, does the Reserve deploy often?

as a whole unit/company?...or individually?..

It can vary quite a bit depending on the MOS, if its anything like my unit we haven't deployed as a whole company since the push into Iraq in 2003. But there are quite a few Marines who have been on numerous deployments because they volunteer for different augments and open seats with different units.

If you want to deploy you'll have plenty of opportunities to do so, if you don't want to and your unit doesn't then you never will. With that I would question why you would join the Marine Corps and not want to deploy.

[SoonToBe3521]

Well the chance of deployment wouldn't hinder my decision to join, because I wouldn't be going Reserve if I had no desire to serve. But I know some Active Duty personnel that have never deployed, so my real curiosity is if Reserves ever would if some AD don't

[YourPhoneIsMine]

Yes, there are plenty of cases where reservists will deploy but their active duty equivalents won't. I know an active SSgt that's never deployed (Oki doesn't count) who was an instructor for a reserve lance coconut that deployed with his reserve unit within six months of checking in. It depends entirely on your MOS needs and individual unit.

As for the experience, same applies. Depends on a lot of factors but one thing should be noted: switching from reserve to active is not an easy thing to do. Even going active reserve or augmenting may be a pain in the ass if you're in an oversaturated MOS. Just keep in mind that it could go either way; you might deploy numerous times as a reservist or you might do an entire 6 year contract showing up one weekend a month two weeks a year.

Also note that while we do get some benefits it's nothing like what the active duty guys get. Just make sure you have a decent job to keep you going.

[SoonToBe3521]

So does that mean that deployment within the Reserve does depend on your MOS? I was told with AD it doesn't, but I never thought about it for Reserve.

[YourPhoneIsMine]

So does that mean that deployment within the Reserve does depend on your MOS? I was told with AD it doesn't, but I never thought about it for Reserve.

Just about everything in the Marine Corps - hell, in the military in general - depends on your specific job, duty station and unit.

[Mindgame]

Don't think for a second that just because an active duty member has a family they don't get to spend time with them. On the same token. Sometimes you might have a field exersise and won't get to see them during those times. For the most part its almost like a normal job depending on MOS, and you will see your famiy as if you worked in a cavilian job.

Now more to the reserve side. It is something that I think someone who is either in school, or has a good job should do. Otherwise you might end up on a cycle of deployments, and unenployment inbetween the deployments. Deploying just to make money is a waste of space. The money for a reserve on a deployment is much better then a single Marine, because we get paid BAH for the entire deployment.

Like someone had mentioned above. My unit has not been activated as a whole since 03. But every single year they fill about 60 slots to be attached to another unit. So we get the oppurtunity to deploy often. Not sure about whatever unit you might join, but thats how ours works. I have met other reservist that have spent most of there 6 year contract pretty much on active orders. By choice, but the oppurtunity was still there.

For Some. Juggeling a Reserve life isn't easy. Alot of people might say they don't disriminate against a part time military member when it comes to hiring, or firing. But it exsists. They can't come out and say they won't hire you or fired because of your military status. But they can come up with a million other reasons to give you. By law you can not be fired for joining, or being activated. They can have a huge lawsuite put on them, but it has to be proven it was your status that caused it to happen.

The biggest pro I can think of is the fact that I get to live at home, keep my cavilian job, and still deploy. The cons??? Even though I say most MOS's are really learned on a deployment. The amount of triaining in your MOS is signifacantly less then an active memeber.

[Nawlins3761]

I found Reserve to be a drag. Many of the guys were slack and the unit I was in - HQs, 4th Div, of all things, was disorganized. Seems like everyone's MOS was SUPPLY as they didn't know what to do with us during drills. So, we'd help the regular supply guys.....count canteens, stack equipment and clean rifles all weekend. Sometimes, we'd literally march and perform drill in the parking lot to kill time. We did do some actual refresher training (swim qual, pistol shooting, uniform inspections, etc.), but I never got to use my MOS (computer specialist, 4066) and those in my shop were really not engaging and seemed jealous that I wanted to exert some MOS time and sit with them. Instead, I'm doing supply nonsense and not spending time in my MOS. Really irked me, as I had been on active for 4 yrs and knew the real side of the Corps. But every unit is different, and I think it's all down to your command and the leadership/organization. I'd suggest joining a USMCR unit, and seeing how you feel with it....if it's a drag, go active. Every unit has their own plusses/minuses, but my experience wasn't what I'd expected.