Opportunities for Reservists

[Redpatcher0481]

Hey guys, I posted this question a while back but unforuntately never got any answers...

So here's my story, Im a reservist, a Landing Support Marine, 0481 (aka Red Patcher). Im with the reserve unit in Savannah, GA, part of 4th LSB, 4th MLG. I want to be an officer, already have my degree, but I wanted to get some experience as enlisted first and REALLY want to deploy. My unit isnt doing any deps, I've sat around for 8 months, nothing. They said MAYBE OEF 13-2.... I'm losing motivation and I want to be able to do something.. ANYTHING... before I goto OCS...

So, you devil dogs out there.. anyone know of anything that I could do? Any ways to augment outside of my unit? Any billets or special duties I could volunteer for that wouldnt get me stuck somewhere for 3 years (Id ideally want to go to OCS within the next year or so). I just want to do something, anything. Any suggestions are welcome. Hell, Id volunteer to be a grunt and go just be a damn casualty replacement! Thanks motivators!

[civgrunt05]

Good luck with that bud. Reserve activations are drawing down. They just recently stood down a Bn from I wanna say 25th Marines just before it went to Afghanistan. Apparently higher has decided that troop levels in A-gan just don't warrant reserve usage there anymore. I'm sure different reservists will work their way in through different mechanisms though.

With that said, there are still close to 6,000 Marine reservists on active duty, which represents 10% of the 60,000 individual Marine Reservist activations (it counts one guy who has activated twice as "two") since 9/11.

I can just tell you that things seem from my perspective to be drying up. Without getting all too detailed, my infantry company has been activated and training for over 100 days now. We've been visited by multiple general grade officers who keep telling us our mission is coming, but they can't say exactly when/where/if we are going. Command strongly believes we are, but there are still things to work out.... so you get the picture here.

Ask your INI for help finding a deploying unit. You may have trouble though because as the supply for augmentees outstrips demand, an unexperienced MOS mismatch is tough to put on the manning document.

Use the connections you've made in the Corps to find out who is activating.

I see you are in Savannah. Be advised that Det 2 4th MLG tasks out volunteers at a pretty stout frequency, probably because the unit itself isn't deployable from what I understand. May find luck there.

[Redpatcher0481]

Where is Det 2 in 4th MLG? my unit keeps sending out supply dets and motor T dets but never any Landing Support. Is there any way to just get plugged into a unit as a basic rifleman? They keep telling us that's what all Marines are anyways... Lol

My I&I is pretty unnaproachable and no one in my unit seems to know anything about me augmenting either. I've tried RDOL but that website is useless. Im ready to just move to another area where there's a good unit just so they have to take me.

[civgrunt05]

DET 2 4MLG is out of MCLB Albany.

The whole plug in as a basic rifleman is a little more complicated than it sounds. When a unit has say 150 bodies and they need 160, they put together a manning document to identify their shortfalls based on ranks for certain billets and for MOS requirements (armorer, intel, etc).

You get identified as a mismatch if they are looking for say an 03 and you are an 0481. There is a website out there where reserve units "advertise" for mos's and ranks needed, but this may be on RDOL where you said you already looked. It may not even exist anymore, but I do know some guys tried it back around 07 and heard nothing from it.

What rank are you?

FYI Marietta, Ga has recon and also a sister mortuary affairs on the same sight. I know a supply guy who deployed with that unit some time back in a mort affairs capacity, so you might wanna see what they have on the horizon.

And don't get discouraged by the MOS mis-match thing I was talking about. It's harder to hop onto certain things as a mismatch, but I have motor-T guy carrying a SAW right now in my infantry platoon. Granted, he was already in our unit upon activation.

Your best bet is to find a unit that has had a warning order for activation 4 or so months out and then see if you can transfer.

Where do you actually live? Have you seen what's going on in south carolina units? What about Florida? Tallahassee punched out already, and there are tracks in Jacksonville that I want to say operate at a fairly high activation tempo that might be worth a call.

[weapons124]

Get on mol and look for some IMA billets. Good luck on the deployments. We just got shafted. We were supposed to leave for Mojave 9/1 and the deployment got pulled from us, the the UDP to Okinawa got pulled, then LFCARAT. FML

[Redpatcher0481]

How do you apply for an IMA billet on MOL? I know you can do it on RDOL, but that website is garbage and never has anything available for practically anyone.

Civgrunt, I live in Florida, Gainesville to be precise. There are a couple units around me. I tried transferring a while ago to 4th ANGLICO but they pretty much said that I would be an MOS mismatch and that it'd be over a year before I went to retrain which meant no deployments.

[Redpatcher0481]

Anyone else have any other ideas?

[Blutic]

http://www.marines.mil/unit/marforres/MFRHQ/G1/Operations/Sourcing/GlobalBillets.aspx#MFR_Banner

http://www.imef.usmc.mil/external/imef-01/staff_sections_admin_IMEFRLO.jsp

These two links have deployment opportunities for reservists. I suggest you use your chain of command to pursue one of these billets.

[Redpatcher0481]

Thanks, I didnt know that list existed. Unfortunately, there arent any for my job and only a few for E-3.. Sucks being a lance coolie haha.

[Blutic]

See the eligiblity section at the bottom of the Marforres site. <br />
<br />
4. BILLET GRADE: You must match the billet grade within 1 grade (i.e. an E5 billet can be filled by an E4-E6). However, an O6 must...