Florida Highway Patrol or stay Marine?

[ranger722000]

I posted this on another group but I thought this would have been the more appropriate group to post too. I'm in the middle of a big decision. I have been a cop all my life and was recently laid off. I now have the opportunity to do something I have always wanted to do... go back into the Marine Corps and fly with the marines as a crew chief on a helicopter..lots of travel and a great job. However, all I have known all my adult life is being a cop, and it scares me to start a new career ...and life... at the age of 36 (I know I'm not old but still seems somewhat old ha). The other part of this is that I have been accepted to be a trooper in the State of Florida and continue my law enforcement career down there. The only thing is the salary stinks...$33,000 a year and no pay raises. I know I would do well there. I'm just confused about what I should do....any suggestions?

[Big Jim]

Well....you have to consider your future plans as well...and family if you're married and have kids. Either job has its drawbacks and perks but you're the only one who has to live with the decisions and the consequences thereof. The age of 36 isn't old but for the active military lifestyle it is up there....no matter which endeavor you choose. Be sure and think of your future of your decision...you also have retirement to plan for and family to consider. Weigh every and all options....good luck in what ever you decide...

[SGT7477]

Marine your profile needs work, Semper FI.

[JohnEaceHunt]

Ranger, this post will dissapear soon after its posted, but if I had already been Marine, I'd take the$2750 a month where you can be home each night and have More benifits. Its not easy to become a Trooper, and not everyone gets the chance. Raises will be coming soon, and its best in my opinion to become a Trooper. My Nickle.

[FistFu68]

:evilgrin: I'D GIVE MY LEFT NUT,2BE A STATE TROOPER FLYING UP AND DOWN I-95 IN ONE OF THOSE NEW POLICE INTERCEPTORS!!! :thumbup: :iwo:

[Twitchell]

I've been in the same situation being caught between reenlisting, staying in Fire, or going back to Public Safety.

Maybe you should consider trying to do what I have been trying to do. Go into the Reserves so you can still be a part of the Marines, and take the Trooper job as well. I am trying to reenlist (Reserves), and if I get an offer from Utah Highway Patrol, or the Department of Homeland Security I will jump on it in a heart beat.

Just a suggestion!

[Twitchell]

Another thing to, to take into consideration is, 'will you get the chance again'? I turned down an internship with the US Marshals when I was getting released from active duty, and I've regretted it ever since.

[jerryk]

whats more important to you being a marine ,that you know, or being a trooper,me i had raither be a marine ,at least you know what you getting in to ,me .i would shot my wife if i thought i could wear the uniform of a u.s.marine again just what i think also

[Accord]

Guy in my platoon over in the ghan just got out and became a Pennsylvania State Trooper... he hates it because all he does is write tickets all day and never does any real police work.

I'm not in the air wing but over in Afghanistan we had an ACE attached to us and there was nothing better than being pinned down, getting on the hook and calling in the huey's and watching the door gunner (who also happens to be the crew chief) rain down on the taliban with the minigun with several minute long strings of fire followed by the cobra's cleaning up anyone still moving with endless hellfires.

You gotta realize that it's not peace time and you'll be in Afghanistan racking up double digit kill counts like it's nothing and making every grunt like me jealous of what you get to do. If you were going to a different LE agency like Miami-Dade County Sheriff, PBSO, feds, etc. then i'd say you've got a tough decision on your hands, but being a state trooper sitting alone on the side of a highway writing tickets all day or the opportunities you have in the Marine Corps? Pretty easy decision for me.

[thewookie]

33k isn't that much - especially with no raises.

I think I'd go back.

I mean, if you're NOT going to get paid, why not be a Marine - travel to exotic foreign countries, screw the women, and kill the terrorists.

At least then the loot is tax free, and you can always go back to writing tickets after.

Good luck and Semper Fi

[shirty1]

I am not a Marine, but I was a Trooper for 3 years in Alabama. It's like joining the Marines in a way. Your not doing it for the money, but to better yourself and your community. You do get a pay raise every year, but it's not much. Trooper training is almost 7 months long depending on what State you live in. I got $12 a day to eat on, and a take home car. The pay is actually a lot more then $33,000 a year..You will be working upwards to 55-60 hours a week on most cases and that means overtime. So you are looking at around 40,000 a year.

[FistFu68]

:usmc: ONE WAR 2 A LIFETIME UNLESS YOUR CHESTY PULLER :usmc: :iwo:

[thewookie]

I am not a Marine, but I was a Trooper for 3 years in Alabama. It's like joining the Marines in a way. Your not doing it for the money, but to better yourself and your community. You do get a pay raise every year, but it's not much. Trooper training is almost 7 months long depending on what State you live in. I got $12 a day to eat on, and a take home car. The pay is actually a lot more then $33,000 a year..You will be working upwards to 55-60 hours a week on most cases and that means overtime. So you are looking at around 40,000 a year.


Who pulled your cord?

And, how do you know that Florida is the same as Alabama?

[Zulu 36]

Regarding the FHP. They are primarily traffic crash investigators and then traffic enforcement second. The come under the Florida Department of Transportation, and are not a state police force in the broad sense. Yes, they are full-power police officers, but chasing B&E men through yards and kicking over dope houses are not on the top of their FHP to-do list.

Some bigger Florida cities police their own accidents, but many others pass them off onto the FHP. Almost all traffic accidents in my county are policed by the FHP and the local cops/deputies only help with traffic control.

One bennie: they get their own take-home scout car and can get it rigged out with lights, etc, pretty much the way they want it (within reason).

Personally, I could never be a traffic cop full-time. I loved the variety of municipal police work. I got to do it all and it was OK with the bosses.

[mcvet57103]

I'm a little confused here. His profile or what there is of it says he is a Marine and still in?????? Where are the Mods on this?

[mcvet57103]

I'm a little confused here. His profile, what there is of it says he is a Marine, and still in??????

[Twitchell]

Let me clear something up. Or at least from my experience any way. You will NOT be able to top being a Marine with a cop job, or any other Public Services job. I have jumped around allot do to the fact that I don't know what I want to do when I grow up.
Anything I have done outside of the Marines never has topped it.

As for being a Trooper I would rather haul ass after cars all day than go on domestics, and noise complaints!

[ranger722000]

Thank you all for your responses and I respect all your opinions. Just to clear something up I am a reservist thinking of going back on active duty in the Active Reserve. Again thanks for all your opionions.

[mcvet57103]

Thank you all for your responses and I respect all your opinions. Just to clear something up I am a reservist thinking of going back on active duty in the Active Reserve. Again thanks for all your opionions.Well heck. If you are inactive reserves then, go to active reserves, and take the HP job. If you are called into active service they have to hold your job for you till you get back. And they can not legally hold your active reserve status against you when considering you for the position.

[rossmuten]

Why even do either!!!? How fricken creative join the police after being in the Marines geez. Use your brain to do something other than with a weapon oops sorry Marines aren't up to that par yet!! I got my computer science degree and now I'm with a software company making games and lest any civilian dare call me Jarhead or get c+ in the fricken noggen. Your talking about whether or not u should go cop or stay in the Corps!!? Keep your sorry ass in then!! I'm so sick of the whole Marine to cop bs as if im supposed to give up my women to a man in uniform. oook....

[JohnEaceHunt]

Well, sounds the boot pfc is down on Our Corps, and ashamed of it. A Man joins the Police or Trooper career where he can make a difference. I have a B.S. in Electronics, major and Minor,and you won't catch me making Faggety computer games. If your down on violence, what did you join the Corps for? When you coming out of the closet? Hope this won'tbe pulled for a ---- like you, past Brother.

[Big Jim]

Why even do either!!!? How fricken creative join the police after being in the Marines geez. Use your brain to do something other than with a weapon oops sorry Marines aren't up to that par yet!! I got my computer science degree and now I'm with a software company making games and lest any civilian dare call me Jarhead or get c+ in the fricken noggen. Your talking about whether or not u should go cop or stay in the Corps!!? Keep your sorry ass in then!! I'm so sick of the whole Marine to cop bs as if im supposed to give up my women to a man in uniform. oook....


WTF...?? Are you serious man...? Are you seriously insulting another Marine for making a choice in life that is really his to make...? Both the Marine Corps and Law Enforcement are very honorable and difficult jobs. Maybe thats why you chose to sit behind a computer screen, huh...because you couldn't even handle the Marine Corps? I see you spent 3 years active duty...and got out...or forced out...a Pfc.? That says alot for you right there!! Don't bother to explain that....I really don't care.

Please...and I am being as polite as I can here....when I say this...do not come on here to insult any of my Marine Corps brothers if you don't like their choices in life. You aren't any type of judge, jury or executioner. You're not giving any advice or anything constructive to this thread.....what you are doing is insulting a Marine who definitely has more heart and more patriotism than you. You'd understand that if you invested more in your Marine Corps career. Its best that you just leave well enough alone and keep your negative, ugly and definitely unnecessary opinions to yourself because in reality...nobody cares what you think.

[bootlace15]

damned if you do and damned if you don"t.............

bootlace15 out

[FistFu68]

:evilgrin: YOU KNOW HOW FAST YOU WERE GOING BOY?YOU WERE DOIN A 155 IN A 65 MPH ZONE.I'M ONLY GOING 2 GIVE YOU A WARNING CAUSE I WAS A MARINE MYSELF.SEMPER~FI~AND SLOW DOWN MARINE :evilgrin: :iwo:

[mcvet57103]

:evilgrin: YOU KNOW HOW FAST YOU WERE GOING BOY?YOU WERE DOIN A 155 IN A 65 MPH ZONE.I'M ONLY GOING 2 GIVE YOU A WARNING CAUSE I WAS A MARINE MYSELF.SEMPER~FI~AND SLOW DOWN MARINE :evilgrin: :iwo:I actually had that happen to me one time while home on leave.Trying to make it to the bar for beer before it closed for the night. The cop was a former Marine and clocked me in excess of 120 mph. Said I could go to jail, but being a former Marine he knew what I would get when I got back on base. Let me go with a warning. LOL

[Sgt Leprechaun]

rottenmuffin, or whatever you are, congrats for winning the 'doofus' award for the day. This quote's for you.

"I hope Microsoft goes out of business and all it's employees end up on bread lines. It might stimulate other azzholes in the tech sector to try to be a little more responsible and compassionate. I doubt that will happen, however, given the controlling, smug, heartless nature of tech nerds. It's really sad that this warped segment of society has gained so much power over the rest of us. We used to give them wedgies and take their lunch money and then they went on to become harmless underpaid math professors. Now they've turned into all powerful Morlocks who run our lives. They have no ethics and no empathy."
Blogger Hogster
*****
Moving on....needed to get that out of my system. Sorry.

I've done both. I left the Corps in '89 to be a copper. Went from Beaufort, SC to Maryland, PG county to be exact. I did five years working a combat car there, and then....re-enlisted into active duty.

There were times when I seriously thought 'WTF' did I do????? Holy mother....I shoulda stayed a po-lice.....

But, all in all, I didn't regret it for the most part.

Like some here have said, the FHP is primarily a ticket writin outfit, very little criminal work, from what I've heard. A good agency, but unless you like 'all traffic, all the time', you may not be satisfied.

At your age, if you have a chance to do what you really want to do (and I'd love to do that), I'd probably go ahead and go for it. You can ALWAYS be a copper, but how often do you get a chance to live a dream, and at the same time, do things that most people only DREAM of doing?

Law Enforcement will ALWAYS be there, and if you have prior experience, most agencies will scoot you in at the earliest chance.

You gotta do what you think is right for you, but personally, having BTDT and gotten that T-shirt, I'd go for it. LOL.

Stay low no matter what you do.

[usmc0331]

go in the US border patrol--awesome pay and an adventure

[Twitchell]

rossmutin, what the ****?:devious:
Why even post anything if your just gonna talk ****?

Hey I've got an idea, lets not be lowly Marine's, or Cops. Lets be hard corps, and go work at Convergys!:nerd:

[3rdBNmachine]

that might be the pay for starting off i the academy. Troopers in Massachusetts make 70,000 base pay at top step and after overtime and details they make well over 140,000 dollars. i know they are the highest paid in the country but there is no way there is that much of a difference

[Old Marine]

I posted this on another group but I thought this would have been the more appropriate group to post too. I'm in the middle of a big decision. I have been a cop all my life and was recently laid off. I now have the opportunity to do something I have always wanted to do... go back into the Marine Corps and fly with the marines as a crew chief on a helicopter..lots of travel and a great job. However, all I have known all my adult life is being a cop, and it scares me to start a new career ...and life... at the age of 36 (I know I'm not old but still seems somewhat old ha). The other part of this is that I have been accepted to be a trooper in the State of Florida and continue my law enforcement career down there. The only thing is the salary stinks...$33,000 a year and no pay raises. I know I would do well there. I'm just confused about what I should do....any suggestions?

$33,000.00 a year. I guess you haven't looked at the military pay scale.

[Supersquishy]

From some of my research FHP do mostly traffic tickets and automobile accidents. A couple of people that posted on a Police forum, say its boring as hell and the pay is crap with no raises at all, someone also said they have been with FHP for 10 years and still get paid the same as 1 year out of the academy!
I don't know, after considering being laid off as a Cop, and being interested especially in FHP in your case, I'd join the Corps.

Did you get fired or what??

[Supersquishy]

One other thing that I don't get is that it's a long and competitive process to become a FHP Trooper, one needs to almost have a perfect record including traffic violations, pass many tests etc. I definately considered applying, until I saw the pay scale, that changed my mind fast!

Why the heck is the pay so crappy?

[Marine1955]

I posted this on another group but I thought this would have been the more appropriate group to post too. I'm in the middle of a big decision. I have been a cop all my life and was recently laid off. I now have the opportunity to do something I have always wanted to do... go back into the Marine Corps and fly with the marines as a crew chief on a helicopter..lots of travel and a great job. However, all I have known all my adult life is being a cop, and it scares me to start a new career ...and life... at the age of 36 (I know I'm not old but still seems somewhat old ha). The other part of this is that I have been accepted to be a trooper in the State of Florida and continue my law enforcement career down there. The only thing is the salary stinks...$33,000 a year and no pay raises. I know I would do well there. I'm just confused about what I should do....any suggestions?


Let me help you if you come back and read this, Try living on well-fare and food stamps and then 33,000 a year looks damn good. I have lived on less so if 33,000 looks low try O pay and food stamps!! there are HOMELESS VETS RIGHT NOW who would give anything to make that.