Open Contract

[Gallic Gun]

I searched, but still didn't quite get what I needed. <br />
<br />
I'm currently a high school grad, attending my 2nd semester of college. My projected ship date is in November but I'm being offered the...

[thewookie]

What kind of question is that? Is the Marine lying to you.

Do you think they have time to lie and play games with you?

I don't know if you've noticed but the Marine Corps doesn't have a hard time find qualified bodies to go to bootcamp.

So, the longer you sit around wondering if you'll get your dream job you might miss the bus, gus.

I'm glad that you're willing to "help the Marines" by filling this open spot, but don't do us any favors. The spot will be filled by another body faster then you can blink your eye.

I'm also glad to see you're willing to serve your country and make the sacrifice; but this isn't BK - you won't get it your way.

[JWDevilDog]

I agree with the Sergeant. A recruiter's job isn't to lie to a kid to try to get him to join. The recruiter understands that he might not be getting the same quality if he dupes someone into it. Do recruiters lie to civilians to try to get them interested? Sure, it happens sometimes, because they are people and thus they err and are flawed. But is it common practice? No, absolutely not.

The reason you have a better chance of getting the MOS you want at the beginning of the fiscal year is because the Marine Corps has a certain number of available slots that civilians can enlist into for each MOS, depending on the region of the country you are in. These slots get "reset," in October, at the beginning of the fiscal year. So, if you go in November, yes you have a better shot of getting what you want. If you go now, you might get arty, if it's listed as one of the options under Open Contract (I don't know what all is listed there - that would be one of the times where you have to read the contract and see what it says). Even if it is listed there, there is a chance you will get something else, based on the needs of the Marine Corps. If they needs cooks, that is what you will be.

As the Sergeant said, you are not "doing us a favor" by filling that open slot. The Corps had no trouble filling its quota with a certain quality of individuals when we were pushing for a 202,000 strong active-duty force (we made that goal, by the way). Because the war in Iraq is dying down, they are going to take fewer and fewer poolees in the DEP. I don't know what our new goal is, but it is much lower than our current numbers. What does all this mean? It means we met our goals before, with most quality individuals, and we will meet our goals when we are looking for fewer people even easier.

I think all the Alpha/Bravo designation means is that you scored above a 51 on your ASVAB. Certain things are opened up to you if you score a 51+ (off hand, I forget what specifically, but I remember my recruiter saying something about it when I was first talking to him).

Chances are you can't get arty right now because it is closed out. MOS's are open in the beginning of the fiscal year, and close out throughout the year. If you ask to see the numbers in terms of how many openings there are for arty in your district, your recruiter will more than likely show them to you and explain better than I can. My recruiter did that for me with Intel, and I didn't even ask him.