0481 Landing Support Specialist

[Aurelius33]

Hello and a wonderful day to all of you Marines!
I am in an excellent mood today because after many months waiting for a slot, my recruiter called me into his office, had me fill out my paper work and sign for my police records check. Once all that goes through he will schedule my physical and put my moral waiver through for approval. I still have a bit of a way to go but this is a big first step and if all goes well he says I can ship in July, as I am filling a slot that someone recently vacated.

Although the job I want (AAV Crewman) isn't available and I am having to go reserves, I am incredibly thankful and excited that they are moving forward with me. The MOS that is available is 0481 Landing Support Specialist, and it is the ONLY slot available at the moment at my RSS.

I read the MOS description on about.com and it doesn't sound too bad to me as I will hopefully at least get to work with some AAVs and LAVs. Are there any Marines who have this job or have some experience and can tell me what I would most likely be doing in a reserve unit? Will I get a chance to be deployed? Will I most likely end up on a ship? Any info is greatly appreciated and thank you all in advance for any replies!

[Aurelius33]

Also, would like to apologize in advance if this has been covered before, the search function doesn't seem to be working for me. Thanks again!

[Aurelius33]

Also, how long and where is the schooling for this MOS?

[Lisa 23]

You do know that your recruiter can answer these questions for you.

[temarti]

Your recruiter will give you the paragraph answer in the book for an 0481, there are a couple on here that have or are the MOS and know about the school at LeJeune. I was with (at the time) Landing Support Battalion in Oki and Lejeune as a HE operator. You will be around a lot of gear, be involved in beach ops, port ops, HST's, embarkations. If it has to be moved from ship to shore or at times air to ground that is what they do.

Not a bad MOS, you also have the honor of wearing the mysterious red patch.

[Aurelius33]

Thanks for taking the time to give me some the info, Cpl. It doesn't sound too bad.

WMarine, yes I know the recruiter can answer some of my questions but I was looking more for some info from those who have experience in the field, as my recruiter was a tanker.

Thank you both for your replies and I hope to some day soon be able to count myself among your ranks!

[temarti]

Good deal, go ahead and google Landing Support Specialist and then hit images and this will give you a great insight as to what they do.

[Sgt Leprechaun]

Also known as "Red Patchers", if memory serves correctly. Pretty good job with all sorts of interesting deployment opportunities.

[Granger1]

Are there any Marines who have this job or have some experience and can tell me what I would most likely be doing in a reserve unit?

Your going to be sweeping and mopping the facilities.

[CarolinaMarine]

School is about 6 weeks if I remember correctly at Camp Johnson (Lejeune). What unit are you looking into? B Co 4th LSB Savannah? or 4th AAB in Jacksonville? Didn't know Jacksonville had 81's...I know Savannah does.

As an 0481 reservist it varies widely per unit. Assuming your unit locks on actual 81 training for you, you will be dealing mostly with HST (helo lifts) and port ops. Port ops can be anything from driving vehicles on and off ships and lashing them down, to just supervising the loading/unloading operation. You also deal with Airfield operations. Basically the control of passengers and cargo moving through the airfield. This though, is more on deployments then any other time. Rail and Beach ops pop up every once in a while, but they are rare compared to the others. Same thing different environment basically. You setup and control the movement of gear and personnel.

You won't be doing your MOS every drill weekend. Though there have been a lot of 0481 dets being deployed lately. I just got back off one. Being sent out to do their actual job, so you might get a good opportunity with that.

I enjoy the job, a lot of people find it boring. It can be boring quite a bit honestly, but once you get under a CH-53 hovering about 2ft above your head it makes it all worth it. The fact is though, a lot of people rely on 0481s for a lot of stuff. We can move stuff to the front fast and into remote areas. Let me know if you have any other specific questions.

[HOWARDROARK3043]

red tag fag

[CarolinaMarine]

red tag fag

And these are the people I bump to the very bottom of the space A list for flights...they never go anywhere.

[HOWARDROARK3043]

haha,, till i get you a gerber, 3 pairs of cammies and some danners,,,,now who is on top of the world???

[CarolinaMarine]

Or I could just take the stuff after it falls out of a seabag on the pallet that isn't packed like i said to. Either way.

[HOWARDROARK3043]

its cool i always lie about how much AF pallets weigh and how much white collapsibles weigh,,,

and ill just call your CO or SNCO and tell them I SAW you steal stuff from my units items and it was serialized gear....

[Aurelius33]

Here's an update to this post.

Unfortunately, as it turns out, I won't be getting this MOS because my recruiter realized I would need a secret security clearance (which would be hard to get with a moral waiver). Thankfully, he says the Marine Corps was just authorized an increase to 206,000, so that opened up a few more slots that i will be able to fill.

So as of right now we haven't picked out an available MOS yet. I just went this morning and did all of the paper work and financial statements for my dependent waiver, then Thursday I am bringing my wife to the office to write her statements (saying she understands that she will have custody of the boy and that she will not necessarily have access to my bootcamp pay, etc). That will conclude all of my dependent and moral waiver paperwork and he will send it through for approval.

Then, God willing, I can go take my physical (already took the ASVAB in 2009) and find out what MOS is available for me here in Jacksonville. I will keep you Marines updated and let you know everything as it happens. Thanks for all of the excellent answers in this thread. I was a bit disappointed, as I was beginning to look forward to being a 0481. Thats okay though, more than anything I just want to be a Marine!

[temarti]

There is an Amtrac unit in Jax and Motor T in Orlando, with those MOS's and well as the supporting MOS's (maintenance, Admin,...) you should have a few good ones to choose from.

With the Landing Support unit in Sav. they also have Motor T and Heavy Equipment. These could be other options for you.