Conversation Between alaura and Joshjames1234

Hey take care! Best of luck to ya at MCT!

ah gotcha. well it was nice talken to ya, but i'm going to hit the rack. good luck to you, and keep in touch. there arent many of us Marine Corps band nerds out there ; )

Haha...this recruit will be sure not to speak about that in recruit training lol.

Oh an AA degree is just an Associates of Arts degree...just the standard classes you'd normally take at a community college.

Yes, we do get lots of goodies for being band geeks, but I'd advise you not to broadcast that in boot camp. lol. I do plan on taking college courses but depending on whether I fall in love with playing music again will determine whether I pursue a degree in music or psychology. And what exactly is an AA degree?

Wow! That's incredible that you just decided to drop out and try to audition and actually make it! I practiced just about every day for a couple months before actually being able to schedule an audition day (those MTAs are busy!)...

I have a friend that is doing something like intel...I can never remember exactly what his job is....but he is super-jealous of all the incredible incentives we get just for being a band geek....$10k enlistment bonus, accelerated promotion, etc...I can't imagine doing anything else!

Are you going to take college courses while enlisted? I'm planning (hoping, actually) to get my AA degree during my initial 4-year term....

Good lord! I had no intentions of doing anything military, but when I was in high school, i decided I wanted to major in music. College rolled around and I chickened out of it, and decided to go for psychology instead. Then I randomly decided to drop out of college and join the Marine Corps. I originally wanted to have Intelligence as my MOS but because of my ship date that option wasn't open to me. So I decided to audition for the band just for the hell of it, and made it. I'm really glad things turned out the way they did, and I'm really excited to see how this band thing turns out. It blows my mind to think that I'm essentially getting paid to be a musician.

Well, when I was younger I always admired my grandfather's military service (he was in the Army in Korea). I decided to join band in 5th grade, and my parents had me get a private teacher. Just so happens he was in the Marine Corps band for 8 years. He taught me from 5th-8th grade, but had to stop because he had to drive too much and wanted to be with his family more (totally understandable). Needless to say my private teacher inspired me a lot to be a Marine musician...I've always been interested in all things military...I just can't stop thinking of how awesome it would be to serve my country -- and to be a United States Marine. I've met a lot of service members, and I have to say from the ones I've met, there is something different about them. Something honorable. I love music and I'm interested in the military...so being a Marine musician seemed to be the perfect choice for me.

How about you??

So what made you decide to go the Marine Corps band route?

I really want to stay in California near my family...which, luckily for me, there are four Marine band in SoCal....my first choice would definitely be the 1st Marine Division band at Camp Pendleton, followed by the 3DMAW in Miramar, then the MCRD SD band. I would hate to go to 29 Palms or the Logistics band in Georgia...Japan would be neat I'm sure! I've never been out of the country and I imagine Japan would be a blast!

Nope, we have to wait which sucks. From what I hear, if you request to go overseas you'll most likely get it, and I'm shooting for Okinawa. Where were you hoping to get stationed?