questions about being a grunt

hey Marines,
in approx. 3 weeks im going to be leaving for marine boot camp im excited and cant wait to go, unfortunatly i have to go in as a reservist because im not a high school senior or a girl, so the recruiter said he only has slots open for reserves so i took that because the marines is really what i wanna do, and i guess this is better because now i can go to school. but anyway my question is, is there anything i should know before i leave, or anything i can do to help prepare myself (besides fitness im already working on that). like is there anything i can study? or maybe just remember cause im not looking to go in there and fail.

failing is not my option cause that can not only cost my life but someone elses too, especially being a grunt. so for all grunts or any Marine that knows what about the grunts, what can i start doing within these last couple weeks i have to help prepare myself for being a grunt, and also a bit of boot camp.... please anything will be helpful thank you Marines

When using the word Marine Corps, it will be capitalized at all times.
Don't worry about what it takes to be a grunt, worry about getting thru boot camp first.
If you want to know what to read up on before you get to boot camp, go to the sticky section in the Poolee forum and start reading. There are many threads in there on what to prepare yourself for.

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The purpose of this forum is to allow those who are aspiring to join the U.S. Marine Corps the chance to ask questions regarding this career choice.

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Worrying about what it takes to be a grunt directly complies with the purpose of this forum section.

To the opening poster, be more specific on what you want to know, there are plenty of grunts with a wealth of knowledge on this MOS, but its hard to answer one as broad as yours. PT is the only answer I can give you with the wording of your question as it is, but that will help you with the Marine Corps in general, not with the grunts.

The instructors at SOI will teach you what you need to know, tactics and operations wise. The Fleet is it's own little world, so until you get there, it's sort of like explaining how to ride a bike to someone whose never done it; You can hear the mechanics of the thing, but until you actually DO it, you won't quite know what's being talked about.

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Originally Posted by WKranz

Worrying about what it takes to be a grunt directly complies with the purpose of this forum section.

To the opening poster, be more specific on what you want to know, there are plenty of grunts with a wealth of knowledge on this MOS, but its hard to answer one as broad as yours. PT is the only answer I can give you with the wording of your question as it is, but that will help you with the Marine Corps in general, not with the grunts.

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thank you for your response but i just wanted to know are there any drills i can practice or any pt drills i can get used to doing

When you get to fleet they will tell to forget everything you learned at s.o.i. Every unit is different and it depends what your mos is. 11's arent going to do gun drills like weapons plt. guys will. So for now just work on running, so when your team leader tells you to hurry up and get the humvee keys you will break the boot record.

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Originally Posted by Talcik

thank you for your response but i just wanted to know are there any drills i can practice or any pt drills i can get used to doing

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No. Concentrate on getting through Recruit Training. Anything you do now will likely be 'in error' and you'll have bad habits to break (or be broken of) once you get to SOI, and then the fleet.

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Originally Posted by Talcik

is there anything i should know before i leave, or anything i can do to help prepare myself (besides fitness im already working on that). like is there anything i can study? or maybe just remember cause im not looking to go in there and fail.

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Remember this... all the harassment, head games, screaming, etc., is not personal, and it does all have an actual purpose, that purpose being, to get you accustomed to operating well, under extreme stress.

Combat is the most extreme stress that anyone can ever experience. Boot camp is as close to the stress of combat as can be achieved, without risking severe injury or death.

Just keep telling yourself, 'they will have to kill me to make me quit, and I know that their goal is not to kill me'.

Then just put your head down and gut it out, and one day you will look up, and it will be graduation day.

Well if one of your DIs is a grunt you may get some special attention! I got to go through the low crawl course twice just so I could "get used to the taste of dirt" :)