How Did It Come About That You Joined The Corps?

[GT6238]

Hmm..Here's the story...I was in college and transferred from one to another...in doing so some of my bad grades (main reason) did not trsnfer and I had to make up for them...So I ran out of my 2S student deferment. Also during the time between schools, they managed to get me in and physical me....so one day after my deferment went away I got a nice letter telling me that they want me to take a trip to Ft. Jackson. I went to see the Air Force recruiter, but they were all booked up past my induction date. I never liked Navy uniforms, but the Air Force recruiter told me that if I wanted to work with aircraft to go down and talk to the Marine recruiter....and I did and I got an aviation guarantee. I signed up and went home and told the folks. My mother went into some kind of rant about how the Marines would end up killing me and blah, blah, blah. My Dad just sat at the table with this half-smile on his face and didn't say anything. Mom came around later. So shortly after that I found myself breathing the sweet smell of Parris Island. While I was there, they introduced the Draft Lottery System and my number would have been 114. I play that number occasionally.

[Tracker]

Hey this worked out real good! Today is a big day for me, 50 years ago today I got to stand on the yellow foot prints at receiving barracks MCRD San Diego, California. No doubt the best thing that could have happened to me. I turned seventeen on December 6, 1961 and was standing tall at MCRD on the early morning of December 8, 1961. My Marine Corps experience shaped the rest of my life, for the good I might add.
Stay safe my band of brothers
Semper Fi
Tracker

[kenrobg30]

My Mother Dropped Me On My Head, When I Was A Teen Ager?????

[griz882]

OK, so I was bored with college. I started with the army, to be a helicopter pilot, but they said I had to spend a year in the service as (get this) a cook! Well, I said "F" that so I wandered into the Corps office. After taking the ASVAB the crimp laid out a sheet that had every MOS in the Corps and said I could pick any job I wanted. I pointed to C-130 Navigator and said "I'll do that!" He said "Fine, I'll get the papers ready but in the meantime watch this neat video we have." I can still remember - it was called "Such as regiments hand down forever" and it was a fantastic piece of recruiting propaganda! It was all about Corps history and battles and by the end, when the recruiter came back, I told him "No deal on that aviation crap, I want to go infantry like those guys!"

With the hook in my gills and an evil smile on his face, the crimp reeled me in and got a mother-lovin' grunt for his record book!

[kenrobg30]

OK, so I was bored with college. I started with the army, to be a helicopter pilot, but they said I had to spend a year in the service as (get this) a cook! Well, I said "F" that so I wandered into the Corps office. After taking the ASVAB the crimp laid out a sheet that had every MOS in the Corps and said I could pick any job I wanted. I pointed to C-130 Navigator and said "I'll do that!" He said "Fine, I'll get the papers ready but in the meantime watch this neat video we have." I can still remember - it was called "Such as regiments hand down forever" and it was a fantastic piece of recruiting propaganda! It was all about Corps history and battles and by the end, when the recruiter came back, I told him "No deal on that aviation crap, I want to go infantry like those guys!"

With the hook in my gills and an evil smile on his face, the crimp reeled me in and got a mother-lovin' grunt for his record book!

Now that hasto be the unvarnished truth!! Thaty;s the best one I've read. Sempre Fi Brother.

[Turbogus]

As for me, I was a screw up non hacker in High School. Got drunk a lot with friends up at their barn near the school. My father, a 30 year lifer MSgt (although breveted at times in his career to SgtMaj) couldn't stand this sad state of affairs, so one early summer afternoon when I got to the house two recruiters were there waiting for me. Thinking that my lot at home was such that I went ahead and signed the paperwork and a short while later I found myself standing on those yellow footprints in San Diego. Being raised in western Montana and later Oregon really did the job on me. you could tell those of us from the PacNW we were the ones with sunburned blisters on our ears ! HAH!
Well, post boot I came away with a new attitude and a new skinny body, SSgt Aberg, our Senior DI said I looked like a refugee for a D@mned POS camp.

[oldtop]

46 years ago today I woke up after an all night bender, took the bus to the recruiter's office in the customs house, walked in and said "I want to join the Marines"...SSgt did the paperwork, slid it across the desk and said "sign here". I looked at him and said "if I sign this, you own me, right??" answer... If you sign, you can consign your soul to God, because your ass belongs to the Marine Corps... I signed....funniest part of the whole day was when I got home and had a letter from the draft board telling me to report for my "pre-induction" physical....got my 'induction" letter just before I graduated boot camp....

[FistFu68]

Army Brat By Birth Marine By Choice + Them Dress Blues were Killer,when I came back from across Tha Pond and Wore them I got more Ass than a Toilet Seat in Tha Womens Restroom at LAX!!! S/F

[USMC2571]

You always did have a way with words, Jack. LOL.

[USMC2571]

I started this thread over a year ago and it's still going strong......interesting what causes/caused each of us to join up, and how it happened.

[jarheadjj]

I would have to say the main reason I joined is because of my older brother. He went to bootcamp the summer after I finished 4th grade. When he came home in september I knew what I was going to do when I graduated high school. I told my mother my plans and she said "I hope you grow out of it". During my junior and senior years friends were busy studying for and taking SATs I never bothered. A friend asked me why I wasn't and I said it's not a requirment for the Marine Corps. When the Marine Recruiters came to my school I was the only one waiting to see them. They were shocked to see only one person there. I told them not to worry I'm definitely signing up. A week later I was signed up for the Delayed Entry Program. I spent six years in the Corps and don't regret any of it except maybe the getting out part. Sometimes I wish I had stayed in and realized my dream of becoming a DI. I have never told my brother he changed my life or should I say gave it direction. Semper Fi

[advanced]

I would have to say the main reason I joined is because of my older brother. He went to bootcamp the summer after I finished 4th grade. When he came home in september I knew what I was going to do when I graduated high school. I told my mother my plans and she said "I hope you grow out of it". During my junior and senior years friends were busy studying for and taking SATs I never bothered. A friend asked me why I wasn't and I said it's not a requirment for the Marine Corps. When the Marine Recruiters came to my school I was the only one waiting to see them. They were shocked to see only one person there. I told them not to worry I'm definitely signing up. A week later I was signed up for the Delayed Entry Program. I spent six years in the Corps and don't regret any of it except maybe the getting out part. Sometimes I wish I had stayed in and realized my dream of becoming a DI. I have never told my brother he changed my life or should I say gave it direction. Semper Fi

Tell him, I'm sure he would appreciate it. S/F

[USMC2571]

I agree with Russ ("advanced"), tell him---you never know when it might be too late to do so.

[Big Boz]

I started college and decided it wasn't what I needed at that point in my life and one day packed everything in my car and left. There weren't many options around here and if you didn't have any connections at the local factories, good luck getting hired there. Then I got my girlfriend knocked up(reason #1) and knew I had to take care of the family and decided to join. My father was a Marine but not a very good one and I had this crazy idea that I had to "clear" the family name.(stupid reason #2) Had to prove to my father I was a man (really stupid reason #3). Signed up, got married and went to boot camp all in 3 months. Some honeymoon I had. I now know that the only reason I should have joined was reason #1.

[milkrun49]

In October 1966 I decided to take my fathers car and pick up my girlfriend. We drove to a secluded place and one thing led to another and we found ourselves naked and going at it in the back seat. That's where we were when the police pulled up. I jumped in the front seat and took off. I would have gotten away if it weren't for the road block further down the road and the tree that got in the way. Girfriend went to the hospital and I went to court. Join the Marines or go to jail. True story. G.