Advice for Enlisted Reserves/Active to Officer

[jahuski35]

Hello Marines,
I have had this plan in mind now for a while, its just a matter of time before it happens. My plan is to go Reserve Enlisted after highschool, try to go through the PLC program in college and after that decline my opportunity to become an Officer so that I can go serve another 4 years active duty Enlisted. If i enjoy the Corps enough I will want to try and go Officer route after all my enlisted experience, and hopefully already have 1 if not more deployments under my belt.(This is assuming all goes well) I've talked to a few career Marines and they told me it would be better to do my reserves or active duty through college and then go officer route, instead of doing another 4 years after college and then trying to go Officer route. I'm just trying to get as many opinions as I can get before I make any final decisions. Any advice or opinions is greatly appreciated!

[Sergeant M]

If you are given the opportunity to go commissioned, then you should take it. Being an officer is a new challenge in itself, and allows you to make an incredible difference in the Marine Corps. I understand the pride of being enlisted for a period of time, and then going officer as a weathered mustang, but it really doesn't make that big of a difference in my opinion. If you are accepted under the PLC program, you should do as the program is designed. Also, think of it this way; That four years you spent enlisted, is four years you could be working toward getting rank as an officer. That is four years later that you might become a Captain, or a Major.

[josephd]

did I read your post correctly?...You want to enlist in the reserves and then go through the PLC program only to decline a commission and then try to go active duty to get experience and then commission after all this???

That is a complete waste of not only the Corps' time and money but also a waste of your time and education. While having prior enlisted experience can be a benefit to be becoming and being an officer it is not a path that you should take if your end goal is to simply become an Marine officer.

Not only is your so called plan not a good idea it is also flawed. Ok, so you enlist in the reserves, and go through OCS via PLC program. You graduate OCS but don't commission. How are you going to serve those 4 years active duty that you want??...Typical reserve contracts run 6 years, you can go through PLC during that time but upon graduating from that you simply just go back to be a drilling reservist if you don't commission. If you did re enlist on the active duty side(if the Corps allowed you to) after your reserve contract that means you have 10yrs in the Corps as an enlisted Marine. At that point your chances and opportunity to commission would be extremely small if not zero.

If being an Marine officer is your ultimate goal then graduate HS, get into college, get good grades, keep yourself out of trouble, stay in tip top shape, talk with the OSO in your area and get on the path to commission. Don't bother with all the back and forth enlisted stuff you're talking about

[MOS4429]

I understand you have this plan on your brain and it's been there for a while and eating at you.

But let me ask YOU a question. Haven't you essentially asked this before at:

http://www.leatherneck.com/forums/sh...ht=#post841065


And asked it again at:

http://www.leatherneck.com/forums/sh...ht=#post830634

And given direction to go to the link at:

http://www.leatherneck.com/forums/sh...-Mustang-route


If you have a NEW question, please feel free to post. However, you are posting the same question worded slightly different over and over and now over again.

[Lisa 23]

jahuski35....yes, this is the Ask A Marine forum and we are here to answer questions, but asking the same ones over, but worded differently, will not be tolerated.
You have been given great advice in "all" of your topics pertaining to reserves, college and becoming an officer, I suggest you take it.
DO NOT start another topic on this or you will find yourself on a small vacation away from Leatherneck.

[jahuski35]

Thank you for the answers, and I know I have been wording the same questions differently i just felt like the other answers to my other threads weren't as good as these answers. Definitely wont be repeating this any more, this was all I needed.