Wanna be recon

[Jacob White]

Hello everyone. My name is Jacob White i am a poolie. i ship july 2nd. Since i was a small boy seeing them on tv i knew i wanted to be a US Marine. Now that i am contracted and working on signing for my MOS i have decided that i want to go to recon school. The way i see it i have 9 months to hone my body physically and mentally. i would love to hear from other recon Marines or just really any marine on things i can do to be as prepared as possible for basic and recon school. currently i am here

3 mile: 22.5 minutes
pullups: 16
crunches: 100-150
ASVAB: 88


how off am i for recon school? I dont want to be pampered dont worry about offending me or some bull**** i just want reality.

[Lisa 23]

I'm sure it's a typo in your profile with your shipdate of 2 July 2012....should be 2 July 2013.
How about filling out more of your profile, site rules which can be found in the poolee and Ask A Marine forums.
I know this is the Ask A Marine forum and we are here to answer wannabees and poolees questions; try doing a search here on Leatherneck, recon has been covered many times.

[PNW2011]

swim moar, run faster, do 20 pullups.

also recon can only be guaranteed by your recruiter. There are very few recon spots, my company of 390 recruits had exactly 2 guys with recon guaranteed. Do the math.

[Subsum44]

Be careful with recon contracts. If you want to be either recon or a grunt, then go for a grunt contract and get the option to go to recon at SOI. I know a lot of guys who DOR (Dropped On Request) from MART (Marines Awaiting Recon Training) but could not be grunts because they signed a recon contract. What happens at that point is you pretty much go open contract and the Corps finds a new job for you. The guys I know are lucky because you need security clearance and need to be smart to do recon that they got electronics contracts. Not what they want to do, but better than some of the other options.

[PNW2011]

don't they have to do ITB first? What is the point of sending them through that if they're not just going to be kicked to a battalion if they fail BRC?

[Subsum44]

Yes, they do have to go through ITB first. It counts as their MCT if they are going to be assigned another MOS other than 03xx. The point of sending them through that is that normally there is an easy transition from ITB to MART to BRC. However, right now there are about 200 mofos in MART instead of the 30 - 50 there should be. Some guys straight out of boot camp spend over a year in MART before picking up with a BRC class. This is due to lat moves and officers getting priority. So now, MART is a way to force everyone but (and sometimes including) the most dedicated out of recon.

Now you come to the problem of contracts. If you sign an infantry contract, then get the option to go to BRC you're sitting pretty. Recon will fulfill your 03xx infantry contract criteria. If you DOR or get kicked out, you can hit the fleet as a regular grunt and still fulfill your initial contract. Recon contracts are a different story. In order to be a grunt with a recon contract, you almost have to complete BRC. It is very rare for a recon drop to get another 03 job. This is because the 03 spots fill up almost instantly, leaving no other choice but POG. So you get dropped from MART or BRC and now you cannot fulfill your initial contract for those MOS's. Also, none of the other 03 MOS's are an option for your contract, only recon. Now you have a 4 or 5 year contract with the Corps, and no MOS because you failed to complete the training. Therefore, they do what they do whenever a Marine fails to complete the training for his contract, give him a new MOS. Does sending recon drops to POG MOS's make sense, not entirely, but when has a lot of stuff the corps has done made sense?

[PNW2011]

Not making any sense makes perfect sense actually..