Weighing my options while in college

[StillThinking]

I'm a freshman in college and confused as Hell. A few months ago I went to the Marine Officer office near my college, got interviewed, and did a PFT. Did pretty bad on the PFT, started religiously working out since, but haven't shown enough improvement. I'm gonna keep on working out, but I'm torn on what direction to take with the Corps when I get a good enough score to contract.

In terms of becoming an officer I want to either become a Naval Flight Officer or a Marine Security Guard. But I'm also starting to consider doing an enlistment after college to either go infantry, MSG, or something flight related like crew chief or door gunner. But then I just talked to one of my buddies who enlisted in infantry for the Corps right out of high school (2 years before me) and who just got back from Afghanistan. He said he's considering going to the Army when he gets out of the Corp and starts trying to continue his education.

I don't want to join the Marines to get some sort of skills to use whenever I get out of the Corps but want to join because I believe it's important to serve in the military to get an appreciation for what it takes to defend our rights and the country in general. Right now I'm not planning on making a career in the military, but it's not entirely off the table.

So what I'd like advice on is whether or not I should really consider attempting to enlist in one of the previously mentioned MOS's or, because I'm in college and getting an education, it should just be off the table and I should go officer or nothing. I'd also like to know how you guys feel about joining the Army. I know I'll almost definitely get a Corps biased opinion here so I'm talking to friends in the Army too, but honestly I would rather have better people than better equipment and things like lack of promotion opportunities aren't even part of my decision making process. Lastly, I'd like some advice on boosting my crunch reps. I'm a runner so I'm getting the miles under control and Armstrong has helped a lot with my pullups, but my crunches are still awful.

Thanks guys, any help appreciated

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[djj34]

Two things.

An officer going in as a Naval Flight Officer could potentially have a limited career in that MOS. According to the last aviation plan I read, NFO platforms are going away soon. How soon? Who knows. These dates keep getting pushed back. Keep in mind the time it takes to finish college, get into TBS, finish IFS and API (feeder screener courses for primary) and the better part of 1.5-2 years spent on flight school before even beginning your 6 year service commitment. There's a reasonable chance that if you went to make a career of it, it would probably not work out in the way you'd imagine. Have you looked into chasing a pilot contract? The training for that is a pretty wild ride... don't ask how I'd know!

Secondly. Officers, while capable of being assigned to Consulates and Embassies, are not capable of performing the duties of the MSG. Even an MSG detachment is commanded by a senior NCO - a GySgt or MSgt, if I recall. For an officer to have a crack at spending a tour at in an embassy billet, one would have to be selected for a primary MOS and spend 3 years in it before being selected into a B-billet. Some are common and easy to get. Some aren't.

If you really want to try to be an MSG, enlisting is your best bet. Plenty of enlisted Marines are college educated, and many of them are very intelligent. The era of the "dumb Marine" stereotype are essentially gone. You chances of doing something like MSG in the Army are pretty low... same with NFO. Now, if you're in college and want to fly, and do nothing but fly, I would suggest you look at the Army Flying Warrant Officer program. That's about as good as it gets for military flight time and experience.

Good luck in your search.

[StillThinking]

Thanks for the advice. I'd definitely try and be a pilot but my eyesight is pretty bad and so even with LASIK I'd still be outside the requirements for pilot. Since I'd rather not chance NFO's getting cut sometime in the next 9 or so years (3 more years of college, about 2 more years of training, and then 4 maybe more years of service) I'm leaning more heavily towards enlisting for MSG now since I want to do that about as badly as fly and the Marines mean more to me than the Army so flying for the Army isn't my first choice.

I'm looking through the MCESG website now and will try to talk to a recruiter and hear what they have to say, but does anyone here have any advice such as working through the selection process?

Also: does anyone else ever have any trouble getting onto the site? I tried to respond this morning but it kept freezing up while any other website worked just fine.

[Rocky C]

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[djj34]

I actually had a hell of a time posting that post. I lost what I wrote twice when hitting quick reply as the page timed out. Must have been something unique that day? Thankfully we have Microsoft Word to copy and paste to!