Electronic maintenance or infantry?

[Junior098]

When I first talked to my recruiter he asked me why I wanted to be a marine and I told him because I want to serve my country and I want to serve with the best. He continued to ask what do I see myself doing for the corps and I told him straight up I want to go infantry, I have the body and mind for it. I got through MEPS and scored a 69 on my ASVAB when I got to the point where I got to choose my mos. My recruiter told me there were no openings in infantry at the moment but told me I qualify for electronic maintenance so I signed the electronic maintenance contract because he said it would be easy to trade for infantry later, but lately he's been telling me I should just stick with electronic maintenance and try to go MARSOC but I'm not sure if I really want to take the chance of not getting into MARSOC and being stuck in electronic maintenance. What should I do?

Im 5'11" and 195lbs.
Pull ups: 20
3 miles: 20min
100 crunches: 2 min

my ship date is August 17th

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[PJones64]

How complicated things are today. Years ago, light years ago, civilians joined the USMC to become Marines, not even aware that there WERE any particular jobs. Oh well. The anxiety level was much much lower back then, too.

[MunkyVsRobot]

The dreams of grandeur people have before they even get through boot camp is asdtounding. Everyone apparently joins and assumes they are going to become Rambo and get MARSOC, Scout Sniper, Recon contracts.

If you want infantry sign an infantry contract, but you already signed another contract you better hope one comes available before you ship or you are going to be electronic maintainence.

[djj34]

Unless a spot opens up for infantry you will most likely be stuck with your current contract. Take this as a learning experience: do not sign any contract you are unhappy being obligated to fulfill!

[Rudy2D]

Just do your best in your MOS, on the Rifle Range, and always put the Corps 1st; opportunities will appear. You may even qualify for OCS.

[Big Boz]

Just do your best in your MOS, on the Rifle Range, and always put the Corps 1st; opportunities will appear. You may even qualify for OCS.

Exactly. While checking in at my last duty station (Camp Pendleton), I was told that Recon had an opening and another opening soon for Radio Repairman. I volunteered myself in. Meeting the other Comm. guys, (operators and crypto techs) they all were offered the same thing. We were all supposed to go to the larger Comm. Battalion, but since there were openings we had the option to go to Recon. The first month I was there, I went through HMMWV/Hummer driver training and was then assigned as the Indoc driver. Groups of about 50 or so mostly infantry Marines would attempt to have the opportunity to join Recon if they passed the indoctrination and interviews. Maybe 10 out of each group would be selected. And then they still had to wait for an opening. As a comm. tech, I was at the right place at the right time.

[josephd]

You may even qualify for OCS

worst small piece of advice I've heard on here

You don't just "qualify" for OCS... unless he has a college degree already and/or he has been in for at least four years and is $hit hot NCO/SNCO to get into MECEP or ECP.

OP, you have to ask yourself if you see yourself doing something other than infantry. OR you wait to ship until you can lock on an infantry contract.

You shouldn't even be thinking about MARSOC, you won't even be eligible until you're at the tail end of your contract, you're an NCO, and have a pump(deployment) or two under your belt.

[Rudy2D]

worst small piece of advice I've heard on here

You don't just "qualify" for OCS... unless he has a college degree already and/or he has been in for at least four years and is $hit hot NCO/SNCO to get into MECEP or ECP.

I was advised by my SDI at PI that I qualified for OCS, except that I was 17 at the time, and I had to wait a few. This was 1968, during the TET Offensive. Maybe the requirements have changed in the last 50 years.

[LCPL1341]

Times have changed drastically. You either need to be enrolled in college, have college acceptance letter in hand, or be a MECEP/ECP candidate to even get your foot in the door for OCS.

[Subsum44]

First of all, I would take a look at what you want to do after the Marine Corps. Recon is great for while your in, but electronics maintenance gives you something easily transferred to the civilian world.

That being said, you can still go RECON after you have been in. I am in the electronics maintenance and I know of one Marine who moved to RECON in order to re-enlist, and another who is planning the same thing. As Big Boz has said as well, you may get the chance to have RECON be a B-MOS. If you are assigned to a RECON battalion they may send you to the school in order to deploy with them, but don't get your hopes up.