The Parental Opinion
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  1. #1

    The Parental Opinion

    Hello, I am Sebastian and I am a high school sophomore who plans on joining the Marine Corps. I have always wanted to join the Marines ever since I was in elementary school. My grandfather served in Vietnam in Force Recon and got out as a SSgt. He later joined the Army and left as a Captain. That is where my original idea of the military came from and after looking at both branches I decided that Marines was definitely the way I want to go. My only issue is my parents. Thankfully it is only one parent but I have a step-father that is also kind of against my decision. My mother is a anti-military person. She believes that the military is evil and corrupt and disturbs and tortures innocent people. My step-father tried enlisting but got arrested and his process got cancelled. He believes that I am too smart to go into the military (especially since he knows I want to go infantry). My dad is the one who seems a bit lighter on me as he doesn't mind me joining but he wants me to go in as an officer not enlisted like I plan to. Many people questions me on my decision to enlist and go infantry and all I can say is that I don't want to deal with the supposed politics and BS that officers have to deal with and I want to actually fight (my plan is to become a scout sniper). People always tell me that it isn't like the video games and I understand. I am willing to do it. Now I plan on enlisting at 18 so I know it doesn't matter whether they approve or not but it is nice to have a family support when I leave. What should I do to show my family that this is what I want and that they should at least accept it? Thanks in advance.

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  2. #2
    josephd
    Guest Free Member
    Ummm...you answered your own question, when you turn 18 go enlist...nothing they or anyone else can do about it

    and just a lil FYI...you don't "go in as an officer" when you complete college, the selection process to get to OCS is extremely difficult and OCS itself is extremely difficult...not as easy as just signing up


  3. #3
    Woah. Loaded post, but I'll tackle it. First off, Marine officers (especially in the infantry and at the Company Grade level) fight alongside their men. There was an officer here who put it quite well so I'll paraphrase "An enlisted Marine's weapon is his rifle, an officer's weapon is his rifle platoon." Officers are engaged in the fight alongside enlisted men between the 2ndLt to Captain ranks. Now that that's out of the way, I'll address the family issue.

    I was in a similar situation to you with a non-supportive family (except my dad, who ironically, wanted me to become an officer as well). There was no way to bring them around and get them on the same page, so what did I do? Kept my head down, attended monthly poolee functions and when it came time to leave for boot camp, I got on that plane and left. They came around while I was in boot camp. They sent me supportive letters, encouraged me to keep pushing through, all that cute stuff. I graduated and they were proud of me. They took pride in telling everyone I was a Marine and we've never looked back since. So what I did, was just stay the course until the time came to leave. It was rough, I remember a lot of yelling and some tears from my mom, but we weathered the storm and made it through.


  4. #4
    Yea I probably should have elaborated more on the whole "going as an officer" point to avoid confusion but I was aware of the whole OCS so thank you Sergeant. Anyway LCPL, thanks for the reply. Definitely gave me some motivation to push through the emotional part of poolee training and things like that. As far an the officer option goes, my main purpose for going as an enlisted is that I don't see that many MOS available for officers as I do with enlisted (obviously) and plus there are fewer officer snipers than enlisted because I heard officer snipers are usually platoon commanders. So thats about 1 officer per 40 maybe more enlisted. I would prefer the odds be in my favor as the S/S has been a child hood dream of mine. Also, the job of possibly leading 100+ people does not interest me. P.S. sorry for the loaded posts as I am one to elaborate well to avoid confusion.


  5. #5
    josephd
    Guest Free Member
    There are no such thing as sniper officers or officers that are snipers. Scout sniper platoon commanders are always(typically) intelligence officers. Their job is to gather intel, not be a trigger puller.

    Same kinda of thing goes for regular infantry officers, as the LCpl pointed out already, infantry officers will go out with their Marines/Platoons but their job is to relay information and direct troop movements, not to be a trigger puller.

    I completely understand wanting to go enlisted for the reasons you have mentioned and I commend you for that, don't think though that as an enlisted Marine you won't be leading anyone....if you have no passion to lead anyone and just want to shoot guns, I hate to tell you but the Corps is NOT for you


  6. #6
    Marine Free Member FistFu68's Avatar
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  7. #7
    Sergeant, thank you for the information regarding the whole sniper officer topic. That definitely puts things in a different perspective. I also wanted to say that I do not mind and actually enjoy leading however the amount of people you lead is very different and that is what I dislike, the number of people officers lead. I also want to state that my desire for infantry is not to shoot guns (although it can be fun at times) but I want to have that satisfaction of fighting and without having to lead a large (I am speaking company sized group, platoon size I can deal with) group of people.


  8. #8
    Marine Free Member FistFu68's Avatar
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  9. #9
    josephd
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    Quote Originally Posted by Sebass0317 View Post
    Sergeant, thank you for the information regarding the whole sniper officer topic. That definitely puts things in a different perspective. I also wanted to say that I do not mind and actually enjoy leading however the amount of people you lead is very different and that is what I dislike, the number of people officers lead. I also want to state that my desire for infantry is not to shoot guns (although it can be fun at times) but I want to have that satisfaction of fighting and without having to lead a large (I am speaking company sized group, platoon size I can deal with) group of people.
    keep in mind that right now we are not "fighting" anywhere and I don't see us "fighting" anywhere in the near future...

    you could end up spending 4 years standing in formations, cleaning weapons, getting rained on in a field op, and doing inspections


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