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  1. #1

    A little knowledge can never go too far.

    Good evening Ladies and Gents,

    My current situation is one I feel a few of us have experienced. I enlisted in '10 and did my four. Nearing the end of my enlistment I faced the choice of re-enlisting or not. At that point I greatly enjoyed most parts of being active duty but I was looking for a change. I deployed to Afghanistan with the only unit I had ever known, a UAV squadron, as a 1142 Gen Mech. It was, to my knowledge, a standard POG deployment, until about seven months in. I was placed on base defense because honestly my job was done by contractors and I never really had anything to do except check hours on generators and escort the TCN's on fuel runs. I truly never did my job, even in the rear. I worked on more humvees than I did anything else. We had a very small S4 so all the mechs ended up working together on most days. During the last months of the deployment however I worked as COG with contractors, an Arty unit, grunt unit and an element of a recon unit doing base defense. Now my job was simple. Occasionally checking on all the post, most having contractors in them, and working on the generators that powered the huge cameras on poles. In my down time I decided to stick around the grunts. I was always a tad bit jealous of those guys. I mean, who doesn't join the Marine Corps not wanting to go out and get in on the fight. These guys were going out on patrols all the time and my happy ass sat back in the rear, doing nothing. Luckily I had served a billet in the armory and had a slight love of crew served weapons. So my in with the guys before and after they went on patrols was helping mount and load weapons and equipment and then helping clean and break down things when they got back. Eventually we started going to the gym and playing spades together. I loved it and I even landed on a couple of convoys to go to the smaller FOBs and fix equipment which didn't necessarily get approved of or found out about by my command. We returned from deployment and I returned to my unit. I picked up corporal soon after and I was coming up on re-enlistment so I went to my career planner, stating I wanted in on the combat arms side, which all along was what I wanted to do in the first place but contracts and confusion lead to my status and MOS at the time. My career planner told me that I could do that but being from the infantry himself advised me that it was not wise to try and go 03 as an NCO. To make a long story longer, I decided to do the MARSOC pipeline and was preparing to attempt A&S. If I passed I'd re-enlist, if I failed I'd get out. I'd grown sour to my MOS and wanted a change. My father fell incredibly ill and I spent a lot of time on leave returning home to help. He got better but ran his own business of plaster repair and other physically intensive jobs so I changed my mind and decided to leave the Marines and move back to Georgia to help him until he got better. A year later I picked up sergeant in the inactive reserves, I didn't know that was a thing. I'm currently an EMT but I still run into missing being active duty and I figured, hey I'll go into the reserves, but I don't want to do my old job. Problem is, now I'm a Sgt, hoping to go into an MOS that is either combat arms or more directly related to combat arms that I'll have no true knowledge of and off the bat will have zero respect from any if not all the junior marines in that MOS. I don't have a CAR or any outstanding awards, and other than 1st class PFTs and Expert rifle quals I was a rather unremarkable, average Marine. I guess what I'm asking is how do the reservist here like it, and what are peoples feelings on a retrain NCO coming into their MOS that requires a large sum of knowledge, respect and cohesion of the unit to get the job done. Also the only units around me are a couple of infantry units, a recon unit and a rocket battery in Alabama, a recon unit in Georgia, and a LAR unit in south carolina. In other news I also broke my leg and dislocated an ankle playing rugby last fall so I do have hardware in my leg. Any responses would be appreciated.
    Semper Fi

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  2. #2
    Quote Originally Posted by voodook9 View Post
    I don't have a CAR or any outstanding awards, and other than 1st class PFTs and Expert rifle quals 1) I was a rather unremarkable, average Marine. I guess what I'm asking is 2) how do the reservist here like it, and what are peoples feelings on a retrain NCO coming into their MOS that requires a large sum of knowledge, respect and cohesion of the unit to get the job done. Also the only units around me are a couple of infantry units, a recon unit and a rocket battery in Alabama, a recon unit in Georgia, and a LAR unit in outh carolina. 3) In other news I also broke my leg and dislocated an ankle playing rugby last fall so I do have hardware in my leg. 4) Any responses would be appreciated.
    Semper Fi
    I'll give you a bump...

    1) However you assess your active duty performance on a personal level....one thing is sure....you joined, did your job and gave the feds a blank check for your time of enlistment and I presume you got an Honorable Discharge.

    2) There are several reservists here who will likely chime in with some guidance.

    3) Would you even be able to get back in with that injury?...I don't know.

    4) I'm just 'any response'....good luck.

    Carry on....


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