0311 Job Questions

[PrimoG]

Good Evening Marines,

I'm currently in High School and the Marine Corps is my biggest motivation right now. The past two or three days, I've been watching American Sniper and all three of the Jarhead series. In American Sniper, I see Marines being sniped and dropped likes it's nothing. In Jarhead 3, Marines were dying left and right, Gunny got RPG'ed, and the Marines at the U.S Embassy almost got annihilated. Now when I was watching Marine Bootcamp and SOI videos, I thought of it as fun activities and I want to be there aswell to test myself. It was all fun and games to me. Shoot give me a patriotic song and I'll feel like I can go charging into fights. After watching those movies, I started taking my decision seriously and realized that people die doing this job and for a second I thought of not joining. But after a couple minutes of thinking, I know that I won't be able to live with myself if I didn't join. So I have a couple questions about an MOS that I really want to be in.

Just yesterday during school, It was my last day before Spring Break. I was watching Jarhead 3 and it brought me from having a great fun day to a serious think-about-what-you're-doing day. When I saw what those Marines went through, I thought to myself, "Would I have make back if I was in that situation." Now, I know that it's just a movie and that real combat is completely different than what they portray in the movies. But my question is. Will 0311 Marines see combat like or similar to the ones in Jarhead 3? For those who haven't seen the movie, I'll do my best to describe the combat. U.S Marines were patrolling a U.S Embassy stationed in the Middle East. The Embassy was attacked by a coordinated ambush. Hundreds of talibans started rushing into the Embassy and taking out Marines. That brings me to my other questions, Are there only Marines patrolling at an Embassy or do they have support from other branches? What do 0311s do on a day to day basis?

The only thing I'm worried about joining is "death." I'm sure this is everyone's biggest fear. I know if I want the lowest chance of dying I could join the Air Force but I'm not joining the military because I have to... I'm joining because I want to be a Marine. I know for a fact that my future self would not drop the ball and dip on my greatest goal. I'm just a little worried that I won't make it back and help take care of my family.

If you actually read all that I thank you for your time. If this in some way sound stupid or vague to you. Don't knuckle my head please. I just need some info to help get these concerns out of my head.

And to any Marine reading this, Thanks for all your blood and sweat defending the nation! Hope I'll be in your footprints one day.

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[crazymjb]

Infantry is a dangerous job. You can be maimed or killed in a far off land. The risks vary based off of and within the conflict, from minimal to extreme. You are offering to give everything you have should the need arise by joining any part of our armed forces, but particularly in the infantry.

Most Marines think the Jarhead spinoffs are stupid and have never seen them. If you want some good war movies to watch, check out full metal jacket, saving private ryan, we were soldiers, black hawk down, flags of our fathers, and the HBO series the Pacific, Band of Brothers, and generation kill. These will be a much more accurate depiction of actual conflicts than the garbage jarhead trash. There are plenty of good documentries out there as well, Restrepo comes to mind in particular.

Mike

[PrimoG]

After 30 minutes putting my thoughts together writing this thread and 4 hours after post... You're the only one that replied. I thank you for that.

I checked your profile and I see that you were a Machine Gunner. How many times did you see combat during your first deployment? I also plan on serving 4-years active/reserve so How many deployments do you think I'll get in those 4 years?

[Tennessee Top]

Movies can be a big motivator in one's desire to join and obviously, form the basis for one's perception about combat as well as military life in general. Navy enlistment soared after "Top Gun" with Tom Cruise hit the theaters. It romanticized life as a Naval Aviator but was totally Hollywood. When I joined back in 1972, John Wayne war movies were the best. Our DI's even took us to the base theater in San Diego one day to watch "Sands of Iwo Jima" starring John Wayne as a hard-nosed platoon sergeant. Of course, they never let us forget we didn't deserve the "favor" and we never saw the inside of the theater again.

Can't speak about life as a grunt because I was not one. But, I was an embassy Marine (twice) so can shed a little light on that topic. Marines are the only branch that provides security to our embassies overseas. We have been doing that job since December 15 1948. Embassy Marines are not just grunts and come from all MOS's to include 0311 (females are also on the program). Average size of an embassy detachment today is 8 Marines - one detachment commander and seven watchstanders. Primary mission of embassy Marines is the protection of State Department classified information. Secondary mission is the protection of State Department employees and facilities. Embassy duty consists of interior guard duty - Marines do not patrol outside nor guard an outside post/perimeter. They provide access control to enter the embassy building from the inside only. Currently, there are 125 embassy detachments posted to Foreign Service legations around the globe. Screening for the program is rigid, and the formal school in Quantico VA maintains a high attrition rate (the State Department also has a say in who graduates and serves on the program with them). Depending on the threat situation, and when requested by the State Department, an infantry platoon can be attached to the embassy to provide additional security (normally outside). This is the case now at our embassy in Baghdad Iraq. A platoon of infantry Marines assisted the embassy Marines last year when our embassy in Yemen was evacuated (those Marines were ordered to destroy all their weapons at the airport before boarding a civilian charter plane leaving the country - they did that with sledge hammers). One of the myriad missions of the Fleet Antiterrorism Security Team (FAST), an infantry unit, is to beef up embassy security and embassy evacuations. They also keep pirates from attacking American civilian shipping off the coast of Somalia. If this sounds like something you'd like to do as a grunt, talk to your recruiter about getting a contract for Security Forces. There are no contracts for embassy duty since you have to be a Lance Corporal just to be eligible to apply for the program.

Good luck.

[crazymjb]

Every deployment experience is unique. I did not see much combat. I had a lot of friends get hurt, literally something like 40 guys in my company were blown up, and 3 were shot. Fortunately none were killed, but that was luck. Most of the days consisted of driving around the desert and out of nowhere a truck would explode. Fortunately we had good equipment that saved Marines lives.

I have other friends who saw combat virtually non-stop their entire deployment and lost many, and others who were stuck on base security and even as grunts never "left the wire" so to speak their entire time over there.

Predicting how likely you are to deploy or what you are to see is virtually impossible. If this was 2006 or 2010 it would be much easier to say where you would end up. Iraq and Afghanistan are not as large an operation for Americans as they were 7-10 years ago. I don't expect to see American involvement to that scale overseas at least for the next decade or so, but I could be wrong.

As for your deployments, it's likely you'll go somewhere at least once, maybe twice, in 4 years. Most guys I know who did 4 years active duty deployed twice in those 4 years, but this was when the wars were raging. I know guys who did 3 deployments, and guys who did none. I would guess that it more likely than not would not be a combat deployment, but that is always subject to change. I know plenty of guys who re-enlisted after 4 years in peacetime, 9/11 happens, and they spend the better part of the next decade overseas. The world is an unpredictable place.

I'd second the security forces recommendation. In the current operational tempo, it will give you the opportunity to do something different for a little while prior to hitting the fleet. If you really wanted to go straight to war and it was 2007, I'd say skip it. Right now, I think it would be the best route to go.

Mike

[03GyRene]

There's really no way to know if you'll see combat or not. Plenty of guys on this forum have. I was an 0311 and trained for it, but as luck would have it, there wasn't much going on in the world when i was in and I never saw combat. That's the way it goes, the Marine Corps sends you where they need you. I will tell you this though, if you spend enough time and energy training to do something, you'll look forward to it. There's an old saying that came from the first world war....infantry is months of boredom punctuated by moments of shear terror. Whether you're in combat or not, infantry is a dangerous job, but so are a lot of jobs in the Corps. When I was in, a helicopter went down in the Philippines killing 23 Marines and a Navy Corpsman. There was a fire at Camp Fuji, a training camp in Japan, and 13 Marines were killed. I personally was in a CH46 helicopter that almost went down. Our company (Golf 2/3) was training in the Philippines once and a guy in another platoon fell while rapelling and mangled his face. Another time we were on a long hump with full gear and a guy had a heart attack (he was much older than the rest of us, he might have been 25 or 26) and plenty of other sh1t that happened in training. Just saying...sh1t happens. Sometimes the biggest thing you have to worry about is boredom...you may go weeks or months without firing your weapon, and as a junior Marine you may spend more time with a swab (mop) in your hand than a rifle. You have to keep yourself motivated. The movies never show the times between deployments when you get sent to Battalion Supply on a working party to count tent pegs or the late Thursday night field days. Your ass will belong to Uncle Sam though, 24x7. In 4 years of active duty as an 0311, you will get deployed, but it may not be combat.

Semper Fi

[Tennessee Top]

^^^perfect description of embassy duty too. Like I said, it's just interior guard duty. In other words "boring as hell". At least, that's what one hopes for. On guard duty, boring is a good thing - compared to the alternative. It's like playing right field in baseball. You may only catch one fly ball the entire game, you just never know at what point during the game that will be. During the 6 years I spent on embassy duty, 5 years and 11 months were eventless. There were a few times we were shot at, demonstrated against, and even had a voodoo hex put on us one day. Of course, all that depends on what post you're at. Some parts of the world are more dangerous than others. Just like with deployments, you go where the Marine Corps (and in this case, State Department) needs you most.

[03Mike]

Kevin – thanks for asking the question. It’s always good to get this stuff addressedup front.

First off – those dramas are exactly that, fictionalizedinterpretations designed to entertain and make money for the producers. They bear very little resemblance toreality.If they were to present a moviethat was a realistic account of life in the infantry or of combat it wouldeither be boring as hell, or would be so damn confusing that you had no ideawhat was going on.

The Marines above have provided a pretty good account ofMarine Security Guards and embassy duty, so I won’t go there. Daily life of an 03?Well, most of what you will be doing istraining to fight or doing a bunch of piddling little duties.

What does this entail?

Training will usually be in the field or a field expedientclassroom – cover small unit tactics and your individual role, talk through it,walk through it, run through it – again, again, again. Next scenario or skill, talk through it, walkthrough it, run through it – again, again, again.And so on.Once you have that to the point where you can do it with your eyesclosed, you’ll either change roles, or start learning the job of the Marineabove you.In a good unit, you’ll dothis until you are sick of it.You’ll doit in the daylight, you’ll do it at night, you’ll do it in the heat, you’ll doit in the cold, you’ll do it in the rain.You’ll do it when you’re tired, sleep deprived, hungry, sore – and soon.The idea is to master a skillthrough repetition, muscle memory, and a thorough understanding of your roleand the roles of those around you.

The other parts of training?

PT – and this will be everything from PFT type stuff in PTgear to long humps, terrain runs – limited only by your leadership’s imagination.

Waiting – yeah, unfortunately that’s part of it too.Waiting for transportation, waiting for “theword”, waiting for this or that.

Gear – cleaning and prepping gear. If your gear doesn’t work well, you don’tfight well.

The other side of it? That’s the “bunch of piddling little duties.”Cleaning (field day) anything and everything,working parties, inspections – all the “military” crap that has little bearingon being a grunt – but every MOS gets their share of this stuff.

A good unit / good leadership will maximize the trainingtime and minimize (but not eliminate) the other crap. Even in a combat zone you’ll find that you’restill training (or should be).

As far as risks – before my first deployment, I lost buddiesin a helicopter crash off of Camp Lejeune and I lost one to a car crash. As mentioned above - $hit happens.If you train well, and train hard, yourchances of survival are greatly increased.That being said, it’s a dangerous business involving very high riskbehavior – and that’s why most of us did it.

Good luck

[03Mike]

Kevin – thanks for asking the question. It’s always good to get this stuff addressed up front.

First off – those dramas are exactly that, fictionalized interpretations designed to entertain and make money for the producers. They bear very little resemblance to reality. If they were to present a movie that was a realistic account of life in the infantry or of combat it would either be boring as hell, or would be so damn confusing that you had no idea what was going on.

The Marines above have provided a pretty good account of Marine Security Guards and embassy duty, so I won’t go there. Daily life of an 03? Well, most of what you will be doing is training to fight or doing a bunch of piddling little duties.

What does this entail?

Training will usually be in the field or a field expedient classroom – cover small unit tactics and your individual role, talk through it,walk through it, run through it – again, again, again. Next scenario or skill, talk through it, walk through it, run through it – again, again, again. And so on. Once you have that to the point where you can do it with your eyes closed, you’ll either change roles, or start learning the job of the Marine above you. In a good unit, you’ll do this until you are sick of it. You’ll do it in the daylight, you’ll do it at night, you’ll do it in the heat, you’ll do it in the cold, you’ll do it in the rain. You’ll do it when you’re tired, sleep deprived, hungry, sore – and soon. The idea is to master a skill through repetition, muscle memory, and a thorough understanding of your role and the roles of those around you.

The other parts of training?

PT – and this will be everything from PFT type stuff in PT gear to long humps, terrain runs – limited only by your leadership’s imagination.

Waiting – yeah, unfortunately that’s part of it too. Waiting for transportation, waiting for “the word”, waiting for this or that.

Gear – cleaning and prepping gear. If your gear doesn’t work well, you don’tfight well.

The other side of it? That’s the “bunch of piddling little duties.” Cleaning (field day) anything and everything, working parties, inspections – all the “military” crap that has little bearing on being a grunt – but every MOS gets their share of this stuff.

A good unit / good leadership will maximize the training time and minimize (but not eliminate) the other crap. Even in a combat zone you’ll find that you’re still training (or should be).

As far as risks – before my first deployment, I lost buddies in a helicopter crash off of Camp Lejeune and I lost one to a car crash. As mentioned above - $hit happens. If you train well, and train hard, your chances of survival are greatly increased. That being said, it’s a dangerous business involving very high risk behavior – and that’s why most of us did it.

Good luck

[Pointmanactual]

That is way too hard of a question to answer because I think the reality of seeing combat is kind of rare..

It's all about right job, right place, right time, and right location. I was a mortarman in an 81mm mortar platoon, and we were "transformed" into a line company a month prior to deploying.

Long story short, our mortar platoon was split into half and ended up at the most kinetic AO's and we saw a lot of combat. Most of our line companies ended up at patrol bases that saw little to no combat.

So who knows? I'd say right now the odds of seeing combat is less likely than a MEU or UDP.

Your day to day life will probably consist of PT, weapons maintenance, and whatever training your squad leader feels like doing. Most of the space is filled with standing by for something..

-PointmanActual

[Tennessee Top]

Everything can change in a heartbeat today. The new president has committed conventional ground forces to Syria (grunts) and we have 300 grunts back in Afghanistan. There are Marines on the Russian border training with NATO troops. The nut job in North Korea is pushing his luck (Obama is not in office anymore) and the Iranians are not far behind him. Odds of seeing combat can skyrocket overnight - has happened before.

[crazymjb]

This is absolutely true. But this now becomes a political "what if" rather than a guaranteed eventuality as it was a few years back. If you don't want to be in combat, stay out of the infantry, and probably the USMC in general.

Mike