Active Duty Overseas and in the states

[SReed]

First off, Good Morning Marines. I did a search for "Active Duty" on this site, went through 10 pages of looking for the answers so just thought id post.
My recruiter said if all goes well I will ship to boot camp in March at the latest. I was wondering what active duty was like. I heard you get deployed to a base for a year or so, be it Iraq, Afghanistan or whatever. My question is after the deployment, do you automatically come back to the states and stay in the barracks until you deploy again? What do you do? School? MOS job? Can you go out on the town? After each deployment do you arrive back to the same state to the same barracks?Any advice from you Marines that have a few years in would be appreciated. You don't have to put everything, but just an overview of your life in the Corps. Thank you.. Sean

[zx6rdr]

www.marines.com


check it out... It will answer a lot of your questions............

[SReed]

www.marines.com


check it out... It will answer a lot of your questions............

I appreciate the response, and have been on the official site many times getting info. I was looking to get first hand accounts of what its like from the Marines on this site. So if you have time to share, I would enjoy reading about it.

[Lisa 23]

First it's boot camp, then home for a few days. Then you're off to SOI (School of Infantry) or MCT (Marine Combat Training), then to your MOS school, whatever that may be that you are signing up for or if you are going open contract. You get a wish list towards the end of your MOS school, and I believe nowadays, your wish list consists of either East coast or West coast. I think you come home for a few days again, then it's off to your first duty station where ever that may be, and you may or may not get deployed after your first duty station.

[USCFIGHTONUSC]

First off, Good Morning Marines. I did a search for "Active Duty" on this site, went through 10 pages of looking for the answers so just thought id post.
My recruiter said if all goes well I will ship to boot camp in March at the latest. I was wondering what active duty was like. I heard you get deployed to a base for a year or so, be it Iraq, Afghanistan or whatever. My question is after the deployment, do you automatically come back to the states and stay in the barracks until you deploy again? What do you do? School? MOS job? Can you go out on the town? After each deployment do you arrive back to the same state to the same barracks?Any advice from you Marines that have a few years in would be appreciated. You don't have to put everything, but just an overview of your life in the Corps. Thank you.. Sean

After your MOS school you get stationed at a base either in Japan or in the USA. While at this base you will work doing your job and you have a normal life once work is done. The hours will vary depending on your job and training schedule. Once work is done you are free to do as you please just like any civilian if you have no duties scheduled that evening.

You do not get stationed in Iraq or Afghanistan, you deploy there. This can last 7-12 months depending on your unit. Once you are done with deployment, you come back to your base and continue training just like you did before you deployed. Eventually you will deploy again and then come home again. Usually you come back to different barracks in the same general location.

During a time of conflict while in the USMC you will either be training or you will be in a combat zone. Not all deployments are to the middle east, so don't assume anything. IN four years you are guaranteed two deployments in most combat units. Some may do three.

If I knew your MOS it would be a bit easier to explain things to you.

[Qwarkeh]

I'd also like to mention that it doesn't matter what your MOS is, or if your unit is deploying. If another unit needs Marines, they will take them from other units! There's no such thing as "people in my MOS are too few in number/take too long to train so we won't leave the wire!"

[Melancon]

Usually when you deploy its 7 months but it can be longer as said before. When you aren't deployed you will be training, PTing or just working. For example, my MOS is 0651 Data Systems. I work @ HQ and deal with networking/computer issues.

[SReed]

Thank you so much Marines for the responses. USCFIGHT that was very informative, and I think that is pretty cool that you can have a life like a civilian, after the work/training etc.. is done. My recruiter transfered my army asvab score which was a 42( yea I know not very good, oh well, didnt make it passed 8th grade, but not worried about it at all) over to the Marine Corps. processing. The army waived that 20 grand in my face and boy did it look good. I knew I would hate myself once I got older for "selling out".. But **** it, im on the right track now. My recruiter is gonna bring up mos' that I can get with my score. And if I hate it, I don't care at all, i've worked tons of jobs I hated, and I wasn't even part of a Brotherhood with them.. So that doesn't matter. I want to get out of Iowa, see the world, experience new life, belong, I can go on. Sorry for rambling, i'm just pumped to do this.. Thank you Marines for all the feedback;-)