Active Duty Life & 02xx Job

[HunterWPIChE]

I will be graduating college in a year from now (December, '09) and hoping to enlist and ship to boot camp some time in early 2010. I have not made a decision about whether I would prefer to go Active or Reserve.

The reasons I would like to join the Marine Corps are, in order:
1) To do service for my Country; to Protect and Defend Her,
2) To learn Discipline in my life,
3) To become a part of a Brotherhood.
4) To learn actual military skills (so that I may live up to the Second Amendment of the Bill of Rights)

Now that you know why I want to join the Marine Corps, I will ask you my questions, detailing why I am looking for the information.

1) What is a typical day like for an Active Duty Marine while not deployed? In a time such as this I understand completely that Active or Reserve, I will be deployed; thus, the main difference between one and the other is what one does while not deployed. Possible MOS fields include Intelligence and Infantry.

2) What units have 02xx jobs? I am interested in the 02 (Intelligence) MOS Field. I have looked at the Marine Corp Reserve Units Map , and I am still unsure as to what units 02xx reservists are attached. I ask this so that I may determine where I will live after I graduate college (and if I chose the Reserve route). Currently I live in the suburbs of New York City in NY.

Those are my questions, the first rather broad, and the second rather specific.

I first looked into joining the Marine Corps after high school and each summer since then I have been a hairsbreadth from doing so. I await a time when I will test myself and hopefully count myself among you.

I really appreciate the great resource that this Site represents. Thank you in advance for your responses, and if you have any questions of me I will gladly respond.

[slider1578]

Answer for question 1, wake up, pt, chow, work, lunch, work, off. repeat. Infantry side of the house... go to work monday, and stay in the field. No one day is really going to be the same in the infantry. Somedays you'll be in the field, other days you'll just go to work and PT and call it a day, or have an admin day where you do paperwork. Also in the infantry you'll have more opportunities for special duties than some other MOSs. Example would be FAST, Presidential Support Duty, CIBRT, Camp David, and some other opportunites. As a grunt, things will always be different, unlike in the Intel field where you'll more than likely work normal office hours, and pt then call it a day.

For your second question you can be assigned to one of the intel battalions, I know a could guys work up at Ft. Meade/NSA, the Pentagon. It would really depend on what your actual MOS is in the 02 field.

Since you're completing your degree soon, have you looked in the the officer programs? If not I highly suggest that you do that. You can still be in the 02xx or 03xx fields but you'll be in charge and making more money. Plus the Marine Corps can help pay back some of your student loans if you have them.

[0231Marine]

Seriously, you need to look at becoming an officer rather than enlisted if you're going to wait until after you have your degree. I would highly recommend you check into that.

Now, slider has hit it on the head with question #1.

He's half right on #2 though. As an enlisted Marine fresh out of school in the 0231/61 field, there are limited spots for where you can go. The ones off the top of my head are, an infantry battalion, an arty battalion, any division, any wing element, any intelligence battalion, any regiment and any MHG. All of these units have their own S-2 shops. When it comes time for you to re-enlist, you'll have more options to include, MCIA at Quantico, DIA, the Pentegon, an instructor at the school in Virginia Beach, Joint Command like SOCOM, MARSOC and a few others.

If you have any more specific questins regarding the 02 field, you can pm me or post it in here for everyone else to chime in on.