Ft. Leonard Wood, MO

[srinaldo86]

Good afternoon Marines!

I'm heading there right now straight from MCT. Should be arriving in St. Louis at about 2230hrs and Ft. Leonard Wood at about 0030.
Got a couple questions about how my travel will work and how much freedom I have. I'm not suppose to check in until 1630 tomorrow (Wed. 25th) and I'd like to have some time with my boys from MCT to live it up a little bit but I dont want to be to far away from the base so whats the best way to arrange a hotel near base?
Will a bus be taking me straight to check in at that time of the morning or what?
I obviously dont want a hotel in St. Louis being 2 or 3 hours away but I dont want to be stuck in the barracks either.

Suggestions?

MCT was a lot of fun for anyone who is curious, its some good training but the 'recruit treatment' is still there mainly for the stupid ones. Its a bit like 4th phase boot camp depending on your combat instructors it can be A LOT like boot camp, i got lucky with some great instructors however.


Thanks for the help, God bless.

Pvt. Rinaldo

[SGT VAS]

I might be mistaken but I thought that base was fairly close to the airport. If that is the case, you have a lot of hotels to choose from and abundant Airport Taxis that can take you to the gate.

Someone let me know if my geography is correct.

[giveen]

I know when I got to my base I checked in with the base (not with my unit), since it was a Friday, and they hooked me up with a temp barracks room to stay in.

I would look into that, so that you dont have to shell out money.

[Ingle]

Welcome to Hell, No kidding but I am there, I am a MP. The airport it 2 hours south of STL airport. I would check in as soon as you can. What is your MOS devil dog? If your an MP be ready to sit around alot and be bored. We get to this classroom building 1702 at 0615 and we sit there until 1630 doing nothing. we PT evercouple days, we have liberty at night and off base on weekends.. if you stay out of trouble you will be fine. There isnt alot to do, ALot of bars and tattoo parlors.

Im home on PTAD (recruiters assistance), its hard to get, Just stay clean and use your time wisely to workout and stay in shape...

im about to be promoted to e3,.. chances are you could be waiting there long enought to pick up another grade....

[TTX]

I think you better get there early and rest. They have a shuttle bus from S.Louis airport to the base but they run according to their schedule. If you miss the shuttle bus, you will have to catch the taxi or greyhound or single eng. prop..

Catching the taxi is more expensive and the greyhound is taking more longer because of stops over. Also depending on your arrival time you might have to weight for hours for the shuttle bus.

I was there for engineer advance course back in 99. we missed the morning shuttle and we decided to catch the greyhound and not to wait for the evening schedule. after 3 months there, I flew out on a single eng. prop. to S. Louis airport and it was not a pleasant experience.

Things might have changed now since I was there 10yrs ago. You might want to PM Ingle for contact information on shuttle schedules and prepare for your trip.

[commdog7]

A bus will most likely take you were you need to go. Just pray that your bus driver doesn't get lost along the way like mine did or you can kiss you libo goodbye!

[srinaldo86]

My MOS is MP 5811.
My plan or thoughts at the moment are land in St. Louis, wait for the shuttle to take me to Ft. Leonard Wood then once I arrive call a taxi to take me (and some friends) to a hotel. That way we can have some time off before we have to check in and sleep a little bit.
I'm not sure what the procedure is after we check in, obviously they place us in the barracks but are we automatically on libo until further notice or what? I don't care if I got out partying or anything like that really but I'd like to catch up on some sleep if possible. I still have the recruit mentality of being told what I'm allowed to do and when to do it. I'm not sure what to do without being told what to do.
Right now most of the Marines I am traveling with are sitting at a bar getting trashed before our last flight to St. Louis. I dont want to be put into a position where I'm drunk and unable to report in as needed or be so far away from the base that I cant make it in time like they may have an issue with.

Sorry for the rambeling, sleep depervation and mass amounts of energy drinks dont make for a very clear thought process.

[srinaldo86]

What I'm being told now is that when I arrive in St. Louis at 2230 I will have to wait at the USO until 2400 to catch the shuttle which would put me at Ft. Leonard Wood at about 0200. My question is will I have to be up and ready at reveille?

[Ingle]

you willnot go to sleep.. you must be east coast mct..

You have on base liberty at nights except on wensday night its field night and you have to clean your barracks.. the first weekend you cant leave base.. you earn your liberty as your there longer. You will be placed in a Matt platoon until you pick up, Like i said i got there on feb 25th and im still in Matt. We sit in a classroom and read books, your not supose to have your cell phone in the class ( wink). Its not so bad here, keep your head on straight. we go on liberty at 1630 at night, i go straight to gym, workout go back to my room and shower and watch movies until around 9.. then i go to bed. Be prepared to run alot, they usually run 7-9 miles every three days.... MP'S are held to a high standard.. in a few weeks you can try and request ptad(recruiters aid) but you have to have a legitimate reason to go home..

There are two gyms here..

Specter, which is smaller but still nice and then there is Davidson which is a large gym with alot of great machines, a track, basketball court, raquetball, and woman lmao..

USE THEM. dont get fat.. lol

ANother piece of advice, stay away from the ARMY girls, They will just get you in trouble. My good friend has already recieved an NJP in his career and he just got pfc and is already broke down. Sodemy is instant NJP, getting caught with an army girl is bad news. the duty nco will make your week miserable thats for sure. Just stay focuses devil dog on what your there for, to train. Our school was extended to 10.5 weeks long...

Ill be back to Ft Lost in the woods on April 20th, well have to meet up and keep you motivated...

[MPMOM]

hey just wanted to say hi to all of you, nice to see some other Marines in FLW. My son is also there as a MP instructor lol.

[MLMonk]

I'm at Ft Leonard Wood right now as a 3531-3536. Your going to be in the squadbays the 1st night or 2 then you'll move to the barracks with the other MPs. You won't be able to get a hotel like I did because there is no chance right now a snowstorm is comming and the base would be shut down. Make sure your cammies are ontop of the seabag. Because its almost just like MCT, but at your pace once you find a rack.

And didn't I tell you this before you went to MCT? If your the same guy with SSgt Ramirez as a DI.

[Wyoming]

hey just wanted to say hi to all of you, nice to see some other Marines in FLW. My son is also there as a MP instructor lol.

I love it. wink/wink

Small Corps it is boys.


All your posturing etc., is now an open book.


The Sgt MP instructor is reading and enjoying this post.

[srinaldo86]

UPDATE: All the Marines that I came with and myself are at a hotel (The Hilton) having a good time kicking back and drinking a couple cold ones. Except for the under agers of course (wink). We're having a good time and behaving. We'll be leaving here no later than 1300 tomorrow to report in to Ft. Leonard Wood and await our training.

A lot of the motor transport Marines are reading this with me and are curious if anyone knows how long their training will be backed up. Anyone know for sure?

[Achped]

Haha, Missouri.

I remember one of my buddies got orders to Missouri, the instructor wasn't calling out bases unless it was Lejeune or Pendleton, just places.

He said "Blah blah blah, you're going to Okinawa, blah blah, you're going to Lejeune, Achped, you're going to Hawaii. (At which point I kicked off my boots, put on a pair of shades and bought a ukelele)...Martinez...you're going to Missouri."

At which point PFC Martinez screams out, "OH GOD MY MOMS GONNA KILL ME. I DIDNT PICK OVERSEAS!!!!"

The whole class is laughing then his boy tries to reassure him with "BRO, BRO! MISSOURI IS IN CANADA! Its not that far!!!"

They were talking for like a full minute before one of the Sgts in the class finally just couldnt hold it in anymore and called him a dumbass and told him Missouri was next to Kansas in the middle of the country lol.

[JWDevilDog]

"OH GOD MY MOMS GONNA KILL ME. I DIDNT PICK OVERSEAS!!!!"

The whole class is laughing then his boy tries to reassure him with "BRO, BRO! MISSOURI IS IN CANADA! Its not that far!!!"

They were talking for like a full minute before one of the Sgts in the class finally just couldnt hold it in anymore and called him a dumbass and told him Missouri was next to Kansas in the middle of the country lol.

Hahahahah that's priceless...... Wow....