Honor Graduate

[Rantoon]

Good Evening Marines,

My recruiter tells me that he thinks I have an excellent shot at honor grad, and that I should try to go for that when I get to Recruit Training.

Do you Marines have any advice, and do's/dont's that I should be aware in attempting to make platoon guide, and hopefully honor grad.

I'm not in it as a cutthroat individual, I want to motivate my platoon to be the best platoon across the board if possible, and I had worked with an OSO team since 2010 attempting to be an Officer before deciding to enlist, so I believe I am cut out to be a leader. My age and college degree will be beneficial to me being platoon guide I've been told.

Anything else that you Marines can add is appreciated.

Thank you.

[Tennessee Top]

Guides and squad leaders get fired all the time (for myriad reasons - including the DI got up on the wrong side of the rack that day). Getting one of those leadership positions is not the hard part - keeping it is.

Besides holding a leadership position, the obvious answer is a 300 PFT/CFT, high scores on the written/practical application exams, and high shooter on the range.

Being a college grad, they may make you the platoon scribe instead of guide. That's not considered a leadership position but can be a positive if you do a good job.

[crazymjb]

You should have PFC out the gate due to your college credits which is good. If you were company honor grad it would be feasible to get LCpl.

Remember, DRILL instructors care about predominately one thing, and that's drill. Our guide wasn't a particularly good leader in my opinion, but man could he drill (to include rifle spin drill a la 8th and I), he kept the position for all but half of one day. The squad leaders were really the ones to keep the platoon motivated.

You probably won't be the only guy down there with a college degree. My buddy is there right now after graduating this spring, and he seems pretty miserable... which I of course am thrilled about.

Be in excellent shape, and practice drill and rifle manual with someone who knows what they are doing, like a local JROTC instructor.

Personally, it wouldn't be worth the extra headache to me to bust my ass like that in boot camp, where you already will be pretty broke off and burnt out.

Mike

[Tennessee Top]

The thing of it is though - the guide doesn't even do the manual of arms with the rifle...he stands there holding/marching with the guideon!