Car on Base

[shark6485]

Is it a good idea to buy a car when you get to your duty station? Do most Marines have them and what are the advantages/disavantages to owning one?

[Echo_Four_Bravo]

Yes, you will want a car. Most Marines on the east coast have them, and many on the west do as well. One advantage to Pendleton is the public transportation available. You will be able to function without a vehicle if you must. On the east coast, that isn't really an option. I am pretty sure you know the advantages to having a car. The downside is that someone needs to look after it and start it from time to time when you are deployed. Since most of your friends will be in your unit, they will be gone as well. The answer is find someone in another unit you trust with your car, or make friends with a married Marine and let his wife (or her husband if that is the case) look after it while you're gone.

[top1371]

First I would shamefully say, never trust anyone, not anyone with your car. It will be beat to death or sold by the time you return. Seen it happen to many Marines.

You need a car. A few examples. If you are at Pendleton, you can ride the bus if you want to go out in town, but what if you want to go to the PX? I guess you can walk a mile or two each way in the heat if you like to do that in your civies. And you don't always work where you live. Several times my barracks was a mile or more from the company, not fun to walk. I don't mind to hump, when it is a hump, I just don't like to walk everywhere in the sun. At LeJeune, you it is the same and I couldn't imagine having to carry uniforms back from the cleaners.

And as you go up in rank, you may have to go to meeting across base. They do not have enough vehicles to give everyone rides to meetings. That is years from now, but food for thought.

Lastly, if you get a car, be smart. don't drink and drive (ok you heard it from me right here and now, you have been warned).

Semper Fi,

Top

[Echo_Four_Bravo]

So, now that we have had the drinking and driving brief, are we secured to lobbo Top?
Really, it is easy enough to grasp, but too many Marines screw up and think they can get away with drinking and driving. You may not get caught, but the chances aren't good. Just don't do it.

[Sixguns]

Let's worry about getting into the DEP, shipping to training, graduating recruit training, completing MOS school and getting your first set of orders to a base or unit before you start worrying about a car. I appreciate your desire to get this answer, but the real truth is there are many challenges that you must face and overcome before you start worrying about driving around base or to a duty station. Many schools do not allow military students to have POVs (privately owned vehicles) on base. Also, in order to get a decal on most installations now, you must have completed a drivers' safety course/instruction in order to operate a vehicle on base. To say you are putting the cart before the horse, is an understatement.




SIXGUNS