Questions on the Linguist MOS series.

Greetings Marines,

I have waded through all the information my googlefu and search button can provide, and I still have a few lingering questions. I look forward to Marine MSgtSki's responses in particular, as he seems to be answering most of the questions I have read in a rather concise manner. Of course, any response to this lowly wannabe is more than appreciated.

I want to serve my country, and I felt the best way was to become a marine. My recruiter said with my ASVAB score, he wants me to take the DLAB and become a crypto linguist. I was hoping to get right into it with the Recon, but if Uncle Sam needs me figuring out who is saying what when and where, that's what I'm going to do.

I have read from sources that most of the time you do not get any choice whatsoever in your language. This is fine with me, however I was hoping to choose Russian. I heard on occasion you get to make a 3 pick wishlist. Can anyone confirm or deny this recently?

I do not mind going overseas at all. My Mother and Father are concerned for my physical safety. Since I am no longer considering an Infantry position, their heart rate and blood pressure has probably decreased 80%. It's still a little above average, so is there any chance I can be sent to Afghanistan or Iraq? I would like to ease their troubled minds. (For a while, anyway, My intent is to become a Hostage Rescue Team member of the FBI afterward.)

I am aware that the U.S. Army Ranger School is still offered to a few marines from each batallion every few classes. Is there any way a non-combat MOS could get into Ranger School? I have done extensive searching, and I could find no inkling whatsoever on this particular question.

Thank you for reading and for all your service to our Country.

Unrelated postscript:
I can't seem to get my avatar to work. It gives me different errors if I try to host it, or upload from my comp. I have tried jpg, gif, resizing. That is all I could think of. Anyone have any idea if the upload server is down or something that actually makes sense cause I know nothing about the interwebs?

I can't help you with your MOS questions, but there does seem to be a problem with uploading pics, and I think they are working on it. Maybe you can PM one of the mods...thedrifter or jinelson...and ask for their help on this.
Also, make sure that Marine is always capitalized, and you may also want to read the site rules in the poolee and Ask A Marine forums if you already haven't.

No idea if you can pick a top 3, but chances are if you get Russian you'll be stationed at 3rd Radio Battalion and most of the time you'll be acting as a 2621.

Everyone can be sent to Afghanistan. If you're not a grunt or a grunt-related job, then you probably won't be doing patrols and such, but chances are good you'll still end up over there at least once. We're done with Iraq, at least for now.

Pretty sure only Recon gets sent to Ranger school, but I know that there's more than the traditional Recon... "Radio Recon" is made up of 26xx (Intel) and are still considered Recon (and can go to all the Recon schools, including Ranger school as far as I'm aware.)

Thank you for your response Marine WMarine, and I greatly apologize for failing to capitalize Marine twice. I even went through it three times to make sure I didn't typo.

I will go over the rules again with a fine tooth comb to assure there will be no more breaches of etiquette from here on out.

Apologies for the double post, the second reply was not there when I did.

Thank you for your informative reply Marine TinDragon. I will get more information on Radio Recon. Followup question: I understand that a Marine is a Rifleman first, but if I am a Crypto Linguist, what would I be doing on an Afghanistan Base perse?

I can't say for sure (the only linguists I've met were Korean or Russian) but I believe you'd be working with the 2621s in their collections. From what I UNDERSTAND (not know) crypto linguists are not the folks you always see portrayed on TV translating between the military and the locals. They're usually used to translate collected information. Look into what a 2621 does and a lot of that will be what a linguist will do as well. (I'd go more in depth into the "collection" thing but there's a line somewhere between freely available information and giving away classified info, and I suck at finding that line.)

Hopefully there's a linguist or another 26xx who can answer that followup question a hell of a lot better than I can.

When you get to DLI, part of your check in paper work will include a list of your top 3 picks for what language you want to learn, but the ultimate dicision is based on what classes have seats available and what languages the Marine Corps needs. Right now they are still scaling down the Russian program and focusing on more pressing languages (Pashtu, Dari, Urdu, Farsi) but I'm not saying you can't get Russian.

As

Sorry, my whole answer didn't post...

If you are stationed with a Radio BN (FMF) you will have the chance to run the Radio Recon Indoc and become a member of a Radio Recon team. The chance that you will be sent to Iraq is pretty slim, but you're almost guaranteed to deploy to Afghanistan or be sent on a MEU.

Ranger school is pretty much a no go due to the deployment cycle and training requirements of the BNs, but you may be able to get it as a re-enlistment incentive

Yes, you will most likely get a wishlist, but just like everyone has said before, it's ultimately the needs of the Marine Corps that comes first. I bet that you'd get some middle eastern language but Russian is not completely out of the question.

As a linguist you can get stationed at various different types of units, but for most you get sent to a radio battalion, which equals deploying. This would mostly likely be to somewhere in the middle east. If you know the language of the area you are at on deployment then you will most likely be a busy man. If your language is not that of the aforementioned then you would be doing any number of jobs depending on your skillset and rank, and if in Afghanistan you will do patrols/convoys just like every other Marine.

Radio Recon. Not very good at their intel job, not accepted as Recon (by Recon Marines). Yes in theory you would have access to all schools that Recon Marines have available to them. But, I've seen alot of Radio Recon dudes without jump wings. I imagine that if just getting to jump school is hard then you could kiss any dreams of going to ranger school good bye. But, you get what you work for in the Marines so yeah.

Like TinDragon said, there is a fine line that can't be crossed. If you want any information about stuff regarding 26xx MOS' I suggest researching on About.com or Wikipedia. Wikipedia actually has a very detailed description of everything you would want to know.

It's honestly just very difficult to give any for sure answer when it comes to the 26xx field because there are a lot of places where you could be doing a lot of different things. It's a wait-til-you-get-there type deal. I will say that I would not change anything if I had to do it all over again. The things I've done are the coolest things I will ever do in my lifetime.