Thinking of Joining Marine Corps Reserve

Too old wrote:

He's too old. The mental torture break alot of tough guys that age. I've seen B-Ball hot shots, wrestlers, MMA broken by the DIs. You have to be young. 16-19 year old is the best age. By the time someone is 25 they don't have what it takes anymore. Riddick Bowe washed out of the Marines. Running is a selfish physical activity. The Marines need aggressive, brutal, tortuous, chicken-shit, ass kicking, SOBs to fill their ranks, and they won't keep anyone who isn't already that way or doesn't become like that for them.

I don't think he's too old. I think the real problem is that he's always looked away, to the stars, to adventure. He never really paid any attention to where he was.

Ex-Recon wrote:

You are so full of crap. You were not a marine DB !!!

HOW IS THE MARINES? HOPE YOU ARE WARM, WELL FED, AND SAFE.

unsure wrote:

I'm strongly considering joining the marine reserves. The problem is, time is running out for me. The age limit to enlist is 29, I am 25.

In a few months, I will have seven years of school (lots of debt) and a clinical doctorate degree. I would like to work for about a year and then enlist.

I am enlisting because I feel I will regret not serving my country later in life. I think that every able bodied man should be required to enlist and just want to do my part. I am OK with the possibility of going to war.

Has anybody here served with any branch of the reserve services? How much did basic training affect your position at your civilian job? How draining was the one weekend/month commitment over time?

All input is greatly appreciated.

You are not old, consider OCS since you have a degree. Good luck

Why not just smack your forehaed against a concrete wall 100 times a day for the rest of your life? If you are 25 then you have lived nearly 1/2 of the useful age range (16-35) needed by the jarhead medieval cultists. Not to mention the jarheads will smack your skull so hard each week the concussions will accumulate into CTE thereby greatly shortening your quality of life (read: dementia).

unsure wrote:

I'm strongly considering joining the marine reserves. The problem is, time is running out for me. The age limit to enlist is 29, I am 25.

In a few months, I will have seven years of school (lots of debt) and a clinical doctorate degree. I would like to work for about a year and then enlist.

I am enlisting because I feel I will regret not serving my country later in life. I think that every able bodied man should be required to enlist and just want to do my part. I am OK with the possibility of going to war.

Has anybody here served with any branch of the reserve services? How much did basic training affect your position at your civilian job? How draining was the one weekend/month commitment over time?

All input is greatly appreciated.

There was a time when I believed that military service should be compulsory. It's too bad that many school districts did away with AFROTC. I took the ASVABs and signed my contracts when I was 16. I chose the Army National Guard. BT when I was 17 in the summer before my Senior year.

Graduated HS did my MOS. Got a Hon DC. Seriously, I wish I was more mature and made a career out of the military as I would've retired last year. So to the Original Poster, "reserves" versus "career" presents an issue, because you could be lured into a lucrative military career depending on your motivation. Lots of good comments, I think the OCR would be a wise solution.

Any of you millennials considering the military shouldn't be dissuaded by war --- there will be no more beach storming, as the game of war has changed for the better. But after reading the original posters' motive,

OP: "But I still have this yearning and curiosity to be a part of military society and to have no regrets about not serving when I get older."

Good luck with your decision. "Let your conscious be your guide."

I admire the Marines. Thank you for your service.

In 92 san diego, we had a recruit in my platoon that was 38. He had an age waiver to get in. did great. My grandfather told me in 1942 they had ages 18 up to 53 in his platoon.

I spent 8 years on active duty, then got off active duty and went into the reserves.

I made sure that I went to an active reserve unit that was located on an active duty post.

I never thought I would retire out of it.

It was more than one weekend a month and several times, I was ready to hang it up.

I was always told to "don't quit", just keep going.

And I did.

The day I got my 20 year letter, I was GONE.

And Im glad that I stuck it out.

I turned 60 last September and got my first retirement check.

It is great.

I was lucky though. I never had to do what you young guys have to go through.

I was in from 1974 to 1999.

Our military in the future will be sent to places it has no business being.

Hopefully, our leaders will fight this.

But beware. If you do reach the point that you get your 20-year letter.

Man, its great.

The 20 year pension will be gone for new enlistees starting January 2018.

Alan

He wont make wrote:

Boot camp is a gang war w/o ammunition. I don't think he would make it out of boot camp. Once the DIs find out he has a doctorate they'll take turns at punching the side of his head each day. Semper Fi.

I joined the Marine Reserve at age 18 after flunking out of Harvard in 1958. I faced constant harassment from the DIs, plus more rigorous physical training than I got even from the legendary Harvard track coach Bill McCurdy (when later readmitted to the college). All of this helped me grow up, gave me a more realistic view of life, and improved my ability to face physical challenges, from prolonged underwater jousting to long distance running. In the Marines, I had some of the most unforgettable races of my life (17:27 5K with battlepack); you will have lots of chances for physical competition and stress.

You, though, at age 25, with all your education, should join through an officers program. It will give you more valuable experience than any graduate school.

After HS graduation in 1968 my three friends and I joined the Marines and two of us got kicked out of MCRD Parris Island and was transferred to the Army. At Parris Island the sergeant beat me badly and broke my arm, and it did not heal well. After showing up at the Army Basic, the doctors broke it again to set it correctly, and that meant another 2 months in Basic Training. The Army has lots of food to eat. I like that.

You are better off in a career with any one of thousands of federal, state, county, and local Emergency Responder military branches and agencies. We need you and appreciate your desire to serve America.

That's cool. It's easy now that girls train with boys.

Does the USMC allow you to use the bathroom, dorm, and performance standards of the gender which one self identifies with? Those male standards seem kinda harsh plus the risk of actual combat!!

Do it

don't regret it

Under 20 is the prime age for Marine Recruits. 16-18 is optimum. If you are 20 or over you would do best in the conventional Armed Services or Civilian Emergency Response Agencies.

Hey man

Gabriel Gonzales wrote:

It was definitely tough. 3 months of DI's trying to break you. but what is amazing is half-way through you start to change. and the recruits you once hated are now your brothers.

Why do ex-marines think this artificially-imposed tribal identity is a good thing? Even when they understand it was all deliberate mind-conditioning. No, they're not your brothers, most of them aren't even remotely related to you.

Are there any who have outgrown this? Is "semper fidelis" part of the trick, to stop them from trying?

Bad Wigins wrote:

Gabriel Gonzales wrote:

It was definitely tough. 3 months of DI's trying to break you. but what is amazing is half-way through you start to change. and the recruits you once hated are now your brothers.

Why do ex-marines think this artificially-imposed tribal identity is a good thing? Even when they understand it was all deliberate mind-conditioning. No, they're not your brothers, most of them aren't even remotely related to you.

Are there any who have outgrown this? Is "semper fidelis" part of the trick, to stop them from trying?

It's the same way in the Army. I think it is partially to do with shared experiences and shared stress.

I have served in 4 different units and 5 different installations over the last 7 years. I've "worked with" approximately 800 different soldiers in the time, and that's only including the soldiers in my company that I see on a day to day basis and have some sort of interaction with. So over the course of 20 years of this you don't develop strong work relationships with people because you're only working with those guys for maybe 2-3 years at a time. So the commonality becomes an ideal, a set of values, a certain mindset. If you've been deployed then that bond with fellow soldiers, especially those who have deployed, strengthens.

Alan