Let's begin afresh.
I became a Marine pretty much by chance. I was drafted, was informed of my 'choice', and got off the bus in Parris Island about eight hours later. I had no preconceived ideas, was mildly surprised, and figured I was in, so I might s well make the best of it.
I won't go into the PI process, the pecking order, or 'how I became a man'. It happened.
I had no idea how fortunate I was until I needed to have someone watching my back on the two-way range. Marines do that very well.
As for derision about every Marine being a rifleman, I was an Engineer, and there was never an Infantryman in sight when I was in the middle of the Incoming. That about answers that question, for me at least. I am plenty proud enough of 'my war'; enough so that I hold no particular MOS in higher esteem than the one I held.
That's not because my MOS was any 'better' than any other, but because the USMC's occupational selection process works damned well. I got what The Corps needed me to be, and something I had some genuine aptitude to excel in and enjoy doing. I was never, ever going to be considered for anything as glorious as SS or even Infantry. A 'real Marine' is not any special MOS. A 'real Marine' is a specialist, part of a team, and proud to be a useful part of that team.
I expect a successful SS selectee to be a Veteran of a completed first enlistment in a Combat Arms specialty, an NCO on their first reenlistment with a proven track record in small unit leadership, and happy enough with the life to have perfect or near perfect Pro/Cons. Gripers need not hold out their hopes.
I suspect that a rather huge proportion of enlistee prospects have their hearts hung firmly on the Marine SS role. Clearly, obviously, the major majority of them are never going to do the deed. The only real difference is what they are going to do when this basic fact sinks into their brain housing groups. A 'real Marine' will do as they are assigned, make an honest effort to do it well and enjoy it, and move on with their enlistment and their life.
If being a Marine is not more important to them than 'getting the job they wanted', they shouldn't be a Marine in the first place.
Individualists don't do well, and shouldn't be in The Corps.
That is something for Officers, and not for us enlisted Pogues.
Conversely, a Marine Officer is universally trusted by the enlisted ranks because they know that the same Officer, as a candidate, had to go through the same PI experience as all of them. The Marine SS MOS is purposely excluded from Officers, for very good and logical reasons.
Greg
I became a Marine pretty much by chance. I was drafted, was informed of my 'choice', and got off the bus in Parris Island about eight hours later. I had no preconceived ideas, was mildly surprised, and figured I was in, so I might s well make the best of it.
I won't go into the PI process, the pecking order, or 'how I became a man'. It happened.
I had no idea how fortunate I was until I needed to have someone watching my back on the two-way range. Marines do that very well.
As for derision about every Marine being a rifleman, I was an Engineer, and there was never an Infantryman in sight when I was in the middle of the Incoming. That about answers that question, for me at least. I am plenty proud enough of 'my war'; enough so that I hold no particular MOS in higher esteem than the one I held.
That's not because my MOS was any 'better' than any other, but because the USMC's occupational selection process works damned well. I got what The Corps needed me to be, and something I had some genuine aptitude to excel in and enjoy doing. I was never, ever going to be considered for anything as glorious as SS or even Infantry. A 'real Marine' is not any special MOS. A 'real Marine' is a specialist, part of a team, and proud to be a useful part of that team.
I expect a successful SS selectee to be a Veteran of a completed first enlistment in a Combat Arms specialty, an NCO on their first reenlistment with a proven track record in small unit leadership, and happy enough with the life to have perfect or near perfect Pro/Cons. Gripers need not hold out their hopes.
I suspect that a rather huge proportion of enlistee prospects have their hearts hung firmly on the Marine SS role. Clearly, obviously, the major majority of them are never going to do the deed. The only real difference is what they are going to do when this basic fact sinks into their brain housing groups. A 'real Marine' will do as they are assigned, make an honest effort to do it well and enjoy it, and move on with their enlistment and their life.
If being a Marine is not more important to them than 'getting the job they wanted', they shouldn't be a Marine in the first place.
Individualists don't do well, and shouldn't be in The Corps.
That is something for Officers, and not for us enlisted Pogues.
Conversely, a Marine Officer is universally trusted by the enlisted ranks because they know that the same Officer, as a candidate, had to go through the same PI experience as all of them. The Marine SS MOS is purposely excluded from Officers, for very good and logical reasons.
Greg
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What gives? My jobs just not cool enough I guess....
