OT: Revisited Diesel Mechanics and Math Question (Marines)

Wow! Thank you all who replied to my original post. Overwhelming! Thank you for taking the time to share such detailed information from your life experinces. I appreciated everyone's replies - just had a busy weekend and got too far behind to reply to everyone.

A few clarifications here. My son is not enlisting in the Marines to become a diesel mechanic... he is enlisting because he really WANTS to be a part of the US Marine Corps. The diesel mechanic part of it is simply because he does have to select an MOS (and he expects to undertake additional schooling for it).

Son is a good student - usually on the honor roll (he scored 80 on his ASVABS). [A friend of son's was here last night - who is also enlisted - this young man mentioned that he had scored 45 on ASVABS... recruiters said he had to retake the test and the young man got a 46 the second time around...so feel really good that our boy did real well.]


A few thanks that pop to mind right now...
Old Tanker, thanks for summarizing all the replies.

Guido - thanks for again for serving (did not know that one could ever have been drafted without being a cititzen - interesting fact).

Tom in TN and many others whom I may have missed... THANK YOU ALSO for serving and for your replies.

I will not try to talk your son out of joining the Marines. I do think the next decade is not going to be a good time to be in the service. The budget cutting is going to be bad. Some young men and women will pay for that with their lives. They will be some where and be unprepared because of money issues. I have seen it happen too many times. I got out when Carter did it in the 1970s. Men lost their lives because of bean counter mistakes. The book keepers just get to make a correction in their work, the man fighting just gets killed.

The Marines can make a better man out of him or he can get nothing out of it. It all is what you do when you get there. If he joins the wrong, party hard, living fast, unit then he will not learn much but how to drink and raise he!!.

As for his MOS. I still think diesel anything in the service will not be much of a career advancement in civilian life. The bigger demand will be for all things electronic. Not hardware but the systems, programing and networking. The hardware is all over seas anyway now. A lot of the programing is too but the networking and system maintenance is in demand.

If he scored that high then he needs to be looking at something better than a blue collar job/career. The wage difference is just going to keep widening.

(quoted from post at 12:17:51 06/10/12) I will not try to talk your son out of joining the Marines. I do think the next decade is not going to be a good time to be in the service. The budget cutting is going to be bad. Some young men and women will pay for that with their lives. They will be some where and be unprepared because of money issues. I have seen it happen too many times. I got out when Carter did it in the 1970s. Men lost their lives because of bean counter mistakes. The book keepers just get to make a correction in their work, the man fighting just gets killed.

The Marines can make a better man out of him or he can get nothing out of it. It all is what you do when you get there. If he joins the wrong, party hard, living fast, unit then he will not learn much but how to drink and raise he!!.

As for his MOS. I still think diesel anything in the service will not be much of a career advancement in civilian life. The bigger demand will be for all things electronic. Not hardware but the systems, programing and networking. The hardware is all over seas anyway now. A lot of the programing is too but the networking and system maintenance is in demand.

If he scored that high then he needs to be looking at something better than a blue collar job/career. The wage difference is just going to keep widening.

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JD pretty much has it right on the money. History really repeats itself.....a LOT when it comes to the USA and military preparedness! For example, 7 Dec 1941, the Army including guard and reserves was about 600,000. in late 1944 it was over 4,900,000. We were not ready then because of the bean counters. in may of 1950 it was at about 590,000 active but raised to over 1,200,000 before the Korea war ened with truce. Again money was the primary concern.

In the late 70's to the mid 80's we did not do much in the way of training becuase of money and for most soldiers even basic marksmanship was down graded. The old standard was to qualify with your personal weapon twice a year with quartly ranges just for practice to qualify once a year with a total of 50 rounds per man authorized for the entire year. Right now with us still in Astan training is pretty good. But wait until we pull out.....training will go to heck again. Seems special spending and social programs are much more important than defence when there is no war on. And the service member pays for it when the stuff hits the fan again. I loved serving and really enjoyed my tanks but I have little reguard for the politicians because of what they allow to happen to the military just so they can buy votes with tax dollars.

I don't think your son will suffer from serving one bit and may actually help him out in the long run.

I wish him every success!

Rick

If his goal was to become a mechanic I would advise joining the Air Force, in the Air Force he would spend more time pulling wrenches and less guarding helicopters or other military tasks. In the Air Force time in Tech School and career development courses will apply to an associate degree from the Community College of the Air Force. This is not meant to be a put down of the Marine Corps, the Marines I served with and worked with were all professionals and Marines first, a helicopter tech, track vehicle mechanic, Aircraft Crew Chief or Ordinance tech second. I am ex- Air Force but openly admit Marine Corps members display a higher degree of professionalism and devotion to their mission. Sometimes that conflicted during their interface with the Air Force.

SweetFeet,

I agree with Wisbaker and JDSeller. I work on an installation as a Civilian and the Air Force or Coast Guard would probably be the best choice.

Very few Marines actually stay in and retire after 20 years. Your Son might benefit from the new Retirement rules that will probably be enacted to equalize retirement/cut costs but I've seen very few Marines serve beyond two enlistments. Most of my friends or people that I've known that went USMC got out after the first.

Coast Guard promotes the fastest at least for the case of my best friend. He's been in seven years and is ready to make chief and probably earn a full commission.

Air Force is going through a huge restructuring. They can't afford to replace the planes and keep the old ones fixed. My buddy who got an 86 on his ASVAB went Crew Chief...80s are what gets you into intelligence.

Learning how to navigate the newer weapons systems and programming will give him an edge.

Take it from a guy who had Math Anxiety and has ADD. Your son can learn the math. It might take him a bit, but if I can improve my math skills, he can too.

As much as I'd like to fly for the AF, when I graduate and apply for OTS this coming year, I'm hoping I get intelligence.Lots of fun toys and opportunities to do some really cool stuff.

Christos