Thoughts on Marine Reserves

[Timthetwin]

I graduate college in May of 16 and I am considering joining the Marine Reserves. I dont want to do full active duty, since I want to pursue an LEO career, but I do want to serve my country. If I join I will attempt to become an officer. If anyone has any input on the marine reserves, I would love to hear your opinion.

Thanks in advance,

-TtT

[Snoopy47]

I went Army Reserve. I don't know the details of enlisting Marine Reserve and then trying for officer, and everyone is going to tell you a recruiter is your best source for information.

That said, you are done with college, that's great. The WORST thing to do is become a reservist right out of high school expecting education benefits.

If you are young enough look into becoming an officer right off the bat. If you enlist your officer options narrow greatly, and you risk being suck somewhere you don't want to be. Then all the sudden you are dependent upon your entire chain of command not derailing you, verses just dealing with your packet and one recruiter.

So when you enlist, consider what might happen if you fail to become an officer, and be willing to follow through in your enlisted role with a positive mindset.

If you went into the Army Reserves you'd go in as an E4, and likely hit SGT inside of two years. Then you'd be positioned perfectly to get Staff SGT before your first contract is up.

Being a reservist means an extra level of discipline. YOU have to get your *** to drill. YOU have to stay in shape. YOU have to keep up with all your medical appointments. YOU have to maintain all your on-line training.

There is no one kicking you in the butt on a day to day basis during the work week keeping you in shape and forcing you to meet your training objectives.

I presume these things generally apply to all reservists regardless of branch.

[BarrettM99]

Speak to officer recruiting first. Like snoop said, it'd be easier to handle a packet rather than trying to get command to sign off on sh it. Can't even get them to send you to schools at times. Seriously.

Have you thought about going active duty? You'd probably enjoy it a lot more.

[geoint]

Don't attempt to become an officer. Either go officer or don't waste your time because recruiters ALWAYS try to derail anyone wanting to go officer into enlisting.

[Tacit Blue]

Don't go the reserves.... It's a odd system and experience, I always feel like it's basically a gentlemen's club on the weekend. There's always of ton of email correspondence, training and things you must do on your own. Constant requests to respond or acknowledge this email, etc.

It's a major cluster you know what. Imagine trying to juggle a job and other obligations with the reserves. The reserves would only be good and useful if you were attending college at the same time. You can always do OCS also that would lead to officer path.

Another thing since you're trying to go the officer route. That means you'll either be assigned to S-1 admin, or S-3 operations, imagine trying to organize or plan on your off time for future drill/UTA dates. You'll have to learn how to be a ring leader via your computer and phone. As a newly commissioned 2nd Lt. you'll want to lean on or listen to your company 1SG other NCO's for advice.

Me as an enlisted guy all I have to do is respond and acknowledge that i'll be at UTA/Drill. I do my time and then bounce out.

Same thing Snoopy 47 said.

[Gun_Smoke]

Trying to join the Marine Corps reserve as an office will still be a lot of time.

You will have to go to OCS/PLC/OCC which is at least 10 weeks or 2 6 week sessions. Then TBS with is ~6 months then you have to go to your MOS school which is going to be another few months or longer.

So then you're going to go to unit which is going to be weekends and 2 weeks during summer, at least that is not counting if you get mobilized for training or school. As a new officer you won't want to say no to much.

If you are trying to start a career in reserves and as an LEO it will be hard. You should focus on one or the other. I can also only speak from my job field 03, and personal opinion, but there is no way you could become proficient as a reservist unless you do a deployment or extended mobilization. As an officer that is horrible as enlisted there is a little more room to lean on your seniors as long as you are a good follower.

If you want to become and officer plan on a year or so until you start the LEO process but even then you should pick one. Or do the enlisted thing so you can be trained quicker and drilling, say you served and if a deployment or something comes up you can take time off from being LEO.

Again this is personal opinion I am sure other will have their own.

I know a guy who went to bootcamp with me as a reservist and pretty soon after graduating SOI he became a cop and doesn't seem to have much issue balancing the two. But again a junior enlisted guy has much less responsibility than an officer and can take time off or make up drills with less consequence.

On a side note the Marine Corps doesn't need any more officers that aren't there for the right reasons. I know a lot of reserve officers who are dying to go AD because the only way they could get in was through reserves. You are going to look like a huge piece of **** if you show up and have to miss a drill or cant do something because you're trying to be an leo.

[Snoopy47]

Originally Posted by Gun_Smoke

Trying to join the Marine Corps reserve as an office will still be a lot of time.

You will have to go to OCS/PLC/OCC which is at least 10 weeks or 2 6 week sessions. Then TBS with is ~6 months then you have to go to your MOS school which is going to be another few months or longer.

Oh yea, I forgot about all that training crap.........

So here's my time line.

Enlisted USAR.
2 months basic
5 months Intel School.

Return to unit and start drilling.

Start working the officer packet. - Two year process.

Had a 9 month deployment in there with 3 months before it ramping up for the deployment.

Got commissioned after I got back from the deployment.

Now I have go start the training process all over again, which means 4-5 months again for my job category training. If I had OCS then that would be another 3 months.

My point being if you go in as enlisted you have a whole training thing you have to do to get you to be a deployable Marine. When you become an officer at a later point you will have to start that process all over again.

As a reserve that is a significant amount of time that finds itself interjecting itself into your civilian world.

Just keep that in mind.