Advice Needed.

[explorerdude]

First of all, thank you to all who serve and protect our country.

a little background on myself. twenty three years old and just graduated college with my bachelors. Really interested in law enforcement; also interested in the military, via Marines, reserve program. Can anyone give me advice as to what to look forward to? I hear "officer" thrown out a lot since i have a degree; what is an officer? I would be very interested to enlist as a military police officer if possible. again, only interested in the reserve program. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

[all torque]

Officers are the ones you salute and enlisted are the ones who actually do all the work. Officers make all the big decisions and enlisted are the ones who get tasked to actually make it happen. There is no guarantee that you will get military law enforcement as an officer, you won't get an MOS(Military Occupational Skill) assignment until you are complete with TBS(The Basic School). By then you have already been in for 9-12 months, at least for the Marine Corps. Honestly, having military law enforcement experience is not going to give you that much of an advantage unless you get asigned to NCIS(Naval Criminal Investivigative Service). I have plenty of friends who have joined law enforcement agencies after exiting the Corps and they never had anything to do with Military Police. Having a military background and a college degree should be more than enough to get your foot in the door, assuming that you meet all the basic criteria.

[SoCal_Sapper]

Go officer, they get paid more. After you get out you can wear red and gold and keep screaming OORAH to every other person walking by until you die.

Haha JK. I just wanted to be a dick

[epilepticninja]

Officers are commissioned on behalf of the President into the military (they are saluted by all enlisted folks, as well as lower ranking officers.) The rest of us hooligans came into the military via our oath of enlistment which is administered by an officer.

Some of us decided to hangout for awhile, and eventually were promoted to non-commissioned officers (but nobody salutes us, unless there is a MoH hanging off of our necks.) There are also warrant officers, but nobody really understands those cats.

Since you have your Bachelors Degree, you would be eligible for a commission into either the active or reserve military branch of your choosing as long as there is a need for you, and you meet the requirements. I hope that explanation makes it clear as mud.

[nightcrawler_23]

Majority of the officers that I met while I was in the service who graduated from college were not able to choose MOS. Some exceptions of course IE Doctors.

[explorerdude]

thanks to all your replies and advice. greatly appreciated.

[LeatherNuts]

I would say that the choice lies in what kind of experience you want to get out of your time. As enlisted you will be low end of the proverbial totem until at least your second enlistment, where as an officer you'll only have to start at the low end of theirs. You will have far more impact on your individual Marines and the accomplishment of the mission as an enlisted leader, but as the officer in charge you would be the one directing what mission needs to be accomplished. I have been part of the "flat black mafia" for a little over 14 years now and I couldn't see myself doing anything else. Officers have to be pretty politically correct and there is a lot more "etiquette" involved in how they have to deal with the senior officers above them. The two sides of the "rank house" are really divided; it's a lot like the difference between aristocrats and commoners.

That being said they're phasing out Military policemen and replacing them with civilians. If you want a future in the military I wouldn't choose that path.

[Mickael81]

I worked with a ton of reserve officers in the Marine Corps. Most Marine officers in the reserve that i interacted with were in federal or state level law enforcement. DEA, State Department, CHP,... They all told me that in order to be a reserve officer in the Marine Corps you have to first serve for 6 years as active duty. Now, im not sure if this is because they had the Marine Corps pay for their education or that's just the way it is. You gonna have to figure that out through a recruiter. In average it takes about 4 years to pick up O-3. Butter bars are the fng's and get no respect. But we all have to pay our dues... Great pay and retirement. Only the base salary gets taxed, the BAH (Basic Home Allowence) is a supplemental pay on top of base pay that does not get taxed. To put it into perspective, a E-7 Gunny with 18 years of service, makes the same as a O-3 Capt. with 4 years of service.

Of course its not all about the money but it is good. You have to remember that there is a reason why the gov. Is willing to pay so much.... if you are not training, you are killing. Thats the price.