I've made my decision!

Well folks of the board....

I have decided that I am going to join the United States Marine Corps. One Feb. 13 rolls around (the day after my birthday) I am going to go to the recruiter and join the USMC. I have thought about it, and the only downside it seems is that I won't have my extensive collection of Birkenstocks or Express-Men clothing to wear out on the town. Other than that, I think I am prepared to deal with the mental and physical rigors of the Marine Corps. Just relaying you guys the info. I would like to specialize in one of three things: Infantry, Artillery, or Combat Engineering (demolition of bridges, mine detection etc) I hope to attain at least an associates degree during my time there, but depending on how much time I have (probably very little) I am prepared to work hard and maybe try to attain a bachelors in at least the 4 years I am there. After my tenure, I have 58,000 dollars towards college to get my masters. This is my plan. Just thought I'd give you guys the update.

My father finally sat down and said:

"I don't agree with the decision, but I have no ill feelings and you do what you want to do with my blessing"

Thats about as good as it is going to get.

[420SEL]

Semper Fi!

Congratulations and go with Combat Engineering, it will help you in civilian life.

[TN-W124 Diesel]

The few, the proud, the Marines! You will be part of just a few that can use the title, United States Marine.

I suggest you start getting in shape, start running, situps, and pullups..Good Luck!

Been getting in really good shape. I got the sit ups and pull ups licked, just gotta start running more (first day of winter trick I ran 1.25 miles in like 11 minutes, and I've never run in my life!) So I think I'll be good. Not being a stalky kid helps with the pull-ups very much.

I enlisted to go in the Army- would have gone USMC but I'm too old. I am trying to get a 15T job workin' on UH-60 helicopters, but I think I'm gonna be stuck with my first gig, 92F, petroleum supply specialist- went for the big fat bonus $$$$.
Good luck in all you do, as it will change you forever.

Travmonster

[Chris Bell]

One word of advice...
The recuiter you will be talking to is a salesman not a
career counelor, there is a difference. Just keep that in mind.

[That Guy]

I would recommend that you consider a communications role (networks, satcom, telecom). This a field that can easily be parlayed into a fruitful career. I work in wireless telecom and there are many here that used to be in the military.

[azinn]

Been there, done that. 1961 thru 1965...... four year hitch. 0341 mortarman 2 1/2 years, 0141 personsel administration 1 1/2 years. Like you I wouldn't listen to anyone, I wanted to be a Marine. Hey a guys got to do what a guys got to do. Boot camp Parris Island.... not to bad. Got out in 1965 and worked 36 years 29 days for Western Electric, AT&T and then Lucent Technologies. You'll learn a lot of discipline which you can use the rest of your life no matter what you decide to do with it. You'll never be the same after the experience. Don't think you'll have time for school in the Corps other than what they want you to learn. Best to get all your schooling before you go in. Just my 2 cents worth.

[Botnst]

Listen-up, pay attention to detail.

Using the words,"Sir" and "Gunny" appropriately can cover a multitude of sins.

As a former sailor, here's some advice for an embarked marine. Lift your feet over the coaming and duck your head through it. If it was dogged when you open it, dog it after you pass. Don't puke on the deck.

Let us know when you become a marine. May you have fair winds and a following sea.

Botnst

[Botnst]

-- How to Prepare for a Deployment --

1. Sleep on a cot in the garage.

2. Replace the garage door with a curtain.

3. Six hours after you go to sleep, have your wife or girlfriend whip open the curtain, shine a flashlight in your eyes and mumble, "Sorry, wrong cot."

4. Renovate your bathroom. Hang a green plastic sheet down from the middle of your bathtub and move the showerhead down to chest level. Keep four inches of soapy cold water on the floor. Stop cleaning the toilet and pee everywhere but in the toilet itself. Leave two to three sheets of toilet paper. Or for best effect, remove it altogether. For a more realistic deployed bathroom experience, stop using your bathroom and use a neighbor's. Choose a neighbor who lives at least a quarter mile away. Or use a half of a 50-gallon drum and burn it every morning.

5. When you take showers, wear flip-flops and keep the lights off.

6. Every time there is a thunderstorm, go sit in a wobbly rocking chair and dump dirt on your head.

7. Put lube oil in your humidifier instead of water and set it on "HIGH" for that tactical generator smell.

8. Don't watch TV except for movies in the middle of the night. Have your family vote on which movie to watch and then show a different one.

9. Leave a lawnmower running in your living room 24 hours a day for proper noise level.

10. Have the paperboy give you a haircut.

11. Once a week, blow compressed air up through your chimney making sure the wind carries the soot across and on to your neighbor's house. Laugh at him when he curses you.

12. Buy a trash compactor and only use it once a week. Store up garbage in the other side of your bathtub.

13. Wake up every night at midnight and have a peanut butter and jelly sandwich on a saltine cracker.

14. Make up your family menu a week ahead of time without looking in your food cabinets or refrigerator. Then serve some kind of meat in an unidentifiable sauce poured over noodles. Do this for every meal.

15. Set your alarm clock to go off at random times during the night. When it goes off, jump out of bed and get to the shower as fast as you can. Simulate there is no hot water by running out into your yard and breaking out the garden hose.

16. Once a month, take every major appliance completely apart and put it back together again.

17. Use 18 scoops of coffee per pot and allow it to sit for five or six hours before drinking.

18. Invite at least 185 people you don't really like because of their strange hygiene habits to come and visit for a couple of months. Exchange clothes with them.

19. Have a fluorescent lamp installed on the bottom of your coffee table and lie under it to read books.

20. Raise the thresholds and lower the top sills of your front and back doors so that you either trip over the threshold or hit your head on the sill every time you pass through one of them.

21. Keep a roll of toilet paper on your night stand and bring it to the bathroom with you. And bring your gun and a flashlight.

22. Go to the bathroom when you just have to pass gas, "just in case." Every time.

23. Announce to your family that they have mail, have them report to you as you stand outside your open garage door after supper and then say, "Sorry, it's for the other Smith."

24. Wash only 15 items of laundry per week. Roll up the semi-wet clean clothes in a ball. Place them in a cloth sack in the corner of the garage where the cat pees. After a week, unroll them and without ironing or removing the mildew, proudly wear them to professional meetings and family gatherings. Pretend you don't know what you look or smell like. Enthusiastically repeat the process for another week.

25. Go to the worst crime-infested place you can find, go heavily armed, wearing a flak jacket and a Kevlar helmet. Set up shop in a tent in a vacant lot. Announce to the residents that you are there to help them.

26. Eat a single M&M every Sunday and convince yourself it's for Malaria.

27. Demand each family member be limited to 10 minutes per week for a morale phone call. Enforce this with your teenage daughter.

28. Shoot a few bullet holes in the walls of your home for proper ambiance.

29. Sandbag the floor of your car to protect from mine blasts and fragmentation.
30. While traveling down roads in your car, stop at each overpass and culvert and inspect them for remotely detonated explosives before proceeding.

31. Fire off 50 cherry bombs simultaneously in your driveway at 3:00 a.m. When startled neighbors appear, tell them all is well, you are just registering mortars. Tell them plastic will make an acceptable substitute for their shattered windows.

32. Drink your milk and sodas warm.

33. Spread gravel throughout your house and yard.

34. Make your children clear their Super Soakers in a clearing barrel you placed outside the front door before they come in.

35. Make your family dig a survivability position with overhead cover in the backyard. Complain that the 4x4s are not 8 inches on center and make them rebuild it.

36. Continuously ask your spouse to allow you to go buy an M-Gator.

37. When your 5-year-old asks for a stick of gum, have him find the exact stick and flavor he wants on the Internet and print out the web page. Type up a Form 9 and staple the web page to the back. Submit the paperwork to your spouse for processing. After two weeks, give your son the gum.

38. Announce to your family that the dog is a vector for disease and shoot it. Throw the dog in a burn pit you dug in your neighbor's back yard.

39. Wait for the coldest/ hottest day of the year and announce to your family that there will be no heat/air conditioning that day so you can perform much needed maintenance on the heater/air conditioner. Tell them you are doing this so they won't get cold/hot.

40. Just when you think you're ready to resume a normal life, order yourself to repeat this process for another six months.

[el presidente]

Congrats and good luck!