re: Does anyone here have a son who recently joined the Marines?

I served during afghanistan and my son is now currently in the Corps with the same unit on Oki. Know that we live for for war. It’s our mindset and purpose.

The mission of the Marine Corps rifle squad is to locate, close with and destroy the enemy by fire and maneuver, or repel the enemy assault by fire and close combat. Marines are taught this day one in boot camp, and it’s also why we come off as assholes sometime.

I will say that motivation tenacity he will develop in the Corps will give him a leg up on others who have everything else equal to him when he comes back to civilian life.

Went through this with my son out of HS and sought advice on some boards that are heavy with current and ex-.mil. The short version is that in most of the branches, with your son's academics, and an ASVAB score to match, he can choose his path.

In the Marines, you have some opportunities to choose your path, but you are just as likely to get a career path chosen for you "For the good of the Corps". If he wants to be leg infantry, maybe that's not all bad.

Having said that, the progression we landed on was USN > USAF/USSF > Army >> USMC in terms of preparing for life after the military. Then he went to MEPS, and was rejected for a minor medical condition that we didn't even know about. By the time that was cleared up, so was his head and he is now in engineering school.

My husband is a former Marine Corps recruiter. He would always counsel his recruits to select a MOS that transitions well in civilian life. He also said that all the high scoring ASVAB kids wanted infantry and he would try his best to talk them out of it. You may want to try to steer him into intelligence, logistics, etc.

Marines are a tight knit group. Good luck to your son.

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...of course wife (no pics) was trying to steer him more towards the Air Force or the Navy.

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I admittedly don't know a lot about the armed forces, but I can understand her concern. You need to pick what's best for your son but consider what can make the best and happiest life for him post-military. In a world where any shitty president can up and decide to send your kid to war, there's a lot of things to consider regarding the future of modern infantry and no such thing as too much research.

It's your job to steer him into what is best for him. But it's also your job to help do all the due diligence something this heavy requires.

What about one of the service academies?

If he doesn’t want college, generally the quality of life would be better in the Air Force (or possibly Navy).

My son did not want college. The Marines were hard after him but he ended up in the Air Force. Just retired as a recruiter after putting in his 20.

Good luck to your son and family.

If he wants to be an officer I highly suggest he go to college first and then either do NROTC or PLC. If he enlists there's absolutely no guarantee he will get an invite to OCS.

That said he will get GI Bill when he gets out if he wants to do college after his enlistment is up.

if he's got other options I'd encourage him to entertain them. I wouldn't want my kid fighting in the Middle East.

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They’ll probably start the Iran draft soon anyway so we’ll all be going

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They implemented the draft registration around 1979 due to unrest with Iran, but never needed to initiate a draft. With all the technology in warfare and plenty volunteers, it seems they would not need a draft again.

The kid needs to do ROTC, seriously. Not saying he wouldn't thrive as an enlisted guy, but O life >>>>> E life.


I tried AFROTC (non-scholly) back in early 90's. The cut all the pilot slots so I bailed. 3 of my buddies went Marine ROTC, because they still had slots. They tried to sell me on the Marines too. I knew Marine life wasn't for me.

2 became F-18 pilots, 1 was a C-130 pilot.

I took the long way with OTS.