My kid is a reserve Marine data geek (0651/0656).

He volenteered several times for duty in the sand box and was begining to think he might be the only Marine in the world to never deploy. He just found out today that he will be heading up to Camp Upshur in Dec for pre-deployment training followed by Mojave Viper at 29 Palms.

He won't know what he is going to be doing in Iraq until next drill weekend.

This old Marine is curious as to what my young L/Cpl son has gotten himself into by raising his hand.

The only thing I can find on the web about Upshur is that it was at one time an OCS facility. They currently are using it to train Marines (FAST Co and many other I guess) in riot control etc. Maybe other things too but if so I can't find anything on it.

I know what Viper is.

What I don't know is if data geek Marines get pre-deployment training at Upshure and Viper or if odds are he's going to get some OJT in Iraq doing something other than keeping some Col's laptop running.

Any ideas?

Semper Fi

Rocketman - Hah! Reminds me of when I was young and immortal, bored with duty at Camp Lejeune, and so volunteered for WESTPAC. Thought I might end up in Japan or Okie. No such luck. RVN.

May the Almighty hold your son in the palm of His hand.

Camp Upshur is a camp on Quantico. It is the home of 4th LAR and lots of reservists use it as a base camp when using the Quantico facilities fr training. The Camp Upshur training is usually geared towards annual qualifications and basic rifleman skills.

Depending on what the commander wants there could be a good chance that your son will spend some time outside the wire. There are data Marines on the CO's mobile CP for when he travels about his AO. We also have several provisional rifle squads and platoons. These are made up of all MOS's and act is infantry.