"The deadliest weapon in the world is a Marine and his rifle. " - General Pershing, U.S. Army "
Posted
hey pfc barlow here...i just wanted to pass some knowledge to you all, when and IF you become Marines, dont get in trouble, its not worth it. Just giving you the word before you even get the chance to get to bootcamp, and mos school and end up like me, graduating late and all...trust me when i say, following the rules is probably the smart thing to do, and drinking if ur not 21, not such a good idea, or at least if your not in a hotel room where you cant get caught...just wanted to give all you wannabe's a little advice cause, i wish someone would have warned me the affect i would have on my career. Alright peace! good luck to you all trying to achieve the ultimate goal of becoming United States Marines, its so worth it, i love the Marine Corps, its the best place to be in my opinion. wouldnt rather be anywhere else, with any other organization. OOHRAH and Semper Fi!!
Originally posted by SandFleaLovingMarine: trust me when i say, following the rules is probably the smart thing to do, and drinking if ur not 21, not such a good idea, or at least if your not in a hotel room where you cant get caught...just wanted to give all you wannabe's a little advice cause, i wish someone would have warned me the affect i would have on my career.
Pretty much common sense, and as far as getting caught or going about unsavory activities in such a manner so as to not get caught. A true test a character is how you behave when you think noone is watching.
So that why you've been gone! It happens, and welcome back.
Wannabe's... even we (Marines) make stupid mistakes, get caught, and pay for it. I was constantly getting in trouble when I was a Cpl. (UA, conduct on becoming, misplacing government property). If it weren't for an "integrity check", I know for a fact it would of been worse on me, had I not taken responsibility for my actions. Be an adult and admit to your mistakes.
Mostly all Marines enlisted as kids and grew up in the Corps during our first enlistment. As you've read above, it's all about using common sense and thinking things through before you act on anything. After awhile it becomes so automatic we find ourselves working through potential problems as a matter of routine.
However, we're all human beings first so naturally being the imperfect beings that we are we all make mistakes. Integrity and owning up to our own parts in negative situations goes a long way in how your superiors and fellow Marines view us. Not if, but when we make mistakes we simply step up, look the Marine straight in their eye and own whatever it was we did.
Even though Marines may be ticked off at you for a little while, they'll trust and respect you because they know you're straight up and not a half stepping BS artist. After all, it's this very trust and respect which saves our lives in combat because we know we can depend on the Devil Dawg fighting right along side us.
Welcome to trying out for a combat organization. This ain't corporate America nor burger king so while you won't get it your way, SandFlea tells it like it is when he wrote we consider this the best place to be for at least a part of our young impressionable lives.
Way we see it is if everyone could be a Marine, we wouldn't be The Marines.
You get busted for something suck it up, own up to it take what you get, and move on. Like Hollywood said not owning up to and taking responsability for your actions will only make it worse. My case (a UA, lots of drinking and a failed **** test) could have been alot worse then being busted down to private and a couple months in the brig. But not trying to be slick and avoid responsablity for my actions salveged me from a punitive discharge and my charecterization of service. How you handle yourself sometimes carries more weight then what you did.
