I enlisted in February in the USMC for five years in intelligence, and my recruiter said that I should do my best to become a guide during Boot Camp. I looked through the wannabe forum but I couldn't find very much on what a guide is other than he (or she) is the leader for the platoon, he has a excellent chance of making Private First Class or Lance Corporal when he graduates for Boot Camp, and that he gets smoked by the Drill Instructors whenever recruits under him screw up. I always do my best to the best at whatever I do, and as the position of guide is the harder to receive and keep during Boot Camp, that's what I'm going to shoot for. I would really appreciate any imformation that the Marines on this forum could give me. Thanks

For me, it seemed that there was a new guide every week. I never knew why the heck they picked the ones that they did. It seemed so freaking random.

Sometimes they picked the turds, other times the locked on dudes. Eventually they all got fired. Dunno why. Of course, my Senior was a schizo so I guess it depended on what personality he was on that particular day.

Being guide sucks anyway. I was a squad leader for about 2 weeks. It sucked too. I had a far better time just minding my own business and blending in with the crowd.

Being guide will get you PFC straight up. So what? You'll get it anyway after another 3 months after boot. Big deal. And its not like you are going to get any special priveleges being a PFC vs a Pvt. You will clean the sh*tters right along side the Lcpls and Pvts.

You can be guide for virtually any reason, ranging from being the first one to open his mouth to volunteer, to being the guy who does the most pullups, to the DI around at the moment thinking it'll be funny. However way you end up as one, rest assured that you can/will lose it just as easily, and you will be spending a lot of quality time on the quarterdeck.

Really isn't worth the trouble in my opinion.

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Originally posted by Funkymustafa:

Really isn't worth the trouble in my opinion.

Although I understand your motivation to do the best job you can, six months after Boot Camp, no one is going to care you were the Guide or a Squad Leader. In my opinion, the best thing to do in Boot Camp is to blend in with everyone else. The time to excel and really applying yourself is your MOS school. Then after MOS school, stay motivated, learn as much as you can and do the very best that you can.

In my view the only billet with holding in boot is scribe.

Every other billet gets you smoked or doesnt get you the pro/con marks you need.

Being guide is nothing more than painting a big target on your chest and getting you noticed which are both big no-no's in boot. Promotion/demotion is truly whimsical dependent on what point the DI's are trying to make at that point in time. Best way to graduate is to be as invisible as possible and blend into the background which will save you a lot of unnecessary aggravation and sore muscles.

Best way to get noticed in boot camp? Keep your mouth shut, do whatever they tell you without question and hustle hustle hustle in everything you do. They'll only jump you once or twice and then leave you alone as they zero in on the ones they feel really need their "special attention" which is know as IT or incentive training.

Just keep putting one foot in front of the other, give 110% of whatever you have inside of you each moment you're there, super concetrate on whatever you're learning at that moment and never think past your next meal. Forget about worrying about whats happening at home because home always takes care of itself. If you do these few simple steps you'll be alright and graduate on time.

The real place to stand out is in your MOS school and especially in the fleet unit you're finally assigned to. How do you do this?

Just keep putting one foot in front of the other, give 110% of whatever you have inside of you each moment you're there, super concetrate on whatever you're doing at that moment and never think past your next meal. Forget about worrying about whats happening at home because home always takes care of itself. If you do these few simple steps you'll be alright and receive your honorable discharge.

Thats right, you train the way you fight and fight the way you train. Good attitude and hard work makes a good Marine with minimal problems while a bad attitude and lousy work makes a bad Marine with maximum problems.

The choices are your's and your's alone, make them good ones.

quote:

Being guide will get you PFC straight up. So what? You'll get it anyway after another 3 months after boot.

Something that people overlook a lot when they focus on trying to make rank out of boot camp. You're all going to be doing the same working parties and the pay differnce isn't that much, and not for very long. It evens out sooner rather than later. I was private in boot camp and picked up PFC during ITS, less than 3 months later.

Why on earth do you think the services are allowed to throw these ranks at enlistees for nothing more than having some college credits, signing up a friend or being "good" in boot camp?

And as far as boot camp performance; as others have said, it doesn't mean a whole lot. I remember guides and squad leaders being rotated quite frequently, sometimes just at the SDI's whim.

The best way to get through boot camp, IMO - while still doing your best - is to be the person that screws up so little that he is the "gray" man; he barely gets noticed or crosses the DI's radar because he's squared away and doesn't need to be told twice. In my platoon, the number of ways you could draw attention to yourself in a positiveway were very few, and the solid performers hardly seemed to draw any at all.

All of the people who ended up being guide or SL's made mistakes equally, so there were no real standouts. Of the ones who ended up holding onto the slots the longest, only one was a decent guy who actually cared about his squad and actually did a good job. The rest, to include the guide, were major brown-nosers and would screw someone in a heartbeat if it meant keeping their position (our guide especially: 20 years later, I'm still looking for that guy).

Ha ha ha sick 'em Dan! I ain't mad at ya Brother because I've heard that tale too many times. Semper Fi!

I tried and utterly failed not to be noticed...and I was never guide...seemed like I got noticed a lot...

quote:

Ha ha ha sick 'em Dan! I ain't mad at ya Brother because I've heard that tale too many times. Semper Fi!

This guy actually told me - because he didn't particularly like me - that he was was going to "make sure" I didn't make it through boot camp. He was a college student and about 3 years older than everyone else, so most guys were pretty much in awe of him, but I knew he was fake - and he KNEW that I knew, hence the animosity.

For wannabes - this is NOT what the Marine Corps is about: screwing others to get ahead. Some do it because people are human. Many, many more do not. You take of your brothers and, if appointed to a poistion fo leadership, take of your troops. This guy missed that lesson somewhere and it still cheeses me off (obviously - lol!) that he managed to graduate. I have seen former felons and criminals who had higher valuesand higher regard for their fellow Marines than this waste of sperm.

As for not being noticed...yeah, I never said I was all that SUCCESSFUL at it .

quote:

Originally posted by GT6238:
I tried and utterly failed not to be noticed...and I was never guide...seemed like I got noticed a lot...

Roger that! I never acquired the ability to become invisable, until after I retired. Now I'm so invisable it's dangerous.

Guides are glorified squad leaders. I was a PFC 2 weeks after I got home from Boot Camp. I was on Recruiter Asst and got 2 right away and was set for 30 days extra at home before my school.

Yeah I tried fading into the woodwork too but didn't always make it. "You trying camouflage and concealment on me Private?!" You bet your azz ha ha ha.