One factor in my interest in joining the military is travel. It is my understanding (please correct me if I'm wrong) that when Marines go to sea with the Navy, those Marines are a part of an MEU. I'm interested in the infantry. I've heard that many Marines eventually do a stint on a ship, and the opportunity to travel with the Navy sounds interesting/exciting. What are the chances that an infantry Marine would get the opportunity to be assigned to an MEU during his first enlistment? Or are not all Marines on Naval vessels a part of an MEU?
Depending upon the Operational Tempo of the unit to which you are assigned, you stand a pretty good chance of being deployed on a MEU. It just depends on which coast you are on, as to the area you are deployed to. For example, East Coast MEUs (22nd, 24th, 26th) do NATO and Med Cruises.
Before, there were Marine Detachments on board larger ships, Aircraft Carriers, Battleships, etc., but those went away in the late 80s, early 90s. There are several instances where there are Marines assigned to ships as part of Ship's Company aboard Amphibious Ships. These are mainly Staff NCOs in the Logistics/Embarkation (04) field.
Originally posted by R00tBreaker_: One factor in my interest in joining the military is travel. It is my understanding (please correct me if I'm wrong) that when Marines go to sea with the Navy, those Marines are a part of an MEU. I'm interested in the infantry. I've heard that many Marines eventually do a stint on a ship, and the opportunity to travel with the Navy sounds interesting/exciting. What are the chances that an infantry Marine would get the opportunity to be assigned to an MEU during his first enlistment? Or are not all Marines on Naval vessels a part of an MEU?
I am an Infantry Marine and my first deployment was on the 24th MEU in the summer of 2006, aboard the USS Iwo Jima we stopped in a variety of countries. France, Italy, Cyprus, the Suez Canal in Egypt, Jordan for a month long training op, got called to evacuate American Civillians from Beirut Lebanon. Then we went to Djibouti Africa and that is easily the hottest place on earth. Then to Dubia UEA which is a cool city, after that we stopped in Kuwait to wait for the call to go north into Iraq, it never came so we got back on the Iwo and turned around and went home. All in all it was a pretty interesting deployment. But don't bank on doing just MEUs, some units don't do them for years.
The only time I spent on ship during my 4 years was when we took a ride to Iraq in 2003 and back home. It depends on your units op-tempo and if you stay with the same unit your entire enlistment.
You have a pretty descent chance actually, especially if you're to enlist within the next few years.
After the Commadant talked to us the other day I got the impression that the Marine Corps is moving back into our expeditionary mindset. (Meaning we're going back to the ships).
My experience was great the first two enlistments. I'm an Ammo Guy by trade but have worked with nothing other than trigger pullers.
I started my first 4 years between Arty/Infantry out of 2nd MARDIV (East Coast). I spent 10 months at sea and touch about 24ish countries...
I than went to the I MEF (West Coast) for my 2nd enlistment and jump on another MEU hitting another 6ish or so countries. Both sides of the coast have the opportunity for you to get on a traditional MEU and if you don't get on the 11,13,15,22,24,26 MEU than you're almost garunteed to do a UDP on the 31st MEU.
Going to a Victor Unit (Ground Guy) your odds of going on a MEU in the future is about 80-90%. This is coming from the Commadants words in addition to my current job up at the HQMC level. Hope this helps!
When I enlisted I hoped to travel the world, go to exotic ports, and broaden my horizons by meeting new and exciting cultures. Haha....I got stationed in 29 Palms and get to travel thousands of miles from one sandbox to another.
In the Marine Corps there are never any gurrantees, hope for the best, expect the worst, and anything good is that much sweeter.
Once things calm down in Iraq and we return to a peacetime standard, as an infantryman you will automatically deploy onboard ship for seven months and then pump (fly) deploy to Okinawa for six months as part of the UDP (unit deployment program) within any three year "stint" within any infantry battalion.
It's basicly six months initial training, six months workup and certification to MEU(SOC), seven month deployment onboard ship, five month standdown, six month workup, six month fly over deployment to Okinawa, five month standdown/FAP (fleet assistance program) where you're a lifeguard, barracks cleaner, etc. until you release from active duty. Of course you can always stay with your unit if you like so the last 3-6 months is kind of your call if you do a great job in your infantry battalion.
East Coast units normally patrol the Mediterranean but I can almost guarantee there will be "show the flag" mini floats to the Carribean, South America, West Africa and Europe in international fleet exercises.
West Coast units normally patrol southern Southeast Asia and the Indian Ocean areas. I would also look for an increased show the flag presence in these areas via fleet exercises and port call visits too.
Okinawa runs mini floats between the Philippines, Taiwan and Hong Kong to routinely show the flag while Japan and Korea both host ground and fleet exercises as well as cold weather and mountain warfare training.
These are the standard inbetween war routines the Corps runs (since the eighties) as America's premier first reaction force. The first question is always "where are the carriers?" and the second is "how many Marines are with that Battle group?"
The famous NCA saying is "We use a balance of Army, Navy and Air Force assests and we grab every Marine we can get."
These are the standard inbetween war routines the Corps runs (since the eighties) as America's premier first reaction force. The first question is always "where are the carriers?" and the second is "how many Marines are with that Battle group?"
The famous NCA saying is "We use a balance of Army, Navy and Air Force assests and we grab every Marine we can get."
There's nothing more intimidating than waking up one morning and seeing an Amphibious Ready Group sitting off of your coast.
Amen to that SC. Highly motivated hard charging at it's best! And folks wonder why we aren't humble everytime we face 22 million with 2200 and are never pushed back into the sea. Thats trooping. Urr-RAH!
Ahh, going on a Float. By far the BEST FREGGIN experience you can uh, ...experience. By the way, can you "find Waldo" in this picture. I'm standing in front of my platoon on the far left, facing the camera.
Miss those formations on the flight deck when the ships a rockin, everyone "leaning with the waves." Did 2 WestPACs, first one in 92 was essentially a liberty cruise, hit some great ports (Bali, Australia, Singapore, Hong Kong, etc). We also did some training ops w/ the Kuwaitis (Eager Mace) & Saudis. Second one in 94 was mostly in the sandbox (Kuwait, Bahrain, Oman) and doing circles off Somalia. We were at sea doing circles so long we got 2 beers each on ship, don't remember how you have to be at sea for that, but damn that was good beer. So each time you go out on float you really don't know what is going to happen, the schedule says one thing but world events have the last say.
Originally posted by devilfrog: Miss those formations on the flight deck when the ships a rockin, everyone "leaning with the waves." Did 2 WestPACs, first one in 92 was essentially a liberty cruise, hit some great ports (Bali, Australia, Singapore, Hong Kong, etc). We also did some training ops w/ the Kuwaitis (Eager Mace) & Saudis. Second one in 94 was mostly in the sandbox (Kuwait, Bahrain, Oman) and doing circles off Somalia. We were at sea doing circles so long we got 2 beers each on ship, don't remember how you have to be at sea for that, but damn that was good beer. So each time you go out on float you really don't know what is going to happen, the schedule says one thing but world events have the last say.
That's a nozhitter! My last one 97 I think. We knew things were heating up in the box and anything could happen. We were heading East in the Med on our way to some cool as zhit Xmas port. Next thing we knew we were on our side doing a right turn Clide. That little scheduled six months turned in to more like nine.
Semper Fi
Johnny Blaze Gunny of the Marine Corps
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Floats are the greatest and there is no finer duty in the entire United States Marine Corps. Coolest thing was always pulling into some exotic place like Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan, etc. and breaking out into town wearing tailor made clothes as we swooped on the local women.
We'd have company parties in local bars where lance corporals and lieutenants got fiesty with eachother for trying to swoop the same girl. Ha ha ha, it was hilarious! Of course we'd break it up, they'd have a beer and we'd set them up with the local talent so they're be no hard feelings and there never was. Those girls had real skills heh heh heh.
This old man will never forget the joys of youth on a float. Fely in Subic and Kim in Hong Kong ... heh heh heh heh. Hey, I'm still a lover, not a fighter. Corps never understood that nor had a sense of humor about it. Go figure ha ha ha ha. Ur-RAH! Semper Fi!
