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Boot camp is more of a mental game than anything else. If you don't want to get messed with, just stay low, don't bring attention to yourself, and just do what your told. If you do volunteer for something, you'll get messed with, but there are benefits, such as no fire watch, higher chance of getting promoted at the end of boot camp and a jump on building those leadership skills.
The quarterdeck is something you can't avoid, I found myself on it quite a few times, so I learned to love it, its the best workouts I ever got while I was there and eventually it couldn't be used as punishment against me because I enjoyed it too much. Speaking of workouts, once you get free time ask you senior DI for a workout program and slay yourself for 30 minutes every day. Save writing for when you wake up to take that midnight dump or piss (drink 2 canteens of water before bed) If you have a girlfriend, good luck with that, 2/3 of my platoon got dear john letters, including me. The two biggest things are drill and rifle range. Your DI's want those two trophies and winning them may earn you a call home, and make the most of every opportunity to practice your drill and your rifle positions, it'll pay of later. Another thing is mark everything and don't get attached to anything but your money/valuables bag. At any given time, everything can be thrown into the middle of the squad bay and you end up with nothing thats yours. But at the end, its worth it, getting my eagle, globe and anchor was one of the best days of my life, and looking back on bootcamp, you'll strangely enjoy it.

At 10/6/09 11:02 PM, SpiffyMasta wrote:

At 10/6/09 10:37 PM, KennyD wrote:
That is awesome. Submarines are just now starting to allow women to serve on board and the Marines have implemented all female patrols in Afghanistan to build relations with the local populace. So our women to face danger, they just can't go straight up infantry, which I'm sure is purly political.

There's no all female patrols in Afghanistan. There's special patrols that they send out that have women, so that the women there can feel more comfortable, because they aren't suppose to speak to men usually because of their culture.

Women in infantry isn't something purely political, mostly they don't want women in infantry, because most wouldn't cut it and they feel it would be too much of a distraction. Especially in the Marine Corps, the training for infantry is one of the hardest out there. I'm sure there may be a few women who might be able to make it, but they don't want to waste money in trying to train women that won't make it. It's a non-deniable fact that most men are stronger than most women... not to be a knock on anyone. There's always exceptions to the rules though... so don't hold this as absolutely true either. Obviously we have a female with us that's in infantry, but I have no idea how the Canadian Army infantry works...

I've never ever heard of all female patrols. Since we have women in the infantry up here in the north though, its easy enough to bring a female on patrol to search and talk with the local females.

Also, I take no offense from your statements. I'm fully aware men are generally stronger than females, and most women wouldn't be able to do this job. Some can though, myself included. I was one of three women in my company overseas.

I also can's really compare our training to the Americans because I've had very little experience with American training. Especially Marine Corps.

Hey guys, back with a few more questions.

I've pretty much made up my mind that I'm going army, preferably going to Rangers and hopefully (I stress that) getting into Delta. So I know that I'll be doing that once I get out of school.

I was just wondering, since this seems sort of related, if you guys knew of any gunsmithing schools anywhere, or if the Army could provide something like that for me. I'm becoming increasingly interested in building weapons and ammunition and have some ideas that I think would be good, but I can't find any reliable school or programs and there's a scarce amount of gunsmiths around here in Kansas.

Sorry if this is a bad question, thank you for your time regardless.

At 10/7/09 05:55 PM, Chymeraxe wrote: Hey guys, back with a few more questions.

I've pretty much made up my mind that I'm going army, preferably going to Rangers and hopefully (I stress that) getting into Delta. So I know that I'll be doing that once I get out of school.

Well you definitely set your goals high, and Delta can certainly go this the best of them, just remember to keep to your goals, and you eventually reach them.

I was just wondering, since this seems sort of related, if you guys knew of any gunsmithing schools anywhere, or if the Army could provide something like that for me. I'm becoming increasingly interested in building weapons and ammunition and have some ideas that I think would be good, but I can't find any reliable school or programs and there's a scarce amount of gunsmiths around here in Kansas.

The closest thing to gunsmithing I can think of is getting a job as an armorer. You repair and maintain all the guns and all related components in the armory. If your going to be a Ranger then move on up, you need to sign up as Infantry though. As far as information into being a gunsmith, I would contact the NRA, and maybe large gun manufactures like Smith & Wesson, Remington, Kimber, Colt, etc.

Sorry if this is a bad question, thank you for your time regardless.

On a side note, and I'm plugging the Marines here, you can sign up as an Armor in the Marine Corps then after your reach the rank of Corporal, you can apply to transfer to MARSOC, which is the Corps Special Forces, (Force Recon is advanced Infantry training whereas MARSOC is something completely different btw) but as with anything in the Marines, nothing is guaranteed. So if you happen to change your mind, be careful.

I have some curiosities that I'm sure you guys can answer.

How do the reserves work with going overseas in the U.S.? I know its different than up here in Canada, where a reservist is augmented into a regular force unit. I heard though the the American's send over Reservists in their own groups. Was just wondering if that was true.

At 10/8/09 11:20 PM, sinfulwolf wrote: I have some curiosities that I'm sure you guys can answer.

How do the reserves work with going overseas in the U.S.? I know its different than up here in Canada, where a reservist is augmented into a regular force unit. I heard though the the American's send over Reservists in their own groups. Was just wondering if that was true.

Well, it's half true.

Both situations are possible. There are a lot of reservists that are sent out to join regular forces, to augment and fill certain billets as may be necessary. But a situation where a whole battalion of reservist marines gets activated for deployment is also possible.

Basically this means if you want to deploy and you're in the reserves, you can do so more easily than being active, because you're not attached to a particular unit that may be non deployable, and you can just join up to any unit deploying that needs the extra people.

I think that should answer your question.

At 10/8/09 10:52 AM, KennyD wrote:

At 10/7/09 05:55 PM, Chymeraxe wrote: Hey guys, back with a few more questions.

I've pretty much made up my mind that I'm going army, preferably going to Rangers and hopefully (I stress that) getting into Delta. So I know that I'll be doing that once I get out of school.

Ranger Bat is definitely the way to go if you're trying to get into Delta, but make sure you have a back up plan. It's going to take SEVERAL years of busting your ass in Ranger Bat to even get a chance at a slot for Delta, upon which time you've got over a years worth of torture to look forward to. Literally, torture. SERE school is one of several phases that you must complete to move on. I would just aim for Ranger Bat for right now and take it one step at a time, as the Q course for Ranger Bat has about a 60 percent drop out rate by itself.

I was just wondering, since this seems sort of related, if you guys knew of any gunsmithing schools anywhere, or if the Army could provide something like that for me. I'm becoming increasingly interested in building weapons and ammunition and have some ideas that I think would be good, but I can't find any reliable school or programs and there's a scarce amount of gunsmiths around here in Kansas.

The closest thing to gunsmithing I can think of is getting a job as an armorer. You repair and maintain all the guns and all related components in the armory. If your going to be a Ranger then move on up, you need to sign up as Infantry though. As far as information into being a gunsmith, I would contact the NRA, and maybe large gun manufactures like Smith & Wesson, Remington, Kimber, Colt, etc.

Don't answer a question if you're not sure about it Kenny. You can get a slot for RIP so long as you have the MOS's 11B, 11C, 25F, 68W, 92 alpha or bravo. I THINK it was alpha though. And that's off the top of my head from when I went through. Your recruiter would be able to tell you more. Also, there is a job that is specifically gun repair but I forget which one it is. I'll ask at work tomorrow and give you an answer. If you have any questions about going ranger though, let me know. I graduated that shit. I can give you a walkthrough of basic through airborne and rip. :P

At 10/8/09 11:28 PM, SpiffyMasta wrote:

I think that should answer your question.

It does. That sounds similar to our own situation up here. Thanks.

At 10/8/09 11:58 PM, michelinman wrote:

Literally, torture. SERE school is one of several phases that you must complete to move on.

I can attest to that first hand. SERE school is a bitch.

At 10/9/09 01:08 PM, KennyD wrote:

At 10/8/09 11:58 PM, michelinman wrote:

Literally, torture. SERE school is one of several phases that you must complete to move on.

I can attest to that first hand. SERE school is a bitch.

Agreed. Then they go on and say water boarding shouldn't be used as an interrogation technique against terrorists.

I'm pretty sure we do it VOLUNTARILY bitches.

Thanks for the tips and advice, Spiff and Kenny. I think Scribe will be the only thing I'll ever volunteer for. My friend, who just became a Marine, advised me to buy duct tape to mark all my crap. I can see why now, although I still don't get why you have put everyone's stuff in the middle of the room.

Oh yeah, FINALLY med inspect for MEPS today... EUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU UUUUUURGH

Meh, it isn't really going to matter if your shit is marked. I've still got stuff that is marked with other peoples names and I've got one ACU top that has my name marked on it. People are gonna grab what they can and move on regardless, because you're going to get like 10 seconds to clean all the shit up. Just do what you can to keep the right number of shit.

At 10/9/09 05:00 PM, TehreTard wrote: Thanks for the tips and advice, Spiff and Kenny. I think Scribe will be the only thing I'll ever volunteer for. My friend, who just became a Marine, advised me to buy duct tape to mark all my crap. I can see why now, although I still don't get why you have put everyone's stuff in the middle of the room.

Oh yeah, FINALLY med inspect for MEPS today... EUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU UUUUUURGH

To us it was called a tornado, it seems while your in bootcamp everybody tends to lose thier shit and simple things become ridiculously hard. Basically what happens is that the DI's make you pick up your warbag, empty it at your feet then they come around kicking it all over the place, then they make you pick up your shoes and throw them across deck, you pick up your footlocker and perform rifle drill with it and pretty much everything you own falls out all over the place. Meanwhile recruits are getting IT'd on the quarterdeck, your trying to run from the back of the squadbay to the front in 2 seconds, other DI's form other platoons jump in on the action. Just basically chaos all around and good times.

At 10/9/09 06:47 PM, KennyD wrote:
To us it was called a tornado, it seems while your in bootcamp everybody tends to lose thier shit and simple things become ridiculously hard. Basically what happens is that the DI's make you pick up your warbag, empty it at your feet then they come around kicking it all over the place, then they make you pick up your shoes and throw them across deck, you pick up your footlocker and perform rifle drill with it and pretty much everything you own falls out all over the place. Meanwhile recruits are getting IT'd on the quarterdeck, your trying to run from the back of the squadbay to the front in 2 seconds, other DI's form other platoons jump in on the action. Just basically chaos all around and good times.

Yea, it's pretty much a staple of Marine Corps boot camp. Whatever you like to call it, and whatever you dump out, it'll happen. We had to empty our seabags, that we had just stuffed to breaking point to head over to Camp Pendleton, in the middle, then everyone runs around it like you run around the squad bay for nightly turnover/inspection. You lose most of your shit. I ended up with a bunch of nasty underwear that wasn't mine, that was the worst part for me ha ha.

Don't use duct tape unless they tell you to. I never even touched duct tape. The only thing you label with is recruit tape. It's basically white medical tape.

I just use black marker to label my kit. Works well enough.

Ah, good ol' recruit tape. Sinful Wolf, we did get stamping kits and everything is marked, but when you have 10 seconds to get everything in your footlockers, what belongs to who isn't a big priority. We developed a system at night where everything was returned to his proper owner, especially underwear.

True enough I suppose. And Underwear is important, cause if you get someone else's that's a size too small... no fun.

At 10/11/09 09:41 AM, sinfulwolf wrote: True enough I suppose. And Underwear is important, cause if you get someone else's that's a size too small... no fun.

its not size, its just the fact of having someone elses, esp. when they have tire tracks... ugh.

At 10/11/09 05:41 PM, KennyD wrote:

At 10/11/09 09:41 AM, sinfulwolf wrote: True enough I suppose. And Underwear is important, cause if you get someone else's that's a size too small... no fun.

its not size, its just the fact of having someone elses, esp. when they have tire tracks... ugh.

im thinking size could be very important...haha. and what the hell is up with the tire tracks!? i felt bad for the dudes that had to do the laundry...

At 10/11/09 07:29 PM, turbosquad wrote:
im thinking size could be very important...haha. and what the hell is up with the tire tracks!? i felt bad for the dudes that had to do the laundry...

Not that hard to do laundry, you keep it in the bag. I made sure I did my own laundry so I could take my clothes out of it and wash it better lol. The advantages of being a scribe that does the fire watch roster.

At 10/12/09 12:00 AM, SpiffyMasta wrote:

At 10/11/09 07:29 PM, turbosquad wrote:
im thinking size could be very important...haha. and what the hell is up with the tire tracks!? i felt bad for the dudes that had to do the laundry...

Not that hard to do laundry, you keep it in the bag. I made sure I did my own laundry so I could take my clothes out of it and wash it better lol. The advantages of being a scribe that does the fire watch roster.

I got up at night and did my own laundry, I was pretty tight with the scribes, and I always got the first shift, and I did my laundry right after, having dry clothes compared to damp ones made a huge difference in my morale, believe it or not. I do remember one time when BGen. Salinas walked past outside, every recruit inside just about lost thier head, bc noone had any idea what to do

At 10/12/09 12:34 AM, KennyD wrote: I got up at night and did my own laundry, I was pretty tight with the scribes, and I always got the first shift, and I did my laundry right after, having dry clothes compared to damp ones made a huge difference in my morale, believe it or not. I do remember one time when BGen. Salinas walked past outside, every recruit inside just about lost thier head, bc noone had any idea what to do

our laundry facilities were in a different building and we were only allowed to do laundry at certain times. so we had people that did everyones laundry. all of our clothes had to be tagged with our "laundry mark" (first letter of last name and last 4 of our ssn) and they would just sort everything into piles that way...people still ended up with other peoples shit. i would have traded jobs with those guys though. i was a goddamn element (squad) leader...

What's your guys service number look like? Canadians is like this: E12 345 678

Also, how's the break down of your elements?

At 10/12/09 10:14 PM, sinfulwolf wrote: What's your guys service number look like? Canadians is like this: E12 345 678

Also, how's the break down of your elements?

Our service numbers are our Social Security numbers, and I'm not about to hand that info out.

I'm Aviation, so I really don't know how Infantry does it, but I pulled this up from Wikipedia.

In the United States Marine Corps, rifle platoons are led by a Platoon Commander, usually a Second Lieutenant. The billet of Platoon Sergeant is a position intended for a Staff Sergeant but it can be held by a Marine ranking from Corporal to Staff Sergeant. In a Marine regiment, rifle platoons usually consist of three rifle squads of 13 men each, usually led by a Sergeant, with three Navy Corpsman, a Platoon Commander, and a Platoon Sergeant. Each squad is further divided into 3 fireteams. A weapons platoon replaces the 3 squads with a 60mm mortar section, an assault section, and a medium machine gun section. The assault section consists of dual-purpose rockets such as the FGM-172 SRAW.

At 10/12/09 10:14 PM, sinfulwolf wrote: Also, how's the break down of your elements?

the air force calls them elements, anywhere else its a "squad". we have different names for everything...haha. anyway, im a cop...but we're the air forces equivalent to infantry. we handle all law enforcement, security, and air base defense. our squad breakdowns are generally 3 fire teams consisting of 4-5 members...usually 3 or 4 rifleman and a heavy gunner. one of those rifleman is also a grenadier (usually me...). so each squad is 12-15 members, 3 heavies, 3 or 4 grenadiers...not sure actual infantry does it. infantrys not my thing. gimme my 9, a patrol car, and a ticket book and leave me the fuck alone...haha. i could also talk forever about our security manning breakdowns for protecting air force resources...but thats not gonna happen...

At 10/12/09 11:36 PM, turbosquad wrote:

:...not sure actual infantry does it.

not sure HOW the actual infantry does it

At 10/12/09 10:52 PM, KennyD wrote:

Our service numbers are our Social Security numbers, and I'm not about to hand that info out.

Yeah, please don't. So they just use the Social Security number? Hunh, weird.

Well, for the basics of our breakdown, an infantry rifle platoon is lead by a platoon commander. Generally a 2nd Lt, but I went overseas with a captain. The 2IC is a Warrant, but I've seen sergeants. Then there are three sections and a headquarters element. Each section is lead by a sergeant with a Master Corporal 2IC... though of course I've seen Master Corporals or even Corporals be section commanders.

Corporals and Privates fill out the rest of the section. 8 soldiers total for light infantry, 10 for mechanized.

At 10/13/09 01:40 AM, sinfulwolf wrote:
Corporals and Privates fill out the rest of the section. 8 soldiers total for light infantry, 10 for mechanized.

This kind of led me to investigate Canadian Army ranks, cause I was kind of confused when you said Warrant Officers were second in charge, but I see that Warrant Officers are simply the top three ranks on your enlisted side. That's interesting, cause we have a completely different tier for WO. also interesting is that you only have eight enlisted ranks, rather than our nine.

What's the standards for going up in rank? Do you automatically get junior ranks for Time in Grade, what's the process?

At 10/13/09 01:17 PM, SpiffyMasta wrote:

At 10/13/09 01:40 AM, sinfulwolf wrote:
Corporals and Privates fill out the rest of the section. 8 soldiers total for light infantry, 10 for mechanized.

This kind of led me to investigate Canadian Army ranks, cause I was kind of confused when you said Warrant Officers were second in charge, but I see that Warrant Officers are simply the top three ranks on your enlisted side. That's interesting, cause we have a completely different tier for WO. also interesting is that you only have eight enlisted ranks, rather than our nine.

What's the standards for going up in rank? Do you automatically get junior ranks for Time in Grade, what's the process?

Corporal is simply time in. Its a hand out rank. Master Corporal you need to have the leadership course, where they go teach you how to instruct by military standards, go over how to do certain forms, lead patrols and sections etc. etc.
Once you get that course and prove yourself you get your Master Corporals. Then there are separate courses for each rank above that.

Also, for the commissioned ranks, I can't remember which one... but there's a certain rank that you need to be able to speak French to get to.

I would think that could be a problem in combat, since English and French are both national languages, wouldn't that hurt communications? On my side, orders next week!