Grunt work

Sir_Krahn · 06-30-2006, 10:33 PM

I know everyone says that I gotta focus on Boot Camp first but I have a question I want answered. When you join the infantry and start doing your grunt work do you get to choose whether you are going to be a rifleman, gunner, mortar man, or whatever. Or are you just sorted into whatever the Corps thinks you would do best at or what they need?

Panzerman · 06-30-2006, 10:54 PM

USMCRET6391 · 07-01-2006, 07:20 AM

It's called "Needs Of The Corps".......figure out what it means

**Vulture6** · 07-03-2006, 08:00 AM

We've covered this a few times here.

You will be assigned a specific infantry MOS at SOI (rifleman, machinegunner, mortarman, assaultman). That is official but that is no guarantee. When you arrive at your first battalion and are assigned to a company, the company commander and first sergeant will assign you where you're needed. That means that you could go into a company as an 0311 rifleman and be assigned to the machinegun section or the mortar section. Likewise, you could go in as an 0351 assaultman and end up as a rifleman in a line platoon. Depends on the needs of the company at the time. Happens all the time.

07-03-2006, 10:08 AM

If I amy add my "penny" thought here not being a Marine, but a retired "Army Grunt". If I remember when assigning someone to a unit, the duty roster is looked at and you are slotted into an open duty slot position where you are needed. Usually this is based on your MOS as you enter the unit, if not then into an open slot in another MOS and you are trained to qualify for that MOS.
Probably my answer is what is stated above by the knowledgeable Marines here, but this is in my own worded terms for my "penny" thought

**cincymarsdad** · 07-03-2006, 11:43 AM

My son wanted 0311 and then wanted to carry the SAW. A SAW gunner at SOI fell out and he asked if he could pick it up and they said OK. He ended up the only pfc in his company to carry it - so to some extent if you keep your eyes open you can grab an opportunity ... subject to what is needed of course. He wouldn't have had the option to jump to mortarman like that of course. When you're a pfc, you kinda listen and lay low.

I'm using my daughter's computer here at Palm Springs, CA ... kinda neat catching up like this. She sure does sleep a lot ... I thought Marines got up early?!?! Of course, she'd earned the right to do whatever she wants pretty much in my book. I'll let Top recount our gettogether - much enjoyed, Sarah talked about their discussions all the way back here. It's great seeing such tradition in an institution. I know it's "The New Corp" these days - as it has been since the second Marine signed on in 1775 I think - but the "stuff" is still there in no small part because of that Tradition.

Grimmy · 07-03-2006, 11:48 AM

Also, dont be over worried about any of it. Grunt work is pretty much grunt work. Any training you get is a plus, but you're still a rifleman.

Unless you're one of those mortar guys. They think they're so hot because they can shoot over tall buildings with a single charge.

And those machinegunner guys. Yellin "gets some" between bursts like they're in some movie and thinkin they're all hot because everyone else has to carry extra ammo for them.

Now, if you're really smart, gifted, talented, blessed and so lucky you can pick the winning lotto numbers any time you want...then you might get to be one of the super greatest, most bestest of all grunts and that's the Rocketman!!
The really cool thing about 0351? If it exists on a battlefield, and you can see it (excluding stuff that flies real high or real fast) you can kill it.

Tanks? no problem, that's what you're made for.
Fortified buildings? not a worry, not much more of a prob than those tanks and unlike those tanks, you can be reletively sure the building is gonna sit still.
Bunkers? in a flash!

Yeah, grunt work is just grunt work and it's all good.

Sir_Krahn · 07-03-2006, 07:45 PM

The assault man does sound really great but honestly I think I would prefer bullets. I was just asking this question because I wanted to become like a SAW gunner but I guess if I get the opportunity I will spring on it and if the Corps puts me somewhere else I will just have to deal with it. Actually come to think of it I don't know which I would prefer Rifleman or Machine Gunner. Which is better of the two do you guys think?

Grimmy · 07-03-2006, 08:17 PM

Which is better? Rifleman? or SAW gunner? why...that's a no brainer by half and for sure.

Rocketman!!

All grunts carry rifles. If all the targets are bipedal, you can shoot them. As a Rocketman, you can also be assigned as the SAW gunner. A SAW gunner will never be assigned as the unit Rocketman!

**SGRock** · 07-03-2006, 09:03 PM

Grimmy!!! All of that vacation and you are still delusional. Dont lead the boy astray! WeALL know that the BIG IRON TUBE is the way to go. 81 millimeters of hell fire and brimstone that you won't hear till it starts to impact around you.
Don't worry about Grimmy there krahn. He used to like standing in the backblast area a lot.

07-03-2006, 09:56 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Grimmy

Unless you're one of those mortar guys. They think they're so hot because they can shoot over tall buildings with a single charge.

.

I can say that I remember my mortor crew and thank god that they were there way back in march 1969 and fired that sucker and had it land 5 feet in front of my bunker and blew charlie away....And I was able to thank them once again that morning of our first reunion Sept 2000.

**SGRock** · 07-03-2006, 10:11 PM

That is some darn good shooting!

Panzerman · 07-04-2006, 12:41 AM

Your MOS will sculpt you to it's standards, so you'll love/hate what you do no matter what. Machinegunners end up too stupid to hate their job, mortarmen end up too lazy to care, and assaultmen are usually too drunk to remember that they never get to use their weapons anyway.

At least the 0311's get to console themselves that their MOS description is the only one that doesn't contain the word "support." Everybody else is basically a pogue.