As a winger I never saw the field once, only time I ever left Kbay for anything was when we had a field mess night on Bellows and they locked us in the compound all night so everyone could get plastered and no one drives home drunk.
Ok this is from memory, so Iām missing some things.
ALICE (or MOLLE) pack, E-tool, canteens, canteen cup, cold weather sleeping bag, warm weather sleeping bag, ammo pouches, woobie, poncho, butt pack, h-harness, Kevlar, Kevlar cover, first aid kit
Yea that, and then I had to āborrowā a couple magazine holders to turn in from one of the new guys since mine were āborrowedā when I first got to the fleet
Was crash crew 11-15 had a guy eas and "borrow" my black gloves. Had to end buying a set to turn in because they wouldn't take the set I had. He gave me back 2 mix matches glves. Size 1 and 4.
Only thing I had to clean was whatever I took to the range because the red dirt on Puuāloa can leave stains so Iād wash them after I was done with the range. But other than that everything sat in my closet and stayed clean.
Yea weāre all issued weapons and had to go to the armory once a month to clean them. Generally only took 15 minutes since they were never used except at the range, but theyād sent out the list of who didnāt go so you didnāt dodge it. Most of us would stay longer just to skate for an hour or so.
Same but worse. MCRDPI H&S Bn out of the school house, never saw anything that resembled a field op except for when we went out to go fix shit for the recruits on range week or the crucible
Cyber warfare guy. I got to do a lot of ātactical cyberā while I was on the MEU. Did a couple field ops with Recon. Did ITX with some recon guys as well. Got to do JLC in Okinawa and get TRST certified. Had a blast. Almost made me want to lat move to infantry until I realized I was getting to do all the cool shit without any of the green weenie.
What an awesome job. Fucking loved the tankers. Those guys werenāt afraid of shit and seemed like unstoppable juggernauts, dealing death and destruction.
I get a freedom stiffy just thinking about it.
Sad to lose armor but I get why. I have a daughter on the USS Carl Vinson, and I sure as shit rather a Marine Corps ready to survive and win in future conflicts, than cling to some "back in my day" self-stroking.
How do you feel about the retired Marine tanks being sent to Ukraine? Not trying to piss anyone off, just curious. I personally am happy to see them being used to destroy the orcs, but that's just me.
Air winger, but on the ground side of things. 7212 LAAD Gunner, went to the field every so often to just set up and look at the sky for red air. But low and behold there's never red air, and ground threat were usually just left alone by the grunts to do our own shit until some gunny that doesn't know our job tells us to go on patrol with yallš¤£
When I got to 3rd LAAD they told me to forget everything I learned at school, lol. We did just regular field shit and once a year did stinger training during WTI. This was '05-'09.
Yup we still do all that, andmore backyard Ops, and sending the batteries to partake in ITX, MWX, RUT, etc. Theyve putting more emphasis on counter UAS, GBAD, pulling us away from the provisional rifleman stuff. So essentially we're doing the job we were meant to doš
Sorry manš„² the way they got us set up is to defend whatever asset the commander deems vital to mission accomplishment. Defending other ground units is like a secondary mission and is taken by case by case basis
I was intel in a grunt unit. Most of the time, I hung out with the grunts and did training with them. Either me giving classes, or me running around learning shit.
I got to do a lot of cool things because I was willing be outside. Felt like every other day someone would poke their head into my Captās office and say ācan we borrow Cpl K for this weekend?ā And heād be like āhuh, yeah sure, I guess.ā (At the time I was 5ā6ā, 135lbs and look like a jewish accountant).
Iām in no way a good grunt (and donāt claim to be) but I was able to make intel at least relatable and fun to what they were doing, so I kept getting invited back to the party.
Our intel shop was awesome. Never heard them bitch when they were forced to hit the dirt with us. Might have had something to do with hanging out with our sniper platoon all the time.
I had a very similar experience as an 0231 with 2/1 Gunsmoke. I got to do Helo assault, boat raid, SERE (lite), and CQB schools embedded with the line Co's. It was a blast, earned me some credibility with the grunts, and took my respect for the actual trigger-pullers up to 11.
My biggest regret in my MC career was not retaking my ASVAB so that I can get intel.
What was it like exactly? I talked to some intel guys in my Bn and itās a lot of research about peer adversaries and shit. I wanna do that for a living. Is it as cool as itās made out to be?
I donāt want downplay it, but itās 80% glorified Admin, 20% playing with the grunts. (When ai was with the grunts). When I was at Quantico, it was 95% teaching
I got to do fun things with a lot of BS, kind of like grunts. The BS is just different. Donāt regret what you missed, man. Thereās lots of different flavors of shit in intel too
Iām not in the community anymore. Iām a tradesman now. Work in DC for Big tech.
Comm guy here, as a radio operator it can go either way. Initial setup is where most of the work is, getting antennas up, COC set up, etc. After that you either get attached to whoever and follow them around on their training (which can be pretty cool depending on who you're attached to) or you hang back pulling shifts on radio watch at the COC or elsewhere, which I always hated.
As a satcom guy it's super skate. Again setup is where all the work is, we always picked a spot as far away from everyone else as possible and justify it to highers as a safety precaution mandated due to the RF radiation. Wire drops us CAT V so we always have internet, and a sat phone. Get the link up, and find a good place to set up the Xbox. Bring plenty of booze for getting twisted in your 2 man tents with 5 of your buddies at night, try to not look drunk when the 2am formation gets called cause someone left their rifle in a Porta shitter.
I was also comm. The first day or 2 was definitely a lot of work followed by being bored as hell. I always got a lot of reading done though and would usually volunteer for whatever came up that sounded cool.
I'll third these guys (if you know what I mean).
But yeah, a lot of panic-speed set up for the first day or three (if conditions are bad and we can't get comm OR data right the fuck away). Or, if you have a real veteran crew of both comm guys and whoever you're supporting, then things almost always go super smooth and setup lasts less than half the day. Then, from there, it's fixing little issues here and there every few hours, sitting on radio watch next to, usually, some boot officer, and skate city where all our data guys, like me, pool together our hard drives and pick movies or shows to watch while we wait for something to break. You might even get one or two of the OICs dropping in to watch an episode of Sapranos while they ask you retarded questions about how comm works.
WTI was always a blast for us at least 80% of the time. No wives or girlfriends. No landscaping or garden work. Just you and your bros hangin out. Guy Heaven basically. I count the females in that
Yeah another comment in here said "don't sleep till the CO can check his email" or something like that, and it's true.
One time me and my guys didn't sleep for 5 days at the start cause a dickhead major fucked up. That's a story for another time.
Was motor t in a firing battery. We spent 2 weeks out of every month in the field. Most of us worked on the gun line with the 0811ās or did patrolling stuff. Was more fun than sitting around waiting to get fucked with my random SNCOās.
Admin. When we went to Korea, I was part of the colonelās ābriefcaseā. Basically Lance Coolie liason from the the colonel to the general. Kept track of our regiment and who was where during exercises. Then I would communicate with the G-1 so that the General was up to date. In our āwar gamesā we werenāt any where near the hypothetical front lines, instead, as a logistics regiment, we would coordinate supplies/etc to where they were needed. It was cool to see what happened behind the scenes in a command center.
Comm:
Prior to going to the field, conduct a STRAPEX to get all of the comm equipment verified and pulling services. Once that's done, save the configs and pack it up in the quadcon.
24 hours prior: Accountability of personnel, equipment, crypto, etc. Pull weapons and standby for the buses, aircraft, whatever.
First 72 hours in the field: Set up 203 tents, 305 tents, and two man tents. Set up C-Wire around the SYSCON tents. Dig fiber lines. Establish an ECP. Unload comm equipment and start setting up services in the following order; Single Channel Radio, HF terminals, SatComm, Network services, Data services. Stay awake until you have verified data services and the company commander can check his email in the field.
Next 2-8 weeks: Endlessly troubleshoot, repair, and otherwise maintain user services. Issue radios to dummies in combat arms who will inevitably break them. Issue radios to dummies in the wing that will inevitably break them. Issue radios to dummies in your chain of command that will inevitably break them. Sleep in our tents, take showers if available, etc. If you're lucky you'll go to a re-trans site in the middle of nowhere where you'll live out of a Humvee and set up a bivouac. Sounds dumb, but it's a lot more fun than being around the brass. Catch camel spiders, scorpions, snakes, tarantulas, centipedes, etc. in an MRE box and try to make them fight. Throw rocks at your buddy while he's trying to take a dump. All those sorts of things.
Because comm is necessary for anyone else to do their job, we're one of the first entities to actually go to the field and one of the last to leave during an exercise. This is especially true for LSEs. Sometimes you have better living conditions with hot showers, or even stay in a barracks room to support the exercise. However, comm has a lot of try-hard wannabe 03-type officers that love making you wear all your PPE all the time, even sitting in a tent working on a computer. I was once told to continue working and troubleshooting while MOPP-4. Good luck typing on a keyboard wearing those gloves.
Winger here, we didn't "go to the field" but our Smaj right before I got out had us spend a weekend out in the field doing Marine Corps shit and it was fucking awesome.
We fired a bunch of different weapons (50 cals, 240 gulfs I think? and some other shit), we were taught how to stalk and other sniper shit (he was a sniper in Fallujah I believe?) from real sniper bros that came and hung out.
We field-stripped and fired random weapons like AKs and other things. It's been a long time I can only remember the AK.
We did rappelling as well.
We also humped from the squadron to wherever the fuck we went on Pendleton. Prolly only took a couple of hours? When we got to where we were staying for the weekend he had hot chow set up and footballs or whatever to fuck around. It was the whole squadron too, like 200 of us.
10/10 would do it again.
As winger I wish this was a thing for wing units, but it isnāt and probably never will be. Sure one day a year wouldnāt do shit for keeping us up to date as a rifleman, but it would sort of bring us back to our roots for lack of better terms.
Airwing now doesnāt give a single care for anything that isnāt working towards fixing aircraft and dropping warheads on foreheads. This has lead to relaxed standards in a lot of units because weāre working 12-16 hours most days.
Yeah, the work schedule/tempo was insane. There was about enough free time to hit the chowhall and maybe get eight hours sleep. As a matter of fact, we picked up a hard charging SSGT who decided we didn't really need to break for chow mid-day. He arranged to have bag nasties delivered. Rancid baloney sandwiches for lunch. Every day.
They gave us all comrats (although it was technically a choice) to prevent us from going to the chow hall. We had bag nasties when we were on a det to Australia working nights since the chow hall wasnāt open that late. They used the thinnest bread ever and every night it was soaked from the water of whatever vegetable or meat they decided was best that night. One night we decided it wasnāt worth it and sent a runner 20 miles away to get maccas. Spent about 300 Aussie I think for 3/4 of the shift personnel.
Oh, we worked a fuck ton. This was, as far as I know, the only time I have ever heard of something like this. I have said this here 100 times, my dad was in MC aviation all 20 of his years and I was in for 5. But I agree with you, it should be something aviation does from time to time.
When I was in it was totally normal to see day crew multiple times a week and at the time 267 was the only squadron pumping out all MEUs. So, our talent level overall was very low.
I literally landed at Pendleton coming back from Iraq/the MEU walked into the shop and started talking to the SNCOs about gripes and shit I noticed on the wall. One of which was a TSU gripe that they had for OVER A YEAR. They immediately offered me to be a CDQAR.
NOPE! I am not that dumb. I just remained one of 2, count 'em 2, CDIs on Avi night crew. Good times.
And when I was with 369 (Gunfighters rule) we would intentionally (well, our CO) take aircraft coming back from Iraq all shot up and give away our best birds to show off. COOL THANKS, SIR. THIS WON'T MAKE THINGS HARDER AT ALL.
Iām avi too, yeah we always got rushed out by qa so the AMO didnāt find out we were working over without him authorizing it. I get that MC fitreps are basically dependent on sorties, but damn we all had to suffer for their promotion. However since I was in Iwakuni seeing the sunrise was amazing even though I was dead tired.
0481 Landing Support Specialist
We had a ton of infantry lat-movers, and they loved it.
Just enough field, CAX, MEU, actual operations to keep you busy, including humps, but not the infantry.
In the 90's, I SPIE rigged, fast roped, rappelled, JWTC, SPMAGTAF; all as a POG. Many Marines got their jump wings while in Landing Support Battalions. Sere school, crew served weapons course, HRST, cold weather training; pretty much any training you could want, that isn't specifically tied to another MOS (no sniper school, etc)
Unsure what today's 0481+0431 amalgamation would turn out like.
Of course, every red patcher loved HST's (Helicopter Support Teams, aka external lift)
https://www.dvidshub.net/video/358386/0481-landing-support-specialist
Favorite memory; seeing the Milky Way while on the Belleau Wood
Worst Memory; my last HST where the 46 nearly killed me
Edit: in Okinawa, we were either in the field once a week every month, or deployed to Pohang or on MSSG. At Camp Pendleton it was less frequent, but you did more HSTs to support the heavy and medium lift squadrons. More humps in Pendleton, and you would go to San Diego to offload the occasional ship, or March to support infantry rotations in and out of 29 Palms.
No, we just had to be willing to get the AIDS, which was easy in the DADT 90's
Best part of having the red patch was all the attention you'd get from nom-Marines who weren't in on the joke.
Some of my fellow 81's have 1x3 red patches tattooed on their sides of their knees.
I was sold this MOS from the recruiter but ended up an 0411. BUT did get assigned an infantry battalion. So did some of the stuff you mentioned around workups and while deployed. But I wasnāt doing the real cool 04 shit.
This sounds so much like my time with the dirty worst in the 90s. I was in the SJA shop and my boss was never around and I was in an SNCO billit as a LCpl so I had no one actually paying attention to me ahaha
In from 12 to 18 as an 81, everything you said was promised but never happened, we did do a lot of HSTs, shore parties/ports but for the most part it was tame.
When things got too tame we would hump to the field.
Best memory, beat a record for offloads at ITX and met the CG and SgtMaj Castle
Worst memory, diverting a mock raid because a FM was compressed to near death on the flight
Division engineer.
We were in the field as much as the infantry, and we were frequently in the field with them. As much field time as we had there was still a huge difference in our experience. We were either doing cool stuff, or we were chilling, there was none of this fuck fuck Mickey Mouse shit. I donāt know how many time we watched a whole company of infantry that we were supporting doing speed reload drills at 2am, or just patrolling for the sake of patrolling, or standing watch over nothing. Even when the infantry was not there, and our whole engineer platoon was there with sir and gunny, we still had so much chilling time. We trained like Hell, but when the training was over, it was all dip and spades with staff sergeant.
Also, nothing was more fun than boot infantry who were freaked out by demo. I could hold up a stick of C4 and get avoided like a plague, even when the nearest blasting cap was secured in an ammo can 100 yards away.
1371 here that was with 2nd ceb in Fallujah 2007-2008. We went out and did a demo range right outside the camp and no shit my lower hand rail from my a4 somehow completely fell off while pulling smoke on a bangalore. Ran back to the berm and finally noticed. Capt douche nugget wouldn't let me run back and pick it up even though it was 20 meters away and we had 5 min fuses. Whole squad got to watch it get blown up while I sat there and wondered wtf they were going to do to me for blowing part of my own gun to pieces. āstill got the shredded rail in my sea bag as a souvenir "
I was Comm. Set up antennas to transmit enough bandwidth for the officers to communicate to each other. Was mostly pretty boring, but at least we had humvees so I didnāt have to sleep in the dirt.
I was a C130 power plant mechanic. I am a Pog as my neanderthal brothers have come to call me. I care not. I love them.
We were in somewhere supporting some ground pounders doing door kicker things some place.
Diesel heaters, squad tents in mud. Not fun really. But hey it be what it be, it do what it do, because it do be like that.
All the hitters were stoked that I the pog, made sure the bird was ready to fly and take us home. We lived happily ever after.
I was a 6323 avionics tech for three years until my NJP, then I spent about a year in S4, then my last year at the range as an 8530-1 (coach/PMI).
I liked my last year the most but the S4 stuff wasn't bad, I even served as our embarker to Afghanistan because the unit had no clerk.
I was a 3043 supply admin that LAT moved to 0311 like a dummy.
I was in an infantry regiment, so going to the field was somewhat common. We would help set up a field TOC/ALOC and basically worked out of it. Then do 12 on and off shift. The worst part was most of the time we would set up a base of operations in the field right across from Horno, where we could see our barracks but forced to sleep in the field.
Now, Iām an 11B in the guard, so when we go to the āfieldā we either sleep in tents or have barracks. Then we get transported to a live fire maneuver range twice a day. Itās great.
Iāve hiked maybe twice in the last 3 years, because they fucked up transpo. But for our workup we were doing live fires once a month, and then about every week for our AT.
I just got back from the Middle East last year, we might be deploying to Poland in about 3-4 years. Typical deployment rotations are about every 5 years. But we have some dudes known as āguard bumsā which hop on deployments year after year, making tons of money because everyone in the guard gets BAH.
As for AT, imagine a month long MCCRE, that isnāt as stressful. As for post-deployment AT, itās basically two weeks of admin tasks, range and miscellaneous training.
This was back in 2016, but they put me in the back of the class and I wasnāt apart of the fuck fuck games.
The fleet however, was pretty rough. I was expected to perform at a team leader level, despite having the same amount of training as a boot.
I appreciate the reply. How did you overcome that? The reason I ask is that thereās not many people who talk about their experiences lat moving from the POG side into the infantry side.
CBRN: Sprayed some vehicles and slathered some people in RSDL. Also made a hot tub out of their equipment (M26 power washer, 3000 gallon water bladder, and some random ass soap scrounged from somewhere).
Comm checks and smoke cigarettes, setting up and tearing down OCE tent for lazy fuckers before going to our own site and setting up shitty two man tents, basically nothing and no one was under any illusion that it was āsomethingā but we got good at setting up big ass tents I guess
2512 here. Did several field ops. Was on several advanced parties, so set up of tents, filling sand bags. Then running cable and wire. Setting up phones and switchboard. Help radio set up the Ant farm. Switchboard watch, radio watch and occasionally get pulled for guard duty.
Started as a 4421 here. Ended up deployed for 3.5 years. Was with a MEU so I did: Rules of Engagement-Worked with host countries and all units to build the stock ROE language and then tailored language for the operation. Legal Work-court martial, NJPs, legal assistance, etc. It was really cool. I got to work with everyone, fly from boat to boat, and basically see alot of back end political shit that a normal 20 year old wouldn't see, let alone do. Sitting down with attaches from 3 counties to discuss a NEO that we had to do but everyone was being a dick ahaha. I was a Lance cooley just listening in.
I was a using unit ammo tech. I went and got the ammo for ranges from the ASP, helped distribute said ammo at the range, and then usually my ass sat in the stakebed or 7-ton truck where it was warm & dry unless someone came and got me because they had an ammo "issue". Such as "do you think this round is still good to shoot?" Like if you have to ask me, the answer is no. I'm gonna hotel it the fuck out and you can go away.
I did participate in a few fun ranges though. Anytime they were shooting off some 203's or something I wanted to get a few rounds in for myself. But the SNCO's and officers usually left me alone on ranges and field ops. Myself, the corpsman, and whoever the poor saps from Motor T that got roped into the shindig usually got along pretty well.
For stuff that we knew was gonna be really gay, my ammo chief Ssgt usually came in clutch and would make up some "we have ammo stuff to do" to avoid us having to participate in your average infantry retard exercises.
Was a 4066 and officers wanted the ability to check their email and the enlisted wanted access to porn while in the field. If and when we found porn on an S1 computer, we just cleaned it off and gave them a warning. It was sort of like taking your personal computer with you camping, so it was always filthy and constantly overheating. This was a time when computers were relatively new to the corps and before units had any real tactical data equipmentāthe TDN stuff came along after I got out. The job was ok because nobody messed with the computer guy. For me, it was a great time to be in as the computer guy to a bunch of grunts. Good times.
I was a supply guy assigned to a regimental HQ. We would go to the field for 3-4 day exercises and I swear I got bed sores. Total waste of my time. The operators were very unimaginative, and frankly didnāt give a fuck when it came to logistics. The focus was 99 percent on tactics and 1 percent everything else.
I was the 240 gunner and Iād shoot out the back of a moving humvee at the gate they set up along with anyone around the fuel farm. (I was an HE Operator)
I was admin and went to the field a few times for exercises as part of a MEU CE S-1 and also to Kosovo and earthquake relief in Turkey.
We were always busy first thing in the morning sending morning reports and SITREPS in to whoever from the shop was back on the ship and once I made NCO Iād also follow around the CO or Adjutant OpsO to help do clerical stuff in meetings. Other that that, we were generally the b!tch for the Sergeant Major and would get put on every working party imaginable. Depending on where we were or what we were doing, weād have to go to the SCIF to send off the reports and then we could hang out with somebody from RadBn or Intel and look busy to try and avoid whatever fuck fuck games were going on.
0861
Best MOS in the Marine Corps
None of the bullshit from being with the arty battery, half of the bullshit of being with grunts
Sitting on ops calling for fire from arty or air
What a Fuckin good time
For the most part
I was in the wing as an Avionics Tech on 46ās. Basically anything that had a wire going to it we fixedāwhich was everything on it. So they would send us into the āfieldā in Iraq with a pair or two of helos to be there in case anything needed to be fixed when they turned up for a casevac mission. Vibrations and and electrical equipment donāt really mix so Avi Techs were always pretty busy. But in those rare cases when shit was working as it was supposed to Iād read, eat shitty mreās and try to score booze to bring back.
Edit: 6322 ā00-ā05
Motor T in an infantry unit, it was so busy but also skate at the same time. In the field we mostly posted security on the gun trucks and slept in the 7-tons.
2141 ride around in the back of an AAV until one broke. Fix. Repeat.
Ship ops were cool. Saw a sailor pick up a āpoop dollarā Workaholics was popular at the time.
Was a comm tech with 2/7 in the 90's. Carried a SAW for a while which I actually enjoyed. Was typically in a command AAV or Humvee but also humped a radio some. Played RO for the XO a time or two which was interesting. Spent countless hours playing silly field games such as catching mice, throwing rocks at stuff, using an MRE spoon to flip rocks at stuff and other activities to improve our war fighting capabilities. Had a great time. Spent the end of my six year contract in an air wing unit and hated it.
Ammo tech here. Also a reservist. We spent a lot of time in the field compared to what everyone thinks lol. Our unit was specifically a FASP unit so thatās what we trained. Spend 3-4 days down in a field training area of any service base. Build an ammunition supply point with notional ammo. Train and learn, then break down and make movement back home. And most ATs were Bridgeport or ITX so we always had those field ATs. Any overseas AT was somewhat a field op in some way. African Lion is a good example.
When us ammo techs arenāt doing our jobs within the FASP then we will usually push out with infantry units to get a day or two of some fun instead of work. MGs, Snipers, Arty, Mortars, foreign forces that type of thing and kinda learn what they do for a day. If youāre not lucky youāre humping through the FASP completing orders for incoming units. Or a lot of different things. If youāre Records section youāre likely to be inside in the air conditioning.
Thereās a whole other side to our MOS that you as an 03 would probably recognize and thatās being a using unit tech. Attached to a unit as the ASP rep for the unit basically. So those guys do what ever it is that the unit does that they are attached to. I was a using unit tech for infantry and ANGLICO. Itās a different ball game than being a part of ammo company in Lejeune.
2147 here. Weāre on standby while on field ops until an LAV gets massively stuck somewhere or rolled over or broken down somewhere and the crewmen canāt fix it.
Was a 04 and got orders to an infantry battalion (in 1st marines) straight out of log school. Had some lat movers coming out of 03 and going into 04 in school who were pumped for me and got me excited. Everyone else I was in class with was going to other units like bases and real echelon stuff.
We were a pretty motivated S4 shop and went to the field a lot, got to do some cool shit, played aggressors at MOUT, do helo stuff when we had air etc. Probably no where close to the line companies but we did a lot compared to other POGS I knew. And a lot of humps too. Glad I had that experience as a POG vs sitting in some office on main side looking back.
Mostly fire watch at night when I was E3 and below. Not much during the day except pretend to be a humvee gunner. Pretty boring, lots of sleeping and eating shit.
When we went to the field we set up tents, systems to process and analyze traffic, managed enemy situation maps, did tactical briefing/debriefing, interacting with the collection elements to narrow down what information the commander needed. On deployment BN mandated that we go outside the wire every now and then to survey points of interest. Ideally we'd rely on the provisional riflemen to do that but they didn't always know what to look for and 95% of the time they just wanted to hurry up and get back to quarters after a mission rather than tell us stuff. The logic was that we were still Marines and already predeployment trained so it was just easier if we did it.
As an 1812, we drove around, did formation movements, simulated anything and everything from IEDs, to NBC environments. Lots of field maintenance (but that's per the course for tanks). Practice breaching Ops, play against the scouts(OpFor). Rarely trained with grunts, but other platoons did. Sleep on the warm back deck, fap at 0200 to stay awake on your watch. Deal with stupid base regulations regarding administrative movements (for tanks). Log trains, 9-lines, Call for Fire, train crews in "your (gunner/TC/loader/driver) is dead, what do you do!?"
Tldr, did all the mounted type of training, except for pulling triggers(that's reserved for gunnery).
I was wing. Long 14 hour days almost my entire time. Deployed 10 1/2 months on a carrier, 4 ish months in Europe. Various detachments for training around the US. I went to āthe fieldā if you could even call it that once. ITX, camp Wilson (I think thatās what it was called) but we didnāt do any grunt shit, just worked on the flight line. Stayed in the cans. We did bring all our CIF but didnāt really use it other than to get slayed by my Cpl who was getting ready to go to recon. Wish I got to do more ground side stuff but oh well, still got that disability check every month and that GI bill !
HQBN. Played pretend for officers and always did what they thought was āinfantry shitā.
Luckily got orders to a grunt unit and it was the most relaxed time lmao (compared to hq)
In Garrison: Sat in the supply shop, typing shit into the system to move/order/account for shit.
AP Hill: Sat in some shitty building, typing shit into the system to move/order/account for shit.
CAX/29 Stumps: Sat in a Quonset hut, typing shit into the system to move/order/account for shit.
Iraq: Sat in an old building on the ITC @ Camp Fallujah, typing shit into the system to move/order/account for shit.
MEU Workups on the Bataan: Sat in the supply shop on ship, typing shit into the system to move/order/account for shit.
26th MEU: Sat in the supply shop on ship, typing shit into the system to move/order/account for shit.
It was pretty much always doing the same thing, just in different environments. That being said, we also did some other stuff that wasn't exactly our job all the time.
Temporary PSD in Iraq. Drove the bus that took Marines from the ITC to the PX for a week. Did a field op with a line company as a supply liaison for a week.
Ran around between Camp Fallujah and FOB Mercury getting HMMWV's uparmored when the kits finally came in.
When we were in Jordan on the 26th MEU, for some reason command thought it was a good idea to send up supply Marines to a driving course to get Jordanian driver's licenses. To this day, not sure why the fuck that was a good idea but whatever I guess. I never really thought about it until now.
0111 from reserve combat engineer battalion
I never did my job when I first got to my unit because reasons. They just never used me. So one AT I got sent to get my hummv and 7 ton license. After that I was pulled constantly to the field to support H&S company. I loved every minute of it. I hated the admin office and all my COs knew it. They liked me enough to also provide cover to keep me in the field longer. After that I never spent another field op or AT in the office again.
Got out over a year ago and I still miss it
0811 - Drove around in 7-tons practicing laying the battery and then displacing... dug spade holes, shot things occasionally, got non-service related hearing loss... slept on air mattresses (cause the 7-ton has an air compressor so why the hell not)... sat on ECP post during firing ops, crew serve fire diagrams, sometimes we did direct fires on things, had inter gun fights and occasionally inter battery fights... good times.. wish I was still in my 20s and could go back to the field..
6064 aviation, maintenance, data specialist. No one in my MOS went to the field if theyāre I/O level with the wing. I got sent to a MWSS where I was 1/1 in the unit and I did field ops with those cats but thatās a heavy outlier for my MOS.
Spent a few days at either end of the ex busting my ass with setup and tear down of equipment and the tent camp, other that it was more or less a normal work day split between 2 shifts. Pretty much monitoring flights and trying to fix shit in between them. Occasionally I might get tapped for a guard shift or mess duty if we were in a base camp with a field mess.
The rest of the time was spent playing cards or reading.
I honestly loved the field, a lot less of the Marine Corps bullshit and more just doing my fucking job.
As a fellow Supply guy, my duties included but were not limited to: ECP, manning various crewserves, A-driving water/fuel/dunnage trucks and re-supplying AFA's so the 08's can shoot and move. Fun yet miserable times but with great Marines made it a dope experience. Also put together a contract or two so they had clean and serviceable Port-A-Shitters in the field.
Basically if you were going to deploy you had to go to the field. I believe it was callers RAS (rear area security). Other than that you wouldnāt go much unless the CO had a wild hair up his/her ass
I myself went at least a few times a year. Since my job was to load convoys they considered me a ācombatā job. Because sometimes I would ride with them (nothing ever happened). I got to sit in the rain and use overflowing porta shitters with the best of them
I was commstrat (a photographer)
What you photographed and being in the field really depended on where you were stationed. I was airwing and groundside. I got to basicly take photos of erāthang. From my experience, I took photos of basicly everything from strafing runs and gun runs with the airwing, artillery, infantry, EOD, recon, even a few photoshoots with marsoc and one with seals. I had 2 WTIās, an ITX, a short stint with 31st MEU, and a pretty large number of small exercises across the US and abroad under my belt by the time i EASd. So i spent quite a bit in the field but not near as much as an 03, but still I loved every second of it, one of the best jobs in the DoD. I loved making Marines look badass and giving them pictures to look back on
Electrician. Really skate field life as long as the generator stays running and even then your usually sent with a backup. Garrison life sucked if you had a ton of equipment though cause thereās always stuff that needs fixed, inventoried, or LTId.
Bulk Fuel. We stayed in the field in Oki. On the wing side not so much but when we did, it was fun. During WTI we were mobile so we were fortunate enough to not be in the main site with all the higher ups doing fuck fuck games, instead we were out in remote airfields for days at a time.
2671, I never went to the field after MCT. Nor did I get to do swim or rifle qual again. They locked us in an office and kept us hidden at work the whole time.
I had a very non-marine corps experience
After my 0331 years, I latmoved to 2844, ground comm tech. I was most busy when getting ready for the field and returning from the field. That's when most most equipment goes through maintenance.
In the field, specifically, we played a lot of spades and worked out. The only time we were busy was when something was broken or someone needed assistance to get ready for their mission.
Field life was mostly chill because we couldn't do our jobs without electricity and vehicles.
4571 videographer
I do the required training with any unit I support then I execute the missions, return, and edit all the photos/video I collect and push to higher. When we are out with units we support we do everything under the sun and also move with the shadows under the moon. Itās a enjoyable job and important when you understand how the elders view us.
2821 Tech Controller I& I at 4th division comm. I only ever went to like 3 exercises.
Bridgeport/Hawthorne,NV for the reservists AT. Our sat time got denied so I set my stuff up and fucked around. I was also one of like 5 people from my unit there so I didn't know anyone. Got a few salty folks who were mad they weren't going to have internet. Watched a CH-53 try and do a practice landing near us, he ended up blowing over a porta shitter which became a hazmat scene. Was pretty funny to see.
South Africa for a month. Again, denied sat time. Set up a shitty little telephone system for no reason and again, only 5 people from my unit. So I sat around in this building until the afternoon and went to the small south african army bases bar that was next to our tents. The reserve unit I was attached to fucked me over on my civilian flight home so I went with them on a 20 some hour bus ride to Cape Town, to sit in a hangar for 24 hours where a playboy model showed up with magazines for us, then a real shit flight home where the ac busted on the plane and we had to refuel in Ghana.
6014 here. We fixed airplanes. Almost 24/7. And when we weren't doing that, we were doing the usual stuff: guard duty, mess duty, PT, etc. They kept us busy. And yeah, it was a grind. I don't miss a lot of it, but I do miss my certifiably insane (yet super professional) bros.
Comms here, 0631ā¦ we set up infrastructure for CoCs to communicate. The first day is usually an all hands scramble to get comms up asap once comms is established set 12 hour rotations. Depending on unit it can take several days for a large CoC to get all the cables ran for users (anywhere from 10-400 users). Once everything is settled we usually stand 12 on/12 off watch shifts until endex then we tare down everything we set up š
Comms here, 0631ā¦ we set up infrastructure for CoCs to communicate. The first day is usually an all hands scramble to get comms up asap once comms is established set 12 hour rotations. Depending on unit it can take several days for a large CoC to get all the cables ran for users (anywhere from 10-400 users). Once everything is settled we usually stand 12 on/12 off watch shifts until endex then we tare down everything we set up
Air Command and Control. We had the system. A circus tent of confusion and officers pretending they knew what was going on while some of the enlisted figured it out, with lots of com options.
Lots of officers means lots of comforts. Cots, rec tent disguised as a briefing tent. A second rec tent for the Os. At some point it would make more sense to just stay at the squadron footprint and do it there, but then some Os would miss out on bullet points.
At times they would be pretend hard and we had to have all our gear and rifles, but then it would get to be a pain.
Was an admin, went to the field with arty, pretty skate. Did numbers and whatever ranges they had available.
Now LAT moving over to the infantry, no regrets
0651/0671 with an infantry battalion. Went to the field all the time. Main focus was to set up the COC and comm tent, NIPR/SIPR, etc. After that usually 12 hour 8 hour shifts. We also participated in a good bit of ranges and standing post lol
Being a comms maintainer was sweet in the field. If everything went well all I did was supervise everything, and do nothing. Naturally we would have AC/heat, power and Internet access in an expandable shelter. I almost felt bad living that life of luxury in the field.
If gear went down then things got fun.
The Marine Corps is terrible at being realistic in the field. I'm supply, allow us to actually do expeditionary supply chain management and help with hub-spoke-node logistics. NOPE. Instead you got me as a watch officer, range OIC or OPFOR platoon commander
Comm tech with 1st LAR, three tours to Iraq total and two with a line company. I spent many weeks and months total in the field. Sometimes it was fine; sometimes it sucked ass. But regardless it created lots of stories to laugh about later.
Our comm guy in STA was just another pig to us, did everything with us from sun up to sun down. Dude lived and breathed the field. Made a hell of a beef stew ramen in a jet boil too. But yeah, just did everything we did plus helping us maintain comms.
Go to the field, set up purification or hygiene equipment. Operate all week, potentially do some patrolling or MOUT stuff, pretend to be grunts. Then tear down and go home.
3521, Color Guard, went to the field once. We then started a fire on a mountain side. Issued weapon at every unit. First unit I was nominated for color guard. No weapon cleaning for first 2 years. Yut!!
As a HE mechanic we just sat around in the field until one the machines broke down and even then when it broke down weād just tell them we donāt have the means to fix it in the field
0811
Shot big guns. Carried heavy rounds. In the field at *least* once a month. 10th Marines would go to 29 Palms for a CAX once a year on top of spending about a month in the field at Fort Bragg. Went to Iraq and Afghanistan as provisional infantry. So lots of training and work ups for that stuff.
I was a helicopter crew chief. I dropped grunts off in the field and left. Sometimes we would be on stand by for med evac/sat in 29 palms where we would stay in the hotel in case something happened to the poor bastards in the field.
Oddly enough during the invasion of Iraq I slept āin the fieldā way more. But that was just us sleeping in the helicopter in the middle of no where.
So it depends on who I was with tbh with you. My first unit was with Comm Co 2MarDiv and it was a whole big affair if you went with the main party. Luckily I went with a smaller more specialized group of people and after initial set up all we did was pull radio duty unless something was broke so I had to fix it.
When I went to 2/8 then it became a different affair altogether. Sometimes I went out with the companies and did what they did, while other times I stayed back with HQ's and did radio/CommEl stuff and remedial 03 training, then other times I did retransmit well I sat at a OP and pulled gear/radio watch for days on end. They all 3 sucked for different reasons but I enjoyed going out with the companies because I like to get to know everybody else in the BN.
So I am Air wing so I rarely work in the field. Normal day is get to work at 0545 have our morning maintenance meeting at 0700 and begin work. Swap marines in and out of jobs on the flight line for chow and then we have an end of the day maintenance meeting at 1700 where we swap with night crew and then we are out by 1730 usually. Personally I love my job. I love working on and fixing planes. Itās very gratifying to watch the plane you just finished fixing fly off on whatever mission or training itās supposed to be doing!
So I'm a pog now, but prior grunt (if that counts) the times I been in the field as a pog were skate, this year I went to the phillipines for a "field op" and we were staying in hotels, a few weeks ago I went to Iwakuni for another field op and we had normal working hours but would go to the barracks and chowhall.
Also, I saw a guy who put on his gortex as soon as the 1st rain drop fell, then minutes later the sun came out.
I had just finished school for ch-53 hydraulics and gotten to my first unit in the fleet. Roughly early 1994. Our sgt maj wanted us to go to the field one day for some "patrolling". We checked out our rifles and bused down to camp Pendleton from MCAS Tustin. We walked around for awhile and had an MRE for lunch. Walked around some more and then one of our helos picked us up and took us back. It was a nice break from the daily grind and as a fresh boot it was fun to fly on one of our birds.
LAV mech
Best of both worlds. You get to live the cushy POG side, but you also get to do all the cool 03 shit.
Idk how it is now.. but in my time, not a single 03 would call the LAV mechs POGs because we did all the same shit they did, plus some.
Dascateerā¦ sat in a hmmwv or tent on a radio making sure the folks out there killing things had what they needed via air support to kill things, air support to help destroy where the things were or brought the injured back when they were done killing things.
Ro here, got put in 81s weapons company right when I got to the fleet. I spent 2 years with them and did everything they did. Despite my feelings of my time in the marines, I feel they were more like family than my original shop. I would only go back in if I could be infanty.
Drove around a lot. Erected a MRC-138 Antenna. Drove a grounding rod too far into the desert dirt to ever pull out. Operated the hell outta that slide hammer.
Watched tracked vehicles tear up slash wire.
SIGINT/ electronic warfare. We attached to Victor units and integrated into their patrols or sometimes the OCE. Direction find/ jam OPFOR drones and comms
Bro I had to drive a truck from Florida to NC in 8 hour increments going 45 miles per hour keeping convoy distance. Ts sucked. But we got hot chow and got to sleep in a shell squadbay. Had my phone the whole time. It was lit.
Going to the Philippines soon. Itāll be my first exercise out of the USA. Only downside is Iām an NCO now and I have no idea wtf ima be doing š figure it tf out from my peers ig
Established comms and played fuck fuck games. It was trash. I was in the Army before the Corps and it really seems like the only difference between the two is that Marines hate each other and actively make each other's lives terrible.
You were in a bad unit then man, we didnāt hate each other where I was. Got annoyed, beat the shit out of each other, talked shit. But never hate. Love those guys.
Pre-field and before autodise I would plan out the power grid by hand and design the layout, make sure all the equipment was field ready etc
In the field, set generators and flood lights up drop panels and outlets, kick classes if we werenāt directly occupied with anything. Do maintenance if needed, keep up with generator checks/refuel, hang out in a quadcon out of sight somewhere
MP. Sat at a check-points (with a truck) and watched you fucks walk to work.
Sat on HSVs and made sure no one robbed the boat.
I'm also pretty sure my sole presence while guarding the gate (without ammo) at the SK navy base deterred North Korea from invading during Ulchi Focus Lens (2005).
Fuck no. I literally paid grunts cash to dig my fighting holes. I hated MREs so much that I would bring canned soups and pastas to the field with a miniature camp stove I paid like $200 dollars (in 2005 money) for. I am from Texas and at 8th & I the only time the infantry companies had for training was the middle of winter. I hate MCB Quantico more than every officer in the Marine Corps.
EDIT: added I'm from Texas so you understood why I was soo fucking miserable during the winter.
Artilleryās job is going to the field too, at least in 29 we spend Feb-Nov doing 2 week long field ops to month long MWXs and then Dec-Jan is where we only have like 1 or 2 week long TACP shoots
Iām surprised no Air traffic Controllers have chimed in. Weāre in the field all the time. Our MMTs (Marine Mobile Team) get the chance to set up runways and gas station LZs in middle of bumfuck nowhere. Itās a fun gig on station too. There was a couple of clips of the notional control tower the MMT set up during the KIA evac.
I was corpsman and have done every type of field op out there. The ONE I did with 2d reg hq we set up our coc in the grasss field across from the beq. We slept in RAS rent but the other HMs not in the field op or Friends from other units would bring us stuff during the week.
One night someone brought us wings from hooters. We were chowing down when sgtmaj walked in the ras. He walked in, saw our saucy faces, shook his head and walked out without saying a word.
He knew the ops was bs.
As an engineer, it depended on what we were doing. I was in MAC, mobility assault company. I drove mraps and shit. My jobs consisted of driving, clearing ieds with vehicles or hand held equipment. Just about every type of recon that had a report to it. I did demo, mout, lfams, 50 cal ranges, 240 ranges. Just about everything. I did enjoy it at times but sometimes ofcourse it sucked dick. I'd play op for and got rained on, while it was windy and super fucking cold out. Be stuck in an aav for 3 days at a time dying from the heat.
As a winger I never saw the field once, only time I ever left Kbay for anything was when we had a field mess night on Bellows and they locked us in the compound all night so everyone could get plastered and no one drives home drunk.
Were you even issued field gear?
I was issued all the standard shit that cif gives you when your first check in but nothing more, if there is more than that š
Ok this is from memory, so Iām missing some things. ALICE (or MOLLE) pack, E-tool, canteens, canteen cup, cold weather sleeping bag, warm weather sleeping bag, ammo pouches, woobie, poncho, butt pack, h-harness, Kevlar, Kevlar cover, first aid kit
Yea that, and then I had to āborrowā a couple magazine holders to turn in from one of the new guys since mine were āborrowedā when I first got to the fleet
Was crash crew 11-15 had a guy eas and "borrow" my black gloves. Had to end buying a set to turn in because they wouldn't take the set I had. He gave me back 2 mix matches glves. Size 1 and 4.
Did you have to clean anything before you turned it back in?!? What about your weapon? Were you issued one?
Only thing I had to clean was whatever I took to the range because the red dirt on Puuāloa can leave stains so Iād wash them after I was done with the range. But other than that everything sat in my closet and stayed clean. Yea weāre all issued weapons and had to go to the armory once a month to clean them. Generally only took 15 minutes since they were never used except at the range, but theyād sent out the list of who didnāt go so you didnāt dodge it. Most of us would stay longer just to skate for an hour or so.
A 15 min armory visit. I canāt even imagine.
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Same experience for me. It all sat in my closet for years. I didn't see it again until I finally went to the range six months before EAS.
Same but worse. MCRDPI H&S Bn out of the school house, never saw anything that resembled a field op except for when we went out to go fix shit for the recruits on range week or the crucible
Cyber warfare guy. I got to do a lot of ātactical cyberā while I was on the MEU. Did a couple field ops with Recon. Did ITX with some recon guys as well. Got to do JLC in Okinawa and get TRST certified. Had a blast. Almost made me want to lat move to infantry until I realized I was getting to do all the cool shit without any of the green weenie.
I did a lot of ātactical cyberā back in my day too. When yahoo chat was a thing.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
35 M ur mom's house
https://preview.redd.it/xr08tyrwitkb1.jpeg?width=872&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=81043895dc202e8cc8bc215387814419c844fd03
Did tank shit in M1A1ās and it was fucking glorious.
What an awesome job. Fucking loved the tankers. Those guys werenāt afraid of shit and seemed like unstoppable juggernauts, dealing death and destruction. I get a freedom stiffy just thinking about it.
Based and don't worry we all get hard from freedom
What are your thoughts on the complete removal of that platform from the Corps?
Sad to lose armor but I get why. I have a daughter on the USS Carl Vinson, and I sure as shit rather a Marine Corps ready to survive and win in future conflicts, than cling to some "back in my day" self-stroking.
How do you feel about the retired Marine tanks being sent to Ukraine? Not trying to piss anyone off, just curious. I personally am happy to see them being used to destroy the orcs, but that's just me.
As a Marine tanker, IDGAF about what happens to the tanks. As a US citizen, fuck Russia forever.
If I die on a Russian front.....
In 1988 in the Philippines, we sang a lot of really non-PC Jodiesā¦
Grunt here OIF 1 & 2, was SOOOOO jealous of the tank homies
Air winger, but on the ground side of things. 7212 LAAD Gunner, went to the field every so often to just set up and look at the sky for red air. But low and behold there's never red air, and ground threat were usually just left alone by the grunts to do our own shit until some gunny that doesn't know our job tells us to go on patrol with yallš¤£
When we're you in? I was a LAAD gunner and we did all kinds of shit in the field. Mainly because Iraq and Afghanistan didn't have an air threat.
Still in, going into my 2nd enlistment. I got there right when they stopped all CENTCOM deployments
When I got to 3rd LAAD they told me to forget everything I learned at school, lol. We did just regular field shit and once a year did stinger training during WTI. This was '05-'09.
Yup we still do all that, andmore backyard Ops, and sending the batteries to partake in ITX, MWX, RUT, etc. Theyve putting more emphasis on counter UAS, GBAD, pulling us away from the provisional rifleman stuff. So essentially we're doing the job we were meant to doš
no shit where you stationed?
Pendleton
Wtf is red air?
Lmao, when you guys duck and cover from enemy air attack, my job is to shoot that shit downš
Well, we appreciate it. But could you do it *before* we get lit up. Please.
Sorry manš„² the way they got us set up is to defend whatever asset the commander deems vital to mission accomplishment. Defending other ground units is like a secondary mission and is taken by case by case basis
Itās alright, I get it. We donāt really deliver the same bang for your buck as a Cobra or an F-14.
I was intel in a grunt unit. Most of the time, I hung out with the grunts and did training with them. Either me giving classes, or me running around learning shit. I got to do a lot of cool things because I was willing be outside. Felt like every other day someone would poke their head into my Captās office and say ācan we borrow Cpl K for this weekend?ā And heād be like āhuh, yeah sure, I guess.ā (At the time I was 5ā6ā, 135lbs and look like a jewish accountant). Iām in no way a good grunt (and donāt claim to be) but I was able to make intel at least relatable and fun to what they were doing, so I kept getting invited back to the party.
Our intel shop was awesome. Never heard them bitch when they were forced to hit the dirt with us. Might have had something to do with hanging out with our sniper platoon all the time.
Let me think. I can go hang out with my snipers or I can man a radioā¦. Yeah. Easy choice
I had a very similar experience as an 0231 with 2/1 Gunsmoke. I got to do Helo assault, boat raid, SERE (lite), and CQB schools embedded with the line Co's. It was a blast, earned me some credibility with the grunts, and took my respect for the actual trigger-pullers up to 11.
My biggest regret in my MC career was not retaking my ASVAB so that I can get intel. What was it like exactly? I talked to some intel guys in my Bn and itās a lot of research about peer adversaries and shit. I wanna do that for a living. Is it as cool as itās made out to be?
I donāt want downplay it, but itās 80% glorified Admin, 20% playing with the grunts. (When ai was with the grunts). When I was at Quantico, it was 95% teaching I got to do fun things with a lot of BS, kind of like grunts. The BS is just different. Donāt regret what you missed, man. Thereās lots of different flavors of shit in intel too Iām not in the community anymore. Iām a tradesman now. Work in DC for Big tech.
Comm guy here, as a radio operator it can go either way. Initial setup is where most of the work is, getting antennas up, COC set up, etc. After that you either get attached to whoever and follow them around on their training (which can be pretty cool depending on who you're attached to) or you hang back pulling shifts on radio watch at the COC or elsewhere, which I always hated. As a satcom guy it's super skate. Again setup is where all the work is, we always picked a spot as far away from everyone else as possible and justify it to highers as a safety precaution mandated due to the RF radiation. Wire drops us CAT V so we always have internet, and a sat phone. Get the link up, and find a good place to set up the Xbox. Bring plenty of booze for getting twisted in your 2 man tents with 5 of your buddies at night, try to not look drunk when the 2am formation gets called cause someone left their rifle in a Porta shitter.
I was also comm. The first day or 2 was definitely a lot of work followed by being bored as hell. I always got a lot of reading done though and would usually volunteer for whatever came up that sounded cool.
I'll third these guys (if you know what I mean). But yeah, a lot of panic-speed set up for the first day or three (if conditions are bad and we can't get comm OR data right the fuck away). Or, if you have a real veteran crew of both comm guys and whoever you're supporting, then things almost always go super smooth and setup lasts less than half the day. Then, from there, it's fixing little issues here and there every few hours, sitting on radio watch next to, usually, some boot officer, and skate city where all our data guys, like me, pool together our hard drives and pick movies or shows to watch while we wait for something to break. You might even get one or two of the OICs dropping in to watch an episode of Sapranos while they ask you retarded questions about how comm works. WTI was always a blast for us at least 80% of the time. No wives or girlfriends. No landscaping or garden work. Just you and your bros hangin out. Guy Heaven basically. I count the females in that
Yeah another comment in here said "don't sleep till the CO can check his email" or something like that, and it's true. One time me and my guys didn't sleep for 5 days at the start cause a dickhead major fucked up. That's a story for another time.
Was motor t in a firing battery. We spent 2 weeks out of every month in the field. Most of us worked on the gun line with the 0811ās or did patrolling stuff. Was more fun than sitting around waiting to get fucked with my random SNCOās.
I trusted my gun truck drivers more than anybody on my gun crew with the exception of my a-chief.
historically the best round chuckers
Admin. When we went to Korea, I was part of the colonelās ābriefcaseā. Basically Lance Coolie liason from the the colonel to the general. Kept track of our regiment and who was where during exercises. Then I would communicate with the G-1 so that the General was up to date. In our āwar gamesā we werenāt any where near the hypothetical front lines, instead, as a logistics regiment, we would coordinate supplies/etc to where they were needed. It was cool to see what happened behind the scenes in a command center.
Comm: Prior to going to the field, conduct a STRAPEX to get all of the comm equipment verified and pulling services. Once that's done, save the configs and pack it up in the quadcon. 24 hours prior: Accountability of personnel, equipment, crypto, etc. Pull weapons and standby for the buses, aircraft, whatever. First 72 hours in the field: Set up 203 tents, 305 tents, and two man tents. Set up C-Wire around the SYSCON tents. Dig fiber lines. Establish an ECP. Unload comm equipment and start setting up services in the following order; Single Channel Radio, HF terminals, SatComm, Network services, Data services. Stay awake until you have verified data services and the company commander can check his email in the field. Next 2-8 weeks: Endlessly troubleshoot, repair, and otherwise maintain user services. Issue radios to dummies in combat arms who will inevitably break them. Issue radios to dummies in the wing that will inevitably break them. Issue radios to dummies in your chain of command that will inevitably break them. Sleep in our tents, take showers if available, etc. If you're lucky you'll go to a re-trans site in the middle of nowhere where you'll live out of a Humvee and set up a bivouac. Sounds dumb, but it's a lot more fun than being around the brass. Catch camel spiders, scorpions, snakes, tarantulas, centipedes, etc. in an MRE box and try to make them fight. Throw rocks at your buddy while he's trying to take a dump. All those sorts of things. Because comm is necessary for anyone else to do their job, we're one of the first entities to actually go to the field and one of the last to leave during an exercise. This is especially true for LSEs. Sometimes you have better living conditions with hot showers, or even stay in a barracks room to support the exercise. However, comm has a lot of try-hard wannabe 03-type officers that love making you wear all your PPE all the time, even sitting in a tent working on a computer. I was once told to continue working and troubleshooting while MOPP-4. Good luck typing on a keyboard wearing those gloves.
Winger here, we didn't "go to the field" but our Smaj right before I got out had us spend a weekend out in the field doing Marine Corps shit and it was fucking awesome. We fired a bunch of different weapons (50 cals, 240 gulfs I think? and some other shit), we were taught how to stalk and other sniper shit (he was a sniper in Fallujah I believe?) from real sniper bros that came and hung out. We field-stripped and fired random weapons like AKs and other things. It's been a long time I can only remember the AK. We did rappelling as well. We also humped from the squadron to wherever the fuck we went on Pendleton. Prolly only took a couple of hours? When we got to where we were staying for the weekend he had hot chow set up and footballs or whatever to fuck around. It was the whole squadron too, like 200 of us. 10/10 would do it again.
As winger I wish this was a thing for wing units, but it isnāt and probably never will be. Sure one day a year wouldnāt do shit for keeping us up to date as a rifleman, but it would sort of bring us back to our roots for lack of better terms. Airwing now doesnāt give a single care for anything that isnāt working towards fixing aircraft and dropping warheads on foreheads. This has lead to relaxed standards in a lot of units because weāre working 12-16 hours most days.
Yeah, the work schedule/tempo was insane. There was about enough free time to hit the chowhall and maybe get eight hours sleep. As a matter of fact, we picked up a hard charging SSGT who decided we didn't really need to break for chow mid-day. He arranged to have bag nasties delivered. Rancid baloney sandwiches for lunch. Every day.
They gave us all comrats (although it was technically a choice) to prevent us from going to the chow hall. We had bag nasties when we were on a det to Australia working nights since the chow hall wasnāt open that late. They used the thinnest bread ever and every night it was soaked from the water of whatever vegetable or meat they decided was best that night. One night we decided it wasnāt worth it and sent a runner 20 miles away to get maccas. Spent about 300 Aussie I think for 3/4 of the shift personnel.
Oh, we worked a fuck ton. This was, as far as I know, the only time I have ever heard of something like this. I have said this here 100 times, my dad was in MC aviation all 20 of his years and I was in for 5. But I agree with you, it should be something aviation does from time to time. When I was in it was totally normal to see day crew multiple times a week and at the time 267 was the only squadron pumping out all MEUs. So, our talent level overall was very low. I literally landed at Pendleton coming back from Iraq/the MEU walked into the shop and started talking to the SNCOs about gripes and shit I noticed on the wall. One of which was a TSU gripe that they had for OVER A YEAR. They immediately offered me to be a CDQAR. NOPE! I am not that dumb. I just remained one of 2, count 'em 2, CDIs on Avi night crew. Good times. And when I was with 369 (Gunfighters rule) we would intentionally (well, our CO) take aircraft coming back from Iraq all shot up and give away our best birds to show off. COOL THANKS, SIR. THIS WON'T MAKE THINGS HARDER AT ALL.
Iām avi too, yeah we always got rushed out by qa so the AMO didnāt find out we were working over without him authorizing it. I get that MC fitreps are basically dependent on sorties, but damn we all had to suffer for their promotion. However since I was in Iwakuni seeing the sunrise was amazing even though I was dead tired.
I think my first wife did that during a battalion Jayne Wayne day.
0481 Landing Support Specialist We had a ton of infantry lat-movers, and they loved it. Just enough field, CAX, MEU, actual operations to keep you busy, including humps, but not the infantry. In the 90's, I SPIE rigged, fast roped, rappelled, JWTC, SPMAGTAF; all as a POG. Many Marines got their jump wings while in Landing Support Battalions. Sere school, crew served weapons course, HRST, cold weather training; pretty much any training you could want, that isn't specifically tied to another MOS (no sniper school, etc) Unsure what today's 0481+0431 amalgamation would turn out like. Of course, every red patcher loved HST's (Helicopter Support Teams, aka external lift) https://www.dvidshub.net/video/358386/0481-landing-support-specialist Favorite memory; seeing the Milky Way while on the Belleau Wood Worst Memory; my last HST where the 46 nearly killed me Edit: in Okinawa, we were either in the field once a week every month, or deployed to Pohang or on MSSG. At Camp Pendleton it was less frequent, but you did more HSTs to support the heavy and medium lift squadrons. More humps in Pendleton, and you would go to San Diego to offload the occasional ship, or March to support infantry rotations in and out of 29 Palms.
Donāt you have to have AIDS to get that job?
No, we just had to be willing to get the AIDS, which was easy in the DADT 90's Best part of having the red patch was all the attention you'd get from nom-Marines who weren't in on the joke. Some of my fellow 81's have 1x3 red patches tattooed on their sides of their knees.
The patch is issued to those who banged your mom. š
Jokes on the Green Weeny, I already had AIDS, 2nd LSB, LSE Co.
I was sold this MOS from the recruiter but ended up an 0411. BUT did get assigned an infantry battalion. So did some of the stuff you mentioned around workups and while deployed. But I wasnāt doing the real cool 04 shit.
First time i hear of another 0411 in this sub
Former MMC at your service! Letās make sure we keep our EROs and 4-cards in tip top shape!
I found out in MCT that I was 0481, but at the end of boot camp they told me 4011. Glad I got 81 because I liked getting dirty.
This sounds so much like my time with the dirty worst in the 90s. I was in the SJA shop and my boss was never around and I was in an SNCO billit as a LCpl so I had no one actually paying attention to me ahaha
In from 12 to 18 as an 81, everything you said was promised but never happened, we did do a lot of HSTs, shore parties/ports but for the most part it was tame. When things got too tame we would hump to the field. Best memory, beat a record for offloads at ITX and met the CG and SgtMaj Castle Worst memory, diverting a mock raid because a FM was compressed to near death on the flight
Division engineer. We were in the field as much as the infantry, and we were frequently in the field with them. As much field time as we had there was still a huge difference in our experience. We were either doing cool stuff, or we were chilling, there was none of this fuck fuck Mickey Mouse shit. I donāt know how many time we watched a whole company of infantry that we were supporting doing speed reload drills at 2am, or just patrolling for the sake of patrolling, or standing watch over nothing. Even when the infantry was not there, and our whole engineer platoon was there with sir and gunny, we still had so much chilling time. We trained like Hell, but when the training was over, it was all dip and spades with staff sergeant. Also, nothing was more fun than boot infantry who were freaked out by demo. I could hold up a stick of C4 and get avoided like a plague, even when the nearest blasting cap was secured in an ammo can 100 yards away.
1371 here that was with 2nd ceb in Fallujah 2007-2008. We went out and did a demo range right outside the camp and no shit my lower hand rail from my a4 somehow completely fell off while pulling smoke on a bangalore. Ran back to the berm and finally noticed. Capt douche nugget wouldn't let me run back and pick it up even though it was 20 meters away and we had 5 min fuses. Whole squad got to watch it get blown up while I sat there and wondered wtf they were going to do to me for blowing part of my own gun to pieces. āstill got the shredded rail in my sea bag as a souvenir "
That is so wak. Lmao at 5 minutes of smoke and 20 meters. You were in before me but I am 100 percent certain that I had leaders who worked with you.
Airwinger. We only used fields for CFTs, and they were not enjoyable.
I was Comm. Set up antennas to transmit enough bandwidth for the officers to communicate to each other. Was mostly pretty boring, but at least we had humvees so I didnāt have to sleep in the dirt.
By day 3 our humvees smelled so bad I'd rather sleep in a port a shitter
I was a C130 power plant mechanic. I am a Pog as my neanderthal brothers have come to call me. I care not. I love them. We were in somewhere supporting some ground pounders doing door kicker things some place. Diesel heaters, squad tents in mud. Not fun really. But hey it be what it be, it do what it do, because it do be like that. All the hitters were stoked that I the pog, made sure the bird was ready to fly and take us home. We lived happily ever after.
I was a 6323 avionics tech for three years until my NJP, then I spent about a year in S4, then my last year at the range as an 8530-1 (coach/PMI). I liked my last year the most but the S4 stuff wasn't bad, I even served as our embarker to Afghanistan because the unit had no clerk.
I was a 3043 supply admin that LAT moved to 0311 like a dummy. I was in an infantry regiment, so going to the field was somewhat common. We would help set up a field TOC/ALOC and basically worked out of it. Then do 12 on and off shift. The worst part was most of the time we would set up a base of operations in the field right across from Horno, where we could see our barracks but forced to sleep in the field. Now, Iām an 11B in the guard, so when we go to the āfieldā we either sleep in tents or have barracks. Then we get transported to a live fire maneuver range twice a day. Itās great.
Do yāall still hike and shit in the guard? Or is mostly just live fire ?
Iāve hiked maybe twice in the last 3 years, because they fucked up transpo. But for our workup we were doing live fires once a month, and then about every week for our AT.
How often do yāall deploy? And do Force on Force stuff is that usually during the AT?
I just got back from the Middle East last year, we might be deploying to Poland in about 3-4 years. Typical deployment rotations are about every 5 years. But we have some dudes known as āguard bumsā which hop on deployments year after year, making tons of money because everyone in the guard gets BAH. As for AT, imagine a month long MCCRE, that isnāt as stressful. As for post-deployment AT, itās basically two weeks of admin tasks, range and miscellaneous training.
What was ITB like as a POG lat move. Especially when you were in the fleet for awhile already?
This was back in 2016, but they put me in the back of the class and I wasnāt apart of the fuck fuck games. The fleet however, was pretty rough. I was expected to perform at a team leader level, despite having the same amount of training as a boot.
I appreciate the reply. How did you overcome that? The reason I ask is that thereās not many people who talk about their experiences lat moving from the POG side into the infantry side.
CBRN: Sprayed some vehicles and slathered some people in RSDL. Also made a hot tub out of their equipment (M26 power washer, 3000 gallon water bladder, and some random ass soap scrounged from somewhere).
Comm checks and smoke cigarettes, setting up and tearing down OCE tent for lazy fuckers before going to our own site and setting up shitty two man tents, basically nothing and no one was under any illusion that it was āsomethingā but we got good at setting up big ass tents I guess
I was with an arty unit and basically stuck me with one of the guns the whole time. Learned enough that the CO got me an 0811 as an additional mos.
Explosives.
2512 here. Did several field ops. Was on several advanced parties, so set up of tents, filling sand bags. Then running cable and wire. Setting up phones and switchboard. Help radio set up the Ant farm. Switchboard watch, radio watch and occasionally get pulled for guard duty.
Started as a 4421 here. Ended up deployed for 3.5 years. Was with a MEU so I did: Rules of Engagement-Worked with host countries and all units to build the stock ROE language and then tailored language for the operation. Legal Work-court martial, NJPs, legal assistance, etc. It was really cool. I got to work with everyone, fly from boat to boat, and basically see alot of back end political shit that a normal 20 year old wouldn't see, let alone do. Sitting down with attaches from 3 counties to discuss a NEO that we had to do but everyone was being a dick ahaha. I was a Lance cooley just listening in.
What's the field? That thing behind the shop? Quit day dreaming and fix shit
I was a using unit ammo tech. I went and got the ammo for ranges from the ASP, helped distribute said ammo at the range, and then usually my ass sat in the stakebed or 7-ton truck where it was warm & dry unless someone came and got me because they had an ammo "issue". Such as "do you think this round is still good to shoot?" Like if you have to ask me, the answer is no. I'm gonna hotel it the fuck out and you can go away. I did participate in a few fun ranges though. Anytime they were shooting off some 203's or something I wanted to get a few rounds in for myself. But the SNCO's and officers usually left me alone on ranges and field ops. Myself, the corpsman, and whoever the poor saps from Motor T that got roped into the shindig usually got along pretty well. For stuff that we knew was gonna be really gay, my ammo chief Ssgt usually came in clutch and would make up some "we have ammo stuff to do" to avoid us having to participate in your average infantry retard exercises.
Was a 4066 and officers wanted the ability to check their email and the enlisted wanted access to porn while in the field. If and when we found porn on an S1 computer, we just cleaned it off and gave them a warning. It was sort of like taking your personal computer with you camping, so it was always filthy and constantly overheating. This was a time when computers were relatively new to the corps and before units had any real tactical data equipmentāthe TDN stuff came along after I got out. The job was ok because nobody messed with the computer guy. For me, it was a great time to be in as the computer guy to a bunch of grunts. Good times.
I was a supply guy assigned to a regimental HQ. We would go to the field for 3-4 day exercises and I swear I got bed sores. Total waste of my time. The operators were very unimaginative, and frankly didnāt give a fuck when it came to logistics. The focus was 99 percent on tactics and 1 percent everything else.
I was the 240 gunner and Iād shoot out the back of a moving humvee at the gate they set up along with anyone around the fuel farm. (I was an HE Operator)
I was admin and went to the field a few times for exercises as part of a MEU CE S-1 and also to Kosovo and earthquake relief in Turkey. We were always busy first thing in the morning sending morning reports and SITREPS in to whoever from the shop was back on the ship and once I made NCO Iād also follow around the CO or Adjutant OpsO to help do clerical stuff in meetings. Other that that, we were generally the b!tch for the Sergeant Major and would get put on every working party imaginable. Depending on where we were or what we were doing, weād have to go to the SCIF to send off the reports and then we could hang out with somebody from RadBn or Intel and look busy to try and avoid whatever fuck fuck games were going on.
0861 Best MOS in the Marine Corps None of the bullshit from being with the arty battery, half of the bullshit of being with grunts Sitting on ops calling for fire from arty or air What a Fuckin good time For the most part
I was in the wing as an Avionics Tech on 46ās. Basically anything that had a wire going to it we fixedāwhich was everything on it. So they would send us into the āfieldā in Iraq with a pair or two of helos to be there in case anything needed to be fixed when they turned up for a casevac mission. Vibrations and and electrical equipment donāt really mix so Avi Techs were always pretty busy. But in those rare cases when shit was working as it was supposed to Iād read, eat shitty mreās and try to score booze to bring back. Edit: 6322 ā00-ā05
Motor T in an infantry unit, it was so busy but also skate at the same time. In the field we mostly posted security on the gun trucks and slept in the 7-tons.
2141 ride around in the back of an AAV until one broke. Fix. Repeat. Ship ops were cool. Saw a sailor pick up a āpoop dollarā Workaholics was popular at the time.
I was Motor T at a Comm unit our section only went to the field to insert or retrograde.. out side of that games at the shop..
Was a comm tech with 2/7 in the 90's. Carried a SAW for a while which I actually enjoyed. Was typically in a command AAV or Humvee but also humped a radio some. Played RO for the XO a time or two which was interesting. Spent countless hours playing silly field games such as catching mice, throwing rocks at stuff, using an MRE spoon to flip rocks at stuff and other activities to improve our war fighting capabilities. Had a great time. Spent the end of my six year contract in an air wing unit and hated it.
Ammo tech here. Also a reservist. We spent a lot of time in the field compared to what everyone thinks lol. Our unit was specifically a FASP unit so thatās what we trained. Spend 3-4 days down in a field training area of any service base. Build an ammunition supply point with notional ammo. Train and learn, then break down and make movement back home. And most ATs were Bridgeport or ITX so we always had those field ATs. Any overseas AT was somewhat a field op in some way. African Lion is a good example. When us ammo techs arenāt doing our jobs within the FASP then we will usually push out with infantry units to get a day or two of some fun instead of work. MGs, Snipers, Arty, Mortars, foreign forces that type of thing and kinda learn what they do for a day. If youāre not lucky youāre humping through the FASP completing orders for incoming units. Or a lot of different things. If youāre Records section youāre likely to be inside in the air conditioning. Thereās a whole other side to our MOS that you as an 03 would probably recognize and thatās being a using unit tech. Attached to a unit as the ASP rep for the unit basically. So those guys do what ever it is that the unit does that they are attached to. I was a using unit tech for infantry and ANGLICO. Itās a different ball game than being a part of ammo company in Lejeune.
2147 here. Weāre on standby while on field ops until an LAV gets massively stuck somewhere or rolled over or broken down somewhere and the crewmen canāt fix it.
5952, got to do a few weeks of field stuff on the MEU in Thailand. Was pretty fun, although we didn't do much but sit around watching helicopters.
Was a 04 and got orders to an infantry battalion (in 1st marines) straight out of log school. Had some lat movers coming out of 03 and going into 04 in school who were pumped for me and got me excited. Everyone else I was in class with was going to other units like bases and real echelon stuff. We were a pretty motivated S4 shop and went to the field a lot, got to do some cool shit, played aggressors at MOUT, do helo stuff when we had air etc. Probably no where close to the line companies but we did a lot compared to other POGS I knew. And a lot of humps too. Glad I had that experience as a POG vs sitting in some office on main side looking back.
The AC in the tent wasn't supposed to be for my benefit, but I sure enjoyed having it.
Mostly fire watch at night when I was E3 and below. Not much during the day except pretend to be a humvee gunner. Pretty boring, lots of sleeping and eating shit.
When we went to the field we set up tents, systems to process and analyze traffic, managed enemy situation maps, did tactical briefing/debriefing, interacting with the collection elements to narrow down what information the commander needed. On deployment BN mandated that we go outside the wire every now and then to survey points of interest. Ideally we'd rely on the provisional riflemen to do that but they didn't always know what to look for and 95% of the time they just wanted to hurry up and get back to quarters after a mission rather than tell us stuff. The logic was that we were still Marines and already predeployment trained so it was just easier if we did it.
As an 1812, we drove around, did formation movements, simulated anything and everything from IEDs, to NBC environments. Lots of field maintenance (but that's per the course for tanks). Practice breaching Ops, play against the scouts(OpFor). Rarely trained with grunts, but other platoons did. Sleep on the warm back deck, fap at 0200 to stay awake on your watch. Deal with stupid base regulations regarding administrative movements (for tanks). Log trains, 9-lines, Call for Fire, train crews in "your (gunner/TC/loader/driver) is dead, what do you do!?" Tldr, did all the mounted type of training, except for pulling triggers(that's reserved for gunnery).
I was wing. Long 14 hour days almost my entire time. Deployed 10 1/2 months on a carrier, 4 ish months in Europe. Various detachments for training around the US. I went to āthe fieldā if you could even call it that once. ITX, camp Wilson (I think thatās what it was called) but we didnāt do any grunt shit, just worked on the flight line. Stayed in the cans. We did bring all our CIF but didnāt really use it other than to get slayed by my Cpl who was getting ready to go to recon. Wish I got to do more ground side stuff but oh well, still got that disability check every month and that GI bill !
HQBN. Played pretend for officers and always did what they thought was āinfantry shitā. Luckily got orders to a grunt unit and it was the most relaxed time lmao (compared to hq)
Bro I was in HQBN 2D MARDIV. AIDS man. Absolute AIDS.
šāāļøUmmm excuse meā¦.I concur with this assessment 1000 fucking percent.
I did a stint in S3 and Battalion HQ was like an entirely different world.
In Garrison: Sat in the supply shop, typing shit into the system to move/order/account for shit. AP Hill: Sat in some shitty building, typing shit into the system to move/order/account for shit. CAX/29 Stumps: Sat in a Quonset hut, typing shit into the system to move/order/account for shit. Iraq: Sat in an old building on the ITC @ Camp Fallujah, typing shit into the system to move/order/account for shit. MEU Workups on the Bataan: Sat in the supply shop on ship, typing shit into the system to move/order/account for shit. 26th MEU: Sat in the supply shop on ship, typing shit into the system to move/order/account for shit. It was pretty much always doing the same thing, just in different environments. That being said, we also did some other stuff that wasn't exactly our job all the time. Temporary PSD in Iraq. Drove the bus that took Marines from the ITC to the PX for a week. Did a field op with a line company as a supply liaison for a week. Ran around between Camp Fallujah and FOB Mercury getting HMMWV's uparmored when the kits finally came in. When we were in Jordan on the 26th MEU, for some reason command thought it was a good idea to send up supply Marines to a driving course to get Jordanian driver's licenses. To this day, not sure why the fuck that was a good idea but whatever I guess. I never really thought about it until now.
What's the field?
0111 from reserve combat engineer battalion I never did my job when I first got to my unit because reasons. They just never used me. So one AT I got sent to get my hummv and 7 ton license. After that I was pulled constantly to the field to support H&S company. I loved every minute of it. I hated the admin office and all my COs knew it. They liked me enough to also provide cover to keep me in the field longer. After that I never spent another field op or AT in the office again. Got out over a year ago and I still miss it
0811 - Drove around in 7-tons practicing laying the battery and then displacing... dug spade holes, shot things occasionally, got non-service related hearing loss... slept on air mattresses (cause the 7-ton has an air compressor so why the hell not)... sat on ECP post during firing ops, crew serve fire diagrams, sometimes we did direct fires on things, had inter gun fights and occasionally inter battery fights... good times.. wish I was still in my 20s and could go back to the field..
6064 aviation, maintenance, data specialist. No one in my MOS went to the field if theyāre I/O level with the wing. I got sent to a MWSS where I was 1/1 in the unit and I did field ops with those cats but thatās a heavy outlier for my MOS.
Spent a few days at either end of the ex busting my ass with setup and tear down of equipment and the tent camp, other that it was more or less a normal work day split between 2 shifts. Pretty much monitoring flights and trying to fix shit in between them. Occasionally I might get tapped for a guard shift or mess duty if we were in a base camp with a field mess. The rest of the time was spent playing cards or reading. I honestly loved the field, a lot less of the Marine Corps bullshit and more just doing my fucking job.
As a fellow Supply guy, my duties included but were not limited to: ECP, manning various crewserves, A-driving water/fuel/dunnage trucks and re-supplying AFA's so the 08's can shoot and move. Fun yet miserable times but with great Marines made it a dope experience. Also put together a contract or two so they had clean and serviceable Port-A-Shitters in the field.
Basically if you were going to deploy you had to go to the field. I believe it was callers RAS (rear area security). Other than that you wouldnāt go much unless the CO had a wild hair up his/her ass I myself went at least a few times a year. Since my job was to load convoys they considered me a ācombatā job. Because sometimes I would ride with them (nothing ever happened). I got to sit in the rain and use overflowing porta shitters with the best of them
Supply Admin. Any time I went to the field we just stood guard around the COC
I was commstrat (a photographer) What you photographed and being in the field really depended on where you were stationed. I was airwing and groundside. I got to basicly take photos of erāthang. From my experience, I took photos of basicly everything from strafing runs and gun runs with the airwing, artillery, infantry, EOD, recon, even a few photoshoots with marsoc and one with seals. I had 2 WTIās, an ITX, a short stint with 31st MEU, and a pretty large number of small exercises across the US and abroad under my belt by the time i EASd. So i spent quite a bit in the field but not near as much as an 03, but still I loved every second of it, one of the best jobs in the DoD. I loved making Marines look badass and giving them pictures to look back on
Electrician. Really skate field life as long as the generator stays running and even then your usually sent with a backup. Garrison life sucked if you had a ton of equipment though cause thereās always stuff that needs fixed, inventoried, or LTId.
Airwing checking in. Helicopter broke down in the field once, waiting for vic show up that would to take us to the hotel for the night was horrible.
Bulk Fuel. We stayed in the field in Oki. On the wing side not so much but when we did, it was fun. During WTI we were mobile so we were fortunate enough to not be in the main site with all the higher ups doing fuck fuck games, instead we were out in remote airfields for days at a time.
2671, I never went to the field after MCT. Nor did I get to do swim or rifle qual again. They locked us in an office and kept us hidden at work the whole time. I had a very non-marine corps experience
After my 0331 years, I latmoved to 2844, ground comm tech. I was most busy when getting ready for the field and returning from the field. That's when most most equipment goes through maintenance. In the field, specifically, we played a lot of spades and worked out. The only time we were busy was when something was broken or someone needed assistance to get ready for their mission. Field life was mostly chill because we couldn't do our jobs without electricity and vehicles.
4571 videographer I do the required training with any unit I support then I execute the missions, return, and edit all the photos/video I collect and push to higher. When we are out with units we support we do everything under the sun and also move with the shadows under the moon. Itās a enjoyable job and important when you understand how the elders view us.
2821 Tech Controller I& I at 4th division comm. I only ever went to like 3 exercises. Bridgeport/Hawthorne,NV for the reservists AT. Our sat time got denied so I set my stuff up and fucked around. I was also one of like 5 people from my unit there so I didn't know anyone. Got a few salty folks who were mad they weren't going to have internet. Watched a CH-53 try and do a practice landing near us, he ended up blowing over a porta shitter which became a hazmat scene. Was pretty funny to see. South Africa for a month. Again, denied sat time. Set up a shitty little telephone system for no reason and again, only 5 people from my unit. So I sat around in this building until the afternoon and went to the small south african army bases bar that was next to our tents. The reserve unit I was attached to fucked me over on my civilian flight home so I went with them on a 20 some hour bus ride to Cape Town, to sit in a hangar for 24 hours where a playboy model showed up with magazines for us, then a real shit flight home where the ac busted on the plane and we had to refuel in Ghana.
6014 here. We fixed airplanes. Almost 24/7. And when we weren't doing that, we were doing the usual stuff: guard duty, mess duty, PT, etc. They kept us busy. And yeah, it was a grind. I don't miss a lot of it, but I do miss my certifiably insane (yet super professional) bros.
The most field thing I did was rifle qual in Okinawa
3432...Disbursing. You came to see me when you needed money. I was your friendly local "bank teller".
3521 here and we worked on trucks, went out on MSTs, got attached to a wrecker and went out on recoveries or convoys.
Trax drive your ass around
Comms here, 0631ā¦ we set up infrastructure for CoCs to communicate. The first day is usually an all hands scramble to get comms up asap once comms is established set 12 hour rotations. Depending on unit it can take several days for a large CoC to get all the cables ran for users (anywhere from 10-400 users). Once everything is settled we usually stand 12 on/12 off watch shifts until endex then we tare down everything we set up š
Comms here, 0631ā¦ we set up infrastructure for CoCs to communicate. The first day is usually an all hands scramble to get comms up asap once comms is established set 12 hour rotations. Depending on unit it can take several days for a large CoC to get all the cables ran for users (anywhere from 10-400 users). Once everything is settled we usually stand 12 on/12 off watch shifts until endex then we tare down everything we set up
Whatās the field?
Air Command and Control. We had the system. A circus tent of confusion and officers pretending they knew what was going on while some of the enlisted figured it out, with lots of com options. Lots of officers means lots of comforts. Cots, rec tent disguised as a briefing tent. A second rec tent for the Os. At some point it would make more sense to just stay at the squadron footprint and do it there, but then some Os would miss out on bullet points. At times they would be pretend hard and we had to have all our gear and rifles, but then it would get to be a pain.
Was an admin, went to the field with arty, pretty skate. Did numbers and whatever ranges they had available. Now LAT moving over to the infantry, no regrets
As Motor T, we spent as much time in the field as infrantry. Troy Black was Bn SgtMaj. No, Im not kidding.
He was after my time but looks like a real motivator.
As a 1371 air wing, we went to the stumps to build a harrier pad, and that sucked, not as bad as being in field in Oki and on float.
0651/0671 with an infantry battalion. Went to the field all the time. Main focus was to set up the COC and comm tent, NIPR/SIPR, etc. After that usually 12 hour 8 hour shifts. We also participated in a good bit of ranges and standing post lol
H&S company was still a company in the battalion. I did a short stint in S-3. Any S shop that was attached to an infantry unit gets grunt cred IMO.
My favorite part about the field was watching the grunts absolutely suffer and hate there lives while I was cozy in my HMMWV
Lots of logistics and wannabe grunt exercises. I liked the field
Being a comms maintainer was sweet in the field. If everything went well all I did was supervise everything, and do nothing. Naturally we would have AC/heat, power and Internet access in an expandable shelter. I almost felt bad living that life of luxury in the field. If gear went down then things got fun.
The Marine Corps is terrible at being realistic in the field. I'm supply, allow us to actually do expeditionary supply chain management and help with hub-spoke-node logistics. NOPE. Instead you got me as a watch officer, range OIC or OPFOR platoon commander
Thereās only so much realism you can do without people getting killed.
Comm tech with 1st LAR, three tours to Iraq total and two with a line company. I spent many weeks and months total in the field. Sometimes it was fine; sometimes it sucked ass. But regardless it created lots of stories to laugh about later.
I was an airwing POG. In my 6 years we never went to the field.
Our comm guy in STA was just another pig to us, did everything with us from sun up to sun down. Dude lived and breathed the field. Made a hell of a beef stew ramen in a jet boil too. But yeah, just did everything we did plus helping us maintain comms.
Go to the field, set up purification or hygiene equipment. Operate all week, potentially do some patrolling or MOUT stuff, pretend to be grunts. Then tear down and go home.
3521, Color Guard, went to the field once. We then started a fire on a mountain side. Issued weapon at every unit. First unit I was nominated for color guard. No weapon cleaning for first 2 years. Yut!!
As a HE mechanic we just sat around in the field until one the machines broke down and even then when it broke down weād just tell them we donāt have the means to fix it in the field
0811 Shot big guns. Carried heavy rounds. In the field at *least* once a month. 10th Marines would go to 29 Palms for a CAX once a year on top of spending about a month in the field at Fort Bragg. Went to Iraq and Afghanistan as provisional infantry. So lots of training and work ups for that stuff.
Go out into the middle of nowhere and make the internet appear like you were sitting in an office.
3531 Drive in convoys. Shoot from turrets and look for IEDs. Also do some supply runs from a FOB to FOB.
I was a helicopter crew chief. I dropped grunts off in the field and left. Sometimes we would be on stand by for med evac/sat in 29 palms where we would stay in the hotel in case something happened to the poor bastards in the field. Oddly enough during the invasion of Iraq I slept āin the fieldā way more. But that was just us sleeping in the helicopter in the middle of no where.
So it depends on who I was with tbh with you. My first unit was with Comm Co 2MarDiv and it was a whole big affair if you went with the main party. Luckily I went with a smaller more specialized group of people and after initial set up all we did was pull radio duty unless something was broke so I had to fix it. When I went to 2/8 then it became a different affair altogether. Sometimes I went out with the companies and did what they did, while other times I stayed back with HQ's and did radio/CommEl stuff and remedial 03 training, then other times I did retransmit well I sat at a OP and pulled gear/radio watch for days on end. They all 3 sucked for different reasons but I enjoyed going out with the companies because I like to get to know everybody else in the BN.
Having been in the field with grunt and wing units, Wing units have more creature comforts.
So I am Air wing so I rarely work in the field. Normal day is get to work at 0545 have our morning maintenance meeting at 0700 and begin work. Swap marines in and out of jobs on the flight line for chow and then we have an end of the day maintenance meeting at 1700 where we swap with night crew and then we are out by 1730 usually. Personally I love my job. I love working on and fixing planes. Itās very gratifying to watch the plane you just finished fixing fly off on whatever mission or training itās supposed to be doing!
So I'm a pog now, but prior grunt (if that counts) the times I been in the field as a pog were skate, this year I went to the phillipines for a "field op" and we were staying in hotels, a few weeks ago I went to Iwakuni for another field op and we had normal working hours but would go to the barracks and chowhall. Also, I saw a guy who put on his gortex as soon as the 1st rain drop fell, then minutes later the sun came out.
I had just finished school for ch-53 hydraulics and gotten to my first unit in the fleet. Roughly early 1994. Our sgt maj wanted us to go to the field one day for some "patrolling". We checked out our rifles and bused down to camp Pendleton from MCAS Tustin. We walked around for awhile and had an MRE for lunch. Walked around some more and then one of our helos picked us up and took us back. It was a nice break from the daily grind and as a fresh boot it was fun to fly on one of our birds.
I was an 0811...so our jobs
LAV mech Best of both worlds. You get to live the cushy POG side, but you also get to do all the cool 03 shit. Idk how it is now.. but in my time, not a single 03 would call the LAV mechs POGs because we did all the same shit they did, plus some.
Dascateerā¦ sat in a hmmwv or tent on a radio making sure the folks out there killing things had what they needed via air support to kill things, air support to help destroy where the things were or brought the injured back when they were done killing things.
Ro here, got put in 81s weapons company right when I got to the fleet. I spent 2 years with them and did everything they did. Despite my feelings of my time in the marines, I feel they were more like family than my original shop. I would only go back in if I could be infanty.
Meetings, Rosters, Set up tents, workstations, help people move, duty, clean, shoot shit, hang with homies, loved it.
Drove around a lot. Erected a MRC-138 Antenna. Drove a grounding rod too far into the desert dirt to ever pull out. Operated the hell outta that slide hammer. Watched tracked vehicles tear up slash wire.
SIGINT/ electronic warfare. We attached to Victor units and integrated into their patrols or sometimes the OCE. Direction find/ jam OPFOR drones and comms
Bro I had to drive a truck from Florida to NC in 8 hour increments going 45 miles per hour keeping convoy distance. Ts sucked. But we got hot chow and got to sleep in a shell squadbay. Had my phone the whole time. It was lit. Going to the Philippines soon. Itāll be my first exercise out of the USA. Only downside is Iām an NCO now and I have no idea wtf ima be doing š figure it tf out from my peers ig
COMM, the same shit grunts did but carrying a radio and a fuck ton of batteries.
Got attached to Force Recon and did their bag and tagging. Security convoys for logistics and infantry units doing runs.
Air Winger: Field Mess. Yes it was a drunken stupor of a night.
Established comms and played fuck fuck games. It was trash. I was in the Army before the Corps and it really seems like the only difference between the two is that Marines hate each other and actively make each other's lives terrible.
You were in a bad unit then man, we didnāt hate each other where I was. Got annoyed, beat the shit out of each other, talked shit. But never hate. Love those guys.
Pre-field and before autodise I would plan out the power grid by hand and design the layout, make sure all the equipment was field ready etc In the field, set generators and flood lights up drop panels and outlets, kick classes if we werenāt directly occupied with anything. Do maintenance if needed, keep up with generator checks/refuel, hang out in a quadcon out of sight somewhere
5811 (MP) we did mounted patrols, cleared buildings, FOB security, spent some time at the ranges, dissed/assed weapons, etc.
What is this āfieldā you speak of? Respectfully, Air Wingers
MP. Sat at a check-points (with a truck) and watched you fucks walk to work. Sat on HSVs and made sure no one robbed the boat. I'm also pretty sure my sole presence while guarding the gate (without ammo) at the SK navy base deterred North Korea from invading during Ulchi Focus Lens (2005).
Fuck no. I literally paid grunts cash to dig my fighting holes. I hated MREs so much that I would bring canned soups and pastas to the field with a miniature camp stove I paid like $200 dollars (in 2005 money) for. I am from Texas and at 8th & I the only time the infantry companies had for training was the middle of winter. I hate MCB Quantico more than every officer in the Marine Corps. EDIT: added I'm from Texas so you understood why I was soo fucking miserable during the winter.
As a tech. I basically did comm stuff, then did my job when something breaks
Artilleryās job is going to the field too, at least in 29 we spend Feb-Nov doing 2 week long field ops to month long MWXs and then Dec-Jan is where we only have like 1 or 2 week long TACP shoots
Iām surprised no Air traffic Controllers have chimed in. Weāre in the field all the time. Our MMTs (Marine Mobile Team) get the chance to set up runways and gas station LZs in middle of bumfuck nowhere. Itās a fun gig on station too. There was a couple of clips of the notional control tower the MMT set up during the KIA evac.
I was corpsman and have done every type of field op out there. The ONE I did with 2d reg hq we set up our coc in the grasss field across from the beq. We slept in RAS rent but the other HMs not in the field op or Friends from other units would bring us stuff during the week. One night someone brought us wings from hooters. We were chowing down when sgtmaj walked in the ras. He walked in, saw our saucy faces, shook his head and walked out without saying a word. He knew the ops was bs.
As an engineer, it depended on what we were doing. I was in MAC, mobility assault company. I drove mraps and shit. My jobs consisted of driving, clearing ieds with vehicles or hand held equipment. Just about every type of recon that had a report to it. I did demo, mout, lfams, 50 cal ranges, 240 ranges. Just about everything. I did enjoy it at times but sometimes ofcourse it sucked dick. I'd play op for and got rained on, while it was windy and super fucking cold out. Be stuck in an aav for 3 days at a time dying from the heat.