USAF vs USMC/Marine Aviation

[Guest SuperStallionIP]

Originally posted by Vetter:

Anyone know who I can talk to get transfer into the Marine Corps?

How far along are you at Columbus?

[Vetter]

I've got over 2 years left on my tour...my first tour.

[deaddebate]

Necro thread bump.

I have a relative who is seriously considering joining the military as a hopeful pilot applicant. I and several other people have attempted to convince him the Air Force is a better choice due to the substantially better quality of life. His counter-argument is the brotherhood and community pride of the Marines is unparalleled. I'd appreciate any recent commentary and opinions on this topic. Hopefully some posts will reinforce my position and recommendation, but what I really want is for him to be informed of the realities of the services before he makes a life decision. Thanks for any input.

[GKinnear]

Necro thread bump.

I have a relative who is seriously considering joining the military as a hopeful pilot applicant. I and several other people have attempted to convince him the Air Force is a better choice due to the substantially better quality of life. His counter-argument is the brotherhood and community pride of the Marines is unparalleled. I'd appreciate any recent commentary and opinions on this topic. Hopefully some posts will reinforce my position and recommendation, but what I really want is for him to be informed of the realities of the services before he makes a life decision. Thanks for any input.

I know a current AF Reservist who swears he got passed over in the Corps as a Capt due to not having a high enough belt in a martial art. I want to say mauve, maybe it was purple. Regardless, ask him what he wants to get passed over for; not having your Master's or a teal belt in Judo.

But the training at Pensacola and Whiting Field is very nice, location wise and much more relaxed than formal release at UPT. The majority of pilot slot are involved in the CAF, but as helo pilots. Sooooo, he's got to pick his poison. Both have LIMFACS. Go with his gut and don't look back. He'll enjoy either.

[JarheadBoom]

I and several other people have attempted to convince him the Air Force is a better choice due to the substantially better quality of life.

His counter-argument is the brotherhood and community pride of the Marines is unparalleled.

Both points are 100% correct (in my opinion).

The Corps is definitely a lifestyle choice if one intends to make a career of it:

- Especially for officers, PCS moves every 3-4 years are Marine Corps policy - there is no homesteading. There's not many options for base locations - for Air Wing Marines, it's basically NC, SC, CA, AZ, or Okinawa. (There's a couple outliers, but they're not relevant to this discussion.)

- Marksmanship scores and PFT/CFT scores - not Pass or Fail, but the actual scores - are on everyone's FitReps. It is unwritten-but-well-known policy that if all else is equal, the person with the higher rifle/PFT score(s) will get selected over the person with lower score(s). IIRC, the expectation was that officers would have a first-class PFT score, especially CGOs.

- I know pre-9/11, the expectation was that all Marines in "the Fleet" would do at least two 6+mo. deployments per tour/enlistment. I witnessed plenty of Marines get PCA'd to enforce that, some with pretty short notice (less than a month in a few cases). I have no current info on whether that still happens or not. Pre-ISIS, I had heard rumors that the Corps was trying to get back to that standard; I have no current info on how that's going, or if it's even true.

These points aren't in any particular order, other than when they popped into my head.

I'll add more later if I think of it.

[scoobs]

Airwarriors.com

[dvlax40]

Marine First,

Officer Second,

Pilot Third.

pretty much sum up the Corps.