In 1972 I went into the Marines and got out in 1974. Was out only a short time and decided to see what the Army was about. I did not have to go to Army Boot Camp because they said I had the worlds finest training in the Marines. For my first year and a half I was stationed at the Presidio in San Francisco, right off the Golden Gate Bridge. After that, I was sent to Berlin Germany when it was still East and west. I can only say it was one big vacation in the Army. Have any of you Marines gone to another branch after the Marines? The funny thing is, I hardly ever think about the Army but the Marines is where my heart is at. Semper Fi
A few years after my initial enlistment in the Marine Corps which included a tour in Vietnam I considered the National Guard. But, I just couldn’t see myself wearing an army uniform. Somehow, it just didn’t set right…..Bob 1381…Vietnam 1966/1967.
Bob, I know what you mean. A lot of my friends I grew up with were in the Army Guard, but when I got home in 1971, the way they wore their uniforms looked like Joe Sh*t the Ragman dressed them. All I could say was “No Thanks”.
I don’t think I have ever seen anyone in the Army or Air Force that seamed to take pride in the way they wore their uniforms. Wrinkled and poor fit seems to be the norm. The Navy seems to take a little more pride than the Army or Air Force. I guess the saying holds true; “YOU’RE IN THE ARMY, YOU’RE IN THE AIR FORCE BUT YOU ARE A MARINE”! …Bob 1381…Vietnam ’66/’67.
I agree
why would any marine do that ???
Heard of Marines joining the Guard and Reserves but do not personally know any that went regular army. Know of a few that went from other branches to Marine Corps. Had a guy in boot that at 24 (Old Guy) decided to enlist in Marines. Did not know until right before graduation that he had already one tour in Vietnam. Had 3 ribbons on his uniform, one more than one of our Jr. DI,s an E-5 Sgt Wertz no Vietnam service to that point, odd. Paul Plt3047
After 12 years in the Corps and not on the list for Gunny, I put on the Army uniform to complete my career and retire. I am a member of the Marine Corps League and wear my DOD ribbons when in uniform (so I can wear my gold jump wings) and that is the only way you can tell I was a soldier…
Was a soldier, am a MARINE! I was helping them “be all that they could be”!
Tom Bates
2531/9962/8411
I joined the Corps in 1962 at the age of 17. Rode the train to Yamasee and the bus to PI. Did 4 years + 4 months and got out in Oct 66 after 10 months at Danang. After college I joined a USNR SeaBee Detachment. Spent 3 enjoyable years with the “Bees”. Later in life I served with the Maryland Nat’l Gd, Pa. Nat’l Gd, and finally the US Army Reserves. Served in Saudi during Desert Shield, Desert Storm. Retired with 23 years service at the age of 49. Through it all, I went where they sent me. I served in the jobs assigned. No regrets. I would do it all again.
Know several that went into the Army after not being able to hang with the Corps, most turned Marine again after they either retired or got out of the Army. I asked one if he was so much more proud of his Marine Corps service vice his Army service why in the world did he ever join the Army, he simply stated that one morning he woke up went to the head and his Balls fell off so he knew he would have to use a Latrine from then on!
I was an enlisted Marine in Viet Nam/Thailand. Left the Corps and went to college. Got into medical school and became a medical doctor. Joined the Navy to pay for medical school. I was honored to return to the Corps as the Battalion Surgeon for 2/1, 3/1, Regimental Surgeon for 1st Marines and served in a field hospital during Desert Storm.
I left the Navy because my heart belonged to the Corps. I have deep respect for the Navy but for me, it was a second best.
Yeah, I have unfortunately made that mistake as well. After eight years as an 0341 to include Embassy Duty, I got out and decided I would go to college. I tried Marine reserves for a while. It was a Mechanic company. Hated it. Hands in pockets. “Yeah, ok” instead of “Yes Gunny.” For some unknown reason I thought the Ga. National Guard would be better with an Infantry company. HA HA HA HA! Everyone was related to each other somehow in the units I Found myself in. On live fire exercises I had to threaten soldiers with bodily harm if they turned around with their rifle while moving on line towards an objective.
Overall, the only ones I could even bare to work with were former Marines in the same predicament as I was in and former Rangers. The others could do the job, but with a lot of threats and doing the same thing over and over again. I realized that I could “Quit” the National Guard because of my active duty time in and did so. I miss the corps even now.If I woke up in Boot Camp day 1, tomorrow, I would be a happy man.
Having read a few memories, I consider myself fortunate. After boot camp graduation (platoon 145-1957) I was chosen for “choice”duty to marine barracks-Naples,Italy-security duty at AFSOUTH.
After my hitch there returned to camp Lejuene and assigned to artillery platoon as chart operator.
One fact worth mentioning is that everybody home and abroad know and respect the “marines” – SEMPER-Fi.
I entered on Active Duty in the Corps in 1968, did my two years of Active Duty at Camp Lejeune, and then did Active Reserve Duty (if you remember, way back then there was something called “Inactive Reserve”time) with a Unit (4th CAG) stationed at the Washington (DC) Navy Yard. In 1976, the role of “intelligence” became very important in my full-time civilian job (Investigator with the DEA), and I tried to pick up an Intel MOS through my USMC Reserve Unit. Because there were no slots for Intel MOS’s anywhere in the USMC Reserve TO&E at that time, I did an Inter-Service Transfer to a US Army Reserve Unit, where, over the course of about 18 years of Reserve Duty, I picked up MOS’s as an Interrogator, as a Strategic Intelligence Analyst, and as a Counterintelligence Agent. The comparison between the two Services was interesting. I did not have to go to Army Boot Camp (remember, it had been 8 years since I went through PI); I was automatically promoted one pay grade (to E-6); whenever the Unit went to qualify at the rifle range, I was automatically made the Range Safety NCO;
and I was always the most squared away person in any formation or in the field – just because I was a “ former Marine”. All of the Army Reserve Units with whom I served over the years accomplished their missions (some better than others), but that “esprit de corps”, that brotherhood that is ingrained in the Corps was never there. I am proud that I earned the title of United States Marine; and despite the fact that my DD Form 2 (RETIRED) days that I retired from the US Army, I will always be a Marine at heart.
Yep, I remember the two types of Marine Reserves. Around the first of November, 1965 some of my former classmates from high school started getting their draft notices. I called the local draft board and asked where I stood. The lady told me that in about two weeks I would be in the army. I said I don’t think so. My wife and I had only been married for two months and we wanted to spend our first Christmas together’ if all possible, and make arrangement for storing our furniture and moving her back in with her parents. So, I went straight to the local Marine Corps recruiter to enlist. When he asked me how long I wanted to enlist for I asked him what my options were. He told me that since they had started sending some draftees to the Marine Corps that they had a two years active duty and four years reserve program with a delayed entry. Therefore, I was able to wait until the second week in January, 1966 to report to MCRDPI for recruit training. I had already passed the physical to be drafted so I was able to enlist as soon as the recruiter finalized the paperwork. After my two years active duty, which included a tour in Vietnam, I was released and assigned to a reserve unit but was designated a “Standby Reservist”. Since I lived over 50 miles (I think that’s the distance) from the reserve unit I wasn’t required to attend any meeting but had to report any change in family status once or twice a year when they sent me a report form. … Bob…1381..Vietnam 1966/1967.
I was sent my US Army draft notice in June of 1966. I took a physical and was accepted for enlistment. I went into the recruting section of my area and spoke with the recruting sargent. He said the Army wouls accept the draft physical and I enlisted on the spot.
I served basic training at Ft. Lewis Washington and it was not easy. The 1966 Army training I got was hard and exhausting but I loved every minuet of it. In 1967 I was sent to Viet Nam and returned home in 1968 in good shape. I was released from active duty in september of 1969.
Since then I served for 13 more years in the Airforce National Guard and the US Airforce Reserve. I was activated for the last part of Desert Storm in 1992 at 47 years of age, and sent to Saudia Araibia for 110 days.
I am not complaining. I am honored that I was able to serve my contry for three years active and 13 years reserve duty. I would do it again if I could. It does not matter to me which Military Unit I did service in, it just matters that I did as I was asked and that I am proud to have served.
I only served in the Marine Corps, but going through boot we had a recruit a lot older than the rest of us young bucks. He got a lot of attention from our DIs. Come to find out, he had a USAF tattoo in his arm. He had done an enlistment in the Air Force before joining the Corps. They gave him hell, but he graduated with us.
I joined the Marines in August 1979, barely 17 years old, as a 0331 I was sent to Barracks duty Norfolk, VA. Did my entire first enlistment there and got out in August 1982. Back in Michigan I got married and ended up joining the Michigan National Guard, did not need to go thru boot of course, they made me a Specialist 4 and would be the Squad leader for the machine gun squad, the 8 months I was with the Guard I preferred my men call me Corporal since that’s what I got out of the Corps as. These were good men, but not Marines, I re-enlisted in the Marine Corps in June 1984 holding rank and time in grade. It was good to be back, not easy, especially now with a family, but there’s something about the comradery and esprit de corps of the UNITED STATES MARINES!
I served active duty Marine Corps then Selected Reserve Marine Corps, but not as a traditional reservist as it was all active for two weeks at a shot on orders. Then I moved and went to college to finish my baccalaureate degree. After college, I joined the air farce reserves. I went active for a while then back to reserves. I hated the political mental midget games, so I 368’d to the nasty army guard. Hated the good ol’ boys club and drama there. Finished my time and got out. Years later, I thought I could help the community in boating, so I joined the coast guard auxiliary. Wasn’t organized very well. Felt no camaraderie, so I left. What about the Navy, you ask? My time spent as a Sea Cadet in my youth was enough for me. Of all branches, I miss the Corps the most. If I had it to do all over, I would’ve stayed in and retired, but hindsight is 20/20.
After graduating high school in1974 I earned my EGA & worked the brig for 12 years ,got my rocker & then became an instructor/Plt.Sgt at MCSF . After getting RIF’d In 1991 ,I tooled around as a civilian for 14 years before joining the army national guard & went to Iraq in 2008. Peacetime in the ‘Corps was infinitely more difficult than was being an OldMan in the wartime army ! Was given lots of awards ( colored ribbons) in the army but they mean considerably less ,to me, than the EGA . God blessed me when those 3 D.I.’s put the fear of God in me ( yes I remember their names ,1 died of cancer ) &the Devil cursed me with my time in the army !
USMC 68-72, VN 69-70, went to college and a direct commission into the USAF 76-83, switched my
commission to the Army and got my second all expense paid trip to a war, the 1st GW 90-91. Got promoted after I got back and finished my time in the Army Reserve. Retired after 26 yrs. total service time. I’ve been asked a time or two why I didn’t serve in the Navy and hit all four branches?? I smile and say I did serve in the Navy, the men’s dept..
Started boot camp Nov of 67. We had an “old man” of 24 in plt. 2217 at MCRD SD. He had 4 years army, and 4 years Navy already. He had to go through Marine boot anyway. He wanted to do 4 years in each of the 4 main branches. I wonder if he ever got out of the Corps and did 4 years AF, or if he just stayed in the Corps.
Daniel
I spent four years in the regular Marine Corps and six years in the regular Army. I was a tank crewman in both branches, and also as an Air Cavalryman in the Army. My first Army platoon sergeant was a former Marine. I served in Vietnam in both branches. Nineteen months as a tanker with 1st Tank Battalion, 1st MarDiv., and ten months as an Air Cavalryman with the 101st Airborne Div. and the 1st Cavalry Div. I earned both the Combat Action Ribbon from the Marines, and the Combat Infantryman’s Badge from the Army. I take equal pride in being both a Marine and a Soldier. In combat, as both, I detected the American fighting spirit as being equal to accomplish the mission.
I have a gut felling that a lot of these comments are all BULL SHIT!! Bill 0331
Were you in the Marines?
CWO-5 Noble Callaway
After returning from Vietnam as a sergeant with 20 months in grade in Jan 1971 and discharged I was offered a commission or warrant officer in the local Army Reserves and National guard about seven miles away. But I just couldn’t see myself in the Army so I drove 80 miles to serve in the Marine Corps Reserve. I went on to make Master Sergeant and then warrant officer. A couple of friends who took the Army commissions later told me they had more respect as a sergeant of Marines then they did as a Lieutenant in the Army
4 years in the Marines. Got out, hated civilian life and tried to get back in. They weren’t taking retreads at that time. I was not inclined to be a civilian any longer, so I crossed the hallway to the Air Force recruiters office. The Air Force wanted my training (6113/6167 CH-53A/D)to work on their helicopters (HH-53C) I wanted to leave immediately but ended up taking 30 days to get enlisted in the AF. I spent 21 years in the Air Force and retired as a E-8 Senior Master Sgt.