# Marine poolee in need of advice.



## zsazsa123 (Jan 6, 2020)

Since I was 14 I wanted to be a Marine and I got into the dep program in August. But lately I have been thinking about other options. I had a conversation with a person who is in a very tough military occupation and after looking at my asvab and pt scores they told me I would gain more by challenging myself, I don't know much about the Army but I got interested in trying to be a Ranger I know the training goes BCT-AIT-RASP but I don't know much about RASP. I know it's 8 weeks long and really hard. If I were to drop out of the DEP and try to reenlist in the Army would this be held against me? Also what could I do to prepare for RASP right now I'm running and working on my pullups, pushups and core as well as boxing but would weight lifting help me more? What advice would you give to a high schooler who is going to RASP and how could I mentally prepare if that's what I decided to do?


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## Ooh-Rah (Jan 6, 2020)

zsazsa123 said:


> If I were to drop out of the DEP and try to reenlist in the Army would this be held against me?


How far along are you?  

Have you been to MEPPS and signed a contract?

Do you have a ship date for Bootcamp?


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## zsazsa123 (Jan 6, 2020)

Ooh-Rah said:


> How far along are you?
> 
> Have you been to MEPPS and signed a contract?
> 
> Do you have a ship date for Bootcamp?


I signed a contract and my ship date is July 11 but I haven't signed an MOS contract yet


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## Ooh-Rah (Jan 6, 2020)

zsazsa123 said:


> I signed a contract and my ship date is July 11 but I haven't signed an MOS contract yet


?

Does that mean you are going 'open contract' and your MOS assigned after Bootcamp?


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## zsazsa123 (Jan 6, 2020)

Ooh-Rah said:


> ?
> 
> Does that mean you are going 'open contract' and your MOS assigned after Bootcamp?


No they way they do it is you sign an initial contract at meps and sign an mos contract later.


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## Ooh-Rah (Jan 6, 2020)

zsazsa123 said:


> No they way they do it is you sign an initial contract at meps and sign an mos contract later.


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## Teufel (Jan 6, 2020)

Damn dog, you haven't even started and you've already quit. Semper sayonara


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## Arf (Jan 7, 2020)

My SOF mentor told me that (this is for the navy) I had to back out 90 days prior to my ship date if I wanted to switch branches. I was considering Army SF.
My recruiters didn’t tell me this of course, but when I asked, they confirmed. It is likely the same for you, but then again different branches have different rules.


If Ranger sounds more appealing, go Ranger.

Did they tell you that Marines have Force Recon and MARSOC Raider though? 
The path might be more streamlined to go option 40 and go for Ranger however. Someone here will be able to tell you if Force Recon and MARSOC will allow you to jump straight into the pipeline.


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## Marine0311 (Jan 7, 2020)

My advice would be to figure out what you want to do like right now and stop soft shoe stepping around it.


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## Gunz (Jan 7, 2020)

zsazsa123 said:


> Since I was 14 I wanted to be a Marine...If I were to drop out of the DEP and try to reenlist in the Army would this be held against me?



Yeah. By me. But if you change your mind...again...there's this:

https://shadowspear.com/vb/threads/welcome-to-the-marine-corps-mentor-group.30590/


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## DasBoot (Jan 7, 2020)

zsazsa123 said:


> Since I was 14 I wanted to be a Marine and I got into the dep program in August. But lately I have been thinking about other options. I had a conversation with a person who is in a very tough military occupation and after looking at my asvab and pt scores they told me I would gain more by challenging myself, I don't know much about the Army but I got interested in trying to be a Ranger I know the training goes BCT-AIT-RASP but I don't know much about RASP. I know it's 8 weeks long and really hard. If I were to drop out of the DEP and try to reenlist in the Army would this be held against me? Also what could I do to prepare for RASP right now I'm running and working on my pullups, pushups and core as well as boxing but would weight lifting help me more? What advice would you give to a high schooler who is going to RASP and how could I mentally prepare if that's what I decided to do?


Honestly do what you want at this age. Don’t get poopy when you fail RASP and end up in a big Army unit and go “oh I should’ve been a Marine...” And if you do make it, and you get here and realize this is a hard, often shitty place to be- that it definitely isn’t all cool guy shit and it’s a whole bunch of layouts and last minute details like any other Army unit- same rules apply, don’t go “I should’ve been a Marine.”

That said- I tend to take a different stance than most people on this type of post: you are still a teenager, you have a lot of life ahead of you. What people say on a board on the internet will not affect you in 6 months time. Do what you want at your age and just enjoy the ride- the ups, and the downs. You don’t have to tell anyone when you show up to Benning that you started the process to be a Marine.There will be no paper trail following you. Clean slate. There maybe some issues with dropping your contract and going to the Army considering you signed one, but that should all get hammered out at MEPS when you go back. Talk to the Army before you drop the USMC one. Or stick with it and serve proudly as a Marine.

At the end of the day, you want to serve, and I support that regardless of the service or job you want to pursue. If you end up in the Coast Guard or pursue an NSW contract of some kind, good on you. Stick with the Marines? Enjoy that dope uniform and awful haircut. And if you go the Ranger route- good luck, my buddy just became RASP cadre, so know I’ll be watching your posts intently....

Good luck.


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## Ooh-Rah (Jan 7, 2020)

DasBoot said:


> Stick with the Marines? Enjoy that dope uniform and awful haircut.


And @zsazsa123 , if you do decide to stay Marine Corps, double check on your contract. You say you’ve been to MEPS and you’ve signed a contract, and you have a July ship date, but no MOS because they’ll do that part later?

For your own sake VERIFY that shit, because what you describe sounds to me like Open Contract, which translates to “needs of the Corps” assigned after Bootcamp.


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## zsazsa123 (Jan 7, 2020)

Ooh-Rah said:


> And @zsazsa123 , if you do decide to stay Marine Corps, double check on your contract. You say you’ve been to MEPS and you’ve signed a contract, and you have a July ship date, but no MOS because they’ll do that part later?
> 
> For your own sake VERIFY that shit, because what you describe sounds to me like Open Contract, which translates to “needs of the Corps” assigned after Bootcamp.


I know it sounds weird but even the people at meps said I would sign a job everyone joining the Marines would sign a job contract later


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## zsazsa123 (Jan 7, 2020)

Ooh-Rah said:


>


It's how they do it now 
reddit.com/r/USMCboot/comments/88o9qk/do_you_sign_your_official_mos_contract_at_meps/


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## Ooh-Rah (Jan 7, 2020)

zsazsa123 said:


> It's how they do it now
> reddit.com/r/USMCboot/comments/88o9qk/do_you_sign_your_official_mos_contract_at_meps/


I put my 2 cents in, and wish you the best.  But...I’m going to try to get through to you one last time; then I’m out.

You have a ship date to attend Recruit Training at MCRD.  Everything I’ve ever known says that means you have either signed a contract to attend a specific MOS school directly out of boot camp, OR you are going in open contract, which means you are going to learn how to type, cook, or low crawl....TBD sometime in 3rd phase.

I got literal douche-chills when I saw that you are taking advice from a reddit thread instead of sitting face-to-face with your recruiter and asking him/her directly. But...to quote my 16 year old son, “you do you, man.”


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## Marine0311 (Jan 8, 2020)

zsazsa123 said:


> I know it sounds weird but even the people at meps said I would sign a job everyone joining the Marines would sign a job contract later



Seek professional advice from an active duty recruiter!


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## Grunt (Jan 8, 2020)

Marine0311 said:


> Seek professional advice from and active duty recruiter!



Yep or he can join all those poor old souls that got their "Good of the Corps" MOS that made them want to drink battery acid for the next four years of their lives.

All we are saying @zsazsa123, is make SURE you have your information correct because the crying is all over once you get that MOS handed to you.


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## Hacksaw0621 (Jan 9, 2020)

Majority of Recruiting Stations don’t do jobs at MEPs due to how a job can be available one moment then gone the next and depends on when MSgt wants to approve jobs and that would lead to applicants quitting on deck.

Now it would be in his best interests for his recruiter to get him a job because they are set amount for the RS and they came out in October for FY20 so when they are gone they are gone only way to get one back is if a kid backs out with a July date.

If you want to be a Ranger you’ll just discharge from the Marine Corps Pool program the Army Recruiter submits a SPF to obtain your MEPs records and you’ll go process for the Army possibly without having to redo the ASVAB and physical.

Any questions just PM me I’ll try and help you if I can


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## Ooh-Rah (Jan 9, 2020)

@zsazsa123 -

see note above and notice his CUT


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## PapaBacon (Jan 9, 2020)

In regards to your initial post talking about worries of RASP being "really hard". Well bud, I think you are going to run into that in a lot of potential areas of employment in the Department of Defense, especially as a street to fleet guy with zero context for what is actually "hard" in the military. Above all else, don't let anything or anyone prevent you from doing what you want to do to be truly regret free. Good luck and semper fi dude.


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## oneleggedhumper (Jan 16, 2020)

What ever the recruiters try to threaten you with, Fraudulent enlistment, AWOL, Desertion, you can get out of DEP no harm no foul. Either tell your recruiter you don't want to do it anymore and if they don't want to release you then you just don't show up for your ship date. I wanted out of DEP when i was a poolee in the Marines and they made it a pain but I just told them there was nothing they could do I'm not joining. Then i talked to the Army after and then joined the Air Force, none of them seemed to care. You wont be "coded" or anything. Until you are officially out of DEP you wont be able to talk to the other branches. Hope that helps.


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## JustGeo (Feb 4, 2020)

oneleggedhumper said:


> What ever the recruiters try to threaten you with, Fraudulent enlistment, AWOL, Desertion, you can get out of DEP no harm no foul. Either tell your recruiter you don't want to do it anymore and if they don't want to release you then you just don't show up for your ship date. I wanted out of DEP when i was a poolee in the Marines and they made it a pain but I just told them there was nothing they could do I'm not joining. Then i talked to the Army after and then joined the Air Force, none of them seemed to care. You wont be "coded" or anything. Until you are officially out of DEP you wont be able to talk to the other branches. Hope that helps.



You’re 100% right, you have the right to back out all the way up to the very last swear in at that point you’ll be going to boot camp the next day. Do it now rather than later I am a Marine going Army after this enlistment to become a Ranger. That being said do what you love and only sign for what field you can see yourself in.


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## TimoteoDunkin (Feb 6, 2020)

JustGeo said:


> You’re 100% right, you have the right to back out all the way up to the very last swear in at that point you’ll be going to boot camp the next day. Do it now rather than later I am a Marine going Army after this enlistment to become a Ranger. That being said do what you love and only sign for what field you can see yourself in.


Pm in bound on going Army.


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