Marine Infantry to Army Ranger

[WalkingDead]

This has been on my mind alot lately. Im currently in the 5th year of a 6 year active duty contract. Ive been in combat and had the oppertunity to attend multiple schools while Ive been in including Airborne which is rare as a basic Grunt in the Corps. Im in the process of re enlisting and have a package in for a new program the Marine Corps offers called the "Squad Leader Development Program" it involves a lat move to "0365" which allows me to be a Squad Leader in any infantry MOS in the Corps. The pipeline is pretty short for it only and i attend the main course for it next month. My question to you all, is would it be possible to get out the Corps at 10 years and enlist into the Army with the hopes of attending RASP and making it into Regiment. Ive tried to research pre reqs and couldnt find good info on prior service and age limits. Thank you gentleman.

 

[Gunz]

Why extend past 6? You're AD contract ends next year. You've got your CAR and jumpwings (I'm assuming)...so you bring a lot to the table. If you're not committed to the Marines and want to be an Army Ranger, why wait another 5 years? Get out next year, enlist in the Army and try to get a slot in RASP 1. Am I misunderstanding your post? You either want to be a Marine 03 squad leader or an Army Ranger. Need to make up your mind and do it.

 

[WalkingDead]

Ive thought about this myself and that was going to be the plan but recently things back home haven't gone so well and if I were to EAS today I would be homeless for the most part unless I stayed with friends. With that being said I feel like I could use this next enlistment to attend more schools and better prepare for that next phase if its possible. Thanks for the reply !

 

[Ranger Psych]

If you talk to an army recruiter now, as well as the Regimental Recruiting team, you could quite possibly arrange for a minimal break in service if any at all.

OR

Talk to some of the Recon dudes here, and see what you need to do to get a slot at BRC. I'm not trying to be snide, but Recon's got a pretty good mission, with people who have been selected and all want to be there. Mission set differs, but it's effectively the Ranger Regiment of the USMC considering what I just said, in combination with that they're one of the only units in the Corps that isn't fulla EGA wearing legs.

Just throwing the idea out there specifically due to your desire of a minimal to no break in service....If you get reup school options in the Corps like you can in the Army, then if you're reupping you could ensure a shot. How you do, is obviously up to ventricular and testicular fortitude.

Marines usually do pretty well in Ranger Regiment from my experience. A couple friends of mine jumped from different services, Corps included, to come party with a tan beret. They loved it, and while most of the Corps stuff didn't apply, at the same time they brought alternatives to the table that we might not have thought of otherwise. Usually involving square pegs, lack of a hole, and a blunt object...

 

[WalkingDead]

I emailed the goarmy website and I am waiting to hear back. "Worst" case scenario is I just re enlist into this new program and hopefully PCS to the west coast. Once I get there run the Sniper Indoc for the BN and potentially get a seat to Sniper School while Im still in and then try to go to the Army and hopefully attempt RASP then. Thank you for the reply Ranger Psych ! Is it a common thing to see prior service Marines in the 75th ?

 

[Ranger Psych]

Yes/no. We had 2 guys I knew that had come from the Corps, and a SBU dude who's rating was something where he would never see above E-6 supporting the Teams, and reclassing in the Navy at the time was unheard of (plus he would have gone to the fleet, which he had no desire to do) so he came to the Army and Batt. Ended up PCS'ing out when he decided that while Regiment was great, he was getting up in the years (was like 38 already) and had no desire to go to Ranger school. Ended up retiring as a 1SG iirc in the regular army, but had an enjoyable time in the military as a whole.

I wouldn't futz with the goarmy website, I would honestly go and directly talk to a recruiter face to face. While I was never a recruiter, I do think that you will start getting further constrained coming in as a prior service troop of any make/model, the higher in rank that you go. Couch surfing may suck, but you still have time before you get out and frugal living isn't hard to accomplish. Saving leave up so you have terminal leave to use, as well as saving up as much money as you can through all the means you have (including IF the option is there to multi-shack a bunch of NCO's in the same house, to maximize residency and minimize expenditure of your BAS/BAH) would easily give you the funding to be able to just rent a place, or afford to just go on an enjoyable adventure of a lifestyle while you're in limbo between services (camping, hiking, stuff that would keep you active and enjoying things while maintaining a level of fitness) You can be pretty frugal when you're car camping and you also will get the opportunity to experience some of the features this nation has, which you've helped defend over the years.

There's a couple guys here specifically that while totally out and done with the service, are literally van camping (with family no less) and it isn't exactly that expensive if you look for good things.

 

[Lefty375]

I emailed the goarmy website and I am waiting to hear back. "Worst" case scenario is I just re enlist into this new program and hopefully PCS to the west coast. Once I get there run the Sniper Indoc for the BN and potentially get a seat to Sniper School while Im still in and then try to go to the Army and hopefully attempt RASP then. Thank you for the reply Ranger Psych ! Is it a common thing to see prior service Marines in the 75th ?

We have one dude in our company. Really down to earth guy and is a great Ranger. Came from Force Recon I believe.

 

[Centermass]

One of many Dog Faces to cross over from the Corps to the Regiment. And one of the most respected. Still known as "Gunny" throughout his career.

CSM Martin "Gunny" Barreras

Rest easy Brother.

 

[Hillclimb]

PM me man. You're on Lejeune?

I had to couch surf between/before A&S and ITC. I was extremely greatful for the people that put up with me for my transition times.

You can always knock out some gen ed classes at the community college, and run the post 911 GI bill until you make your transition so that you have an income that will keep your bills afloat.

I don't know if there's any transition services unique to your situation that helps, or unemployment, etc. But maybe Military one source would be worth a call. They seem to have a program for everything

If there's a way to make it work, the solutions out there.

Also, maybe the recruiter can start front loading the paperwork now and work on getting your conditional release approved that way you're cleared hot once you EAS. You got a year left correct?

 

[Kheenbish]

Work with a recruiter, the best bet is to get a DD Form 368 (attached) signed off and hopefully your recruiter can make some waivers happen to get you a contract. This form ensures no break in service and transition from one branch to another. The worst thing that can happen is it doesn't get pushed through. Most recruiters suggest being about one year out from your current contract, so looks like you fit that criteria.

 

[WalkingDead]

Thanks for all the replys guys, Im gonna contact a recruiter and see whats the best COA to take. I'll keep you updated.

 

[Gunz]

Ive thought about this myself and that was going to be the plan but recently things back home haven't gone so well and if I were to EAS today I would be homeless for the most part unless I stayed with friends. With that being said I feel like I could use this next enlistment to attend more schools and better prepare for that next phase if its possible. Thanks for the reply !

Gotcha. Good luck whatever you decide.

 

[KShaft]

Well, you should do as RangerPsych says and talk to a recruiter and email the Ranger recruiter guys as I think thats their preferred method of comms after getting their voicemail.
75recruit@soc.mil

IMHO Rangers have evolved A LOT over the last 20 some years. I use to see them as a maybe a little bit better physically conditioned army's Marine Corps with inferior leadership; but they have refined themselves into something akin to a somewhat bigger, top notch CAG jr. I think this is a good path. If you choose it, OWN IT, train to own it, and Christ be with you.
And yes, I would take this route or the 18x route over MARSOC. Force guys are as capable as anybody, but we know 6 months of training is not the equivalent to the Q course and all of the institutional knowledge that has been gained over the decades. If you want DA however its Rangers, SEALs, or if you can hump forever and have an intel guys GT score, then CAG!
SF Marine! And as they said at SFAS Do Your Best!!!!! OOOHHRAHHH!!!!

 

[Centermass]

IMHO Rangers have evolved A LOT over the last 20 some years. I use to see them as a maybe a little bit better physically conditioned army's Marine Corps with inferior leadership

Really? I would be extremely interested in hearing a validated response as to "Why."

 

[amlove21]

 

[Ooh-Rah]

There are times I wish this board had a "like plus" option.

 

[x SF med]

And as they said at SFAS Do Your Best!!!!!

You've been to SFAS? When?

SF guys' GT scores average about the same as those for Intel people, but you knew that, right?

 

[amlove21]

You've been to SFAS? When?

SF guys' GT scores average about the same as those for Intel people, but you knew that, right?

I'll tell you only what I know (deploying with and working with Ranger Teams, 1st and 3rd Batt)- I have perceived their leadership to be well above average. I have a lot of respect for how they grow and breed leaders.

Granted, small focus group (only 3 deployments) and I could be missing something. But I disagree with you, @KShaft

 

[AWP]

You've been to SFAS? When?

SF guys' GT scores average about the same as those for Intel people, but you knew that, right?

I think it says a lot about SF when the minimum GT score of 110 is the same as OCS. CA, PSYOP, and the 160th are 107, 107, and 100 respectively. Those are small deviations, less than 110 all the same.

 

[KShaft]

Really? I would be extremely interested in hearing a validated response as to "Why."

Okay, first off I had had around 5 beers at the time of writing this, two of them being of the 6% variety, and another 3 one being that bells 30th anniversary and the expedition stout to compare it to, and a St Bernardus Christmas ale coming in at 11%, 10.5 and 10 percent respectively so I might have been a bit silly in the end with the prolonged ooorah and no qualifiers with comments such as this. Its 10pm when I saw this and Im just getting over the hangover after sleeping most of the day. My humble apologies.
Next to address this point, this was a view totally, arbitrarily, contrived. I should have said that this conception in my mind might have had nothing to do with reality. My impressions of Rangers were mostly from the Bowden book, no real world experience with them whatsoever, and this is where I got the idea (like in my post it was just that, AN IDEA) the leadership seemed to be lacking. I mean in the book they seemed incompetent and relying on the CAG dudes to lead them. Being a Marine I always found our NCOs heads and tails above others in any branch on the big side of things, and perhaps the BHD book played into that perception in a "I can totally see that" way in my mind.
Now with a little bit more knowledge from dealing with Rangers and Ranger tabbed folk, I can see their method of leadership is much more congruent with that of the Marine Corps philosophy than of the big army and is top notch. That and more research on just what the Rangers do. I really wasn't all that interested in them back in the day as the prevailing thought in the Marines and even some in the army was that the Rangers were "the Army's Marines". That was just what we thought. We were wrong.
My view that they have evolved (a lot) and have become much more refined stands however. Yeah everybody's TTPs evolved, but the Rangers to me seemed to have made a huge leap.
It was NOT my intent to offend rather the opposite. So sorry.

You've been to SFAS? When?

SF guys' GT scores average about the same as those for Intel people, but you knew that, right?

Sep 2005. Yes I did sir. We had a fuel guy attend the brief in Wurzburg. He could not attend SFAS because of this heheh.

My post did mention specifically DA so thats why I referred to "smarter ones go to CAG". This was just a "best and brightest" saying FOR DA. Would I be incorrect that the smartest and best physically of Rangers would be the guys to make it into that group? SF is absolutely the same, but as I said I think since he was looking at Rangers, Id imagine he was looking at their mission set as well, which if he was "la creme de la creme" then for that mission set you'd go for that group. I would never slight SF and have much love for guys there. I essentially came into the army to go SF. I know I joined the Marine Corps first, and Im glad I did, but growing up, seeing movies or documentaries, the guys I thought were the best or perhaps coolest were the Green Berets. Hell, my favorite GI freaking Joes were Flint and Falcon heheh. Sorry Rangers.

The "smart as an intel guy" was just being kind of funny or allegorical. I know the SF guys have the 110 GT requirement and I would imagine other SOF units would as well (as Freefalling pointed out). I was not trying to slight anyone. Not sure why some are thinking that way.... Im on this forum for the opposite reason.

My humblest apologies!