Military Stages

Can you give a time line of your military career so I can see what is achievable in a certain amount of time? I'm mainly looking for training and deployments and how long each takes. Thanks

May 2004- Graduated high school
December 2004- MEPS
January 6th- April 14th 2005 - Boot Camp/ Parris Island- MOS 0311 infantry rifleman
May-July 2005 ITB (Infantry training battalion)/assign barracks/unit Camp Geiger/Lejune, NC
July 2005- September 2005- SSBC (sniper school) Quantico, VA
December 2005-July 2006- Deploy to Fallujah, Baghdad, Iraq 2nd marine battalion, 9th marines, Fox company
August(ish) 2006- September 2006 SERE school level C (can't remember where it was but the final week was living in the wild in LaFayette-Houma, LA for 5 days)
November 2006- December 2006- Airborne school Ft. Benning, GA
February 2007- November 2007- Deployed to Kandahar, Afghanistan with 22nd Marine Expeditionary Force
December 2007- March 2008 Deployment to South Korea
April 2008- June 2008 ITC @ Marine Special Operations School Camp Lejune, NC
June 2008- September 2008- Amphibious Reconnaissance Course -Camp Pendleton, CA
November 2008- December 2008 Military Free Fall parachutist course, Yuma proving grounds, AZ
January 11th, 2009- Assigned to 1st Force Reconnaissance Company, 3rd Marine Special Operations Battalion. MOS 0372 Critical Skills Operator
February 2009- October 2009 stationed at Camp Pendleton, CA
October 2009- November 15th 2009 Deployed to New Delhi Airport
January 2010- June 2010 VBSS rehearsals - Coronado, CA
July 2010- November 2010 Stationed at Mayport Naval Base- Assigned to 2nd Marine Special Operations Regiment, Marine Special Operations Team 2110
December 2010- August 2011 Deploy to Kunar and Oruzgun province afghanistan with MSOT 2110 ( First middle east deployment with MARSOC )
August 2011- CE medically discharged from the military.

Thats pretty much it. Some of the dates are off as I don't remember some of the exact dates.

Wow that's alot of training. What about operationally one each deployment? What did each deployment consist of?

I highly doubt he will be able to talk about operations lol

That must have been a shit hole of a time to be in the Marines since that's when force recon merged into marsoc?

MARSOC was a good deal for the community. The Marines didn't want to be apart of SOCOM in the first place, the only reason they ended up being in SOCOM was because of demand as well as Force Recon Platoons being underpaid for the work they did. The other branches needed help in the field because they were being over worked and deployments were very long. Now that MARSOC was formed other units had a shorter deployment time, as well as focus more on operations and not be tired out.

My Operation timeline is a bit complex as there were many missions and objectives that needed to be completed. My first deployment with MARSOC was completely different than my deployment as a grunt. Basically as an infantry grunt it was nothing but patrols and securing checkpoints, navigating through towns and villages and being shot at constantly. I wouldn't call it an operation. The main objectives were to clear a town of all threats, clear a passageway for a convoy, link up with another marine unit and destroy a weapons cache. That's Iraq all day, afghan is pretty much the same but more of getting shot at from an unknown place. Mountains and more mountains, continuous rounds flying past you and you don't know where it's coming from, therefore you can't engage the threat.

My very last deployment, and first with MARSOC was a different game. In training you learn to be professional and to be willing. You are a razor blade who fights with precision, while infantry is the bullet magnet playhouse. MARSOC is mission based, not patrol based. Each MSOT (Marine Special Ops Team) has it's own objectives and tasks, just like each SEAL team does, or each OD. Otherwise everyone is getting paid to do the a job someone else is doing. My team, no matter where we were in the world we had 3 functions. Amphibious assault, Special Reconaissance (SR), and Low Visibility Operations

Amphibious Assault- Inserting into an aquatic environment to assault threats on land or water. VBSS is a form of AA.
Special Reconaissance- Gathering information on important point of interests.
High Risk Operations- This is basically a time when help is needed badly. If someone is behind "enemy lines" and they are getting pinned down or someone is injured and they have to aid to them, then someone needs to come and put out the fire before it gets worse. Similar to a QRF but in a more dangerous and risky situation. If you are on base and recieve an "Alert 1" that means you are up and loaded on a chopper flying out to the scene.


During my last deployment we did many missions, but a good example of a mission the team would be doing is perform an SR on a village elder who has been accused as an informer to a high ranking leader. Report back and relay the information.

Or a SEAL team or Cav Scout unit just got struck by an IED, as an ATV ran over it. 4 guys are injured and they are taking heavy machine gun fire from the compound. We close in on the position, enter the compound and neutralize all threats until a MEDEVAC bird arrives on scene.

What did you do to get past selection?

Also if I wanted to be a marine special operator how could I prepare?

You first need to enlist if you have not. Secondly get through boot camp, boot camp is the hardest BMT. Wait 2 years and apply for MARSOC A&S then go from there and get wished the best of luck as you will need it. Make sure you ARE in good shape, otherwise you won't make it. Be a good swimmer, and be prepared to spend a lot of time in the water. In order to succeed you have to push yourself more than the next guy. Yes it's going to be hard and not for everyone. Boot camp will be a cakewalk compared to A&S just as a heads up.

How much time is spent in water would you say? I was looking at BUDS and it looks like it's all waterbased

60% or so is in water, the rest is on land. BUDS is very similar to A&S.

How did you not get burned out so fast?