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| Freethinker |
An article in The Wall Street Journal piqued my interest. Although the Marine Corps is one of the “sea” services and Marines do serve on ships, it’s not something that’s very obvious from all the various types of coverage in the media, commercials, novels, histories, etc. I assume it varies somewhat by military specialty, but if someone spent a 20 year career in the service in the enlisted ranks, how much time could he expect to spend at sea? ► 6.4/93.6 “Wise men talk because they have something to say; fools, because they have to say something.” — Plato | ||
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Fighting the good fight |
The current Marine Corps does a lot more than just being a maritime/amphibious force, but that's still their bread-and-butter. It's just that sitting on a naval vessel off the coast of North Korea as a deterrent is way less flashy than kicking in doors on the ground in Afghanistan, so the latter is what has gotten the bulk of the media coverage over the past couple decades. | |||
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| Freethinker |
And the reason for my question.  ► 6.4/93.6 “Wise men talk because they have something to say; fools, because they have to say something.” — Plato | |||
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אַרְיֵה |
No idea, but in four years as a Navy enlisted guy, I spent a grand total of five days "at sea." During the time that I was stationed at NAS Roosevelt Roads, Puerto Rico, my missile squadron supplied target drones for the east coast Top Gun exercises. When the drones exhausted their fuel and splashed down, they were retrieved by a helicopter and / or a rescue boat (converted PT boat). An E-5 from our missile squadron got to ride along on the PT boat for radio liaison with the helicopter. A pleasant day on the water, out in the morning, back in the afternoon. We drew straws for that duty, I lucked out five times in two years. That was the sum total of my sea time in four years of regular Navy, followed by two more years in the reserves. Other friends of mine did four or six years with zero sea time. הרחפת שלי מלאה בצלופחים | |||
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Yeah, that M14 video guy... |
It varies. My daughter was never deployed and spent zero days "at sea" and was in for four years. I was in for nine years while we were not at war (late 1991 to early 2001) and did two "West Pac's" during my first five year enlistment. My total boat time during those two deployments was 13.5 months. My second enlistment saw no MEU deployment and I only went to Africa for 2 weeks to fly reporters around in Entebbe, Uganda when Billy Bob decided to visit. Other than that, I just flew around stateside. There are guys who serve for 10+ years and never deploy or go on a boat. Some deploy to Afghanistan but go by C-17 and not on a MEU. It varies. Tony. Owner, TonyBen, LLC, Type-07 FFL www.tonybenm14.com (Site under construction). e-mail: tonyben@tonybenm14.com | |||
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| Member |
In my 4 years as a grunt, I had 2 WestPAC deployments, 6 months each in duration. With some additional training ops and the like, I had over a year of sea service deployment time documented on my DD-214. | |||
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| Member |
Boy, was I way, way off...I thought once you joined the NAVY, all you did was sea time. | |||
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| Leave the gun. Take the cannoli. |
Depends on your job. Choose your rate. Choose your fate. | |||
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| אַרְיֵה |
I was a Regulus missile guy. These could be launched from a land base, or a sea-going platform. I'm not sure just how many of these we had in the fleet, but I'll take a WAG* here and guess that there were more land-based Regulii than there were on ships. Most of the missile techs who I knew, who were trained for the Regulus, never saw a day of sea duty. *WAG: Wild Assed Guess הרחפת שלי מלאה בצלופחים | |||
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| Member |
I guess i’ve seen too many movies of a ships crew scrubbing, sanding & painting to think of land sailors. Thanks fellas. I’ve got a better picture of reality. | |||
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Member |
Depends. Some Marines get assigned sea duty.....serving aboard Navy carriers mostly I think. Their deployment might be a year or more. Some Marines, like me......served in an infantry unit. I was active duty for 4 years and went on three Med Floats. Those deployments usually lasted about 6 months on average. So, in 4 years....I probably had 18 months of being deployed on a navy ship. Steve "The Marines I have seen around the world have, the cleanest bodies, the filthiest minds, the highest morale, and the lowest morals of any group of animals I have ever seen. Thank God for the United States Marine Corps." Eleanor Roosevelt, 1945 | |||
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| Member |
Slight thread drift: NAS Roosevelt Roads closed 10 or 15 years ago. The locals howled about environmental destruction at the Vieques Island bombing range, so the Navy stopped using the range, thus eliminating any need for the NAS. I'm not sure what Navy air to ground ranges are on the east coast, maybe they now go to NAS Fallon (NV) for live drops. | |||
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| Three Generations of Service  |
I can beat that...  21 years and 9 months on active duty. 12 days at sea.  Has to do with your MOS (Military Occupational Specialty - Navy calls it an "NEC" or Naval Enlisted Code). Mine involved maintaining and repairing electronic equipment MUCH too large to fit on a ship. The DF (Direction Finding) antenna in use at the time was 863 feet in diameter and the low band dipoles were something like 60 feet tall. Little hard to set that up on the fantail of a DE... Later on, I went to school on a system that accomplished the same mission and was designed and miniaturized specifically for shipboard use. When I started school as an brandy-new E6 the expectation was that I'd go from school to a ship. However, I got "plowed back" as an instructor for 3 years and during that time I made E7/CPO and there weren't any at-sea billets for M-branch Chiefs. My "sea time" came while stationed at MOTU-10 (Mobile Technical Unit) in Charleston. A battle group was getting underway for a Med Cruise and needed a few last-minute technical issues taken care of. Got on in Charleston, got off via COD (Carrier Onboard Delivery) off the America and flew into Sigonella, Italy. Be careful when following the masses. Sometimes the M is silent. | |||
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| Member |
I believe that was a wullenweber (spelling?) antenna array. I was as stationed on Okinawa at the Array at Tori Station. Sgt. USMC 1970 - 1973 | |||
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semi-reformed sailor |
Choose your rate, choose your fate. In the CG my rating, gunners mate, had a three year ashore to three year afloat rotation. Other rates differed. I knew YN (yeoman,) who went 20 years w/o going to sea... I imagine the Marines have a similar way of how it goes, depending on job they could end up aboard ship. I had five years of sea service for a ten year active duty service. I got out and stayed in the reserves and spent the next eleven years ashore as a reservist.... "Violence, naked force, has settled more issues in history than has any other factor.” Robert A. Heinlein “You may beat me, but you will never win.” sigmonkey-2020 “A single round of buckshot to the torso almost always results in an immediate change of behavior.” Chris Baker | |||
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| אַרְיֵה |
Sounds like you got to sleep on board. My five days "at sea," I sauntered down to the dock after breakfast, clambered on board a boat with a crew that looked like something out of "McHale's Navy," and was back on dry land in time for evening chow. הרחפת שלי מלאה בצלופחים | |||
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| Member |
I was regular Navy for four years - 13 months for boot camp and Navy A and C schools, the rest on ship(s). While on the USS Dale, CG-19 we had two Marines stationed aboard as guards for the Admiral. They were rather bored. | |||
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| אַרְיֵה |
Terrier missiles, I believe. When I entered the USN C school for missiles, I had a choice of Terrier (surface-to-air) or Regulus (surface-to-surface). I chose Regulus and wound up with four years of shore duty, other than the five days mentioned above. הרחפת שלי מלאה בצלופחים | |||
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Coin Sniper |
Depends on how many times they fall off the ship. Pronoun: His Royal Highness and benevolent Majesty of all he surveys 343 - Never Forget Its better to be Pavlov's dog than Schrodinger's cat There are three types of mistakes; Those you learn from, those you suffer from, and those you don't survive. | |||
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| Yeah, that M14 video guy... |
Steven Ray Mosier. October 7th, 1994. Lost at sea in the Persian Gulf. We had the same MOS. I worked the day shift. He worked the night shift. I don’t have to look up the date. It’s been stuck in my head for almost 25 years. Tony. Owner, TonyBen, LLC, Type-07 FFL www.tonybenm14.com (Site under construction). e-mail: tonyben@tonybenm14.com | |||
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