How much time do Marines spend at sea?

July 31, 2019, 01:17 PM

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?

July 31, 2019, 01:36 PM

RogueJSK

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.

July 31, 2019, 01:43 PM

sigfreund

quote:
Originally posted by RogueJSK:
[S]o the latter is what has gotten the bulk of the media coverage over the past couple decades.

And the reason for my question.

July 31, 2019, 01:48 PM

V-Tail

quote:
if someone spent a 20 year career in the service in the enlisted ranks, how much time could he expect to spend at sea?

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.

July 31, 2019, 01:57 PM

benny6

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.

July 31, 2019, 01:59 PM

Sr_Bull

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.

July 31, 2019, 02:07 PM

recoatlift

Boy, was I way, way off...I thought once you joined the NAVY, all you did was sea time.

July 31, 2019, 02:14 PM

quote:
Originally posted by recoatlift:
Boy, was I way, way off...I thought once you joined the NAVY, all you did was sea time.

Depends on your job. Choose your rate. Choose your fate.

July 31, 2019, 02:17 PM

V-Tail

quote:
Originally posted by recoatlift:

Boy, was I way, way off...I thought once you joined the NAVY, all you did was sea time.

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

July 31, 2019, 02:31 PM

recoatlift

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.

July 31, 2019, 02:33 PM

Steve in PA

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.

July 31, 2019, 03:19 PM

Sigmund

quote:
Originally posted by V-Tail:

...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...

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.

July 31, 2019, 03:46 PM

PHPaul

quote:
Originally posted by V-Tail:
quote:
if someone spent a 20 year career in the service in the enlisted ranks, how much time could he expect to spend at sea?
No idea, but in four years as a Navy enlisted guy, I spent a grand total of five days "at sea."

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.

July 31, 2019, 04:12 PM

mas4363

I believe that was a wullenweber (spelling?) antenna array. I was as stationed on Okinawa at the Array at Tori Station.

July 31, 2019, 04:19 PM

MikeinNC

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....

July 31, 2019, 04:30 PM

V-Tail

quote:
Originally posted by PHPaul:
quote:
Originally posted by V-Tail:
quote:
if someone spent a 20 year career in the service in the enlisted ranks, how much time could he expect to spend at sea?
No idea, but in four years as a Navy enlisted guy, I spent a grand total of five days "at sea."
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.

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.

July 31, 2019, 05:46 PM

Chris42

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.

July 31, 2019, 05:59 PM

V-Tail

quote:
Originally posted by Chris42:

USS Dale, CG-19

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.

July 31, 2019, 06:00 PM

Rightwire

Depends on how many times they fall off the ship.

July 31, 2019, 06:29 PM

benny6

quote:
Originally posted by Rightwire:
Depends on how many times they fall off the ship.

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.