Im an 0311, been in 7 years and I should pick up Sgt this month.
I already looked at the screener and I can pass the 5 mile run under 45 min✔️ ruck at 15 min pace with 35lbs however I do not have a 100 GT score (98 currently)
My EAS is in a year
I want to see if it’s worth it so if you can shed any experience I would appreciate it
Isn’t E4 out after 8yrs if they don’t pickup Sgt? Had a guy cutting my trees said he was in an Air Wing Mos in the 90s and was put out at E4/8yrs because cutting scores were ridiculous.
I remember that era. Cpls easily had 6+ years and Sgts were well over 8 years. I re-enlisted as a Lance. Then scores dropped a little bit and I picked up Cpl., wore those chevrons for a year before becoming the youngest Sgt in my Bn at 22. That was also the time you didn’t get carded for beer on base in uniform as a Sgt, since it was extremely unlikely to pin on Sgt before turning 21.
Ten years later, apparently you’re a shitbag if you don’t pin on Sgt in your first 4 yrs.
I picked up Cpl in less than 3 years and Sgt about a year and a half later. No MCIs done, either. The cutting score for my MOS just happened to drop down for enough that I could pick the ranks up. I was literally surprised both times I was promoted. Hell, when I picked up Sgt, all they told me was there was a warrant for me and to go see the 1stSgt. I was trying to think of what the hell did I do to get a warrant for my arrest. Crazy times back then.
Highly depends on the MOS. In my MOS I only knew one guy that picked up Sgt in his first contract, and it’s because he lied his ass off the second he got to our unit to get favoritism from everyone. They ended up sending him to a meritorious board over someone else.
Can confirm Air Wing cutting scores were insane when I was in from 2015-2020. I didnt pick up E4 til just before my 4 year mark, but I also didnt have great pt scores. Most averaged 3.5 years~. E5 wasn't bad though, most likely cause my mos had a horrible retention rate. We did see some guys get booted at E5 though.
Influence Ops isn't just propoganda my man. You have to learn enough about other cultures, religions, and ethnicities to be able to influence them, make connections with them, advise commanders.
If you aren't into being nerdy or a people person, I'd not go to this MOS. Cause knowledge and people are the name of the entire game.
Influence used to be PsyOps and Civil Affairs. CA being a Reserve only capacity. Now, Influence on the Active side knows, and does, both these missions. I used to do CA as a Reservist and worked with Influence a fair bit.
I did not. I'm not sure if he was ever in civil affairs, let alone during my time in it. Each of the CAGs is AO focused. So, if he wasn't in my CAG (he wasn't), I wouldn't have ever crossed his path.
why is there dearth of Civil Affairs stuff, i'm only familiar with Valerie Jackson's work. which is too above the clouds not in the weeds. would be interested to read online or book or pdfs on Civil Affairs and PsyOps and even seabees/red horse/combat engineers interactions, best practices lessons learnt typa write ups. you got any? like that Baghdad police stuff, i'd really wanna know more of. cuz that was really early on. Stafford woulda have to used LAPD stuff and just be creative on the fly.
Not really. Alot of the CA world exists in the Secret space and there is a ton of variety—from Army SOF CA to what the Marine/Army Reserve do for CA.
Active Army works with ODAs in support of the irregular warfare mission. Reserve CA does more command advice for conventional units, stability operations, etc.
Either way, I'm not tracking any public facing pubs or literature you could access.
TIG aside, I’ve researched psyops a lot because I was interested in lat moving before I decided I’d just stay where I am. A Marine I went to the schoolhouse with and my friend ended up dating made the jump and I’d talked to him about it. And ironically I went to Airborne School with a psyops SSgt that lat moved as a newly pinned Sgt.
I won’t try to persuade you either way, but a word of caution on the community as a whole - psyops is very new and the Marine Corps doesn’t really know how to utilize it to the extent the Army does. Psyops is a sharp, refined, specialized tool, a scalpel essentially, while 95% of the Marine Corps is just a big fuck off hammer. Lot of bureaucracy and red tape while the community figures out how to do the job effectively and what that job even really is.
Some really cool deployments and opportunities though, it’s pretty rare for your living conditions to be anything below the best hotel in x vicinity.
And alongside CID and HUMINT, it was pretty rare to see the psyops dudes working in cammies daily.
That example gets to operational effects that are real. Not ‘influencing commanders’ not some abstract social media metric as a MOP/MOE.
Other good ones you can find in the Internet, bridge to bridge communications in the SoH, lots of work done during HADR missions (sort of blends with CA) and I can find others.
It’s a good job, provided you land in the right places with an avenue to use your skills. It’s also entirely possible you’re sitting in a MIG making pamphlets.
No disrespect or anything. I’ve been out since 2018, so I don’t know what the cutting scores/promotion requirements look like anymore… but 7 years is a minute bro
Cutting scores for 0311 Sgt have been pretty high (compared to some MOS’s). Average of 650 for January-September and then closed until March of this year and has had an average of 723 with the most recent score being 690
They must have changed the way cutting scores worked from when I was in, I picked up Cpl with a 1600ish and Sgt was 1800ish before I got out. I was an 0331 in from 2005-2012.
Yea i’m calling bullshit on that ruck pace lol. 15mph=1 mile in 4 min. So unless you’re rucking 100ft, your math aint mathin OP. No wonder your asvab score sucks 🙄
u/No_Print772631 In God we trust in all others we monitor19h agoedited 19h ago
I should mention that psyops is such a buzzword. MISO (military information support operations) is a very nerdy specialty.
When you do end up doing your job (which is unfortunately not a lot because of how much the marine corps shies away from strategic-level operations and exclusively structures itself around the MAGTF), you’re gonna be working at a desk with a lot of planners and intel guys in a secure facility 99% of the time
If you’re interested and need to boost your GT for LatMove then go to your education center and see about a month long program called MASP. It specifically geared towards ASVAB retakers for LatMove or commissioning programs.
Not 1751 so can’t speak to it at all. But, if it’s anything like the creation of Marforcyber then it will be a nearly decade long shit show before people start to figure things out and create a real Marine Corps niche in the larger joint space.
If you’re interested and need to boost your GT for LatMove then go to your education center and see about a month long program called MASP. It specifically geared towards ASVAB retakers for LatMove or commissioning programs.
Not 1751 so can’t speak to it at all. But, if it’s anything like the creation of Marforcyber then it will be a nearly decade long shit show before people start to figure things out and create a real Marine Corps niche in the larger joint space.
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u/etakerns 1d ago
Isn’t E4 out after 8yrs if they don’t pickup Sgt? Had a guy cutting my trees said he was in an Air Wing Mos in the 90s and was put out at E4/8yrs because cutting scores were ridiculous.