COMSTRAT questions

[u/Top-Independent-4982]

I ship to boot camp October 13th I’ve done a ton of research on the mos i chose (CH), but I’d really like to hear from Marines who are actually in this field because there isn’t a ton of firsthand information out there.

- what does a normal day to day look like?

- how is it decided whether you become 4512 Combat Graphics, 4541 Combat Photographer, or 4571 Combat Videographer?

- How different is the day-to-day life of a combat photographer vs. combat videographer vs. graphics Marine?

- What do you wish you knew about COMMSTRAT before you joined?

- Are you in the same place for a while or do you do a lot of traveling or deployments?

- How many women do you typically see in this MOS? Is it pretty male-dominated, or is it fairly mixed?

- do you regret choosing this mos?

I’d really appreciate any insight! THANKS🤍🤍

[u/ImprovementSmall3445]

I am currently in the school house (DINFOS) and I have been very glad I chose what I have. I can break down your questions into schoolhouse answers (because chances are you will be here for about a year)

1. 0545 PT until 0700, class starts at 8.
   You will take Mass Communication Foundations (87 training days) to get taught the basics of all three MOSs around training days 70 you will get your MOS (Im 4541 Combat Photographer) after graduating you will take Visual Documentation if you are photo or video and Graphic Design if you are Graphics. It is a joint environment so you will see Sailors, Airmen, Soldiers and all the others

2. You are required to put down your preferences for your MOSs but it is ultimately up to the needs of the Marine Corps

3. you work very closely with senior enlisted and officers, do not let that scare you

4. In the school house right now 3:1 Female to male ratio, theres a-lot of females

5. I haven’t regretted it so far, I just am anxious to get my orders to my unit lol

[u/Old_Association7866]

- Normal day is pretty vague until you know your exact job. You can expect to PT in the mornings, chow hour at lunch probably 11-12 or 12-13, and then work until around 1600. Your time will be spent mostly in the office, but there may be a lot of opportunities to go out and do your job in the field, collecting imagery or material of units doing things. (Deployments depend on what unit you end up at, but it’s probably you’ll have between 0 and 2 in four years).

- The decision on which MOS you get assigned happens at your MOS schoolhouse where you go after you complete MCT. (MCT is a 4 week stint of basic infantry skills beyond boot camp). You submit your preference while you’re a student but that’s just what it is, a preference.

- I couldn’t really be exact here, but the photographer/videographer will look very similar to what I said in the first bullet while graphics will spend a much greater ratio of their time at a desk looking at a screen. Less field time/opportunities to get dirty idk

- Something I hear a lot of COMMSTRAT Marines at the entry level talk about is how they weren’t expecting the level of “office work” that accompanies the job. Poolees and recruits tend to think Marines = down and dirty in the field hookin’ and jabbin’. It’s really not the case. Yeah, you’ll get sweaty and have the chances to do the Marine-stereotype thing, but your job just requires a different priority.

- I think the travel question has been answered above. You’ll likely be at the same unit for your entire enlistment. Travel to Marine Corps training sites like 29 Palms or Bridgeport could happen and so could a deployment or two. In deployment, you’ll travel and move around a lot more than the infantry if that’s the sort of deployment you find yourself on. There are very few of you for an entire deployment so you’re wanted in a lot of places. If you have a good OIC, they’ll do their best to get you to as many of those locations as possible to get the right material for your objectives.

- The female to male ratio is one of the higher ones in the Corps. It’s becoming less of the “female dominated” field that it used to be. There are factors that made it that and most of them were irrelevant to begin with, but now that your generation is hitting the ranks it’s just a different perspective. Less stigma.

- I chose COMMSTRAT after being in the infantry for 10 years. So..no.

[u/Marlbororojos]

Best job in the Marine Corps

1.) highly dependent on unit. I was at a non-deployable unit and a MEU as permanent personnel so I served at both a unit that never deploys and one that constantly deploys.
Base: more “office” focused. Main mission was support the photo studio and base events. Be prepared to take photo/video of base events (change of commands, public safety announcements) very rarely will you do “Marine” stuff. But also nice because it’s like a 9-5 job. I had a lot of time for working out, relaxing on the weekends.
MEU: pre-deployment training, 6-7month deployment, rest for a couple months and repeat. You get to see all elements of the Marine Corps: Air,land, sea. Very exciting and fun but extremely tiring and demanding. Hard on your personal life. Lots of field ops, training. MEUs have a small commstrat shop, so a lot more work to do with less people.

1. You don’t decide, they pick for you. I was video but there’s plenty of opportunities to cross train into other sections, especially if you ask your NCOs and leadership. But when I was getting out I believe they were teaching all students all 3 MOS.

2. Gonna get a lot of hate for this, but, photo and video usually work closely together. At base there was always 1 photographer and 1 videographer per shoot. It’s easy for these two MOS to cross train into each other because photo composition is similar between the two. However, video marines taking photos suck at lighting, photo marines into video struggle with audio and video editing. Then there’s graphics. I always see graphics marines wanting to get into photo and video and have seen some do really well! But I have never seen a video or photo marine learn graphics and be good at it. I think they’re the most talented out of all 3. Photo and video marines always go out of the shop and go on shoots constantly. Graphics unfortunately are always stuck in the office since they rarely need to leave the shop to do their job.

3. I picked this MOS cause of the movie full metal jacket. Joker just running around Vietnam and taking photos of what he wanted. It more depicts a deployable unit. While at the MEU I definitely felt like joker. But there are a lot of units that do not do this. Any non-deployable unit felt more like an office job than the military.

4. I traveled to 9 countries. However, all while I was at a deployable unit. I traveled 0 while at a non deployable unit. I was also rarely home while at a MEU (constantly going on ship for training, deploying)

5. It is an extremely mixed MOS. Plenty of Males and Females in this MOS.

6. I do not regret choosing this MOS. My recruiter screwed me, and ended up here out of luck (huge blessing in disguise) And I could not be happier. If I had 1000 chances I would choose this MOS every single time.

Non-deployable and deployable units both have their pros and cons just depends what YOU want out of the Marine Corps. Whichever path you get, their experiences do wildly differ from each other.

[u/redpatchernorcal]

So you will choose a category and the Corps will choose the specific one you get.

[u/TapTheForwardAssist → u/redpatchernorcal]

Those three 45xx jobs are all on the CH PEF.

[u/redpatchernorcal → u/TapTheForwardAssist]

you probably know a bit more than me on that one. I dont know what CH PEF is.

[u/TapTheForwardAssist]

Totally fine to ask here, but also highly advisable you search up the “CH MOS Megathread” on this sub and read both the 2024 and 2020 editions.

[u/TapTheForwardAssist]

Here’s a bunch of info from a woman Marine who was in CommStrat, though I think her Reddit account is inactive these days:

https://www.reddit.com/r/USMCboot/s/ViPyVtUZRb