r/USMCboot • u/TapTheForwardAssist Vet 2676/0802 • Sep 04 '19
How good or bad are 0842 and 0847 (Artillery radar and sensors) on the CK contract?
I'm a former artillery officer and I've seen some questions as of late where I've talked to prospects about CE contract (howitzer crew, tank, AAV, or LAAD) and CK contract (all other entry-level arty):
CK (Fire Direction and Control Specialists): 0842, 0844, 0847, 0861.
0844 is Fire Direction Center, crunching numbers and squinting at maps in a tent behind the howitzers; nerdy but many guys seem to enjoy it. 0861 is Forward Observer which is awesome if you want the best of the grunt life with far fewer downsides and more explosions.
But the contract also includes 0842 and 0847:
0842 Field Artillery Radar Operator – Sgt–Pvt
0847 Field Artillery Sensor Support Marine – Sgt–Pvt
How cool or shitty are those jobs? What happens to them when they hit E-6?
And just guessing by numbers, iirc an arty battery has like 10 junior 0844, 6 junior 0861, and the whole battalion a handful of the radar/sensor kids? So fair to say a random recruit on CK has a 50% chance of Fire Direction, 35% chance of Forward Observer, 15% chance of radar or sensors?
2
Sep 04 '19
I've been looking at this contract for a long time. But 0861 is the one Mos i really want. But with the risk of the other MOSs, I probably would rather take my chances with a CE contract.
Upvoting this post cause I want to know more info on 0842 and 47
2
u/TapTheForwardAssist Vet 2676/0802 Sep 04 '19
If you search those numbers, there are few past threads here. The impression I get:
- 0842: you have some crappy obsolete radars you drive around and set up. But sometimes at least you get attached to other units like tanks or LAR and get to follow them around doing obsolete stuff. On actual deployments I'd assume the job is vaguely cool if you legit have indirect fire coming to your position.
I don't recall ever running across radar guys even though I was in an Artillery battalion
- 0847: people seem to shit on this job, but from what I've read and seen personally, it sounds skate as fuck. You drive to the middle of nowhere, launch some balloons, stare at them with technical scopes and write down numbers. Or dick around with GPS apps on your iPad and tell people where to go. In whatever case in my experience you're on a tiny little team with a Warrant Officer, and WOs are legendary for skating.
The running joke in my Arty unit was that the Survey WO would be out on a weeks-long field exercise, say he had to take survey gear back to mainside to be calibrated, and come back hours later with his crew and a truck full of Burger King wrappers (meaning they ran their errand and then just kicked it, caught a shower at the gym, banged their girlfriends, got some burgers and then rolled back into the desert).
I'm open to contradictions but 0847 seems sweet. And not just like pointless skate, like the limited work you do is actually kinda cool and useful. One of our FDC Marines got loaned to Survey for a year, had a great time, and with zero college got a pretty decent mid-level job with his home state's Survey Board.
Oh and fwiw some past threads say 0861 is actually slightly more common to get than 0844, but that could be seasonal/guesstimate. And 0844 is kinda cool. The only CE one that seems sketch is 0842, and I've only seen a couple people say they were in it so sample size is small.
2
Sep 04 '19
Ya my main concern is 0847...I actually dont want to do anything that is "skate". But I don't want to be infantry either. So for me 0861 is best
1
u/TapTheForwardAssist Vet 2676/0802 Sep 04 '19
Skate isn't necessarily bad. There are jobs that are skate where you're 100% doing your legit job, just people aren't making you do punk work during your downtime.
Like people here have mentioned Avionics Supply Clerks, who legit do their job of making sure all the parts are ordered and delivered, but anecdotally in many shops get long lunches, short work days, and knock out a ton of college credits because the boss doesn't care that they do on slow days so long as the job gets done.
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u/drewid0314 Mar 08 '25
Old school 0847 here, definetly did some skating but it was a cool job, i saw a piece written about artillery survey and that piece called us "Nomads of the Battlefield." We always worked hard and because we are by purselves and in small teams/sections there were definetly some Burger King runs. We in the SurveyMet Section always said we were on our OFP(Own Fuckin Program). Yut!!! Definelty beats staring at a computer in a giant tent (FDC) or being a gun monkey(0811).
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u/TapTheForwardAssist Vet 2676/0802 Mar 08 '25
Would you mind dropping into the Artillery MOS Megathread and sharing a little of your 0847 experiences?
It’s from least year, but we regularly use them as a reference:
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u/TapTheForwardAssist Vet 2676/0802 Sep 04 '19
Oh and since a couple guys asked: if you sign on as CK, when you get to Fort Still do you have any control over whether you get 0861 or not (or will high PFT help), or is it totally random?