Posted by Leland on February 23, 2004 at 21:57:05:
In Reply to: Re: Marine fleet band posted by Ken on February 23, 2004 at 19:18:01:
"The President's Own", along with the other premier bands, starts out at staff sergeant, or E-6. The fleet bands and the drum & bugle corps start at E-2, private first class (PFC), unless of course a recruit turns out to be stellar enough to warrant a promotion to an even higher grade at the end of boot camp.
A couple of differences between then & now --
The only Marines to go through School Of Infantry (SOI) are in the 0300 MOS category, which covers, well, infantry of many sorts ("grunts"). Every other Marine -- from truck driver to admin clerk -- goes through Marine Combat Training (MCT), which briefly covers most the topics taught in SOI, such as heavier weapons, urban combat, squad tactics, mines & grenades, and a bunch of other stuff, but with shorter humps (marches, or hikes, with pack & weapon) and generally less risk.
MCT used to be about 2-1/2 weeks, but I understand that it's being lengthened (and boot camp shortened a tad) to more thoroughly cover things like urban combat. An admin clerk may more likely find himself in the middle of a house-by-house battle than hacking through the woods, after all.
One thing I haven't seen mentioned yet (and I forgot about when I posted earlier) is that you'll have to play for a music score at some point before enlisting. If you pass, you can be guaranteed that you'll be a musician; if you score high enough, you can list which bands you'd prefer to join (pick three in order of preference, and you'll be sent to one according to need).
The training really isn't that bad, and it's certainly not impossible. Heck, I made it. It's grueling, it's exhausting, it's a LOT of information to take in all at once, it's messy, it's dirty, it'll probably be muddy, but it's ONLY TEMPORARY, and you're learning from some of the best in the world.
Just the other day, I was walking back from dinner, remembering how much military training I actually received, and I'm still astounded. I wouldn't give it up for anything.