why on earth would somebody join the Marines?

1. In the back of my my mind, I knew if I ever joined the military, I would join the Marine Corps. I don't really have any good explanation for that other than...

2. My grandfather was a Marine. He served during the occupation of Germany after World War II and during the Korean War. He died when I was three and a half so I don't really know any of his stories. My mom told me that to her surprise, she once found him sewing his pants, one of many skills he picked up in the Marine Corps. My grandma said she used to go watch him play taps on the bugle at the base in the evenings. She met him while he was stationed on the Naval Ordnance Station in Indian Head, Maryland, her hometown, and that's where they lived when he got out. Here is a list of the ribbons he earned, that I know of: His Ribbons

3. Coolest uniforms.

4. Smallest branch of the U.S. military, for more of that "Everybody knows everybody" feeling.

5. "Why not finish college?" you may ask. I hated college! It was boring and too easy. Out of the three and a half years I attended classes at three completely different institutions and after earning nearly 60 credits, I can only think of one class I actually looked forward to going to. Certain classes were fun sometimes or had awesome teachers, but for only one would I think, "Yippee, time for class!" Didn't matter whether I liked the subject or not, just the thought of sitting for hours several times a day for weeks and months on end and listening to people talk made me want to run far, far, away, as fast as possible.

6. People have said things to me along the lines of "What a waste!", as if I'm wasting my intelligence on the military. Do they think our armed forces are full of stupid people? Do they WANT our armed forces to be full of stupid people? Not all smart people go to college. Not all smart people even WANT to go to college. The world doesn't revolve around college. Not only college-educated folks do well in life. Can you tell I've heard this one a lot?

7. I've also been told that military pay sucks. ("Go to college instead! You'll make more money!) I'm not worried about the amount of money I make. I'm more worried about whether I'll be doing a job or a career that I enjoy. It's no fun sitting around wishing you had more money, I'm happy having fun with what I already have. When people die, their obituary never says, "Pat made $80,000 a year because s/he got a four-year college degree."

8. Every time somebody new finds out I joined the Marines, they seem to have five friends who were in the Navy or the Army and spent four years "scrubbing decks, playing war games in the woods, or driving trucks" instead of "learning marketable skills, being a cool SEAL, or going to college for free." There's a nice quote that should put that in perspective: "Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country." Plus, I'm not joining the Army or the Navy, I'm joining the Marines and they should have known before they signed up that once you're in, they can assign you to whatever duty they want.

9. And the ever-popular: "But you'll be brainwashed!" Brainwashed into believing what? So far, nobody has been able to tell me exactly what I'll be brainwashed into, other than the very vague "Thinking like them!" I have yet to meet a Marine who seemed "brainwashed", whatever that is. And if you are brainwashed into believing the Marine Corps Core Values, they don't seem so bad: Honor, Courage, and Commitment

10. "You don't know what you're getting into." I think a quick look around this website and seeing the amount of research that went into it should take care of that comment.

-- P.S. Now that I've been in for more than a year and a half, I have not come across anything so startling that I could say I didn't know what I was getting into.
-- P.P.S. Now I'm up to almost two and half years and still haven't discovered anything shocking.
-- P.P.P.S. Just over five years now and reading some of this makes me laugh. "I wrote THAT?!" Oh well.

11. "Why did you join the Marines?" Because I wanted to! That's all it comes down to, basically. I came up with the other reasons later on.