7041 Aviation Operations Specialist

The last night of field ops at MCT they give the orders to MOS School.  I signed up to be a legal clerk which is MOS #4421.  My MOS school is at Camp Johnson in NC.  At least that's what I thought.  When they read my name and MOS, I heard "Connors, Shawn P. 7041. Meridien MS."  I'm standing there like, "What the F@#$ is a 7041??? And... Where the F@#$ is Meridien MS???"  I went to see the Platoon Sgt to find out what happened.  I tried to explain to him that there was a mistake, that both my MOS and MOS School were wrong, that my contract was to be a legal clerk.  He said, "Well Devil Dog, that's not what it says here so you're out of luck." Apparently he didn't like that I didn't accept that as his final answer. He also didn't like it when I said, "Fine.  Then the Marine Corps is in breach of contract and I can be discharged, and I'm not going to MS!"  He told me stand at the POA and then asked, "Did you have three options on your contract?" I said, "Yes Sgt." He smiled and said, "Well Devil Dog, the Marine Corps promised to give you one of the three options, not necessarily your choice.  Enjoy Mississippi!"  There is literally nothing I can do about this.  What nobody told me and perhaps should have told me was why this happened.  It turns out that when I took the ASVAB (Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery) I did really well on three sections that the Marine Corps takes pretty seriously which make up a GT score.  They switched my MOS because I had listed Aviation as my second option and my GT score was higher than the minimum for the MOS that they had a shortage in.  So long story short, I got switched because I was a square peg and the Marines had a square hole to fill.  But the Sgt's answer of "You signed the motherf@#$ing contract so deal with it" would become a recurring theme.  And nobody had told me where the F@#$ Meridien MS is!!!

MCT

If Parris Island transforms people into Marines, then Marine Combat Training (MCT) shows Marines what to expect in the Fleet Marine Force. Hurry up and wait! Marching from place to place in large unorganized clusters, waiting around for either a class or a drill. There is no time to build a team as we are only here for two weeks before we ship off to Military Occupation Specialty (MOS) school.  The new Marines all want to prove how hard they are or aren't.  The instructors show tremendous disdain for all of us because they are career infantry and look at all of us as gutless because we aren't infantry.  This is a special circle of Hell.  I've learned that being called "Devil Dog" by our instructors is just like being called a "recruit" by a DI. The arbitrary way they decide who does what is like how my freshman football coach picked our positions: height and weight.  Coach Turner walked in front of us, looked us from toe to head and back to toe and then said "Back" or "Lineman".  Just by looking at us.  Honestly, how in the hell can you tell if someone can pass, run, catch, block or tackle by looking at them from their feet to their head and back down.  I got picked to be a 60 gunner.  Do you want to know I got picked to be a 60 gunner?  Do you think it's because the 60 gunner needs to be an accurate shot? If you do, then you are wrong! Do you think it's because the 60 gunner leads a three man team and I was older and more educated? If you do, then you are wrong again! I got picked because the M60 is heavy and long and I'm 6'2 and weigh 195 lbs.  In simpler terms I was the only one strong enough to carry it! So for most of the time we were in the field I carried this heavy as weapon in the rear of the platoon with one guy who carried the ammo can  and the other guy who carried the tri pod for it.  We got to fire it once.  And it jammed. Then, and I'm not even kidding, a hurricane hit North Carolina for three days and they cancelled field ops and sent us back to the barracks to twiddle our thumbs cuz it's too dangerous to be outside in a hurricane. Can you spell irony??? I can... U.S.M.C.