Military Families

Any USMC recruiter spouses? Especially with HRST orders?

H got pulled for recruiting and will be in an upcoming class. We're not psyched, but will be glad for the career help an SDA brings. I have some pretty specific questions. I realize none of you are recruiting school officials, but I'd love to hear what your experience involved.

1 I have read online that the new recruiter is flown to his RS directly after graduation to check in and get his RSS assignment. Then he gets leave to move his HHG and find a home and such. True?

2 We are local to the school. Does that change the above?

3 Did anyone's H get pulled and have luck with a by name request? How did he go about it? Go through the NCOIC of the RSS or direct to the Sergeant Major of the RS.

I've dealt with Marine Corps OSOs, but I know this will be a whole new world. TIA!
I've seen a lot of military surprise homecomings. It wouldn't work on me. I always have my back to the corner and my face to the door. Looking for terrorists, criminals, various other threats, and husbands.

Re: Any USMC recruiter spouses? Especially with HRST orders?

  • My DH just got off USMC recruiting duty so I can kind of help.

    1) I believe the general rule is 30 days to check into their new RS after graduation but that also includes checking in and finding a place to live. DH was also given his RSS before graduation. They actually have a day when all the SGT Majors come down and talk to the recruiter that will be going to their RS. DH found out where he was going and got to talk to the SGT Major all in the same day. It's towards the middle or end of recruiting school though.

    2) I don't think being close changes anything except you get to see your DH a little more. Are you in San Diego? We were stationed at Pendleton but DH still stayed at MCRD during the week. We got to see him maybe 3 times during the week but he would be able to come home on weekends.

    3) My DH did not get the exact station he requested and he had even talked to the NCOIC of the RSS and had a by name request. Part of the reason why he didn't get the RS is because they didn't have any openings for him when he graduated. So your DH might have that problem even though he has a by name request. He did, however, get the RS so we were at least in the same state we wanted to go to. I do know that some of the guys in his class got their exact RSS choice because of their by name request but I also know some guys got sent to a random station because that's where they needed them.

    Sorry this is so long. Let me know if you have anymore questions. I will be happy to help!

  • I thought of one more thing about the by name requests. I would totally still request one because you never know, there's a chance they will use it.

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  • Thanks so much! H has talked to the RSS, and apparently they do have a sector opening up at about the right time, and his SgtMaj knows the RS SgtMaj and sent him an email for H. Who knows if that will help, but hopefully it will!

    H is staying down there for sure. He recently went through Sgt's course, and though his course average was super high, I think if he had taken a barracks room he would have done better with less distraction.

    How was recruiting for you guys? I'm sure I'll have more questions, I may just PM you next time. Thanks again for the answers!
    I've seen a lot of military surprise homecomings. It wouldn't work on me. I always have my back to the corner and my face to the door. Looking for terrorists, criminals, various other threats, and husbands.
  • That's perfect then! Hopefully it will work out for you guys. The RSS we wanted didn't have anything until two months after which was a bummer.

    Everything you hear about recruiting is true. It was really hard and the schedule sucked. I just kept reminding myself that at least he was deployed because tat would have been way harder. DH was the only recruiter in his RSS and the closest recruiters were three hours away. I think it would have been easier if we had been with other Marines.

    Definitely feel free to PM me. I would love to help you as much as I can Smile

  • H was a recruiter (obviously Navy not Marines though) and I will definitely agree that it sucks.  The bonus is that they are home every night, and at least for Navy if you come out of your tour with good evals then it looks great for you.  H was capped to his previous rank while there so that alone made it worth it to him.  

    I don't know if the Marines vary in processing times like the Navy did, but it fluctuated horribly in his 3 years.  When he first started recruiting basically anyone with a decent ASVAB score could get in, and would ship out to boot soon after that.  At that point he loved it because they were hitting quotas halfway through the month.  Towards the end it became near impossible to get in, so their numbers sucked.  For example, one month they were only allowed to put in Asian females scoring at least a 70 on the ASVAB, and the office quota was 4.  If you didn't hit that quota you went to Saturday all day trainings.  Also at that time there was almost a year wait to ship out, so you basically had to babysit all the DEPpers until they shipped out.  They would call and check in once a week, and if they got in trouble at all in that time you have to deal with it.  

    The perks though were that he got capped, he had a ton of volunteer opportunities in the community (which helped him get his volunteer service medal), he was home every night even though sometimes it wasn't until almost 9, and there was no looming deployments.  Also he had an easier time getting leave when needed and his schedule was a little more flexible during the day to get stuff done.  I'm sure it also played a huge role in him making his most recent rank his first time up. 

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  • Thanks for the replies! I am one of the weirdos who doesn't mind combat deployments. We were really hoping for a promotion this year, one more trip to AStan, and then H was going to try for MSG.

    H already earned his volunteer service medal, and from what I'm hearing there isn't that opportunity for anything, volunteering, college classes, etc. with Marine recruiters. We're used to a terrible work schedule, as he's a flyer with a constantly changing schedule and I work weird hours, but we've always had the weekends to volunteer and hang out. I'm not looking forward to having to parlay my niche degree into another city I might not want to live in. I was trying to go AD Army, but now I'm switching my app to reserves.

    Buuuut, maybe we'll get where we want, and yay for a career helping SDA, right? Lol.

    This is why I can't fathom how they get volunteers.
    I've seen a lot of military surprise homecomings. It wouldn't work on me. I always have my back to the corner and my face to the door. Looking for terrorists, criminals, various other threats, and husbands.
  • Yeah, I asked H why he signed up for recruiting duty too when it was awful.  To him he thought it would be like when he joined, where he walked in knowing he wanted to join and left a couple weeks after graduating HS.  Plus there was the appeal of being able to request general areas of where you want to be stationed for it.  I think the biggest perk for people, at least Navy though, is that it's considered arduous duty, so it looks much better when you're up for boards than other shore duties.  

    And I laughed when I was typing out a perk being no looming deployments, because I know how you feel about them.   

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  • My husband is currently in recruiting school. He seems to think recruiting will be easy. Meanwhile, Im trying to prepare myself and kids for the next 3 years. For now, i take it one day at a time. Moving for the first time away from family and friends too.
  • Hi Jessica!

    I hope your H is right, lol. Have you guys gotten his district assignment yet?
    I've seen a lot of military surprise homecomings. It wouldn't work on me. I always have my back to the corner and my face to the door. Looking for terrorists, criminals, various other threats, and husbands.
  • We actually found out last week that we're headed to Palm Desert. Before DH started school, I asked him to get in touch with the Sgt Major of our preferred RS to see what the chances were. Well when he email DH backed he said the only available openings were about 3 -4 hours away from our hometown. Well, we really didn't pursue a by-name request. Thought we'd just "wing it." Well were still in our preferred RS just the 3 hours away from family which isn't too bad.

  • I think 3 hours is perfect. That's how far we're hoping to be from H's family. Close enough, but not drop by and annoy me crazy!

    Congrats on the news! I hope you update me with the check in process and such. Are you guys PDS at Pendleton until the move?
    I've seen a lot of military surprise homecomings. It wouldn't work on me. I always have my back to the corner and my face to the door. Looking for terrorists, criminals, various other threats, and husbands.
  • thought I'd update you since we began RD! so yeah we did move from camp pendleton and the move was smooth and overall the transition for the kiddos is going great! DH has worked for 3 weeks now and unfortunately has not had a full day off just yet but he is enjoying the time and experience. Hours really are long like everyone has mentioned! Typically 8am to 9, 9:30pm. I'm used to him working long hours, but it kills me when the kids ask for daddy or just say they miss him! I can't say I hate it just yet but it is definitely a new exp! 

    so, did your husband graduate yet? one of this things I do miss is have a social network of other wives, recruiting does not have that at all! and the area we moved to is more of a vacation area so not too many families = ( 

  • Thanks for the update!

    We're about to move so it's all craziness now! I get all my spouse friends on the Internet, but we're going to a very small place, one other recruiter and the boss. Just one other wife, we'll see how it goes!

    I'm sorry your kids are having such a rough time, that would be so hard. We've just got dogs, do this is my chance to get them to live me more! :
    I've seen a lot of military surprise homecomings. It wouldn't work on me. I always have my back to the corner and my face to the door. Looking for terrorists, criminals, various other threats, and husbands.
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