Zark: I'm saying post.

and I want the pride of being part of the greatest fighting force on earth.

Personally I think British Marines PWN American Marines. We do have the greatest Navy in the world though. Join the Navy!

Or, you could go for the National and Coast guards instead. I knew a cop who worked as an officer for a month, followed by being a coastguardsmen for a couple of weeks, before going an officer again.

I would recommend the Navy, Air Force or one of the Guards if your main goal is an education. In those cases you will be taught some discipline without being forced to risk your life in a direct way(unless thats what you want). Granted it is war time, and that likely won't change in the near future, so enlisting in the guard will pretty much ensure deployment to Iraq or Korea for most of your enlistment.

The Rangers pwn the regular Marines IMO but whatever you decide, I think its a brave choice. So good luck man.

Wait...I don't remember the national guard being deployed to Iraq? I know that they get deployed to hurricane disaster zones.

Two of my friends are in the Guard and in Iraq right now. One of them has been there for 18 months.

Deployment into a war zone all depends on your field. My cousin just retired as a Lt Colonel in Marine's and his field was satellites. He's lived in Okinawa, Australia and Germany for several years each (Okinawa over 8 years) but he was never sent to a war zone by more than a few thousand miles. He'd go in, set up relay stations, then get sent back to his previous location.

He has a brother who was in the Army (perversely he worked on their fighter jets and didn't join the Air Force for that) and another brother who also joined the Marines. That brother is now a psychiatrist from the education they gave him. The Army brother still works on their jets without being enlisted any more....

Basically, do the research and see what training you'll need to not be sent to the front line... assuming you wish to avoid that.

and I want the pride of being part of the greatest fighting force on earth.

Gurkha's anyone?

That's true Damalis, but you can't really choose what area you want to go into. The recruiters may make it seem like you'll have the type of job that's not very dangerous and lots of fun, but you could still very well end up in Iraq.

well if he's had ROTC training in high school and taken officers training, he'll be better set to enter the less dangerous fields. I mean with officer's training you can literally enter the military with a higher rank than the people putting you through bootcamp.

I mean, I'm not exactly sure what tests they give you to see where they place you, but that was what I was suggesting he find out. There's plenty of fields in the military who never see action. I was just saying he could get into something that's not being a foot soldier...

or he could be like a friend of my fiancee's who joined so he could blow things up. He quite honestly wanted on the front lines and has reenlisted twice now so he can stay there.

I actually asked someone who knows these things and they said:

Before you go in you take the ASVAB. Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery. Its an aptitude test. From it they decide what they are willing to train you for. You actually sign up for your job at the beginning. After Boot Camp you get sent to your “vocational school”. You can sign up for an open contract, but that means they can put you anywhere they want after boot camp (janitor, front line foot infantry, etc).