A History of Blood – Vol. 1, Chapter 2
The Original Plan
Prior to my first enlistment I didn’t really plan on being in the military long; I genuinely just wanted a faster way to advance my career and thought the Marines might be a good way to finish college faster while also creating the contacts and gaining the experience that might help me get into either private military contracting or law enforcement,
I enlisted during the COV19 Pandemic, towards the end of the Global War on Terrorism. At the time, I was working at a grocery store while studying to get my insurance license, and trying to find a way to finish college. The grocery store I was working at was offering to pay for my college if I accepted a full-time position, but the salary was awful and the schedule was worse.
Life in the Marines
The salary in the Marines was objectively worse than what I was making at the grocery store. When people say things like “Thank you for your service” it’s because the average service member gets paid like crap, treated like crap, and is either completely wasting their time or doing something absurdly dangerous with virtually no in-between. It’s actually insane; one Marine will be sweeping for IEDs in an active war zone while another Marine will be raking sand in the hot sun while his buddy paints rocks.
A junior Marine effectively makes $20k a year in cash while being government property. On its own, the money is inconsequential but when combined with the benefits it can be somewhat passable, depending upon where you get stationed.
Your life will be vastly different if you are stationed in San Diego compared to a place like Twentynine Palms, but the beauty of the Marines is other Marines, and the fact that since you are never alone when you do anything, everything gets a little bit easier. That being said, the culture and type of Marine you’ll meet is vastly different depending upon your Military Occupational Specialty (MOS), especially if your MOS is anything other than Infantry.
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