JC,
I am a Navy Lieutenant Commander (JAGC type) currently on active duty, and I have served with many fine Marines. There are a number of paths to getting a commission. Keep in mind that the Marine Corps is part of the Navy Dept., and there are several programs with "Navy" in the title that provide Marine Corps officers as well. The several programs are:
1) U.S. Naval Academy,
2) NROTC at a University that has such a program,
3) Platoon Leader Course (for undergraduates to take care of Officer Training/"Boot Camp" during summers between school years),
4) Officer Candidate School (for college graduates), &
5) Enlist as a Marine, then get into a program that leads to a commission. (This last is far more competitive and difficult to get into than most recruiters will admit, but in my experience officers who have been enlisted at some point in their careers have perspective and skills that those of us who went straight to a commissioning program lack--one opinionated O4's opinion.)
You can get some info at the following web site, www.marines.com/.../ I'd prefer less splashy effects, and more information, but I don't run Marine Corps recruiting.
Please feel free to contact me for more info. I can hook you up with one of the many fine Marines stationed here.
Matt
JC, I was Honorably discharged from the Marines in your home town many years ago after coming back into CONUS from overseas. I was an enlisted Marine (Sgt. E-5) and had a great tour of duty in the Marines. After high school I joined the Marines in 1968, did my time, got out, and went on to college. TRUST ME, if I had it to do all over again I would have gone to college and THEN joined the Marines as an officer.
Enlisted Marines from E-3 and down have to stand 30 days mess duty each year, walk guard duty and many other really unpleasant things that officers do not have to stand. Plus, the pay is seriously better for an officer then an enlisted man. Gosh, I remember walking everywhere on base while watching the officers drive by in their Hemi Dodge Chargers, Corvettes, Austin Healey 3000s and many other really neat cars of the day…..all the while, I was wearing out boot leather walking everywhere I needed to go.
Lastly, your local Marine Recruiter will be more then happy to provide you with the necessary information on ROTC programs.
Hey JC,
Take Tom's advice very seriously. As he's "been there, done that," Tom is in the admirable position to well advise you about the ROTC and miltary service.
My younger nephew, now 34, attended the Johns Hopkins University here through their ROTC program, Army National Guard. (Sorry, Tom!) He still is in the guard as a Major and for his, it's a nice second income. (His cousin and my older nephew is Class of '86, United State Military Academy at West Point.)
Lastly, my wife's friend's grandson is in the JRTOC in his school (10th grade). Bryan is doing extremly well and plans to attend college, as a pre-med student, through an ROTC program, quite possibly at my Alma Mater, Towson University. The JROTC program in his school is through the Marines, so that should make Tom happy.
And so, JC, plan well! We are sure that will be hearing from you about being back in the pool soon.
Kindest regards,
Mark
PS (After Matt's post)
I forgot about Matt, too!
JC,
The problems you've been facing are typical of the problems you're going to have to face as a swimmer throughout your life, so you should think of what you're going through as practice.
Competitive swimming is time consuming. If you put in the time, it pays you back by keeping you fitter and healthier. You're likely to miss less time from school or (when you get older) from work because of illness. But it does take a lot of time, and you need to learn how to manage your time effectively so that you can swim and still do the other things you need to do.
My father used to claim that, in the business world, if you have something that really needs to get done and you have two people who can do it, one of whom is busy and one of whom isn't, you always give the task to the busy person because the other one doesn't have time. What he meant was that the busy person has learned to manage their time well enough that it isn't a major problem to fit in one more task, whereas the other person is so sloppy at time management that they can't handle taking on anything else. So if you can learn to manage your time well enough to be a competitive swimmer and keep up your grades at the same time, you will have learned something that will be help you for the rest of your life.
You also shouldn't be shy about asking your teachers for help. Many students are afraid to ask questions because they think it will make them look stupid, but the truly stupid thing is to have questions but not ask them. Actually, the "dumber" a question is, the more important it is that you ask it, because the teacher isn't likely to go over something they think everytone already knows. My mother once confessed that the only reason she made it through one of her college math classes was because one of the other students was willing to ask the "dumb" questions she wouldn't ask.
Some teachers will even respond well if you go to them and say, "I've let myself get behind in this class. Can you help me get caught up?"
Keep in mind that teachers like to think of themselves as experts on teaching, so they really don't want to let a student fail if they know the student is trying to succeed. Also, if you go in for special help, the teacher is going to get to know you better, and it really makes a teacher feel lousy to give a bad grade to a student they've gotten to know!
The best cure for tendonitis is to give the joint a rest. Also, when you start to use it again, don't overwork it in a rush to get back to where you were before.
Bob
Good advice from Bob! And, at the risk of starting another war, I'd like to give you some advice on managing your time. Yes, this is an exercise I use to help students. I wish I knew where I found this, but I've been using for such a long time I truely don't have a clue. It is called Big Rocks. What you will need is a quart jar, five or six big rocks that you can fit into the jar at once (they should just about fill the jar) and a hand full of pebbles.
Trial 1. Put in the whole hand full of pebbles... it fills up, what 1/4 to 3/8 of the jar, right? Now put in the big rocks. How many did you get in? I bet you couldn't get all the big rocks into the jar.
Trial 2. Empty the jar. Put in all of the big rocks. Now take the hand full of pebbles, and pour them into the jar and shake them around until they fill up the spaces between the big rocks. Could you get all of them in? Probably.
The point is, schedule your big rocks first... those things that are the most important to get done, or those that are going to take the most time (and swimming can be one of them). That way you will be sure to have enough time to get the most important things done first. Then, schedule the smaller, less important, or less time consuming things, around the bigger ones. You will get more done in the same amount of time. It isn't too early to start using a day runner to schedule yourself, if organizational skills are what caused your poor grades.
And thats not working HARDER, thats just working SMARTER!
