Forget college -- join the Marines!

[Reverend Joe]

This arrived today in my e-mail.

Dear American University Student,

My name is Captain Jeff Potter. I am the Marine Corps Officer Selection
Officer in College Park, Maryland. The reason that I am contacting you
is because I want you to be aware of an awesome summer training program
called the Platoon Leaders Class (PLC).

The PLC summer course is six weeks for freshmen and sophomores. For
juniors and seniors, the course is ten weeks. It is offered to all
qualified college undergraduates. The purpose of the training is to see
if you have what it takes to become a Marine Officer.

If you are an American citizen, a full-time enrolled student, and found
to be medically and physically fit, then you may be eligible to
participate in the PLC program.

This program will benefit you in many ways:
1. You will attend what Inc. Magazine calls "the best management
training program in America" and test your leadership potential,
physical fitness and mental prowess.
2. You will earn approximately $2500 (six weeks) or $4500.00 (ten
weeks), plus room and board during the training.
3. If you are interested in aviation and have no worse than 20/40 vision
that is correctable to 20/20 and decide to accept your commission after
you graduate from college, then you will go down to Pensacola, FL and
train to fly some of the most advanced tactical aircraft in the world.
The Marine Corps is the only branch that will guarantee you a pilot seat
as early as your freshmen year.
4. You will not incur any obligation to the Marine Corps, even after
completing the training (you can choose whether or not to continue with
the program). Your obligation begins when you graduate from college and
decide to accept your commission.
5. Tuition assistance will be available to you after you complete your
summer training. You could potentially earn $8,000 to $25,000 for
school, depending on your graduation date.
6. This program does not interfere with academic or athletic pursuits
because your training is conducted during the summer.
7. This is not ROTC. No on-campus training, drills or meetings.

If you successfully complete Officer Candidates School, you will be on
your way to becoming a Marine Corps Second Lieutenant with an exciting
job after college. Marine Lieutenants receive starting salaries of
$40,000-49,000 a year plus incredible benefits. Forty percent of all
Marine Officers are commissioned through the PLC.

This is an unparalleled opportunity to see if you have what it takes to
be a leader in one of the most elite organizations in the world without
committing yourself to service. As a junior officer in the Marine
Corps, the leadership experience you gain will set you apart from your
peers. Many Marine Officers go on to attend top business schools or
work for the FBI, CIA, Department of State, or as executives for Fortune
500 companies.

If this sounds like something that interests you, contact me at
*contact information censored* or email me at *contact information censored*. For more
detailed information, visit my website at *contact information censored*.

Meet with me or a member of my team at the American University Career
Fair Wednesday, September 24th.

Thank you for your time.

Very respectfully,

*censored*
*contact information censored*

This e-mail was sent to you to assess your interest in the U.S. Marine
Corps Officer Programs. If you prefer not to receive future emails,
click http://usmc.marines.com/unsubscribe or copy and paste this URL
into your browser. Please review our privacy policy at
http://www.marines.com/privacy_policy/default.asp

(All contact information that might get me in trouble for sharing has been censored, just in case; but if you want confirmation, I will be willing to send you the information in a PM.)

This is a new low... trying to bait drunken fratboys and paramilitary nutjobs with a happy funtime Marine camp -- with the biggest catch mentioned (almost) explicitly:

4. You will not incur any obligation to the Marine Corps, even after
completing the training (you can choose whether or not to continue with
the program). Your obligation begins when you graduate from college and
decide to accept your commission.

And no, I am not anti-Marines. I am anti-coercion. This is wrong.

Edit: crap, left a bunch of contact stuff in. I don't really think it would be a problem sharing, but I don't want to take any chances.

[JR-]

provided you get to decide whether to accept the commission i have no problem with this advert.

[Kadagar_AV]

This is an unparalleled opportunity to see if you have what it takes to
be a leader in one of the most elite organizations in the world

This is what made me laugh...

Yeah, if you count rednecks trained to storm beaches held by machinegun-nests "elite", then yeah sure...

The real "elite" forces (Spetznaz, SAS, GSG9, Attack-Divers) laugh at it however.

Before you flame me...

1. Yes I am special ops.
2. Yes I have worked side by side with marines.
3. Yes i had a good laugh about it.

*Oh, my weapon is jammed, I must send it to the authorized technician to sort it out*

KLAG NICHT, KÄMPFT!

-translation: stop whining, fight!"

[Reverend Joe]

...Anyway...

Furunculu5: that's the problem. It's intentionally misleading in such regards, and I'm willing to bet that

when you graduate from college and decide to accept your commission

means you will accept your commission.

Also:

You will earn approximately $2500 (six weeks) or $4500.00 (ten weeks), plus room and board during the training.

This is not ROTC. No on-campus training, drills or meetings.

[Xiahou]

It even says "you can choose whether or not to continue with the program". Sorry, I don't see how this is "a new low". I wouldn't sign up, but I think it's a sound recruitment tool. Even, if it did lock you into joining the Marines (I don't think it does), I still don't get where your "Forget college" topic comes from. It's quite explicit about you completing college before you enter the Marines.

[KarlXII]

1. Yes I am special ops.
2. Yes I have worked side by side with marines.
3. Yes i had a good laugh about it.

Hate to drag this off topic, but,

Kadagar: Fallskärmsjägarna?

[Lemur]

My dad did this program or something very like it when he was gearing up for the Corps. I don't see that the email is terribly misleading. Surely anyone who thinks that six to ten weeks of busting their humps with the Marines is a good way to spend a summer is not a person who is being drunkenly duped into a lifestyle they didn't expect.

Also please note that the Marines are different about how they look for officers than when they grab enlisted men & women. They're not interested in having officers who don't want to be there. Note that because the Marines keep their officer corps small, their commissioned fellas perform the equivalent of a rank up. So a Marine Lieutenant will likely command as many people as an Army Captain, and a Marine Captain will have the duties of an Army Major. And so forth.

They're not looking for idiot frat boys who will regret the choice, trust me. Now the grunts who will serve no more than four years or so? That's a little more negotiable.

[Kadagar_AV]

Swedishfish:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

K4 Fjälljägare (wierdly enough translated to arctic ranger)
Sergeant by rank, specialised in night combat and arctic warfare.
Favourite weapon: AG90 http://members.tripod.com/arcticrang.../ag90/ag90.htm marksman (sniper)

HeHe.... I wanted to insert a link to K4 in english, but oddly enough we have managed to keep our operations discreet enough not to be on any evident english site(!?)

I must say.... The important thin here must be: are you really free to do whatever you want afterwards, or are there some fine print?

[Hosakawa Tito]

Here's some more info: PLC Program

Once accepted into PLC, the only obligation you incur is to attend OCS. If you successfully graduate from summer OCS training, you’ll have a big decision to make during your senior year. “Do I accept my commission and begin serving as a Marine officer, or do I decline my commission and pursue another path after college?” Participating in PLC allows you to earn the option of becoming a Marine officer after you graduate from college. It also provides the Marine Corps with the chance to assess your leadership during the summer to determine whether or not you have what it takes to lead Marines. We both get to “test drive” the idea of you becoming a Marine officer without either of us incurring a post-college obligation.

Sounds like a good program (they want you to complete your 4 year college degree) with no strings attached if you decide to not pursue a career in the Corps. Being the smallest branch in the armed services, the Marines generally don't have any problem filling their recruitment quotas.

I think you are misreading the intent here.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

1. Yes I am special ops.
2. Yes I have worked side by side with marines.
3. Yes i had a good laugh about it.

[KarlXII]

Swedishfish:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

K4 Fjälljägare (wierdly enough translated to arctic ranger)
Sergeant by rank, specialised in night combat and arctic warfare.
Favourite weapon: AG90 http://members.tripod.com/arcticrang.../ag90/ag90.htm marksman (sniper)

HeHe.... I wanted to insert a link to K4 in english, but oddly enough we have managed to keep our operations discreet enough not to be on any evident english site(!?)

I must say.... The important thin here must be: are you really free to do whatever you want afterwards, or are there some fine print?

Kadagar:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Thanks for the info, you must live quite an interesting life

This looks like the average thing a recruiter would say. I don't see anything wrong with it, it's a recruitment letter, it's not saying otherwise. It even says you have an obligation once you graduate, if you choose to accept the comission and continue. I've been talking with recruiters for a week or so now, this looks like the average thing they'd say .

[Reverend Joe]

All right, I guess I did misinterpret the e-mail. It's just that I mistrust anything coming from the government now.

[KarlXII]

All right, I guess I did misinterpret the e-mail. It's just that I mistrust anything coming from the government now.

Hippie.

[ICantSpellDawg]

I love the U.S. Military. They wouldn't let me join because I am a giant baby. I even gave them the opportunity to throw me out into the desert without my meds and they didn't take me up on it. I don't see anything misleading about this ad.

[Hosakawa Tito]

All right, I guess I did misinterpret the e-mail. It's just that I mistrust anything coming from the government now.

Yes, lately many of us feel the same by varying degrees.

[KukriKhan]

Hippie.

Dude: I know it lessens the impact of your irony and cleverness, but ya gotta start throwing in a smiley somewhere, lest folks think you're serious. It doesn't have to be an animated one, just a :) a few lines down, or something.

We avoid a ton of flamewars and mis-directed topics with that one tiny action. I don't mean to pick on you, it just seemed a good time to demonstrate an object lesson, so I apologize for any embarrassment. This 'rule-of-etiquette' applys to everyone, throughout our multinational, multi-lingual forums.

Marine Officer ain't a bad career choice. Command a company of 200 guys who can make a difference, at age 25. Beats the heck outta cubicle life, IMHO. But to each, his own.

[ICantSpellDawg]

Dude: I know it lessens the impact of your irony and cleverness, but ya gotta start throwing in a smiley somewhere, lest folks think you're serious. It doesn't have to be an animated one, just a :) a few lines down, or something.

We avoid a ton of flamewars and mis-directed topics with that one tiny action. I don't mean to pick on you, it just seemed a good time to demonstrate an object lesson, so I apologize for any embarrassment. This 'rule-of-etiquette' applys to everyone, throughout our multinational, multi-lingual forums.

Marine Officer ain't a bad career choice. Command a company of 200 guys who can make a difference, at age 25. Beats the heck outta cubicle life, IMHO. But to each, his own.

I don't know. I got that he was being sarcastic. If anything I think smileys are more irritating than just making a crack. Sometimes they may be good to use, but Hippie doesn't even have a negative connotation to most people on this board. I'm a conservative and wouldn't be offended if someone called me a word meaning drug addled-sodomite-communist. That would be a lie. Mostly.

[Kadagar_AV]

Communist mods.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

:)

[KarlXII]

Dude: I know it lessens the impact of your irony and cleverness, but ya gotta start throwing in a smiley somewhere, lest folks think you're serious. It doesn't have to be an animated one, just a :) a few lines down, or something.

We avoid a ton of flamewars and mis-directed topics with that one tiny action. I don't mean to pick on you, it just seemed a good time to demonstrate an object lesson, so I apologize for any embarrassment. This 'rule-of-etiquette' applys to everyone, throughout our multinational, multi-lingual forums.

Marine Officer ain't a bad career choice. Command a company of 200 guys who can make a difference, at age 25. Beats the heck outta cubicle life, IMHO. But to each, his own.

Apologies, I thought Joe would've known it was sarcastic. I find smileys often ruin the sarcasm by making it blatantly obvious (LOL HERES A SMILEY IF UR 2 STUPID).

[Kadagar_AV]

Swedishfish, obviosly you intended some teenage internet slang in that last sentence. Let me help you out.

PLX GIEF ZMILZ I R NEWBZOR

See, the trick is to just let the mind "go"... Enter "nirvana" as you type, it doesnt even have to make sence, really:)

[KarlXII]

Swedishfish, obviosly you intended some teenage internet slang in that last sentence. Let me help you out.

PLX GIEF ZMILZ I R NEWBZOR

See, the trick is to just let the mind "go"... Enter "nirvana" as you type, it doesnt even have to make sence, really:)

I think we're going off topic here. We need to discuss the important issues!

The overthrow of the Commie mods!

Tribsey can spearhead with his smiley army!

[Kadagar_AV]

Hmm... Problem is, they have all the power:(

We COULD demand they show a printscreen from an actuall totalwar game... I am quite sure that would get rid of about half the mods on this site;)

[KarlXII]

Hmm... Problem is, they have all the power:(

We COULD demand they show a printscreen from an actuall totalwar game... I am quite sure that would get rid of about half the mods on this site

Seem to have some trouble reading that

[Banquo's Ghost]

As with any Communist Democratic People's Forum, to preserve the ultimate liberties of the striving masses to groupthink, it is necessary for termination of undesirable thought-crime.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

And clearly, the topic has been dealt with.

[Hax]

You forgot to close it.

[Banquo's Ghost]

Ooops. That's me for re-education.