Mitchell E-3 promotion.

[Rodriguez]

Im considering enlisting the Marine Corps and Im a little confused. As Ive always heard it, all branches of the military honor the mitchell award and give you a promotion to E-3 or at least E-2 in the Marines case. But, latly ive been hearing that its no longer honored except in the Air Force. Ive heard that its simply a recruting ploy. Can anyone clarify this for me?

[Spike]

How can it be a recruiting ploy??  Ask a recruiter.

[Майор Хаткевич]

Marines don't give anyone anything these days. Army will grumble, but will give it to you. Air Force and Coast Guard obviously will. No experience with the Navy.

[Flying Pig]

Marines don't give it and never have.  You can only get E-2 if you recruit someone while you are in the DEP or you get a mert promotion in boot camp.  As far as E-3, in the Marines you only get E-3 if you are a Platoon or Company Honor Man.

[jimmydeanno]

A4.1.5. For an NPS (Non Prior Service) applicant, date of rank is RegAF enlistment date. Enlistment grade is E-1 Airman Basic (AB) unless they:
...
A4.1.5.5. Possess a Billy Mitchell, Amelia Earhart, or Carl Spaatz Award, or a letter from CAP-USAF/TTHE, Maxwell AFB AL, certifying successful completion for the award, and is a high school diploma graduate or higher, then grade is E-3 (A1C).

http://www.af.mil/shared/media/epubs/AFI36-2002.pdf

[Cecil DP]

As Spike said earlier, ASK THE RECRUITER!!!. Only he/she will be able to answer that question.

[RickFranz]

Marines don't give anyone anything these days. Army will grumble, but will give it to you. Air Force and Coast Guard obviously will. No experience with the Navy.

Navy gave my Son E-2 for his Mitchell.

[Stonewall]

Me and all my friends got E-2 for Mitchell when we enlisted into the Army.

[capchiro]

All of my Mitchell's that went Air Force got E-3, the Army ones got E-2.. No one is encouraged to go into the Marine Corps...  After all, we are the Air Force Auxiliary.. Flame suit on..

[ironputts]

See my discussion on this topic and the results:

http://captalk.net/index.php?topic=3576.40

[Flying Pig]

All of my Mitchell's that went Air Force got E-3, the Army ones got E-2.. No one is encouraged to go into the Marine Corps...  After all, we are the Air Force Auxiliary.. Flame suit on..

The Marines have never had an issue recruiting.  There is no reason for them to offer an advanced promotion.  Everyone starts out at the bottom.  You earn your Marine Corps promotions for what you do in the Corps, not for what you do in a cadet program.

[Spike]

All of my Mitchell's that went Air Force got E-3, the Army ones got E-2.. No one is encouraged to go into the Marine Corps...  After all, we are the Air Force Auxiliary.. Flame suit on..

The Marines have never had an issue recruiting.  There is no reason for them to offer an advanced promotion. Everyone starts out at the bottom.  You earn your Marine Corps promotions for what you do in the Corps, not for what you do in a cadet program.

Yes Sir, that kid that got the option of Marines or Jail sure deserves the promotion to E-3 after raking gravel for three years at Quantico.  Come on now.  The Marine Corps is no different than any other military service.  Even the Coast Guard awards advanced pay to our Cadets and even our Senior Members now! 

[capchiro]

I guess it depends on what you call recruiting.  Seems I remember some people that were drafted into the Marines during the unpleasantness in Viet Nam.  I also know of some Navy Corpmen that didn't join the Marines but got the pleasure of serving with them anyway..

[Rodriguez]

It wont affect my desision to join but it would be nice.

[Flying Pig]

Spike
The Marine Corps is no different than any other military service.

Having served in the Infantry as an NCO in both the Marines and the Army, I can tell you, the Marines are A LOT different than other services.  Im not taking away from our Army brothers, but it was so different I was reminded several times by other career Army NCOs that I was no longer in the Marines.  Basically, "Dude, relax" was what I was told by a Sgt. 1st Class who was my Plt Sgt.  Im not saying one is better, but they are WAAAAAAY different. 

Seems I remember some people that were drafted into the Marines during the unpleasantness in Viet Nam.

During the draft, the Marines were allowed to walk through the lines of inductees and select anyone they wanted.  They were primarily selected based on physical fitness levels and even then, they were asked if they wanted to join the Marines instead of one of the other branches.  Of course, there were those who were told they were joining the Marines, but the story from my Sgt. Major when I was in was that the Marines preferred those who stepped forward on their own and would always attempt to fill their numbers with volunteers first before they started volunteering people

I also know of some Navy Corpmen that didn't join the Marines but got the pleasure of serving with them anyway..

When I was an Infantry Squad Leader, the Corpsman was assigned to my Squad.  We taught him how to man all of the weapons including the MK19 and .50 cal. (The Ma Duece)  We taught him how to call for Arty and CAS (Close Air Support). We often joked that he was best Marine in the platoon.  Physically, the guy was a genetic mutant.  A machine.  He often said he had the best of both worlds.  He was always interested in being a Marine, being an Infantryman, but had a desire to be a medic.  Whoala!  Navy Corpsman!
There are three types of Corpsman.  There are the Corpsman who work in the Navy Hospitals and never work with the Marines.  There are the FMF Corpsman who are assigned to the Marines.  However, they maintain their Navy uniforms, take the Navy PFT.  Then there are the Marine Reg Corpsman.  They are Navy Corpsman who wear the Marine Uniforms, and take the Marine Corps PFT.  When a corpsman is assigned to the Marines, they do not have to be Marine Reg Corpsman.  I always thought it was neat seeing a sailor in their cracker jacks standing in formation with the Marines.  I had a cool photo that I can no longer find.  We were all in our dress blues and the Corpsman was in his Navy dress blacks (whatever they call them).  It was neat.

Because of the specialized nature of being a Fleet Marine Corpsman, the Navy now has an FMF Corpsman badge.  Its pretty cool.  For anyone interested in medical AND being able to blow things up, being a corpsman would be the way to go.

[SarDragon]

When I was having my experience with military induction, they would line up a whole bunch of draftees in the hallway and have them count off by 4's or 5's. When the counting was done, all the folks with [random number from 1 to 4 or 5] would go one direction to be Marines, and the other folks would go the other direction to be Soldiers. This happened in Phila in late '68 and early '69.

[Eebdog]

When I joined the USMC I got E-2, but I used my JROTC credit. I had a friend join the USMC as an E-2 because he had been in CAP for 2 years, but that was about 3 years ago and I know that standard has changed a couple of times.

So yeah, check with the recruiter (or look up the order yourself).

[flyguy06]

All of my Mitchell's that went Air Force got E-3, the Army ones got E-2.. No one is encouraged to go into the Marine Corps...  After all, we are the Air Force Auxiliary.. Flame suit on..

The Marines have never had an issue recruiting.  There is no reason for them to offer an advanced promotion. Everyone starts out at the bottom.  You earn your Marine Corps promotions for what you do in the Corps, not for what you do in a cadet program.

Yes Sir, that kid that got the option of Marines or Jail sure deserves the promotion to E-3 after raking gravel for three years at Quantico.  Come on now.  The Marine Corps is no different than any other military service.  Even the Coast Guard awards advanced pay to our Cadets and even our Senior Members now!

Join the Marines or go to Jail? isnt that something they used to do like years ago? Nobody does that anymore. Why does eveyone ontheis site love to give these very old references?


I thought the whole purpose of the cadet program was to encourage youth to go to college and become military officers. I wonder why the majority of them enlist? Not that I have anything agains that, I was enlisted for 12 years. Been there, done that. I am merely curious.

[PA Guy]

I thought the whole purpose of the cadet program was to encourage youth to go to college and become military officers. I wonder why the majority of them enlist? Not that I have anything agains that, I was enlisted for 12 years. Been there, done that. I am merely curious.

You might want to take a look at CAPR 52-16 para. 1-1.  There is nothing in there about going to college or going into the military much less being an officer. 

We train cadets to be leaders in what ever career path they choose, be that military or civilian.  If our primary focus is on training cadets to go into the military we are doing a diservice to those who choose another path.  Likewise, not all cadets have the desire, ability or resources to go to college.  Our goal should be to assist cadets in whatever educational path they choose.

[Eclipse]

We train cadets to be leaders in what ever career path they choose, be that military or civilian.  If our primary focus is on training cadets to go into the military we are doing a diservice to those who choose another path.  Likewise, not all cadets have the desire, ability or resources to go to college.  Our goal should be to assist cadets in whatever educational path they choose.

+1 We are not a recruiting service, or even an "encouraging service" per se.

CAP, in cooperation with various military services, can provide a number of unique opportunities to cadets (and seniors) who are interested in military service, but our mission is not to recruit.

If anything, one of the better things we do is show cadets what the military is like and some, in turn, realize it is not for them (which doesn't mean they have to quit CAP).