I've got an appointment with the Career Planner in two days. I've now got less than one year left on my contract, which means I need to decide what I want to do next.

I'm currently pondering two options. One is to go Reserve, and join VMGR-452, a C-130 squadron that flies from upstate New York. While a drilling reservist, I could easily attend college at any of the SUNY schools, and finish up getting my degree.

I could also reenlist for a new four-year term. I'd receive a bonus of $22,500, which equates to a $5625 per year raise over Sergeant's pay, which isn't bad anyway. I could ask for a specific unit, probably the same C-130s. Those guys don't tend to deply much, so I might be able to finish my degree in the evenings.

Complicating this, I could also just extend in Okinawa for a year, receive a smaller bonus, but kick the whole decision downstream a year.

There's no point reuppping unless I want to go career, but I'm considering that. As a careerist, to get promoted into the staff ranks, you normally have to take a "B Billet", a job that's not too popular. I'm not cut out for drill instructor duty. That leaves recruiting, and Marine Security Guard. MSG are the folks that protect American embassies all over the world. It's hard work, but intriguing. Recruiting is thankless work, but I strongly suspect I'd be good at it. However, being a recruiter plays hell on a Marine's physical fitness, which is already not my strong suit.

In fact, that's one of the things I'm pondering over. I need to get a higher PFT score. One of the squadon's gunnies took me aside about a week ago and let me know that if I ever run a 250+ PFT, there'll be a meritorious promotion board called, with me already in mind. Problem is, I've been pulling 175-190 PFTs ever sence I got to the fleet. If I recall, my highest ever PFT was 224, back in the schoolhouse, when I was doing two hours of brutal PT five days a week. 250 aside, if I want to make it to gunny, I've got to get up to a 200+ PFT consistently.

In short, I've got a lot on my mind.

Posted by: Boviate at 09:14 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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