What kind of people join the Marines?

[Brian-]

Ok, perhaps an odd question, but I was curious about the general personalities of the guys who join up... For some reason I had the idea that recruits would probably be nice, decent 'normal' guys, but then I was thinking, what if most of them are typical loudmouth knobs who think they're hard? You know the sort.. the kind of people you get on Bad Lads Army or something. How realistic/completely ridiculous are my crazy ideas?

If the second kind mentioned above do join, how long do they last? What kind of guy makes it the furthest? I would say I'm perhaps a bit quiet sometimes, but I'm fairly intelligent, have no problem working hard and being told what to do, and I know when to keep my bloody mouth shut.. Would you say those are possibly good attributes versus the 'hard' type people?

Sorry if this is a lame question, but like I said, I was curious and there don't appear to be any other topics like this...

ps. if lew is the guy I think he is then that's 1-0 to the anti-chav side.. (I don't know if he is or not, he didn't reply to my PM)

Brian

[Guest]

Think of me! I'm seen as a complete werido by this lot but i want to join . Personly I heard all the people that join the marines are townies and that lot. And I always thought there was a lot of football in it, which i may be wrong, but i hate football. I've probly put you off now seeing as you wanted 'normal' people but i'm surprisingly normal If you ever saw me but don't worry about that. Personaly I have no expiriance of the recruits that turn up, but I think the people how think their hard on the outside with fail the test, the people who are strong on the inside will pass. And Chavs are weak I think.

P.S. thats a question I've always wanted to ask as soon as i joined this forum and forgot it. I think I forgot to ask it.

[big_al]

Actually, flicking through a lot of posts, and reading posts of potential Royals, most of them seem normal guys. I think that most of the 'pond life' wanting to join up are filtered out in the initial interviews. Most chavs seem to be people with little-guy complex. They're just so darn agressive to compensate for their skinniness, shortness, and damn right insignificance.
BTW: I hate football too!
Al

[Leigh Dowell]

Yanks.
Because they have Marines and we have Royal Marines.
On a more serious note, the people who join the Royal Marines tend to be good looking, nails, intelligent, suave, sophisticated individuals who don't mind being wet, cold and being told that all landings will be dry.

[Brian-]

Yanks.
Because they have Marines and we have Royal Marines.

I actually knew that was coming after I posted it, I just hoped no one would notice..

Thanks for the replies chaps, and Stinky, yes you do seem weird but at least you're not a townie!

ps. I also dislike football

[Mr Mojo Risin]

im trying to join because apparently you have to be female to be a pole dancer.

gutted as i heard they make a mint.

[big_al]

You could always save up and get a sex change?

[Bliartheliar]

Judging from the people on my PRMC, those who want to join are ambitious more than anything. I spoke to a few lads who said that they wouldnt know what to do if they picked up a serious injury and were barred from the corps - they were focused on a career in the Marines other than anything else. Infact anything else was irrelevent.

A couple of the lads who failed said that they were also lined up for the police, RAF and fire brigade, one lad talked a bit about the FFL. I think a sense of adventure and job security also plays a part. They dont want the easy life.

I dont think it matters where you are from - there were 4 scousers on my PRMC including myself and a lot of lads form other cities. Then again there were some country lads.

Many liked football, many mroe liked rugby and a few liked hunting.

I dont reckon where you come from, what you do for a living, or what you have done means anything. As long as you have ambition, determination and (unlike me) physical fitness.

[lew]

I think the above post pretty much summed up the type of lads on my prmc as well.

There were a few twats who only talked about fighting and blowing "shit" up but I thought that was to be expected.

Everyone down there seemed to have the same attitude of " anything worth doing isn’t going to be easy" and most passed. There were a few no hopers who clearly didn’t know what to expect.

Brain, don’t worry if your the "right" type of person or if you will get on with the other guys down there, as common experience and going through something totally shit together, builds a type of friendship that will over ride all prejudices that people have.


lew

[Brian-]

Two more excellent posts I see..

I'm definitely feeling ambitious now. I didn't used to be though, I was a lazy no-hoper who drank too much just last year infact. I totally messed up my a-levels by hardly ever turning up to school, opting for extended sleep instead..

I'm completely different now though. I'll do anything to escape this place - don't think I can bare working at Sainsbury's much longer... I've been interested in the military for a couple of years now, but always thought the Royal Marines were a bit beyond me. Now I realise it's very much achievable if I work hard enough, which I fully intend to do!

And I agree with lew.. I suppose everyone will have something in common, plus a bit of variety can only be a good thing - it would be a bit boring if everyone was exactly the same.

Brian

[elitefitness]

All the people I know who have joined the Royal Marines are very nice guys, all very much into fitness.

Some of them have been very intelligent, whilst others have been less academic but all have had one thing in common- A love for fitness and a passion for adventure aswell as a desire to push neself to the absolute limit.

Before I knew some Royal Marines, I had a stereotypical image in my mind that they would all be really well built hard men, but the one's I know are infact everyday nice guys.

I have never met any of those loud mouth, yobs you sometimes see on the street on a friday night who have been in the Royal Marines.

[Artist]

The average Royal Marine is just an ordinary bloke with that little bit extra between his ears that marks him out from the rank and file.

He must be able to take whatever is thrown at him regardless of where he is or what he's doing. ADAPT and IMPROVISE is a watchword in the Corp.

Artist

[Tugg]

[[[[[If the second kind mentioned above do join, how long do they last? What kind of guy makes it the furthest? I would say I'm perhaps a bit quiet sometimes, but I'm fairly intelligent, have no problem working hard and being told what to do, and I know when to keep my bloody mouth shut.. Would you say those are possibly good attributes versus the 'hard' type people?]]]]]

Ok Brian,you dont need to worry about that.Youll have guys from all walks of life joining with you.From different backgrounds and cultures.Some you will not immediately get along with and probably if you saw them in civvy street youd choose to ignore them,but you will do things with them that makes a different bond than with average Joe Bloggs.
Like some other blokes have said,you may look at someone and think 'no way is he gonna pass' but the scrawny nerd whos just left school might have ten times more balls than the meathead with the tattoo on his forehead.
I had to say something because i was maybe the 'hard' type but when you pass out with the troop the difference in each man will be astounding.
P.S. cant believe i used 'joe bloggs'

Tugg

[dalo]

I dont think only people who have always been active join up, I mean me for example, I was severly overweight and couldnt JOG 100 metres 2 years ago and now with ALOT of hard work im a potential RM recruit. So therefore it must be something mentally that attracts people to the job. I think for me it was all the commando documentarys i watched i few years ago about their courageous coastline raids in WW2. For all who are interested in RM i highly recommend you take the time to watch some of these documentarys when they are on, Some of the tasks carried out where unbelievable. Such as ramming the only dry dock in france which could hold germanys larger battleships with a disguised destroyer filled wiht explosives and commandos. Once the ship hit against the dock gates all the commandos poured out and assualted to the turbine rooms for the dock with intent to destroy them. After they were destroyed the commandos had to escape to get extracted and the destroyer which was filled with explosives was meant to go off, destroying the gate and flooding the dock. This never happened on time and one commando who was captured was being interogated by a german officer who was saying "did you really think you could ram thorugh the dock gate, impossible" thinking their plan was to ram straight through the gate. As he said that the commando smiled and just by coincidence the ship exploded with hundreds of curious german on board and by its side. I thik it was storys like this that partly attracted me to think of RM as a job.

[GJimbo]

I agree with you dalo. During my school years, I was reasonably fit. Maybe about average, but once I started at college, the last thing on my mind was fitness, even though I knew I wanted to join the RMs after I had finished college.

Well, like you, after about 6 months hard work, I am now down from 15 stone to a nice 11 stone (6-8% body fat).

Coincidently, just like you, it was documentaries like the one you described and others which sparked my interest in the forces, especially the RMs

I think anyone with the determination and average fitness could make a good RM. As long as its something you really want and you're willing to make in number one priority in your life (well at least for the length of your career ) then theres no reason you shouldn't be able to make it like thousands of others in the past, presuming there is nothing physically or mentalling wrong with you.