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This question was inspired by a question that came to me one day.

A family friend said she could never imagine myself joining up the Marines.
This person comes from a military background with family serving in Iraq, and her father an ex officer based in Germany.

She just so happened to grow up with many Bootnecks, and said I would not fit in....

Now my question is, what kind of person joins the Marines?

I mean is it all for beer drinking grunts who never made it anywhere??
(ok thats just an example there)
Who really joins up? And who are the ones who really don't fit in?

From my limited experience(as in i have been to CTC once) the marines i have seen tend to have a variety of personalities. Some are pretty stereotypical of how you would picture a marine so a bit crazy enjoy getting sloshed at the weekend etc. But I also spoke 2 quite a few more marines who seemed quite reserved. I don't think that kind of thing matters as long as you have the strength of mind to crack on through training and your switched on enough there is nothing to worry about

Mate to be fair one of my 2 best mates, he's like my brother, is a bootneck, he's laid back, has a good laugh at everything, proper sporty, likes keepion active, does some daft stuff that I wont go into here....but generally he's a top lad, you wouldnt look at him and think he's what you'd imagine a Marine to be like I guess as he's just average height, pretty small but defined build n doesnt look much to him, but then he tells me you get all different types of lads in the Corps like you get what a school lad would call a geek type person with glasses and sits there quietly doesnt go out much, then you've got the big bodybuilder figured type people who go out and like fighting etc, so really what I'm trying to say is that I guess there isnt a specific type of person that you have to be to be a Marine other than determined, good sense of humoured type person who can work with a group, hope that gives you a little bit of what you wanted to know! But from the Marines I've met they're all top lads you'd have to be an utter d*ckhead to not be able to get along with them they're not like people who'll judge you on your looks etc like a lot of people do!

Your find yourself turning into a marine through training, you don't turn up with marine qualities, maybe a bit of determinaion, but you find all the qualities are developed as you go through training, there is no particular person who joins, some are black, some are white, some have degrees, some don't have much of an educational background, some are ex international athletes, some are ex barman, some have wifes, some have children and some are virgins but everyone has one thing in common, they want the green lid. By the end of training you will find you have a lot more in common with everyone, than you did at the start (most of you will be single!!), the stuff you go through no one else does, just you and your oppos will know how it feels to be cracking wet n dry in phase 1 at 3 in the morn when all your civvie mates are either in bed or avin a good piss up, and only you and your oppos will know the true weight of your bergen when your yomping along and what the pain actually feels like, your civvie mates will never know it, no matter how much you try to explain to them, thats what makes you into a royal marine and thats what gives you the royal marine qualities and characteristics.

fair one! That has pretty much explained it to you hopefully mate! Give it a try I guess you'll know whether its for you or not then I imagine!

Excellent post tomharto . To tell the truth I was a bit worried about "fitting in" as well before reading that

The average Bootneck on passing out from CTCRM is of average height, average weight. It's whats in his head that makes him what he is.

I.E. A bloke who is confident to be able to take on any challenge heaved at him regardless of what it is.

Artist