What do you think????

[Bennett_WSR]

Alright guys, this is not intended to be rant but I wanted to know what you other guys felt upon the subject. Since my initial enquires into joining the Marines when I was 16 (21 now just about to finish university) I’ve solely dealt with Navel personnel. For all of my questions and wanting to gain information I’ve had to go through Navel personnel not the Royal Marines. To be honest this has kind of annoyed me.

Whilst the AFCO I have dealt with have been very helpful, the level and detail of information they can give is quite general. It’s from a Navy background, not a Royal Marine specific background.

Its seems, to me that for such a massive and popular branch of the Armed Forces, personally (this is my opinion, so feel free to come back at me) it has come across to me that it is tagged onto the side of the navy… Kind of overlooked in that they can only give you general information. I’m not knocking the AFCO’s the ones I’ve dealt with are brilliant, but unfortunately none of them have been Bootnecks.

Since I found this site, it has been by far the best source of information for me, this is first point of call now if I have questions. The PRMC and POC diaries posted are such an eye opener, none of the AFCO’s could have given me that level of detail, purely because they haven’t done them. Sorry this is a bit longwinded, and once again I’m not having a go at AFCO’s it would just be nice to sit down and chat to a Royal Marine for a change, and not someone from the Navy (I know the Marines are part of the Navy, hopefully you get what I mean).

I just want to know, does anyone feel like me, that your not getting the level of information you could only possibly get from talking to a Bootneck.

Anyone’s welcome to tell me what they think.
Bennett_WSR

[borisimo]

I know what you mean, the AFCO I use has a Royal Marine there, as you say it seems a bit odd that the one you have visited doesnt have one available to talk to.

Initially I dealt with RN people and they didnt seem to have a clue about the RMR.

[Polynikes]

"Since I found this site, it has been by far the best source of information for me"

I agree. This is the first place I go to if I have questions. And not just marine based ones, but health and fitness questions too. The AFCO seem fairly clued up about the marines, but I think their knowledge is limited only to how to get you through the selection process and in to RT. The only thing they've told me about RT is the amount of ironing you have to do in your first three weeks. All the other information I've gathered is from here and various books.

Not too sure what to expect really, but I'll worry about that after my PRMC - In a week and a half

[marinewannabe]

i totally agree matey but not much can be done .Good luck in your Prmc shifty .

[Hankins]

just to let you know, no matter who you talk to, they won't be able to describe the experience and you really have to do that yourself.

[ChrisBell]

My afco is quite small and only has naval personnel(to my knowledge) and I guess i felt i wanted more info by talking to a real marine but at the end of the day they can only say what they know(and they have been great) and the literature they give you. But you have done the right thing in searching out other sources of info.

[AndyG321]

Well my AFCO's Guildford and there's a navy officer and Marine.
The Navy guy's handled my application from the begining and despite being RN he has a lot of knowledge about the Marines and has been down to see people on RT and doing their PRMC.

I must have been lucky!

[Bennett_WSR]

cheers to eveyone who's replied. like i said i wasnt having a pop at the AFCO's just wanted to know what everyone else thought.

Bennett_WSR

[Chrisbrum]

Personally, my experience with the AFCO with regard to RM (more specifically, RMR) has been very positive. I was interviewed yesterday by a Naval Warrant Officer, however his knowledge of the Marines was extensive - I think I was lucky in that he was All Arms Commando trained and I believe he underwent SF selection (whether he passed or not I don't know, all he said was he made it to 'week 58').

I think the thing to bear in mind on this topic is that with the marines being such a relatively small branch of the armed forces in comparison with the Army, Navy and Air Force it may be impractical to have green hatted personnel present at every AFCO in the country. While the other forces have the luxury of more personnel and possibly men to spare to be assigned to the careers advisor role, the marines - who I believe are undermanned despite being a comparitively small branch - are less likely to have these spare men. I think it would be fair to compare the RM in this case to the paras, who are also a unit very much in demand in terms of recruitment, yet do you see a paratrooper at every AFCO in the country. In all honesty I have never seen a single one, in either the Birmingham or the Leeds AFCO, both of which I have liaised with.

All in all, much as it would be nice to be able to speak to a serving Royal Marine at the AFCO before starting the selection process, it is probably impractical and not totally necessary. Therefore we should thank whatever there are that websites such as this one (and especially this one!) exist in order for us to learn as much as possible about the organisation we so desperately want to be a part of.

Just my tuppence worth

Chris

[ali_hire]

Bennett_WSR

I notice you are in Hampshire. If you can get yourself down to the Pompey AFCO there's usually a bootneck there. He was the first person I spoke to when applying and gave me a really good honest impression of what life is like through training and beyond.

If not then why not fire away with some questions on here (good idea to search first though as there's a tonne of information already been covered on here). There is the odd serving Royal on here form time to time and a few former serving as well, they are usually more than happy to help.

[E5_Man]

My 1st recruitin officer was a navy chap but I just said to him that im not being funny, but Could i have a bootneck so I could talk to him about experiences/life in marines etc. And I got 1.

[JCAP3]

yeah you have to be pushy sometimes

[Bennett_WSR]

Cheers ali_hire.

im actually studying at uni in Worcester, so im going through the Birmingham branch. though all of my meetings have been held at the Worcester AFCO, with a navy guy.

[druadan]

The Corps is a small part of the Navy, only 4800 Bootnecks plus attachments (or that's what it was when I joined), out of around 50k (guesstimate) naval personnel. If they were to put a bootneck in every careers office in the country...say there's 100 offices, that's 100 bootnecks, that's 2% of our manpower. Doesn't really make sense, especially when the numbers entering are comparitively minuscule compared to the major Arms. Most of the major offices have one, and if you ask for one they can normally get someone to come from another office to speak to you.

Week 58? I take it you're talking about the reserves then, as Selection is only around 6 months.

[fodd]

plus you normally only get a bootneck in the afco if they have been downgraded beceause of injury