Can a Marine recruiter be sent to a war zone?

[tinfoilinfor2005]

This is a serious question and I'm hoping someone here might know the answer. My grandson is graduating this year and has already received a scholarship to University in Indiana, due to his outstanding grades and athletic achievements. His neighbor and best friend, a year older, barely graduated and didn't have a clue about his future. This year he decided to join the marines. I told my daughter that I was concerned about Ryan's choice to do this because of all the obvious reasons. All she would say was "they guaranteed him a desk job and he will not be sent out of the country." (She is a republican and we don't talk politics very much.)
They sent him to boot camp in California and he was home for the holidays. Yesterday I asked her whether with this coming "surge", if Ryan wasn't in danger of being sent to Iraq. She again said, no, Ryan was promised a desk job, etc. etc.
Then I spoke to my other daughter (the democrat) who was just in Indiana and got the whole scoop. She laughed and said that Ryan's "desk job" was that he went to California and was trained to be a recruiter. I said, "Well, I hope he doesn't have any plans to try to recruit Brad (grandson)." She said, "Mom, he isn't any more serious about the recruiting job than anything else he's ever done. He would be the first one to skip the country if he thought he had to go to Iraq."
I still don't think there are any guarantees with the government these days. Even though Ryan is a slacker and I think his choice of careers is abysmal, I would never wish anything bad on him. I'm not sure that he is in the clear if the marines were to decide that they needed him more in Iraq than behind a desk. Especially if he couldn't produce.

Does anyone have any experience with this?

[NoPasaran]

1. They sure can

The US Marine recruiter pictured in Fahrenheit 9/11 trying to persuade young men from the bleak town of Flint, Michigan, to enlist has been killed by a roadside bomb in Iraq, the Pentagon said.

Staff Sergeant Raymond Plouhar, 30, died on Monday of wounds suffered while on duty in Anbar province. He had barely a month left of his tour of duty in Iraq, where he was in charge of detecting and detonating makeshift bombs.


http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/0630-05.htm

[AlCzervik]

2. if you're wearing the uniform you can be deployed.

[chaz4jazz]

3. Point number one:

Recruiters in all US services are noncommissioned officers. I have never heard of a recruit being trained to be a "recruiter." His profile is so plainly "rifle company" I can't imagine him having impressed anyone at boot camp that he'd make a better recruiter than a Marine who's served overseas and has years under his belt and can impress a person with any interest in serving.

This Ryan will be definitely assigned to some combat fire team or fire-team support unit and his chances of going to Iraq - even without a "surge" in troops - is very, very likely.

Chaz

[tinfoilinfor2005]

6. "I have never heard of a recruit being trained to be a recruiter"...

Yes, I guess that's what I was asking in a roundabout way. I guess I always assumed that recruiters got that job because they had actively served and had lots of experience in military matters. I had a hard time believing that they would take a high school kid and set him up in a desk job. Oh, also, I was told that he is in the marine reserves, so would that make the difference??

I do know that he did attend boot camp because Brad flew to California with Ryan's mother and girlfriend for the graduation, so that part is true enough.

[cynatnite]

7. Well, yes and no...

Some recruits do some recruiting right after basic and the rest of their training for a period of time. It's temporary and not a long term type of posting.

As far as going to Iraq...once you sign on the dotted line and put on a uniform their ass belongs to the US Govt. and they can be sent wherever which includes Iraq.

[Squatch]

11. Your "Point number one" is false.

"Recruiters in all US services are noncommissioned officers."

I'm a recruiter but I am not an NCO.

[atreides1]

4. Yes he can

He may have gotten a "guarantee", but the fine print always reads the same:

THE NEEDS OF THE SERVICE COME FIRST.

He can't stay on recruiting duty forever, and eventually he'll be assigned to a combat command and be deployed. And if what you say about him being a slacker is true, it'll probably happen as soon as
his recruiting tour is finished.

Besides, it the past the standard rule in the USMC was that you're an infantryman first, the job you're doing is secondary to that.

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

5. "Your recruiter told you WHAT, maggot?"

Damn right he can be deployed to anywhere the Corps wants him. He may be a recruiter at present, but he is also a rifleman.

I don't understand how he can be an effective recruiter without some experience outside the recruiting office.

If he wanted guarantees and a relatively safe job, he should have joined the Air Force. (Most bases are away from the front, but there are exceptions of course)

[Orsino]

8. Check the fine print.

There is no guarantee of a permanent desk job, or of eternal domestic assignments. Recruiters do tours, just as do other Marines, and orders can come down assigning one to a combat unit. As far as I know, though, the recruiter slot itself is only given to NCOs E-5 and higher.

[cynatnite]

9. There are exceptions...

They do allow recruits to work in recruiting offices after training, but it's only for the short term.

[Orsino]

12. Right, but those aren't "recruiter" slots.

Even the Army recruiter units I knew of had a private or two working there. No doubt they did a lot of grunt and go-fer tasks, but they weren't actually recruiters.

[Squatch]

10. A Marine is a rifleman, first and foremost.

So, they can absolutely be sent to war.

[LeftyMom]

13. Is he a "hometown recruiter"?

Because that's just going around his old high school and perhaps a few others in the area, in his shiny new uniform, probably with another newly minted Marine looking equally spiffy, to impress everybody with how great he looks and how much money he's making and make it all look terribly glamorous.

Two friends of mine from high school did that for a couple of months, then they got their real jobs. It's a very temporary thing.

[tinfoilinfor2005]

17. Yes, hometown.

And it's in a very high republican district, so he might do well.

[WannaJumpMyScooter]

14. Hell yes. Happens all the time

miss a quota, and bam... off you go

[elehhhhna]

15. Yes, unless he's one hell of a fabulous recruiter.

I hope he studied the lies his recruiter told him very carefully. He'll need to use every one of them as if his life depends on it.

[gollygee]

16. You would not believe the things my brother's recruiter

told him when he joined the Marines about 15 years ago. None came true.