Freedom_fighter_in_IL
Member
- Joined
- Aug 30, 2010
- Messages
- 2,097
I was actually interested in the coast guard. I heard it's easier to be gunner's mate than to get the MOS that you want in the Marines. The problem is that I'm not much of a swimmer.
Don't worry about that. Neither are 90% of other Coast Guard fellas . Coast Guard isn't all about rescue operations and such. For a Gunners Mate MOS, you would just need to be able to pass a very generic (easy) swim test in Basic which, if it's still the same as it was, consists of 5 minutes head above water stationary, few hundred yards in a surprisingly slow and easy to reach time, and a little under water brick grab. Nothing to it. I know guys that went into the Navy and the Coasties that before hand couldn't swim a lick if they were paid to. They will teach you.
If your career plan does encapsulate actual firearms design, you will definitely need to get into some metallurgy classes as well. And to the fella that said that you would be spending all your time at a work station, THAT right there is what is wrong with 99.999% of EVERY damn engineer in the country. Give me an engineer with HANDS ON experience in whatever they are designing! I've heard "But sir, I have the design specs right here in my hand and they say it will work" so many times it's not even funny. YET so many times I have had to change specs on so many things in a design just to get the design to actually function in the field that I should have been getting paid for the design! Please do not be one of those morons that think just because it works on some computer drawing or CAD program that it will function in the real world! FOLLOW UP on the entire design and build. Make sure everything you come up with on that computer will actually work in the real world.