Soldier of Fortune

[sifer]

Hello, I seldom respect the military (of any nation) because of its history (rapes, tortures, transgressions, mass destructions, etcetc), the only thing I admire the military for, is the special force.

US has the Army Special Force, Navy SEAL.
China with their own they call it "Type", depending on the type of missions. China is extremely secretive, even their name is not disclosed. PLA is their only current public SOF that they reveal as "more dedicated toward special purposes."
Russian Spetsnaz.
France GIGN.
British SAS.
Australia SASR.

Pretty much every nation has their own special force. Something I admire, since I sincerely believe that each special force is representing their branch, like the SEALs for Navy. I'm sure it would be a honor.

I am currently ignorant of the situation inside the military heirarchy, so I have some questions for the veterans about the tour of duty.

I have made several considerations, looking through each and every one of the branches herein USA.

Considering how I cannot hear so well some of the things will be crossed out (innate disability; wear hearing aids), but I have bullseyes (or used to, I'm sure LASIK can help).

Having the heart of a soldier (if you look up my posts, I realized I was disqualified because of my disability when I tried applying for the SEALs, something I didn't know at the time), I figured, "why not become a professional soldier"?

I have looked in the army and National Guard, it isn't attractive.
I can't take Air Force because of my innate disability and I don't like flying anyway.
I can't swim due to innate disability.
So the only thing I have left is either army or Marines.

The army training is going to be easy, the Marines training will definitely be a walk in the park for me.

My question is, if I join the Marines (I dropped out of high school but I believe I can get around that requirement), do they give you a choice of getting paid to be in the Marines as a profession? Or is it based on the amount of years served?

Out of curiosity for those who have served the Marines, what part of the Marines did you serve? Did you ever try applying to become the President's Marines? (Hehe I think I want to do that...)

In terms of weaponry, were you given a choice of weaponry or did you have to buy out of your own pocket? Do you get to keep your weapon? Or must you return it?

Which force is smaller? The Marines or Navy SEAL? I've always been confused, both side argue that each one or the other is smaller.

If I join the Marines (for a living), what do you guys think? Would you guys make the same choice if military was the only career option for you?

I might drop in for sniper/scout training, anyone ever gone to that school? What do you think?

Marines compared to the army, what's the biggest difference and why are people more attracted to the Marines than army?

If let's say these are out of questions, I have heard of the Legionnaires (Foreign Legion; French Foreign Legion). What are the benefits versus risk in joining the Legions? They're pretty much mercenaries as I hear but they have the respect of that to a special force and they do go on Special Force missions.

I'm hoping I can get some response. I tried doing a search for "Special Force" but I don't see any so I thought I might start one.

By the way, no politics please. Thank you.

 

[sifer]

As for the above, what about the Special Police Force?

If not for the military, I can at least look out for NY (just to get this straight, I'm not in it for the money, money comes by easy enough; just doing it to make a difference), by working for the SWAT?

Anyone ever served in the ESU (Emergency Service Unit)? Or what about SRT (Special Response Team)?


I don't mind the fact that the SWAT see action on average of once in their entire life. It's nice to know you made a difference.

 

[naoi deag se deag]

I'm joining the Foreign Legion if there's a draft and maybe even if there isn't. You can earn French citizenship after three years instead of the normal seven. I came within an hour of joining while I was living in Nice.

Pros and cons:
+French citizenship
+You're a legionnaire... think about how cool that sounds
+Serve mostly peacekeeping roles rather than aggressive ones (though historically this was not the case - think Algeria or French Indochina)
+Avoid the draft if there is one
+Learn French?
+Meet a lot of people from all over the world
-Unfortunately, all those people want to steal your stuff
-Bad pay
-Very little opportunity to advance to CO status (10% of COs in the Foreign Legion started as legionnaire, the majority of them French anyway joining under an assumed citizenship)
-Five year posting to awful places like Djibouti or French Guiana

 

[sifer]

Originally posted by naoi deag se deag
I'm joining the Foreign Legion if there's a draft and maybe even if there isn't. You can earn French citizenship after three years instead of the normal seven.

If this is so, then great. I love France. They seem like a peaceful nation. I've been told by a Marine as a joke once that, "who runs faster than a French soldier? Noone."

I came within an hour of joining while I was living in Nice.

Nice?

+Serve mostly peacekeeping roles rather than aggressive ones (though historically this was not the case - think Algeria or French Indochina)

I'm not worried at all, every military have committed some sort of "crime" anyway.

+Learn French?

From what I have learned, you learn French enough to take orders, read & sign contracts, and serve your team.

-Unfortunately, all those people want to steal your stuff

I never heard of this, can you elaborate?

-Bad pay

Hm, how bad?

-Very little opportunity to advance to CO status (10% of COs in the Foreign Legion started as legionnaire, the majority of them French anyway joining under an assumed citizenship)

CO?

-Five year posting to awful places like Djibouti or French Guiana

Oh yes, this is something I have to tell you.

I don't know if you can handle the FFL because I have gone through pain before (street violence, drive-bys, you name it though violence have seem to dropped majorly since Mike Bloomberg opt in) and if pain is something you can handle, then the FFL you can handle.

From many people I have heard, FFL is extremely brutal. In the Navy SEAL training, you can opt out, they help you out with the paperworks, even escort and medical assistance.

Having read, mostly horror stories about being a mercenary in the FFL, the trainer (your sarge) can beat you all they want, if you can't survive it, they leave you there all bloody, possibly even die there. And they'll walk away not giving you a second thought.

What makes the training there more brutal is torture, they literally torture you to see how far you can go. You're deaf? You wear glasses? Good, they capitalize on those disadvantages. They'll see how much pain you can take.

Heat? They'll torch you with hot iron.
Cold? They'll toss you in freezing cold water (I'm talking 10-30degs).
I have heard even of drastic measure such as tying you up and tossing your body on the count of three into a scorpion pit.

An associate of mine who is in the Green Beret told me that nothing is more tougher than the Legionnaires and that is something I respect.

If the Elite respect you, then you got something.

If you do plan on joining, hit me up on PM, I'd like to see if we can meet up in person or something along those lines.


On a side note, their primary gun is FAMAS, something I've never been fond of.

 

[hardwork]

Originally posted by sifer
I can't take Air Force because of my innate disability and I don't like flying anyway.

Most Air Force jobs are groundwork. There are only three piloting jobs and—and this is a guess—something less than 20 jobs where you're actually in flight.

 

[crowes22]

The army training is going to be easy, the Marines training will definitely be a walk in the park for me.

Ha ha, how is it you know this?

 

[sifer]

Re: Re: Soldier of Fortune

Originally posted by crowes22
Ha ha, how is it you know this?

My god-sister's brother is in the Marines. He trained me.

I've put myself through similar training.

In fact, I'm pulling out my log workout of which I did last 2 month.

This is week 8 and 9 -

Running: 5/6/6/6/4 miles (total 27 miles ran)
Pushups: 20 sets of 20 (total 400 pushups)
Situps: 20 sets of 25 (total 500 situps)
Pullups: 5 sets of 12 pullups (total 60 pullups)
Dips: 20 sets of 15 (total 300 dips)

Not too bad of a lung workout if you ask me.

If you're going to try to scare me, please don't bother. I've had enough people tell me, "you think you can run that long? You think you can climb/fight/handle it/etcetc".

All I'm going to say is this, I'm very disciplined and know it.

 

[StrangeButTrue]

You might wanna do your homework... You obviously are in the baby stages of this- not knowing what a CO is (its a commissioned officer, aka, someone with a command under him. IT can also be used to mean "my commanding officer") and thinking the SEALS could be larger than the entire Marine Corp. Not to mention not knowing that servicemen get payed, whether they're in it for a career or not.

I'm pretty sure that this day and age, the French foreign legionnaires aren't going around burning people and tossing them into scorpion pits.

 

[diplomatic_lies]

Most people who join the French Foreign Legion are dodgy people. So if you want to hang out with dodgy people, then go for it.

Alternatively have you considered being a bandit? You're sort of a soldier, but your salary is higher. Its almost like running a business, except businessmen don't usually rob UN convoys.

 

[sifer]

Originally posted by diplomatic_lies
Most people who join the French Foreign Legion are dodgy people. So if you want to hang out with dodgy people, then go for it.

Good luck actually recieving your salary!

Wow I didn't know they were that bad, I'm curious can you tell me how they are dodgy?

 

[sifer]

Originally posted by StrangeButTrue
SEALS could be larger than the entire Marine Corp.
No I never "think", I don't care which is larger, but from this perspective, I've always been curious since people argue all over the place about it. Check www.strategypage.com, people there always argue, "SAS is better than SBS, SEAL is better than Spetsnaz", etcetc.
Not to mention not knowing that servicemen get payed, whether they're in it for a career or not.
Probably not, I've always gotten different answers.

I'm pretty sure that this day and age, the French foreign legionnaires aren't going around burning people and tossing them into scorpion pits.

Haha, that's funny, the way you put it, but I meant that in training.

If there's nothing like that, I guess it's not all that bad then.

 

[naoi deag se deag]

There's a book that came out this month about an American who joined the Legion in 1999 called "Legion of the Lost". It sounds pretty good and you might want to pick it up. To your points: I'm sure after five years using French as your primary language in your day-to-day life, you're gonna be pretty fluent. The Legion still attracts unsavouries but it's much better than it used to be. They are very brutal in training from what I hear but of course they don't torture you. France is a VERY internationally-legally-bound country. The pay for the ranking of legionnaire is E975 a month - not very good at all. But it sounds like a hell of a story and there's the off-chance you could be posted some awesome place like Calvi on Corsica or even in Nice, the most beautiful city in the world. But if you ended up in Djibouti... man. All the street fights in the world wouldn't mentally prepare me to live in that place. There's a reason they make some E500 more to be posted there.

 

[drixsa]

You forgot to mention Sayeret Matkal...The guys that TEACH the kids at Delta Force.

 

[Lost In Translation]

an interesting thread about the FFL and Special Forces that have been discussed awhile ago on our forum

http://www.sosuave.net/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=76760&highlight=marines

 

[diplomatic_lies]

Originally posted by sifer
Wow I didn't know they were that bad, I'm curious can you tell me how they are dodgy?

Because half of them are young kids looking for "adventure" and the other half owe money to the Mafia.

No its probably not that bad, but still, you won't find the cream of society there.

 

[ThreeStorms]

Re: Re: Re: Soldier of Fortune

Originally posted by sifer
My god-sister's brother is in the Marines. He trained me.

I've put myself through similar training.

In fact, I'm pulling out my log workout of which I did last 2 month.

This is week 8 and 9 -

Running: 5/6/6/6/4 miles (total 27 miles ran)
Pushups: 20 sets of 20 (total 400 pushups)
Situps: 20 sets of 25 (total 500 situps)
Pullups: 5 sets of 12 pullups (total 60 pullups)
Dips: 20 sets of 15 (total 300 dips)

Not too bad of a lung workout if you ask me.

If you're going to try to scare me, please don't bother. I've had enough people tell me, "you think you can run that long? You think you can climb/fight/handle it/etcetc".

All I'm going to say is this, I'm very disciplined and know it.

I guess anyone who has done the real thing (marines training) can say this in a better way than me (I only did compulsive military service in the rather cute austrian army), but the physical exercises are only such a small part of the whole pressure and stress you are facing. Are you willing to be yelled on all day long? To be on your feet for 24 hours or more? To lie with your face in the dirt for hours? To freeze to your bones (you will be freezing often)? To be thrown out of bed in the middle of the night, after you had just fallen half-dead into it? To continually hit your limits (physically and psychic) for weeks?
If you can answer each questions with "Of course I'd love it!!" than it may indeed be the right career for you.

And well, you don't have to buy your own weapons in the military But alas, you'll return them afterwards

 

[diplomatic_lies]

Re: Re: Re: Re: Soldier of Fortune

Originally posted by ThreeStorms
Are you willing to be yelled on all day long? To be on your feet for 24 hours or more? To lie with your face in the dirt for hours? To freeze to your bones (you will be freezing often)? To be thrown out of bed in the middle of the night, after you had just fallen half-dead into it? To continually hit your limits (physically and psychic) for weeks?

Sounds like college.

 

[ThreeStorms]

:cheer: LOL You'll even drink the same amount of alcohol in the evenings....

 

[crowes22]

Re: Re: Re: Re: Soldier of Fortune

Originally posted by ThreeStorms
I guess anyone who has done the real thing (marines training) can say this in a better way than me (I only did compulsive military service in the rather cute austrian army), but the physical exercises are only such a small part of the whole pressure and stress you are facing.

This is the exact point I was going to make, but this guy beat me to it. I always found the PT to be the easy part, for me at least. Guys excel/struggle in different areas. PT was only about 1% of the pressure for me.

I'm not trying to scare you at all, I applaud you for wanting to serve and say go for it. Serve in the US is my 2 cents. You can get paid to learn foreign language in the ARMY, look into SF, they are looking for guys, they teach yo a FL, as you will be likely serving alot out of US.

 

[Unscarred]

You might want to brush up on the rudimentary words in the French language for the purpose of doing what you're told... in French... or should I say being screamed at you... in French. The only thing I don't care for is, unless you are of French citizenship... you have no human rights, so they can pretty much do what they want to you... they can't viloate these rights if they don't exist... something to think about...