Question about Marine Corp MOS

A friend of mine's son just graduated boot camp and left for his MOS training at Twenty Nine Palms . His MOS is 0621 Field Radio Operator . His Dad is curious about what that job really means . I looked it up on internet and all I found was the official recruiter sales pitch , which was short on specifics . I guess his Dad is wondering whether the boy will be humping a backpack radio with an infantry squad or setting up comms in a rear area .
Anybody familiar with that MOS ?

Pretty sure he'll be humping a radio, but depends on what type of unit he gets attached to once completing MOS school.

FWIW, 29 Palms sucks, Ill be back there Tuesday hopefully just long enough to board the C130 back to New Orleans.

If he has a copy of his orders to the fleet, he probably wont get these until after school, those orders will tell you all you want to know.

It is my understanding that all Marines are Marines first, then whatever their MOS is. Probably a little bit of both if I had to guess.

In my day....

it meant humping a PRC backpack radio and becoming a target for anyone with a peashooter. Standing next to the leader is not a great place to be! Younger guys are required to comment on what kinda stuff they have now.

columbo said:

it meant humping a PRC backpack radio and becoming a target for anyone with a peashooter. Standing next to the leader is not a great place to be! Younger guys are required to comment on what kinda stuff they have now.

Click to expand...

Thats how it was a few years ago in the grunts. It does depend on what type of unit he is attached to but he will most likley be assigned to a combat unit (arty, tanks, tracks, or grunts). He could also go to radio recon if he finishes high in his class and they have open billets.

In the grunts a FRO new to the fleet is genrally assigned to the batallion combat operations center until he gets some experience. after a few months they are (or were, when I was in) rotated throught the squads and platoons in the batallion as their designated FRO. I was in the sniper platoon and we had our own permanently assigned FRO who went through our indoc and went to Scout/Sniper School.

He may also go to a FSSG, although I don't know weather they have Radio Operators.

Good info

I had a friend in the Corps with me who was a "field wireman" they did away with that MOS and made him an 03.

But most of the comm guys I meet go with the 03's on patrols and alot of radio watch when in the rear

Lots of views on comms. I would think communication is prob one of most important jobs. But that's me.

I can't comment on the Marines, but I was a Army, 31Kilo Combat Signalman, also called wire dogs. We ran commo wire from tank batteries to commanders. We were cross trained in both field portable radio's and large encrypted truck based radio's we were secret clearance and while it was a reasonable mos....we spent a LOT of time in the field.

I am an 0621 until October of this year technically (IRR ends!!)

Ok.. 29 palms ain't that bad... I have friends who are instructors there...Vegas is a short drive across the desert, LA ain't that far either. I had a GOOD time in the stumps.

Orders are everything. Every male in my FROC(field radio operator course) did the recon indoc in comm school because they were hard up for Comm dudes... three went to Batallion Recon right out of school.

Your friend could get orders to.....
Division
Grunt Batallion
Artillery Batallion
Service Support Group (MLG now I think) which has lots of sub groups like Transport, Engineers...yada yada...
ANGLICO (highly unlikey but it does happen out of school)
Comm Batallion
Airwing
Tanks
AAVs

Someone mentioned radio recon.. RRT is a cool gig..he ain't gonna get orders out of school..... you do have to be able to get a Top Secret clearance they fall under the S2 (intel shop) they are Recon with cool radio gear. Oh they do have to carry an insane amount of crap because they carry the stuff to build their hide sites..

Phew.. I think I might have missed a few. I was with the Fleet Service Support Group in Oki also called the "G"... that was like the Uhaul of communicators.. if someone needed a radio operator... they just picked a name out of a hat.

I was on the island a week and I got pulled to attach to an engineer group going to the Philippines for a month. I had a quadcon of gear, my MOLLE pack and some advice from my Gunny... "Good luck"

When your friend gets to his unit it will dictate a lot of what he does. With the support units you will op check gear, do CMR layouts, clean the gear, Get a HMMWV license... op check more gear, send gear to maint... field day your room and MAYBE get to go on a deployment.

After Oki I came back to the states and went to The Communications Batallion... I spent a week there and went to the 22 MEU (Marine Expeditionary Unit). We had to have a first class PFT and have high pro/cons to even be selected, I don't know if they get that pickey any more!

The Marine Corps is comprised of what is called a MAGTF Marine Air Ground Task Force... the MEU is the smallest MAGTF.

Life at the Big Comm BNs is lame to say the least... that's why I talked to my company 1stSgt the day I checked in to get checked out!!! There are so many people in those Companies that you just sit around staring at the walls, they never get the PROPER training, at least not that I saw.

If your buddy half as lucky as I was with his duty stations he will be glad he got radio as an MOS.

My last two years active were some of the best years of my life. I was the MEU COs Driver/Radio Operator and PSD. Once we started doing our workup exercises four of us were put in with Recon and HET (Humint----counterintel)back then the MEU had what was called the MSPF or Maritime Special Purpose Force, this was the Force Recon platoon and Batallion Recon Platoons combined along with other dudes like HET, FAC..etc.. (now it is restructured under MARSOC) One of us was assigned to the HET team, one to the MSPF commander and one to the MSPF FAC...I was there to get some trigger time before we deployed!

Oh and just because you friend has a particular MOS doens't mean he will be stuck doing that. he may be hardcore and become a martial arts instructor and finish out his time doing that.. or he may become a range coach....

I had a friend who worked for IBM before he went active as a radio operator... he never ever spent ONE day in radio.. he was in the Data shop for his entire time!

If you talk to your friend.. tell him to get on a MEU if he can... he will get to experience a little bit of the entire Marine Corps....

He will have access to lots of batteries

He will be able to make you a better antenna... for ANYTHING.

We had one radio operator attached to every subordinate unit except for tanks and the Wing.....

PS I have a friend who is an instructor at 29 Palms.. I would love it if you could get a message to your pal.. he may get yelled at but I would love to pass a joke on.

MyTFAL said:

I can't comment on the Marines, but I was a Army, 31Kilo Combat Signalman, also called wire dogs. We ran commo wire from tank batteries to commanders. We were cross trained in both field portable radio's and large encrypted truck based radio's we were secret clearance and while it was a reasonable mos....we spent a LOT of time in the field.

Click to expand...

I had a 36k mos along with my 11B20 back years ago. Humped a prc77 alot.

From an Infantry perspective, I can tell you that the COMM Bubba's do not patrol with the Infantry. All COMM guys remain "In the Rear with the Gear", as in with H&S Company to maintain the CoC Radios and batteries etc. HOWEVER! Sometimes while at FOB's and beyond the wire, if we had a Radio go down and lose it's encryption, they would send a COMM Guru out to us to fix it. As far as who carries the Radio in an Infantry patrol/platoon? PFC UP!

Lewgee said:

I am an 0621 until October of this year technically (IRR ends!!)

Ok.. 29 palms ain't that bad... I have friends who are instructors there...Vegas is a short drive across the desert, LA ain't that far either. I had a GOOD time in the stumps.

Orders are everything. Every male in my FROC(field radio operator course) did the recon indoc in comm school because they were hard up for Comm dudes... three went to Batallion Recon right out of school.

Your friend could get orders to.....
Division
Grunt Batallion
Artillery Batallion
Service Support Group (MLG now I think) which has lots of sub groups like Transport, Engineers...yada yada...
ANGLICO (highly unlikey but it does happen out of school)
Comm Batallion
Airwing
Tanks
AAVs

Someone mentioned radio recon.. RRT is a cool gig..he ain't gonna get orders out of school..... you do have to be able to get a Top Secret clearance they fall under the S2 (intel shop) they are Recon with cool radio gear. Oh they do have to carry an insane amount of crap because they carry the stuff to build their hide sites..

Phew.. I think I might have missed a few. I was with the Fleet Service Support Group in Oki also called the "G"... that was like the Uhaul of communicators.. if someone needed a radio operator... they just picked a name out of a hat.

I was on the island a week and I got pulled to attach to an engineer group going to the Philippines for a month. I had a quadcon of gear, my MOLLE pack and some advice from my Gunny... "Good luck"

When your friend gets to his unit it will dictate a lot of what he does. With the support units you will op check gear, do CMR layouts, clean the gear, Get a HMMWV license... op check more gear, send gear to maint... field day your room and MAYBE get to go on a deployment.

After Oki I came back to the states and went to The Communications Batallion... I spent a week there and went to the 22 MEU (Marine Expeditionary Unit). We had to have a first class PFT and have high pro/cons to even be selected, I don't know if they get that pickey any more!

The Marine Corps is comprised of what is called a MAGTF Marine Air Ground Task Force... the MEU is the smallest MAGTF.

Life at the Big Comm BNs is lame to say the least... that's why I talked to my company 1stSgt the day I checked in to get checked out!!! There are so many people in those Companies that you just sit around staring at the walls, they never get the PROPER training, at least not that I saw.

If your buddy half as lucky as I was with his duty stations he will be glad he got radio as an MOS.

My last two years active were some of the best years of my life. I was the MEU COs Driver/Radio Operator and PSD. Once we started doing our workup exercises four of us were put in with Recon and HET (Humint----counterintel)back then the MEU had what was called the MSPF or Maritime Special Purpose Force, this was the Force Recon platoon and Batallion Recon Platoons combined along with other dudes like HET, FAC..etc.. (now it is restructured under MARSOC) One of us was assigned to the HET team, one to the MSPF commander and one to the MSPF FAC...I was there to get some trigger time before we deployed!

Oh and just because you friend has a particular MOS doens't mean he will be stuck doing that. he may be hardcore and become a martial arts instructor and finish out his time doing that.. or he may become a range coach....

I had a friend who worked for IBM before he went active as a radio operator... he never ever spent ONE day in radio.. he was in the Data shop for his entire time!

If you talk to your friend.. tell him to get on a MEU if he can... he will get to experience a little bit of the entire Marine Corps....

He will have access to lots of batteries

He will be able to make you a better antenna... for ANYTHING.

We had one radio operator attached to every subordinate unit except for tanks and the Wing.....

PS I have a friend who is an instructor at 29 Palms.. I would love it if you could get a message to your pal.. he may get yelled at but I would love to pass a joke on.

Click to expand...

All of this. I was an 0621 for a few years and then merged over into PMI and Marksmanship instructor.

Hitman said:

From an Infantry perspective, I can tell you that the COMM Bubba's do not patrol with the Infantry. All COMM guys remain "In the Rear with the Gear", as in with H&S Company to maintain the CoC Radios and batteries etc. HOWEVER! Sometimes while at FOB's and beyond the wire, if we had a Radio go down and lose it's encryption, they would send a COMM Guru out to us to fix it. As far as who carries the Radio in an Infantry patrol/platoon? PFC UP!

Click to expand...

Yep all comm guys remain in the rear with the gear..

Out of 28 radio operators I had, 12 were attached to subordinate units. Platoons within the BLT, AAVs, MSPF, HET, some even went to army units to provide satcom and HF support..

Please don't tell me that COMM guys DON"T LEAVE THE FOB bro.. maybe you guys never did...but that is all we did, we left the SGTs to man the fob along with the two female radio operators....hell even one of them got to go on a patrol...once .

My CO and the BLT CO would never have a patrol go out without an 0621 carrying a CYZ-10.

If I wasn't driving on a joy rides with the Colonel, I was sitting on a 240 in the back of an MSPF truck.


Don't be sad devil.... some of us can just do it all....

Any idea how long the school lasts ?

dantheman said:

Any idea how long the school lasts ?

Click to expand...

8 weeks if he gets in a class right away. Then he can take leave between school and his first duty station.

I appreciate all of the info . This young man's Dad is a dear friend of mine , and he has a bazillion questions . He told me today that the school is backed up so he doesn't know what his son will be doing in the meantime .

so wierd seeing cushcraft antennas and mag mounts.. BTW, the mounts WILL fail after 110

I just noticed the mag mount. I have the same exact setup for my truck CB antenna. (the big antenna I use during hurricane season).

Lewgee said:

Please don't tell me that COMM guys DON"T LEAVE THE FOB bro.. maybe you guys never did...

Click to expand...

??
I'm an 03, which is why I said from a Grunt Perspective
&
I didn't, I just said they never went on patrols with us. Not in Fallujah anyway. Now in Afghainstan on GAC's we had one or two for sure.

Lewgee said:

Don't be sad devil.... some of us can just do it all....

Click to expand...

HA! now that's funny