PSA to every Boot who visits here spouting advice

Not necessarily. When I finished with MCT (pog here) I felt I could give plenty of good advice to young Marines either leaving for Boot camp or MCT. Makes sense, since I just went through the experience so that its still fresh in my mind so I can tell them what to expect and such.

Examples

Go through boot camp from Chow to Chow, Rack to Rack, and Sunday to Sunday. Tell all of your friends and family to write you, even if you barely know them and they have no idea how to send a letter.

Or for MCT

Make sure you have all your uniforms and nothing is jacked up. Seriously, people have checked into SOI East/West with Cowboy boots and sneakers instead of corframs. If you know what it is like you left your corframs at home. Get a cab over to the base Exchange and buy a pair right before you check in. If you have to get an earlier flight or something do it.

If not, just check in in Cammies if you don't have corframs but tell the instructors why. "I lost my corframs, my Alpha jacket got paint spilled on it and I'm waiting for a chance to go to the Exchange and buy some" etc or check in in service bravos/charlies if your jacket is messed up.

EVERYONE'S BAGS LOOK THE SAME! Make yours unique so you can spot it out of a pile of 60+ seabags and Uniform bags. I covered my hooks on my bags with red duct tape so I could tell it apart.

Get some good flashlights, make sure they have a red lens, stock up on batteries for those flashlights too. I had a shortened MCT schedule due to the Marine Corps Birthday and we only had 2 MCX calls and no off time. One at the beginning when we didn't know what we needed so we didn't buy anything useful, and one at the end, where it was already too late to buy anything we really needed.

The boot-camp Moonbeams suck, keep one just to prove you have one and use different flashlights.

MARK ALL YOUR GEAR- People jack each others shit all the time, especially if you leave it out. Carve your name into your flashlight or something. Make it so the thief cant scrub it off.

If you have something expensive (Like a flashlight or some shit) lanyard that shit to yourself. Dummy cord it through your belt loop or something.

Lock your shit up. If your DI's were dicks in Boot and made you black out your numbers on your padlocks, buy new ones, or buy better ones that you can see. In MCT/SOI you get a wall locker instead of a footlocker to keep all your shit in.

If you smoke or dip (Or want to make some money) Stock up on Tobacco and Cigarretes beforehand. Especially when you guys go to the field, you can sell that shit off for a fortune.

/r/USMC Thread Link - i.lvme.me