| Many
people think that if you are smart, have an education, or have
a thirst to lead, that you should be an Officer. I don’t
think that’s necessarily true. If we pulled every intelligent
young Marine out of the enlisted ranks and made him into an Officer,
what would our senior enlisted ranks look like? The Corps needs
high quality senior enlisted Marines too.
My boss at my last command, a full bird Colonel who
came from an enlisted background (a Corporal in the jungles
of Vietnam) taught me this philosophy and ever since then, I
have never forgotten it.
In my case, becoming an Officer was a natural progression
that fit my personality and goals as a Marine. I’m glad
I did it but would encourage any enlisted Marine to consider
what he wants out of his career, how he wants to spend his active
duty time, and resist being automatically put into a category
based on education. I’ll tell you, being someone like
a good Drill Instructor takes skill that rivals any college
education. You want to talk about being intelligent with a hard
outer coating!!! And I’ve worked with Gunny’s that
were levels above me on the intelligence scale. But I was never
dumb enough to consider them any less because of rank. We had
a mutual respect and I never hesitated to pick his brain at
any opportunity.
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