Military Police

Hey guys


I saw a similar thread (Armor officer) so I thought it would be okay to get some info from you guys.
I am signed up for NROTC Marine Corps Option. My first goal is to be a Marine Corps officer, which I know is a way off, but The job I always wanted in the military was Military Police, and I was wondering if I had a better or worse chance in the Marines, versus another branch say the Army, of obtaining that job.
I am a female, if that makes a difference.

The answer to this would not deter my desire to become a Marine officer, at this point in time, I am just curious if my chances would be better if I were to go army; Im trying to gather information

Thanks so much for your time

It is hard to tell, because branching in the Army is different from obtaining an MOS in the Marines. Since ROTC is your priority, if you continue as a Marine Option Midshipman, and you successfully get advanced standing and commission (assuming you're not on scholarship), then you will not know what your MOS is in the Marine Corps until about 1/3 of the way through The Basic School. This is different from Army ROTC, where you learn what you will branch during your senior year after attending and graduating LDAC (a 4-week assessment course of your potential as an officer; you are assigned a grade of "E" for Excellent, "S" for Satisfactory, or "N" for Needs Improvement). You probably already know this, but in the Marines, the Basic School is their assessment course for the officers. Think of it as boot camp and an examination/assessment for officers, lasting 26 weeks. In summation, the Army notifies you of your branch in your senior year of college, while the Marines grant you your request for an MOS based on your performance in The Basic School, following a prioritized wishlist given in by the lieutenant. In actuality, the MOS selection process for the Marines is a little more complicated than "performing well." It involves your graded performances, your request, the current vacancies and needs of the Corps, and the opinion/assessment of your Staff Platoon Commander. So it is difficult to tell because it depends on your performance in either ROTC program. In Army ROTC, if you want to branch Military Police, you will need the competitive college GPA, PT scores, LDAC grade (obviously most preferably an "E"), and a few other things like extracurriculars. In the USMC, it all depends on what happens to you at The Basic School.

If you switch to Army ROTC, you will learn about your branch earlier, but it is dependent on your performance in the program and in college. Your obstacles in Army ROTC are getting contracted (or a scholarship) and performing well at LDAC. In your last year of college, you will learn whether you branched MP or not. The Marines instead make you attend OCS ("Bulldog" for Midshipmen), and that is used as a weeding out process for whether you commission or not. Your first obstacle in the Marines is getting a commission at all, whether advanced standing or scholarship. You won't find out whether you branched MP until about 1/3 of the way through TBS.

Statistically, it is more likely you will branch MP in the Army. Why? They are larger, and they will probably have more vacancies than the MP branch of the Marines. It's hard to gauge the competitiveness between the two because officer accessions is different for the two branches. The total officer corps of the Marines that make up MP is very small compared to the Army. The officer breakdown for the Marines goes something like 28% to Pilot/NFO, 11% to Infantry, and the rest in various single digit percentages. I would guess MP is in a very small minority. If you're lucky, in a given session at TBS, perhaps those vacancies for MP will go unfilled. It's impossible to tell.

Since it's inconclusive, I guess the best advice I could give you is to stick to being a midshipman. It may save you much headache and logistical work to transfer from NROTC-MO to AROTC. For the work involved in trying to get contracted and switching units, it may not be worth it just to try and branch a certain job. You also mentioned that your first priority is to commission into the Corps, so I guess you already know what you want to do. There will be other opportunities in the Corps in case you do not receive your desired MOS; throughout TBS, lieutenants are advised and presented with information about the different options. Hope this helped. Best of luck!

Wow! Thank you so much bsherman92! I really appreciate you taking the time to write that post

Thanks for the info, it has helped

thanks again

I am outsider so anything I say has to be viewed from that perspective. Given the asymetrical nature of most conflicts now it is my sense the Military Police units will be among the first to deploy for reasons of base security, convoy escort, training and interaction with local authorities, and because they would have at least some rudimentary understanding of evidence collection and preservation. That last is important if the executive branch writ large wants to preserve the ability to criminally charge in military court, commissions, or the regular civilian court system a pirate, terrorist, war criminal, etc. I pass along a recent article relating to the Marines and Military Police. Best of luck. Lawman32RPD

The Marine Corps has activated its first battalions of law enforcement officers, a group created to quickly respond to emerging issues such as drug trafficking and transnational crime, the Associated Press reported.
Approximately 1,500 troops in three battalions were activated in June. Their primary purpose will be to build off the work of the military police, adding new capacities in criminal investigations and noncombat duties such as training foreign military forces.
This development comes as each of the military branches prepares to increase productivity so they can handle coming cuts to the defense budget. Each of the service branches is adapting to a climate where smaller, smarter and more agile forces will be necessary to address future threats.
The new battalions are expected to conduct intelligence, forensic and biometric work, and civil peace maintenance. A conference in Miami that the U.S. Southern Command will host later this month will showcase the battalions to officials from several Central American countries, AP said.
The new commander of the Law Enforcement Battalion told AP that the incoming troops were well-versed in lessons learned in conflicts abroad.
“Over the past 11 years of combat operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, some lessons learned painfully, there has been a growing appreciation and a demand for, on the part of the war fighter, the unique skills and capabilities that MPs bring to the fight,” Maj. Jan Durham of the 1st Law Enforcement Battalion told AP. “We do enforce traffic laws and we do write reports and tickets, and that’s good, but we do so much more than that.”
Still, concerns about the units remain. Former Marine Corps prosecutor Gary Solis pointed to potential complications that could emerge from the new gray area between police officer and soldier, AP said.
"Cops apply human rights law and Marines apply the law of war,” Solis said. “Now that it's blended, it makes it tougher for the young men and women who have to make the decision as to when deadly force is not appropriate."
The 1st, 2nd and 3rd Law Enforcement Battalions will be based out of Camp Pendleton, Calif.; Camp Lejeune, N.C.; and Camp Hansen in Okinawa, Japan; respectively.
>> from http://www.govexec.com/defense/2012/07/marine-corps-activates-new-law-enforcement-battalions/56936/

The link posted by Lawman is a great article and really shows the change the USMC military police field is undergoing. The USMC used to have field MP units and then base MP units like the ones you see on base guarding gates, force protection, traffic tickets, investigations, etc. When I was commissioned (and from what I can remember), females could not be in field MP units. Alot has obviously changed over a not so short period of time. Females have more opportunities and the MP career field is also changing to adapt to warfare. Biometrics, civil peace maintenance, force protection, forensics are huge things on the battlefield of today. Just remember that you can just as easily be in charge of a platoon of Marines stationed at MCB Quantico as you can in a law enforcement battalion. USMC MP officers attend the Army's MP course. Not sure on today's statistics, but guessing they are similiar, there are probably 3-5 MP billets per TBS company. Remember these numbers fluctuate per a class, so it can just as easily be 1 or 6 too. I think my company had 3 billets for MPs and one of the guys got orders right back to MCB Quantico as his first duty assignment. Trust me being a butter bars on Quantico is not fun, especially when have actually completed TBS and everyone assumes you are a student! First and foremost as a Marine Officer, you have to want to be a Marine first. Every TBS company does MOS selection differently. Some companies just have you list everything and not much more is asked. Some companies had you put two lines on your list... one that lists what you really want and another to dictate anything below this line would be miserable. It varies. At TBS you will have MOS mixer nights and have a chance to visit with officers from various MOSs. Take those chances to talk to them and ask alot of questions. Believe me Marines are happy to talk about being Marines!

As said before in the armor thread, you have A LOT better chance of going MP in the army then any other service. For officer the MP branch use to be mid-range competitiveness but has now crept up to the top 5-10 branches and consequentially I knew a few guys who wanted it (and had decent OML scores) who were shot down. I don't know your reasoning for going MP, but the notion still stands regarding army as the best route.

A buddy of mine who branched MP told me the officer experience is a lot different than the enlisted side of things (as opposed to a junior officer and enlisted man in the infantry). Sure, you might get to go on some patrols down range, but the majority of work according to him is behind a desk.

MP is open to females as well artillery, ADA and engineers if MFE is your thing

Thanks guys so much for all the information, I really do appreciate it!

If anyone else would like to say anything they know, it would also be greatly appreciated

thanks

Also I was wondering, that since there is usually as small number of billets available for MP in the Marines, do I have a slightly better chance of obtaining that versus my counterparts because I can not be put in an Infantry slot? I know I can still be put in any support slot, and thats a lot of different positions..

RancidRancid said:

Also I was wondering, that since there is usually as small number of billets available for MP in the Marines, do I have a slightly better chance of obtaining that versus my counterparts because I can not be put in an Infantry slot? I know I can still be put in any support slot, and thats a lot of different positions..

Click to expand...

No, I don't believe you would have a better chance.

thank you Aglahad

If I were you I would try to contact officers who have served in the USMC and Army respectively and discuss the characteristics of being an officer in each of those services.

The bottom line is you should be joining a service because you want to be an officer of that organization - you should be happy first with being part of that organization. There are huge cultural and life differences between services, and being well-informed will help you make a better decision. Where would you like to serve? In what context? Finally, look at job availability.

If you go to http://career-satisfaction.army.mil you can go to the ROTC tab and see the numbers for MP branch. The slide briefing there will tell you how high you have to be nationally ranked (percentile) to be competitive for MP, how many slots there are, etc.

I agree with khergan's post. Join because you want to be in that branch, not because it gives you the highest chance of getting your career field.

They are correct there are huge differences between services. You have to acknowledge that you may not get your dream career, which branch would you be happier serving in if that comes to fruition?