USMC 0204 Duties

F

Future Jarhead

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As a hopeful Marine Corps Officer, specifically an 0204 HUMINT Officer, God and Corps allowing, I have done research regarding the daily tasks and assignments of an 0204 Officer. However, it has proven difficult, as I have seen conflicting information regarding those topics. Would anyone knowledgeable in this topic be able to provide me with a general outlook on the functions of an 0204? I understand that they work as leaders of a team of 0211s, Couterintelligence Specialists, but as for what they do as a team, I am miffed. Thank you for any help and/or knowledge anyone is able to contribute.
 
I can't answer your question but I thought I'd mention a thing or two about TBS in relation to your MOS. I may be preaching to the choir but I provide this information for folks who may be unaware of it.

You will not "receive" your MOS until well into TBS. I don't know what the Corps calls them, but during TBS they have what I'll call smokers. All the new Lts spiff up (Service Alphas I believe) and meet with officers from various MOS's at The Hawk (TBS pub). They chat with the various officers about their MOS over a beer or two so you'll have an opportunity to speak to the officers whose MOSs you are interested in pursuing. They will give you a more accurate description of the job than anything you'll read.

So how does MOS selection work at TBS?
Assume there are 90 Marines in a company. Everyone is given a rank from 1 to 90 based on their academic (30%), physical (30%), and leadership (40%) performance.

Those ranks are broken into 3 tiers:

  • first: 1-30
  • second: 31-60
  • third: 61-90
Each Marine provides a list of their desired MOS in order of preference. The top of each tier from first to third gets priority pick. In the example, the order for picking would be 1, 31, 61, 2, 32, 62, 3, 33, 63, etc. Once your turn to pick comes up they just go down your preference list. If your number one MOS is available you get it, or else they go to your second choice and so on. This means that the person ranking 30 in the company is going to have the third to last pick.

This process was developed in order to ensure “quality distribution.” That is to say that they want to make sure every MOS has a decent spectrum of quality Marines. As you can imagine, the system can be incredibly frustrating given that the 30th Marine gets the 88th pick while the 31st Marine gets second pick. Many times Marines try to “game” the system by failing tests, or physical events, to drop into a lower overall ranking, but ending up at the top of a different tier. The staff will generally catch these acts and respond accordingly.
Click to expand...

So while it's good to research the MOSs to determine what you're interested in, don't get too hung up on an MOS. The choice is far away and you actually never know what you'll get. Make sure you actually begin to find your preferences, although they may change with new information. DS ended up with his third choice, which he loves BTW, although he certainly was far from ecstatic at first.

Hopefully someone here will jump on and answer your specific question.
 
I got my 6th or 7th pick. I did not like MOS, but I did my job and took care of my Marines. I was lucky enough to do some things outside MOS on deployments that I loved. I can’t tell you how many buddies got MOSs they didn’t want and held command and retired after they swore the world was over at TBS. My TBS company never told us our rank to ensure we didn’t game the system.

As to Humint MOS, really can’t say much. It’s a very small community and tough MOS to get. Most of the guys I knew in the field did a lot of work deployed working with different units doing a lot of traditional intel work, but that is just one view.
 
I would add to my post that while my DS was there a few years ago, if you want infantry, you get infantry. If you don't want infantry, you don't get infantry. The Corps does not trust it's highly trained riflemen to officers who don't want the job. Of course these things are always subject to change.
 
DD has given up adjutant duty at Pendelton. SOL Is Flight Pilot, both of them Marine. They met at TBS. Will see them the end of the month coming in from Prndleton and Mirimar. Son is third engine somewhere in the Pacific on USNS Charlton.
 
kinnem said:
I can't answer your question but I thought I'd mention a thing or two about TBS in relation to your MOS. I may be preaching to the choir but I provide this information for folks who may be unaware of it.

You will not "receive" your MOS until well into TBS. I don't know what the Corps calls them, but during TBS they have what I'll call smokers. All the new Lts spiff up (Service Alphas I believe) and meet with officers from various MOS's at The Hawk (TBS pub). They chat with the various officers about their MOS over a beer or two so you'll have an opportunity to speak to the officers whose MOSs you are interested in pursuing. They will give you a more accurate description of the job than anything you'll read.

So how does MOS selection work at TBS?
Assume there are 90 Marines in a company. Everyone is given a rank from 1 to 90 based on their academic (30%), physical (30%), and leadership (40%) performance.

Those ranks are broken into 3 tiers:

  • first: 1-30
  • second: 31-60
  • third: 61-90
Each Marine provides a list of their desired MOS in order of preference. The top of each tier from first to third gets priority pick. In the example, the order for picking would be 1, 31, 61, 2, 32, 62, 3, 33, 63, etc. Once your turn to pick comes up they just go down your preference list. If your number one MOS is available you get it, or else they go to your second choice and so on. This means that the person ranking 30 in the company is going to have the third to last pick.

This process was developed in order to ensure “quality distribution.” That is to say that they want to make sure every MOS has a decent spectrum of quality Marines. As you can imagine, the system can be incredibly frustrating given that the 30th Marine gets the 88th pick while the 31st Marine gets second pick. Many times Marines try to “game” the system by failing tests, or physical events, to drop into a lower overall ranking, but ending up at the top of a different tier. The staff will generally catch these acts and respond accordingly.
Click to expand...

So while it's good to research the MOSs to determine what you're interested in, don't get too hung up on an MOS. The choice is far away and you actually never know what you'll get. Make sure you actually begin to find your preferences, although they may change with new information. DS ended up with his third choice, which he loves BTW, although he certainly was far from ecstatic at first.

Hopefully someone here will jump on and answer your specific question.
Click to expand...
Thank you for taking the time to write that information, i had no idea about the part of sitting down with various MOS Officers, that is something I will look forward to(I’ll be looking forward to everything though, so that’s not saying much haha)
 
Yeah, I didn't know until DS graduated from OCS and we toured Camp Barrett where TBS is done.. just across the interstate.
 
OP: this is a very small community. Honestly can't speak too intelligently on the topic. I know everyone wants it because they get to grow beards and snoop and poop with local populace but that's not really an officers job. If you search on line you will see the number of slots awarded out of TBS - usually 0-1.
 
kinnem said:
Yeah, I didn't know until DS graduated from OCS and we toured Camp Barrett where TBS is done.. just across the interstate.
Click to expand...
Camp Barrett is just through the woods from my house. I occasionally work out in Ramer gym.
 
USMCGrunt said:
OP: this is a very small community. Honestly can't speak too intelligently on the topic. I know everyone wants it because they get to grow beards and snoop and poop with local populace but that's not really an officers job. If you search on line you will see the number of slots awarded out of TBS - usually 0-1.
Click to expand...
Yep, small community indeed. I don't think the intell MOS is as secret squirrel as it sounds. I do know the ground intell bubbas have to pass IOC before starting the intell pipeline. Not sure about HUMINT.
 
We where at the Pistol Range Parking lot To meet DD at TBS. Told mother that was your Daughter walking from the Barracks or one very confident new Marine.
 
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