The Marine Corps instills from the start that you are a Marine first, and your MOS is secondary. Personally all I wanted to do was fly, so I was jealous of Air Force and Navy fighter pilots who had more time to focus their efforts on their primary duty - Flying. With my social science degree the Air Force would've never accepted me for a pilot contract, plus I had 20/400 vision and only qualified with the Marine Corps' soft contact lens waiver. 
 
	"Every Marine a rifleman, every Marine officer a provisional rifle platoon commander." We all have to go through six months of TBS where we train to lead our peers in various positions of leadership - Squad, Platoon, and Company level. After about two years in my first gun squadron I was offered the opportunity to be the Airframes OIC which put me in charge of about 45 Marines aged 19-52 while simultaneously my Division Lead qualification. It was rough balancing all of it and being responsible for people you didn't raise both CONUS and OCONUS. I had phone calls in the middle of the night about suicidal ideations, alcohol incidents, among others. I don't regret it but I wouldn't want to do it again. That's probably a bad attitude for a Marine officer but that's just my perspective.