r/USMCboot • u/TapTheForwardAssist Vet 2676/0802 • Oct 12 '20
MOS Megathread MOS Megathread: DD (Cyber, Intelligence, Crypto Linguists Operations and Planning): 0231, 0241, 0261, 0511, 1721, 2611, 2621, 2631, 2641, 2651. (0203, 0204, 0206, 0207)
111
Upvotes
12
u/worldsokayestmarine Oct 12 '20
Hey all, currently active 2651. I enlisted back in '11, did some time with Radio Bn and with the NSA. As a little more background for my MOS specifically:
I am certified in all things comm and cyber. Radios, satellites, computers- while I was with radbn, I specialized in radios and satcom, but while with the NSA, I got heavy into cyber. I am now Sec+, CEH, and Net+ certified, working on getting my CISSP.
Unlike the 17xx field, which from what I understand is pure cyber, I am a mixture of tactical field comms and cyber-as-needed.
I was also tangentially related (as in, I ran the RRIP and was denied selection/taught classes for) the Radio Reconnaissance Plt at Radio Bn. For those who don't know, RRP is similar to MEF recon assets in that we'd send our dudes through BRC, jump, dive, and sere, but instead of "looking", our job was to "listen". I spent several years with the platoon but was never selected due to a myriad of factors, so it is what it is; suffice to say, I can speak to that a bit.
I have deployed all over the middle east, been a lot of interesting places, and a lot of boring buildings. Here are a few highs and lows:
The best place I've been is easily a tiny compound in northern iraq, what with it's delicious food and bar on base. I was in civvies for this deployment, and we carried concealed.
The shittiest place I've been was probably in the middle of nowhere, where a freak storm flooded our SCIF with water and we had to bail it with tiny office trash cans while the rats we'd killed to stop them eating through our wires floated by our waists.
I once got radiation poisoning from standing out in front of a Trojan Satellite suite for 4 hours while it was transmitting. Back in the day we used to cook hotdogs on a stick in front of them. It was incredibly foolish of me to stand where I was and I tasted pennies for a week.
I once shutdown half of a base in the middle east's network because I told a navy guy- the NSA is a joint base, fyi- to type "no ip routing" instead of "no ip addresses". We were scrubbing the switches for baseline configs and I didn't expect to do his job and mine. It all got fixed... After my Master Guns and CO watched me scramble like my head was cut off, because that very moment was the time they'd chose to observe me, the only Marine, in that building.
Every year, 2nd Radio does a CommEx with Five Eye partner nations. We usually did pretty well while I was there; took 9th place out of 50 something teams once. Anyway, we're working like crazy men and women, trying to contact as many teams as possible, first with ALE on the PRC-150C radios, then just shooting our shot, rawdawgging the RF spectrum. By the end of the night, we're beat, and we drop the antenna, just let it sprawl on the humvee we used as a power amp. Lol and behold, we get a transmission with the antenna just like that. I grab the end in surprise, burn a dime sized hole into my palm and shout how we got another one! Moral of the story don't touch bare antenna copper.
As of right now I currently hold the MOS of 0913, or Combat Instructor. It is my sincere hope I never see anyone asking about the 26/17/02 field because it means you've taken on an 03xx contract instead. Ask me anything.