How difficult would it be to switch from the Army National Guard or Army Reserves to Active Duty Marine Corps?

1. You go talk to a Marine orps recruiter and find out if they are accepting prior service.

If they are

2. You submit a form 368 asking for a conditional release from the Reserves or Guard

If approved, you then have 90 days to enlist into another service branch.

3. Odds of it happening are slim to none right now, the marine corps is just not accepting to many prior service.

As it has been said by others, ALL contracts (active, reserve, national guard) are for a total of 8 years; one piece of advice - negotiate hard with the recruiter. To start the conditional release process, you must see an active duty recruiter. The Recruiter is the only person who can request a conditional release. He/she does this by submitting a DD Form 368, Request for Conditional Release. This form must be signed by the member and the active duty recruiter. If you've not yet been through basic training, and you get a conditional release approved, normally you are enlisted active duty as a non-prior service candidate (which offers more enlistment options). - see website below for info. My advice - even though you signed a contract, you are not powerless. Hell, you could just not show up to ship out - what are they going to do? I have seen it done before.

As long as you are in good standing with the military (no courts martial, for instance) you should be able to request the transition to active duty Marine Corps. You will have to talk to a recruiter or job detailer and negotiate a conditional release from reserves to the Marines, and you might have to go through their boot camp again.

Whatever you do.... you will end up going through Marine Corps boot camp. None of the branches are really interested in prior service military since there are lines of people waiting to join.

Go talk to a recruiter and see what they have to offer.

Semper Fi,

Z

As an officer you apply to the service you want . After accepted, you ask for a letter of dismissal from your commander to go to the new branch.

For enlisted, I do not know.

USMC is really tough about accepting prior service. Good luck tho!

It can be done, however you would be considered Prior Service and you would have limited MOS choices.