Mortarman

You are the ammo humper and the A-gunner on the gun line. The mortar section runs on your back, your arms, and your willingness to carry sixty-pound rounds across ground no vehicle will ever touch — every Marine is a rifleman first, and you are the one who also feeds the tube.

You step off the 7-ton at your weapons platoon, sea bag still smelling like MCRD, and the section leader hands you the A-gunner slot on an M252A2 81mm. Your job for the next twelve to eighteen months is to learn the gun from the ground up — carry the baseplate, lug the bipod, hump the rounds in a vest or carrier that turns a flat trail into a gut-check. Most of your week is tube cleaning, range support, MCMAP, humps with the ammunition load, the company gunny's working parties, and the motor-T washrack on the vehicles the section mounts for direct-support movements. Field ops are where the actual job lives: you dig the gun pit to the section leader's specs, hang rounds the gunner's way, and run the fire mission drill until the platoon sergeant stops correcting your aiming-stake alignment, charge selection, and deflection offset. The math is not complicated, but it has to be exact, and the gun team that gets it wrong does not get a second shot.

• 01Zero and qualify the M27 IAR or M4 to the Annual Rifle Training (ART) standard — Expert is the floor, because the rifle is still your weapon no matter what tube you crew.
• 02Function-check, assemble, disassemble, and clear the M224A1 60mm LWCMS and M252A2 81mm — baseplate, bipod, tube, sight unit, cleaning rod, and all crew-served components by touch in reduced light.
• 03Hump the load: bipod, baseplate, and a full ammunition carry for the section over real terrain — hump standards are the 0331's, because the gun section moves with the weapons platoon and the M252A2 baseplate does not forgive a soft squad.
• 04Execute the individual gunner tasks from NAVMC 3500.44 — bore sight, collimate the M64A1 sight, set deflection and elevation from an FDC fire command, announce "HANG" and "SHOT" on timing.
• 05Run a TCCC casualty assessment — MARCH-PAWS — and apply a CAT tourniquet under fire without looking at your hands, because the crew keeps the gun in action when someone goes down.
• 06Maintain the crew-served ammunition — round identification by fuze and propellant increment, M935/M821/M889 distinction, charge setting, lot segregation — and the section leader will test you cold.

• —MCDP 1 — Warfighting (every Marine reads it; you will be quizzed on the ideas, not the page numbers).
• —MCDP 1-3 — Tactics.
• —NAVMC 3500.44 — Infantry Training and Readiness Manual (the source of every 0341 individual and collective task you are evaluated against).
• —MCRP 3-10A.3 — Marine Rifle Squad and MCRP 3-10A.4 — Marine Rifle Platoon (the squads you support plan off these manuals).
• —The current MCWP / MCRP covering mortar employment in the Marine infantry battalion (your section leader and platoon sergeant will cite it cold on deflection computation and safety template).
• —MCO 6100.13 — Marine Corps Physical Fitness, Body Composition, and Military Appearance (your PFT/CFT lives here, and the ammunition load rides the difference).

• —1st-Class PFT and CFT under MCO 6100.13 — anything below 1st-Class and the baseplate goes to the Marine who can carry it.
• —Annual Rifle Qualification: Expert badge on the blouse, slug score your section leader will know without looking.
• —Tan Belt out of MCRD, Gray Belt before you make LCpl, Green Belt before you sit a Cpl board — MCMAP under MCO 1500.54.
• —Earn the LCpl on the first look; second-look promotions are noted and remembered in the battalion.
• —Pass the company-level Marine Corps Combat Readiness Evaluation (MCCRE) fire mission lanes the gun section runs — deflection set, charge selected, round hung, and the safety template clean.

• —Treating tube and baseplate cleaning as a formation event. The section leader who finds fouling in the bore during a snap inspection remembers it for every working-party roster after.
• —Getting a charge or fuze wrong before "HANG" because you assumed instead of checking the fire command again. The M252A2 does not care about your assumption — the section leader does, and so does the FDC.
• —Buying gucci kit before you own the issued gear. The FLAK, plates, helmet, assault pack, and ammunition vest get graded; your aftermarket load-bearing rig does not.
• —Going to medical only when something is already broken. Document the back injury from the baseplate hump now or the VA fights you about it in fifteen years.
• —Posting OPSEC-relevant content on social media — unit patch, grid coordinates, deployment manifest, geotag from a field op. The PAO and the S2 both run sweeps, and a mortar section's photos carry the same exposure risk as anyone else's on the net.

The good boot mortarman is invisible the right way: war belt squared, tube clean, charges segregated by lot, aiming stakes in the ground before the section leader has to ask, mouth shut, and asking the questions during AAR instead of during the fire mission. By month nine the gun team leader is letting him run the deflection computation cold; by month eighteen he is the LCpl the platoon sergeant pulls for the company Marine of the Quarter board and the next Corporals Course slot.

You are an NCO. In this Corps the chevron means it the first time you pin it — Cpl is not "almost a Sgt," it is the first rank where the gun team runs on what you decide and where the rifle company trusts the rounds to land where you computed.

You own a gun team — the tube, the crew, and the mathematics — and you are responsible for their training, their gear, their conduct on liberty, and their accuracy on every fire mission the FDC sends down the line. You run PCC/PCIs that actually inspect the aiming stakes, the sight unit, the bipod-clamp torque, and the round count. You brief a five-paragraph order from a map and a terrain model, you build the gun-line position that the section leader signs, and you write the proficiency and conduct marks that feed your Marines' composite scores. At this rank the FDC seat starts to come into view — the section leader is watching whether you can verify a fire command, catch a gross deflection error, and talk to a forward observer (FO) without putting rounds through the safety template.

• 01Brief a gun team order in five paragraphs — SMEAC, gun-line position, primary and alternate positions, charge-and-fuze plan, displacement route, casualty plan — no notes, no slides.
• 02Verify a fire command from the FDC: deflection, quadrant elevation, charge, fuze setting, and the safety template check before you announce "READY."
• 03Run a PCC/PCI as a real inspection — tube, bipod, baseplate, sight unit, aiming stakes, ammunition serviceability by lot and fuze — not a head-nod ritual.
• 04Operate the squad and section radios — PRC-117G, PRC-152, PRC-153 — and load CEOI without a printed cheat sheet, because the gun team talks to the FDC and the FO on separate nets.
• 05Compute a basic fire mission from a known gun position to a target in the FDC notebook — six-digit grid, back azimuth, range-to-target, elevation, charge — the section leader will check your math before the FDC sends it.
• 06Walk a casualty through a 9-line MEDEVAC and conduct a TCCC handoff the corpsman actually wants to receive.

• —NAVMC 3500.44 — Infantry T&R (Cpl / Sgt 0341 collective tasks; this is the document the section leader quotes back to you on position construction and fire mission execution).
• —The current MCWP / MCRP covering mortar employment — fire commands, FDC procedures, safety template, registration and adjustment (own it; the platoon sergeant will quote it).
• —MCRP 3-10A.3 — Marine Rifle Squad (the unit you are supporting, the scheme of maneuver you are integrating into).
• —MCRP 3-31.6 / MCWP 3-16.6 — Call for Fire and Supporting Arms (even though the FO owns the net, every mortar Cpl needs to know the request format).
• —MCO 1610.7 — Performance Evaluation System (you sign proficiency and conduct marks now; the FitRep is coming).
• —MCO 1400.32 — Marine Corps Promotion Manual (composite scores, cutting scores, board eligibility for Sgt — pull the current MARADMIN before you ask your section leader where you stand).

• —Green Belt MCMAP minimum; Brown Belt is the bar you should be chasing before Sergeants Course.
• —Corporals Course graduate — required and gated; do not let the slot drop.
• —1st-Class PFT and CFT; your Marines do not respect a gun team leader who falls out of the hump under the load his crew is carrying.
• —Composite score tracked monthly in TFRS — pull the current cutting score for 0341 to Sgt before you ask your section leader where you stand.
• —Fire mission proficiency — deflection and elevation errors within the NAVMC 3500.44 individual standard, safety template clean on every practice mission the section runs.

• —Coasting on the Cpl chevron. The composite score does not coast; the Sergeants Course slot does not coast; your Marines notice the day you stop training them on the gun.
• —Skipping the bore sight and collimation check because "the sight was fine yesterday." The round that lands wrong because the sight walked overnight is your fire mission and your crew's name.
• —Running a PCI as a headcount rather than an inspection. The aiming stake missing from the kit does not show up until 0200 in the gun pit, and the section leader knows it left the wire on your watch.
• —Mishandling a sensitive item — sight unit, radio, NVG — even once. The 1stSgt knows your name now, and not the way you want.
• —Posting OPSEC-relevant photos from a workup, a MEU, or a Twentynine Palms ITX. The S2 runs the sweep; your platoon pays the price for what you put online.

The good Cpl gun team leader is the Marine the section leader puts on the hardest position in the gun line without hesitation — the gun closest to the forward squads, the team running the FDC back-check, the crew on the registration mission the entire support plan depends on. His boots are squared away because he counsels them honestly, not because he yells, and the platoon sergeant has already mentioned him to the company gunny for the next Sergeant board and the next FDC MOS school seat.

The section is yours — the guns, the FDC, the math, and the Marines. The weapons platoon sergeant is mentoring you while the platoon commander leans on you to build a fires plan the rifle company can actually execute without putting rounds through its own troops.

You run a mortar section in the weapons platoon — four to six Marines per gun, two to four tubes depending on the battalion's configuration, the FDC tent and boards, and your name on every fire mission clearance that goes downrange. You write FitReps on your Cpls (yes, FitReps — in this Corps everyone E-1 to O-10 gets one annually under MCO 1610.7), you defend the mortar support plan in the platoon back-brief and in the direct support briefing to the rifle company commander, you sign for tubes, sight units, and crew-served optics by serial number, and you translate the fire support officer's (FSO's) intent into a section fire plan the gun team leaders can rehearse without you standing over them. The FDC seat is now yours to own: deflection computation, data-book management, charge-and-fuze selection, and the safety template that keeps your rounds out of friendly positions. You will be in the COC more than you remember being behind a gun — but the registration mission and the first FFE of the exercise are still where your reputation is made or lost.

• 01Run the FDC — compute fire commands from a gun-target line, plot corrections from observer adjustments, maintain the section data book, and brief the fire support plan to the rifle company commander without using a calculator the platoon sergeant does not own.
• 02Develop and brief a mortar support annex that the platoon commander does not have to rewrite — target list, phase lines, on-call missions, final protective fires (FPF) plan, and the safety template that the company FSO signs.
• 03Run a section live-fire as the section leader — risk assessment (ORM), safety template clearance, surface danger zone, MEDEVAC plan, ammo accountability — to the NAVMC 3500.44 collective standard.
• 04Write a clean Section A on FitReps for your Cpls — observed behavior, action-result-impact, no inflation the reporting senior cannot defend in the battalion review.
• 05Mentor your gun team leaders into Sergeants Course-ready candidates — FDC proficiency, FitRep prep, composite score management.
• 06Walk a Marine through a financial problem (predatory lender, garnishment, command financial specialist referral) without making it the platoon sergeant's problem first.

• —The current MCWP / MCRP covering mortar employment in the Marine infantry battalion — own this cover to cover; the platoon sergeant and the FSO quote it back to you on FPF, safety templates, and registration procedures.
• —MCRP 3-10A.4 — Marine Rifle Platoon and the current rifle company manual (the units your section supports in direct support).
• —MCWP 3-01 — Offensive and Defensive Tactics for the Marine Air-Ground Task Force.
• —NAVMC 3500.44 — Infantry T&R (Sgt / section-leader 0341 collective tasks; you are evaluated against this on every MCCRE lane).
• —MCO 1610.7 — Performance Evaluation System (you write FitReps now, not just receive them).
• —MCO 1400.32 — Marine Corps Promotion Manual (composite scores, cutting scores, board eligibility for SSgt — pull the current MARADMIN).

• —Sergeants Course graduate — required and gated, no exceptions on the path to SSgt.
• —Brown Belt MCMAP minimum; Black Belt is what the company gunny notes on the next FitRep.
• —1st-Class PFT and CFT; your section average is watched and reported.
• —Section MCCRE / pre-deployment evaluation rated at the unit standard or above — the platoon commander's next FitRep depends on it, and so does the company's fire support confidence.
• —Composite score tracked monthly; pull the current MARADMIN / TFRS cutting score for 0341 to SSgt before you ask where you stand.

• —Verbal counseling only. If it is not in writing — page-11 entry or formal counseling — it did not happen and the company commander cannot defend you when it matters.
• —Letting a gun team smoke the platoon sergeant's sensitive-items count because you did not pre-inspect on Sunday — sight unit, tube serial, and FDC equipment all sign by serial number, and one missing line eats the company training calendar for a week.
• —Running the fire mission data on memory instead of the data book. The gross error round that lands short of friendly lines happened because someone trusted his head instead of the board, and the incident investigation asks you first.
• —Hiding a SAPR, EO, or self-harm-ideation issue from the chain. The Marine, the section, and your career all need it in the system inside 24 hours.
• —Going around the platoon sergeant to the company gunny or 1stSgt. The chain runs through your platoon sergeant for a reason; the company will hear about it before you walk back to the section.

The good Sgt section leader is the one the platoon sergeant gives the most exposed position in the company defense — the gun line with the shortest safety template clearance, the FDC with the deepest target list — because the FPF plan is clean, the data book is current, and the FO on the radio trusts every round the section puts on the target. His Cpls are FitRep-ready and Sergeants Course-slated, his section scores the company's top MCCRE fire-mission lane, and the platoon sergeant can take 30 days of leave knowing the tubes are safe and the fire plan will not embarrass anyone on the calendar.

You are the senior NCO of the weapons platoon mortar section — or the full weapons platoon sergeant responsible for mortars, machine guns, and assaultmen under the same roof. The lieutenant signs. You execute. The company gunny is watching, and the SSgt-to-GySgt board is the career hurdle that defines your next decade.

You run the mortar section's or weapons platoon's enlisted side — training, evaluations, schools, promotions, MCMAP belt progression, discipline, equipment accountability, family readiness — for a section whose gear list runs to sight units, FDC computers, data books, and enough propellant increments to fill an ammo truck. You write three to four Sgt FitReps per cycle, you defend the section's fire support plan in the company back-brief, you build your lieutenant into a company commander, and you cover his blind spots on safety templates, FFE clearance, and the ammunition logistics constraint he has not thought of yet — all without ever publicly correcting him in front of the rifle company. You operate at company and battalion level: the company gunny and the CO know your name, the fire support officer coordinates around your section's real-world constraints, and the BSgtMaj is reading your FitRep against every other weapons platoon sergeant in the battalion.

• 01Build a mortar section or weapons platoon training plan that survives contact with the S-3 long-range training calendar — T&R-aligned, range and ammo bids honest, locked in the calendar before the first range-request window closes.
• 02Write three to four Sgt FitReps per cycle that the reporting senior can defend at the battalion review — clean Section A, defensible attribute rationale.
• 03Run a section- or platoon-level live-fire to the NAVMC 3500.44 collective standard — risk assessment, safety template clearance, surface danger zone, casualty rehearsal, ammo accountability.
• 04Mentor three Sgts into SSgt-board-ready candidates without losing your edge on your own Career Course prep and the GySgt board conversation.
• 05Run a casualty notification or serious-incident response that the family and the company can live with — composed, scripted, and on the company's timeline.
• 06Act as company gunny in his absence — accountability formation, sick call, working parties, training calendar, all of it.

• —The current MCWP / MCRP covering mortar employment — own this cover to cover at the section chief level; you teach the next generation off it, not consume it.
• —MCRP 3-10A.4 — Marine Rifle Platoon and the current MCRP 3-10A-series rifle company manual (the units your tubes support in direct support and general support).
• —MCWP 3-01 — Offensive and Defensive Tactics for MAGTFs.
• —NAVMC 3500.44 — Infantry T&R (platoon-level 0341 collective standards you run training against and that the evaluators cite).
• —MCO 1610.7 — Performance Evaluation System (FitRep policy you write against now, not just receive).
• —MCO 1400.32 — Marine Corps Promotion Manual (SSgt-to-GySgt board mechanics, FitRep relative-value impact; pull the current MARADMIN for the board cycle).

• —Career Course (resident or distance) completed; SNCO Academy slot for GySgt-level resident as soon as the board signals.
• —Black Belt MCMAP — at the SSgt level the platoon expects you to be one of the senior instructors in the company.
• —Section or platoon PFT/CFT pass rate at or above 95%; the BSgtMaj sees the unit health-of-the-force report and knows whose section is dragging.
• —Section or platoon MCCRE rating in the top tier of the company; ITX evaluation at Twentynine Palms that the company commander can brief without an apology.
• —FitRep relative value above battalion average — the SSgt-to-GySgt board is FitRep-driven, and one weak cycle moves the timeline by years.

• —Writing a FitRep as a wish list instead of an evaluation. The reporting senior remembers the SSgt who inflated, and so does the next board.
• —Skipping the risk assessment or safety template review on a live-fire. The CO will not stand behind you when a round lands wrong and the ORM worksheet is blank.
• —Letting your senior Sgt run the FDC unsupervised because "he's got it." That is the FDC the evaluator walks into during the MCCRE graded lane and the section leader who is not in the room when it matters.
• —Allowing sensitive-items or armory accountability to slide during a movement day — sight units, FDC equipment, and tubes all sign by serial number, and one missing line eats the company training calendar for a week.
• —Hiding platoon problems from the company gunny to look good. He will find out — usually from the lieutenant, in the worst possible meeting.

The good SSgt mortar section chief or weapons platoon sergeant runs a section that performs identically whether he is at MEDEVAC, in the COC, or on a UDP rotation in Okinawa. His three Sgts are SSgt-board ready. His Marines re-enlist for the right reasons and the school slots they wanted. The company commander is willing to lose him to B Billet — recruiter, drill instructor, MSG detachment — because the entire battalion knows he comes back as the GySgt who will mentor the next generation of fire support NCOs.

You are the company gunny — or the battalion-level mortar and fire support chief, the senior NCO the fire support officer calls before he briefs the battalion commander. Whatever the billet, you are the noncommissioned officer the entire weapons company runs through, and the 1stSgt is the only Marine in the building above you.

You run the company's training and tasking calendar in concert with the 1stSgt and the company commander — for a weapons company that owns the battalion's mortar sections, machine gun sections, and assault sections, or for a rifle company whose weapons platoon you have just walked into as its senior NCO. At the battalion level the fire support chief billet puts you in the fire support coordination center (FSCC) alongside the fire support officer, coordinating mortar fires, naval gunfire, fixed-wing close air support, and artillery into a fires plan the BC briefs at regiment. You manage 100+ Marines through your section leaders, you advise the CO on every enlisted decision, and you set the standard in formation that boots watch and SNCOs follow. You write three to five SSgt FitReps per cycle, you sit on the company training board with the operations officer, and you start the conversation with the 1stSgt and the BSgtMaj about the MSgt-vs-1stSgt path before the next board cycle.

• 01Build and defend a weapons company or battalion mortar section quarterly training schedule that the CO can brief at the battalion BUB without surprises — T&R-aligned, range and ammo bids honest, bench-warming events built in.
• 02Write three to five SSgt FitReps per cycle that the battalion FitRep board can defend — clean attribute rationale, defensible relative value.
• 03Run a company through an ITX rotation at Twentynine Palms (MCAGCC), a Bridgeport / Okinawa training package, or a UDP as the senior NCO on the mortar and fire support manifest.
• 04Mentor three or four SSgts into Career Course graduates and GySgt-board-ready candidates; identify the one or two who should be steering toward 1stSgt track versus the fire support / master gunner SME track.
• 05Brief the company commander honestly on enlisted morale, retention, family readiness, and the discipline trends he cannot see from his desk.
• 06Run a Red Cross or casualty notification with the dignity it requires — the family sees your face first.

• —The current MCRP 3-10A-series rifle company manual and the mortar employment manuals (you teach the next generation off these, not consume them).
• —MCDP 1 — Warfighting; MCDP 1-3 — Tactics.
• —NAVMC 3500.44 — Infantry T&R (company-level 0341 collective tasks you build the training plan against).
• —MCO 1610.7 — Performance Evaluation System (FitRep mechanics you now teach to your SSgts).
• —MCO 1400.32 — Marine Corps Promotion Manual (GySgt-to-MSgt / 1stSgt board mechanics, MOS roadmap; pull the current MARADMIN for the board cycle).
• —MCO 5354.1 — SAPR Program; MCO 1000.9 — Equal Opportunity (you enforce both, the IG checks them).

• —SNCO Academy Advanced Course (Career Course) graduate; SNCO Academy Senior Course slated when the MSgt board approaches.
• —Black Belt Instructor (MCMAP) is the bar at this rank — Black Belt Instructor-Trainer (BBIT) if your career path supports it.
• —1st-Class PFT and CFT; the formation watches the company gunny's scores more than anyone's except the 1stSgt, and the weapons company expects you to carry weight.
• —Company MCCRE / ITX rating that the battalion can brief without apology; pre-deployment training delivered on the timeline the CO signed for.
• —FitRep profile that the senior reporting official can defend at the MSgt / 1stSgt board — relative value, attributes, and rationale all aligned.

• —Letting one section leader drift because you trust him. That is the section the IG inspection lands on and the company gunny absorbs the fallout.
• —Confusing being tight with the CO with being aligned with the CO. The company needs you to push back honestly, in his office, with the door closed.
• —Carrying a personal feud with a peer GySgt into the company. The BSgtMaj notices, the FitRep board notices, and the slate writes itself.
• —Skipping the family readiness piece because "the spouses run that." You sign the unit health-of-the-force input for a reason.
• —Going around the 1stSgt to the BSgtMaj. You will be wrong on the facts and relieved on the spot — and the Corps does not forget that promotion.

The good GySgt weapons company gunny or battalion fire support chief is the SNCO the BSgtMaj is willing to send to the worst billet in the battalion — a weapons company gunny during a workup, a fire support chief billet at the schoolhouse, an instructor at SOI — because the unit comes back better and the FitReps come back clean. His SSgts get GySgt, his sections hit the MCCRE standard and the ITX fire-mission grades, the fire support plan in the company defense is the one the BC briefs at regiment without apology, and the BSgtMaj is already mentioning his name to the regimental SgtMaj before the next 1stSgt or MSgt slate goes up.

You are the standard-bearer for the formation. Marines know whether the unit is broken or fixed by watching how you stand at colors. The split between 1stSgt / SgtMaj (troop leadership) and MSgt / MGySgt (occupational SME — often the infantry battalion fire support chief, the senior fire support advisor at division, or the 03XX occfield master gunner) is the defining career decision of your final decade.

As 1stSgt you run the company — 130-180 Marines, the company office, the platoon sergeants, the training calendar, and the boundary between what the CO needs and what the company can actually deliver — for a rifle company, a weapons company, or an H&S company whose heavy weapons fleet you know better than anyone else in the building. As MSgt you are the senior occupational SME — battalion fire support chief, regimental mortar advisor, MOS roadmap owner for the 0341 occfield, or a division-level fire support coordination cell senior NCO who shapes how the regiment plans and integrates indirect fires at every echelon. As SgtMaj you advise the battalion or regimental commander on every enlisted decision and you set the standard for hundreds to thousands of Marines by what you walk past in formation. As MGySgt you are the occupational pinnacle, the Marine the MMPB calls when the 0341 MOS roadmap needs an honest rewrite and the schoolhouse curriculum needs someone who has actually run a fire mission under fire. You write fewer FitReps but they are the ones that pick the next 1stSgt and SgtMaj slates.

• 01Run a 1stSgt's call that produces actions, not anxiety — accountability, sick call, training, discipline, family readiness, finance — in 30 minutes flat.
• 02Build a company training and tasking calendar with the CO and the GySgt that survives the battalion BUB without burning out the mortar sections or the machine gun teams.
• 03Mentor four GySgts and the senior SSgts as the next 1stSgt / MSgt cohort, with honest reads on who is troop-leadership track and who is fire support / master gunner track.
• 04Walk the line during a battalion MCCRE or ITX and identify the broken systems in the mortar sections before the evaluators do — data book errors, safety template violations, FDC computation shortcuts that work in garrison and kill people in the field.
• 05Run a Red Cross / casualty notification or memorial service with the dignity it requires — you are the face the family and the formation will remember.
• 06Brief the BC and the BSgtMaj on enlisted morale, retention, climate, and the second-order effects of policy decisions they cannot see from the conference room.

• —MCDP 1 — Warfighting; MCDP 1-3 — Tactics (you teach these, not consume them, and you translate them into fire support terms the infantry platoon commander has never read).
• —MCO 1610.7 — Performance Evaluation System (you are the rater or reviewing officer on the FitReps that decide the next slate).
• —MCO 1400.32 — Marine Corps Promotion Manual (1stSgt / SgtMaj / MGySgt board mechanics; pull the current MARADMIN for the slate).
• —MCO 1900.16 / MCO P1900.16 — Marine Corps Retirement / Separation (you are the resource the unit comes to for transition questions).
• —MCO 5354.1 — SAPR Program; MCO 1000.9 — Equal Opportunity (you enforce both, the IG validates both).
• —The Sergeants Major Symposium reading list, the Commandant's Reading List, and the current Planning Guidance — you are expected to consume strategic doctrine and translate it down to boot mortarmen on their first field op.

• —SNCO Academy Senior Course graduate; Sergeants Major Course (USMC SgtMaj Academy at Marine Corps University, Camp Geiger NC) before competing for command SgtMaj slate.
• —Company UCMJ rate, retention rate, and SAPR/EO climate index in the top tier of the battalion — the BSgtMaj reports up against every peer 1stSgt.
• —Personal FitRep profile that the reporting senior can defend at HQMC — the bar at this rank is whether your rated GySgts get selected for 1stSgt and MSgt.
• —Zero senior-enlisted-level integrity incidents — financial, fraternization, OPSEC. One ends the career permanently at this rank and the Corps does not relitigate.
• —Post-service transition plan running 24-36 months out — VA disability claim filed pre-EAS, SkillBridge slot identified, no retirement walked into cold.

• —Going public with disagreement with the CO. You take the disagreement in his office with the door closed; you walk out aligned, every time.
• —Confusing seniority with leverage. The Corps keeps senior enlisted who serve the formation, not the ones who run their own program off the company commander's back.
• —Stopping personal PT because you are "too senior." Marines stop respecting the chevrons when the body stops carrying them, and the 1st-Class PFT is still the bar.
• —Letting a GySgt run a bad climate because he is your guy. The BSgtMaj finds out, the regimental SgtMaj finds out, and the next slate gets read off without your name on it.
• —Confusing the warm-up to retirement with the job. Until you walk out of the formation for the last time, the formation is your job — boots are still watching how you carry it.

The good 1stSgt / SgtMaj is the senior Marine every boot in the formation knows by face and reputation. He is the reason the re-enlistment line forms after a hard ITX rotation, and the reason the weapons company believes the fire plan is actually rehearsable before the BC briefs it at regiment. The CO trusts him with the worst news at 0200; the Marines trust him to walk away from a fight he cannot win for them only when he absolutely cannot win it. The good MGySgt is the Marine the MMPB calls when the 0341 MOS roadmap needs rewriting or the fire support curriculum at SOI needs an honest assessment — and the GySgts in the regiment quote him without realizing they are doing it.