Skip to main content
HonestMOS
●InvestigationsCongress made VA disability claims free to file. An entire industry charges veterans anyway — and nobody can stop them.→
←Back to 0352 Anti-Tank Missileman — overview, pay, training, civilian translation, reviews
0352E1-E3

Anti-Tank Missileman

E-1 to E-3 (Junior Enlisted) · Marines

E1–E3E-4E-5E-6E-7E8–E9
HEADS UP

The TOW is not a rifle. You can go from cherry boot to dead crew member in one bad step if you skip the misfire/hang-fire immediate action sequence or mishandle a round on receipt. Every senior Marine in your section spent time as an LCpl learning the same drills — the ones who are still here did them right. Start there and earn the rest later.

The Honest MOS Read
Private to Lance Corporal in the 0352 community is the apprenticeship phase for operating a weapon system that costs more to fire once than most people earn in two years — and that will, if you do your job, kill a main battle tank at distances infantry rifles cannot reach. You arrive at a weapons company anti-armor platoon after the Anti-Tank Missileman course at Infantry Training Battalion and the section chief runs you through a battery of gut-check drills inside the first two weeks. Not to haze you. To find out what you actually know versus what you think you know, because the difference between those two things on a live firing range is a very bad day for everyone. Garrison reality: most of the working week is PMCS. TM 09151A-10/1 before-ops, during-ops, and after-ops maintenance on the M220 TOW launcher. Battery management on the ITAS. Corrosion inspection on the cable runs. Heat bloom mitigation on the HMMWV exhaust before you set the position. Vehicle PMCS on the crew's HMMWV — fluids, tires, blackout lighting, radio mounts. You will do these inspections so many times that you can recite the fault categories in your sleep. That is the point. When you are in a cold hasty position at 0200 and the thermal sight throws a fault code, your hands need to know what to do before your brain catches up. The ITAS thermal sight is the heart of the system at the crew level. It acquires targets in day and night conditions at ranges beyond what the human eye can resolve, and it holds track on a moving target while the missile flies its guidance wire to the aim point. Learning to track smoothly — not jerking the controls, not lifting the reticle off the target during the flight — is the perishable skill that separates the crew the section leader trusts from the crew he has to babysit at the gunnery table. You rehearse it dry before you touch a live round. You rehearse it on simulators. You rehearse it in the vehicle with the engine off and the section leader watching over your shoulder. Missile handling is where the stakes become concrete. A TOW round is a $250,000 precision weapon and a $250,000 piece of equipment with six ways to go wrong before it leaves the launcher. Fin inspection on receipt. Lot number verification before loading. Handling discipline during transport — no rolling, no dropping, no storing in direct sunlight without a cover. Immediate action for a misfire is a memorized sequence, not a judgment call, because the wrong judgment on a live round in the launcher has one outcome. Your section chief will test you on this without warning. By month nine or ten the section chief has a read on every LCpl in the section. The one who knows the fault codes, who runs the before-ops without being told, who tracks smoothly in the ITAS sim and asks the right questions after the range AAR — that is the LCpl who starts getting handed crew responsibilities before pinning Cpl. The one who is still being reminded to check his cable connectors is the one who extends his cherry phase voluntarily. The section is watching either way.
Career Arc
  • 01Graduate Anti-Tank Missileman course at Infantry Training Battalion, report to weapons company anti-armor platoon.
  • 02First 90 days: PMCS qualification, ITAS operator certification, missile handling certification, crew immersion.
  • 03Begin monthly Pro/Con mark accumulation — composite score starts building from day one.
  • 04First gunnery table qualification as crew member (A-gunner or gunner under crew leader supervision).
  • 05Green Belt MCMAP slated — required before Cpl board; do not let the slot pass.
  • 06Corporals Course eligibility window opens at Cpl; composite score must support the cutting score on the current MARADMIN.
  • 07LCpl to Cpl cutting score promotion — section chief's recommendation is the accelerant; Pro/Con marks are the substrate.
Common Screwups
  • ×DUI, NJP, or liberty incident in the barracks. At PFC or LCpl this is a permanent record scar before you have any service credit to offset it — the FitRep system and the Cpl board will read it for the rest of your enlistment.
  • ×OPSEC breach on social media — posting range card data, vehicle routes, system employment positions, or any imagery that tags the unit's engagement area. The S2 sweep happens; the section is the one who answers.
  • ×Letting monthly Pro/Con marks drift without understanding that composite score is built drill-by-drill, month-by-month, and the Marines who make Cpl fast are the ones who tracked it from PFC.
  • ×Lying on a PMCS logbook entry. When the maintenance team finds the fault you marked as 'inspected' and cleared, the conversation happens in front of the section chief, the platoon sergeant, and the company gunny simultaneously.
  • ×Missing the Corporals Course window because 'there will be another one.' The slot that passes rarely returns on the same timeline and the cutting score does not wait.

A Day in the Life

  • 0500Wake. PT uniform on. Phone check for any alert-force message from the platoon NCO chat. Nothing? Good. Head to the company area. You are not an NCO but you are early — the first junior Marine at the section vehicle is the first one the section chief sees.
  • 0530-0545PT formation. You account to your crew leader (Cpl), who accounts to the section leader (Sgt), who accounts to the platoon sergeant. Missing from PT = crew leader's problem, which becomes your problem retroactively. Be there.
  • 0545-0700Unit PT — runs, humps, weights, MCMAP mat days, or section-led physical training. The 0352 community carries heavy gear over long distances; the platoon sergeant builds the PT plan around that load. Hump days mean boots and pack, not PT shoes. Do not fall out.
  • 0700-0830Hygiene, chow, change into utilities. Pre-walk your crew's vehicle and launcher before morning formation — your crew leader should not find what you missed.
  • 0830Morning formation. Platoon sergeant gives the day's brief; section leader gives the section's task; crew leader gives the crew's portion of the task. You confirm your assignment and execute.
  • 0900-1130Work day — PMCS on the launcher and vehicle per the morning's task, ITAS battery management, cable inspection and documentation, range support as crew member, working party as the low man on the manifest, or section-level training event. You are on your crew's timeline, not your own.
  • 1130-1300Chow. Junior Marines eat with junior Marines. The chow hall is not where you socialize with the section chief — it is where you eat, and if a senior Marine wants to talk, you listen and eat fast.
  • 1300-1500Afternoon task — continuation of the morning's maintenance event, ITAS sim time if scheduled, weapons cleaning, additional duty (armory, motor pool, police call, watch), or section admin. Your crew leader tells you what is on the afternoon manifest. Be on it.
  • 1500-1600Final formation. Section leader gives the next day's plan. Sensitive items — M220 serialized components, ITAS, crew radios, NVDs — back into the armory. You account to the crew leader; crew leader accounts to the section leader.
  • 1600Liberty call (if not in the field, not on duty, not standing watch). Do not do anything that generates a phone call to the section chief at 0200.
  • 1700-2000Personal time. If you are in the barracks, the gym and PME study are what separate the LCpls who make Cpl in 18 months from the ones who make it in 36. TM 09151A-10/1 fault codes, composite score tracking, MCMAP progression, college courses through Tuition Assistance — this time is yours to use or waste.
  • 2000-2200Rack. Lights out at a reasonable hour. The next morning starts at 0500. The section chief notices the Marines who are in the gym at 2000 and back in the rack by 2200 and the ones who are at the Enlisted Club until 0100 and dragging at PT formation.
  • Field exercise / ITX at MCAGCC Twentynine PalmsThe rhythm inverts. PMCS runs before stand-to and after stand-down. You are in your hide position before first light. The crew runs engagements on the range card during the OC/T's evaluation window. You sleep in shifts. The section chief and the OC/T are both reading crew performance, and the LCpl who runs smooth ITAS tracks and clean immediate action on a simulated misfire is the LCpl who gets called out by name in the battalion's post-ITX AAR.

Weekly Cadence

The week in garrison for a junior 0352 runs on the platoon training schedule and whatever additional tasking the company gunny dropped on the section before Friday's release. Monday is the heaviest PMCS day — the launchers and vehicles sit over the weekend and the Monday morning before-ops is the baseline the section chief uses to determine the week's maintenance posture. A crew that starts Monday with a clean before-ops log is a crew that can train; a crew that starts Monday with deferred faults from last week is a crew that is in the motor pool instead of on the range. Midweek is where the actual training lives. Section-level collective task rehearsals — crew drills, ITAS tracking practice, engagement sequence rehearsal on the terrain model, displacement coordination between crews — are the core of the section's training week when there is no scheduled field event. The weapons company trains hard because the AT section is a finite combat resource and the platoon sergeant knows it. When the range is scheduled, the section goes to the range. When the range is cancelled (it will be), the section runs its crew drills in the company parking lot instead of losing the training day. Friday is admin and equipment day. Pro/Con mark cycle runs monthly; the crew leader's input to the section leader runs through Friday admin. Equipment inventories for upcoming field events. Gear checks for the next maintenance inspection window. The junior Marine who has a clean Friday equipment inventory and a current PMCS log is the junior Marine the crew leader stops watching and starts trusting — and that trust compounds. When a three-day field exercise drops into the calendar, the crew leader tells the section leader who he is taking, and the junior Marine on the trusted crew list is the one who stays on the manifest when it gets cut.

Key Skills — How to Drill Each

  1. 01
    Conduct before-ops, during-ops, and after-ops PMCS on the M220 TOW launcher to TM 09151A-10/1 standards — every fault entered in the logbook, no deferred maintenance left undocumented.
    Get a physical copy of TM 09151A-10/1 and carry it. The before-ops walkthrough is not a memory exercise — it is a checklist executed against the manual's fault criteria. Every fault you enter goes in with the fault code, date, and your initials. Every fault you clear goes in the same way. The section chief who spot-checks your logbook on Monday morning is not looking for perfection; he is looking for honesty. The LCpl who writes 'serviceable' on a launcher with a visible cable abrasion because he does not want to be the one who broke it is the LCpl whose fault becomes the section's NMC status on gunnery day.
  2. 02
    Operate the ITAS thermal sight in the tracking mode under day and night conditions — acquire a target, hold track through a simulated flight time, recognize a tracker-lock failure before the flight motor ignites.
    Tracker smoothness comes from repetition before live fire, not during it. Ask the section chief for ITAS simulator time outside of scheduled training. Grip the control handles with the same grip you would use on a water bottle — firm enough to move, loose enough to keep out of the reticle. The tracking errors at 2,500 meters that look small on the sight picture are catastrophic at the target. If you are hunting the reticle to find the target during a simulated engagement, you are not ready for live fire. The standard is that the track is already on the aim point when the gunner calls 'fire' — not found after.
  3. 03
    Load, unload, and safe-handle a TOW 2/2A/2B missile under all environmental conditions — fin inspection on receipt, lot number verification, no damage signatures accepted without a formal report.
    The fin inspection happens at the CLAMO (Class V issue point), not in the vehicle on the way to the range. Four fins, each checked individually for bends, cracks, or missing tips. A bent fin changes the missile's flight profile and turns a quarter-million-dollar round into a target indicator. If you find damage, you tag it, you report it to the section chief, and you document it before the day's PMCS log is closed. Do not accept a damaged round under any pressure to make the timeline. The timeline is fixable. A flight-motor incident in the launcher is not.
  4. 04
    Execute immediate action for a TOW misfire or hang-fire using the current TM 09151A-10/1 procedures — the sequence is memorized, not improvised.
    Misfire immediate action and hang-fire procedures are in TM 09151A-10/1 and your section chief can test you on them right now, without notice, with a training launcher and a training round. Know them cold. The wrong decision on a hung round in the launcher is a casualty and an investigation. The right decision is the memorized sequence, executed in order, no improvisation. Run through it verbally every time you touch the launcher in a maintenance context — not because the section chief requires it, but because the repetition is what keeps your hands on the right step at 0200 in a fighting position when the adrenaline is running.
  5. 05
    Set up a ground-mount or vehicle-mount hide position — mask the launcher, manage heat bloom, camouflage the system without silhouetting it against the horizon or creating a radar return.
    The engagement area only works if the enemy does not see you before you see him. Hide position discipline means: launcher masked behind the terrain feature, HMMWV exhaust pointed away from the threat axis, camo net draped over the thermal signature sources not just the vehicle outline, crew's positions in shadow not silhouetted. Practice this in garrison on every field exercise — position selection is a perishable skill and the good junior Marine can evaluate a hide's thermal signature by walking 200 meters downrange and looking back. The OC/T at MAGTFTC does exactly that.
  6. 06
    Navigate and operate from the HMMWV as part of a moving anti-armor section — vehicle distance discipline, blackout drive, displacement intervals, radio communication between crew vehicles.
    Your crew's vehicle is a platform first and a weapon system second. Blackout drive discipline means vehicle distances maintained in thermal conditions using the HMMWV's passive systems, not intuition. Displacement intervals mean the section moves as a unit, not as whoever accelerated first. Radio comms between vehicles are the section leader's coherence tool — when the junior Marine in the A-seat knows how to relay a contact report to the section leader in the second vehicle, the section can move without falling apart. Practice these in every HMMWV convoy regardless of the stated training objective.

Manuals & References — What Chapters Matter

  • TM 09151A-10/1 — Operator Manual for the TOW Weapon System (M220 series launcher)
    This is your primary technical reference at this rank — not a document you look at once. The before-ops, during-ops, and after-ops maintenance procedures are in here chapter by chapter. The fault codes and their disposition criteria are in here. The immediate action procedures for misfire and hang-fire are in here. The section chief will test you against this document; the gunnery evaluator at the annual table qualification will test you against this document. Keep a copy and mark the pages you use most often.
  • TM 09151A-23P — Parts Manual for the TOW Weapon System
    You will use this when you are trying to identify the part you are looking at in the launcher or the ITAS housing and the fault code is not matching the visual inspection. The section chief uses this to verify your fault entries and to call parts by the correct NSN when he is on the phone with S-4. Learn to read a parts diagram — the cross-reference from the fault code in TM 09151A-10/1 to the part in TM 09151A-23P is a skill that separates crew members who can be trusted alone with the maintenance log from those who cannot.
  • NAVMC 3500.44 — Infantry Training and Readiness Manual
    Every individual task you are evaluated against in the 03XX occupational field is sourced to this document. At the junior enlisted tier, the 1000-level individual tasks for the anti-armor crewman are your evaluation criteria. The section chief signs off on your T&R cards based on observed task performance; his criteria come from NAVMC 3500.44. Know which tasks you have been evaluated on and which ones you have not yet completed — do not wait for your section chief to track it; track it yourself.
  • MCRP 3-10A.4 — Marine Rifle Platoon
    The anti-armor section operates inside a rifle platoon's scheme of maneuver on most missions. Understanding how the platoon commander thinks about offense and defense — where he positions his support elements, how he manages his fires coordination line, how he displaces — makes you a better crew member in a hide position and a better candidate for crew leader when you get promoted. Read the chapters on offensive and defensive tactics. The section chief who briefs the platoon commander's scheme to his crews expects his junior Marines to understand it, not just follow.
  • MCO 3500.72 — Ground Training and Readiness
    The annual gunnery qualification standard the section runs against is published under this order. The crew that qualifies is the crew that deploys in the priority vehicle; the crew that does not qualify is the section chief's maintenance and training problem for the next cycle. Know what the annual standard requires before gunnery day — not on the range, not at the brief, but 60 days out when the section starts the build-up training.

Standards — How to Hit Each

  • TOW crew qualification at the annual gunnery standard per MCO 3500.72 — a crew that cannot qualify does not deploy in the priority vehicle.
    The build-up training to the annual gunnery table qualification is 60-90 days of progressive crew drills — dry, blank, ITAS sim, then live. You are not the gunner at this rank in most cases; you are the A-gunner watching the gunner's track and ready to call a malfunction. But the crew that passes or fails is one crew, and the section chief does not separate your contribution from the crew's result when he writes the after-action. Know your crew position cold, know the immediate action procedures cold, and know the engagement sequence so well that you can call the next step before the crew leader does.
  • 1st-Class PFT and 1st-Class CFT under MCO 6100.13 — the section chief knows your score without looking it up.
    The weapons company section runs hard because the gear is heavy and the hides are in terrain. If you cannot carry the M220 launcher components plus your personal kit on a 10-mile hump, you are a liability before the section even sets up. Build the aerobic base and the leg strength simultaneously — interval runs plus loaded ruck, not one or the other. Your PFT and CFT scores feed the monthly Pro/Con marks that build your composite score. Below 1st-Class is a visible drag on everything that follows.
  • Annual Rifle Qualification at Expert on the M4/M27 — you are still a rifleman, and the section chief knows your slug score.
    The best AT Marines are also the best riflemen because the underlying skill — trigger control, natural point of aim, wind reading at range — translates between platforms. Qual day at the range is not the day to shoot Expert; the 200 dry-fire reps you did in the barracks over the previous month are the day to shoot Expert. Find the section's designated marksmanship program (if it exists) and show up voluntarily. If it does not exist, ask for range time. Expert on the qual card is three clicks up on the Pro/Con mark.
  • PMCS logbook current and signed before every field op — a missing entry is a 90-day deadline slip for the section on the next maintenance inspection.
    The logbook is a legal document for the purposes of the section's maintenance readiness report. A fault that is not documented is a fault that never existed — and a fault that never existed cannot be fixed through the parts pipeline. The company gunny and the battalion S-4 reconcile the maintenance status report against the logbook. When your launcher's fault is not in the book but the fault is visible on the system, the section chief answers the company gunny's question with your name. Keep the book current; sign every entry legibly.
  • Tan Belt MCMAP minimum on arrival; Green Belt before Cpl board — the section chief knows who has not started.
    MCMAP belt progression runs through the unit's designated instructor program. Tan Belt is the baseline; Green Belt is the visible signal that you are building a combat-ready physical profile before the Cpl board. The MCMAP instructor at the company level is almost always a senior NCO who runs mat sessions voluntarily — show up to every session, and ask about the next belt tape opportunity. The LCpl who has Green Belt three months before the cutting score opens is the LCpl the section chief mentions to the platoon sergeant at the composite review.

Technical Mistakes — Concrete Consequences

  • Skipping the missile fin inspection on receipt — taking the round at face value from the CLAMO without physically checking each fin.
    A bent or cracked fin changes the missile's flight dynamics in ways the crew cannot correct during the flight. The round leaves the launcher and the track holds but the round impacts short, wide, or behind the target — and now the section has a quarter-million-dollar miss, a blown engagement, and a fault-cause investigation that traces back to the crew member who signed the receipt without inspecting the fins. The section chief will not be able to protect you from that investigation.
  • Skipping the ITAS desiccant check because the sight worked fine at the last range event.
    The ITAS sight's optical path is moisture-sensitive, and the desiccant check is the maintenance step that prevents fogging under temperature transitions — cold night to warm morning, air-conditioned motor pool to hot outdoor staging. The sight that worked last week fails on the zero-illumination night range at Twentynine Palms in December because the desiccant went unchecked for three weeks, the thermal clarity degrades below tracking threshold, and the crew fails the gunnery table. That failure stays in the maintenance history and rides the section chief's readiness report for the next deployment cycle.
  • Running the TOW cable run without checking for kinks, cuts, or connector corrosion — marking 'cable serviceable' on the before-ops without physically running your hands down the full cable length.
    A wire-guided TOW missile depends on an intact electrical path from the launcher to the guidance section through the wire deployed during flight. A kink or corrosion point that breaks the wire signal mid-flight means the round loses guidance and impacts unpredictably. The crew member who signed the before-ops cable inspection is the crew member whose logbook entry is the exhibit in the investigation. Physical inspection of the full cable run takes four minutes; the investigation takes six months.
  • Setting up the hide with the HMMWV exhaust signature pointing toward the threat axis — not masking the thermal bloom before positioning.
    The TOW crew's effectiveness depends on surprise — engaging before being engaged. A HMMWV exhaust signature at a detected position warns the target, potentially provokes counter-fire or displacement, and collapses the engagement area that the section leader briefed. The OC/T at MAGTFTC walks the OPFOR lane during ITX and will count your unmasked thermal signature as a detected position before your first round is away. The section leader's MCCRE rating and his FitRep narrative ride that evaluation.
  • Posting engagement area data, range card positions, vehicle routes, or system specifics on social media from a field operation.
    The battalion S2 runs social media sweeps before and after field operations — this is not hypothetical, it happens at every major training event. A photo that shows the section's terrain features, the launcher in a hide position with identifiable terrain, or the route the section drove to the range compromises future operational planning and triggers an OPSEC investigation at the battalion level. The investigation names the Marine who posted, the section chief who did not enforce the OPSEC brief, and the platoon commander who signed the pre-operation checklist. You lose your phone and the section chief loses his patience simultaneously.

Career Decisions at This Rank

  • Make Cpl through cutting score versus waiting for the meritorious promotion slate
    The cutting score for 0352 Cpl is published in the current MARADMIN on the MMPB site — pull it before you ask your section chief where you stand. Composite score builds from monthly Pro/Con marks (proficiency and conduct), rifle qual, PFT/CFT scores, MCMAP belt progress, and education credits (Tuition Assistance, CCAF courses). The meritorious promotion slate is real but finite, and the sections that generate meritorious slates are the sections with 1st-Class PFT averages, clean gunnery tables, and PMCS logbooks the company gunny does not have to chase. The honest math: cutting-score promotion is predictable if you track the inputs; meritorious promotion is a bonus that supplements the composite score path, not a replacement for it. Build the composite, track the cutting score monthly, and let the meritorious slate be a pleasant surprise rather than a plan.
  • Reenlist at the first window versus evaluating EAS options as an LCpl or Cpl
    The first reenlistment decision usually hits between the 36-month and 48-month mark, often with a Selective Reenlistment Bonus (SRB) offer — check the current MARADMIN for 0352 SRB tier and bonus amounts, which change year over year. The honest case for reenlisting: the Cpl-to-Sgt path with section leader billets and MEU deployments is a coherent career arc that pays better with each tier, and the SRB at first reenlistment is real money. The honest case for EAS: a Marine with a clean service record, 0352 technical skills, and a security clearance has reasonable options in defense contracting, federal law enforcement, and private security. The decision mostly turns on whether you want the section leader seat or you want the post-service market now. Do not make it under financial pressure — see the Command Financial Specialist before the bonus offer is on the table.
  • Pursue Tuition Assistance and college credits now versus deferring education until later
    Tuition Assistance under the current program (verify eligibility and semester-hour limits with your installation's education center — rates and limits change) covers college course tuition at approved institutions while you are on active duty, at no cost to you beyond your time. A Marine who accumulates 60 credits toward an associate or bachelor's degree during the first enlistment arrives at Cpl or Sgt with a materially stronger composite score (education credits feed the composite) and a post-service option that most enlisted members do not have until year eight or later. The downside is time — evening courses after a long maintenance week require actual discipline. The Marines who start at month three and take one course per semester graduate in four years without noticing. The Marines who wait for a 'less busy' period are still waiting at EAS.

How the Seat Varies by Unit Type

  • Weapons company anti-armor platoon — infantry regiment (1st MarDiv / 2d MarDiv / 3d MarDiv)
    The default 0352 junior billet. You are in the anti-armor platoon of a weapons company, supporting the regiment's rifle battalions. The rhythm is MEU PTP workup — MEU deployment afloat — reset, with ITX rotations to MCAGCC Twentynine Palms and training at the local range complex. The company gunny runs a tight maintenance standard because the AT platoon's readiness report feeds the battalion readiness brief. Your section chief is a Sgt or SSgt who has been through the gunnery cycle at least twice; your platoon sergeant is a GySgt or SSgt who knows the MCCRE evaluators by name. The institutional pressure is toward gunnery excellence because the AT section's mission justifies its existence only on the gunnery table and in the field problem.
  • LAR (Light Armored Reconnaissance) battalion — LAV-AT platoon
    A different tempo and vehicle platform. The LAV-AT mounts the TOW system on a Light Armored Vehicle with a three-Marine crew and a different maintenance TM footprint than the HMMWV-mounted system. The LAR battalion's operational tempo is faster, the vehicle qualification requirements add a training load, and the integration with the LAV-25 crews changes how the AT mission is briefed and executed. Junior Marines at LAR gain both the 0352 AT skill set and the LAV-AT crew skill set simultaneously — that dual qualification makes the LCpl more technically demanding to train but more versatile at employment. The vehicle maintenance load is significantly heavier.
  • MAGTF exercise / joint training rotation
    At ITX at MCAGCC Twentynine Palms or CACTEX rotations, the junior 0352 gets the closest peacetime experience to actual employment. The MAGTFTC OC/T evaluators grade the crew, the section, and the platoon against collective task standards from NAVMC 3500.44. For a junior Marine, this is the first time the real stakes of crew performance translate into a read that goes above the section level. The OC/T's debrief names crew members by position. The section chief's AAR names crew members by name. The platoon commander reads both. A clean crew performance during ITX is the fastest credibility-builder available to a junior 0352 outside of combat.

What Good Looks Like at This Rank

The good boot 0352 does not attract attention the wrong way and does attract attention the right way. The right way is that the section chief stops at his launcher during the Monday morning spot-check and finds the logbook current, the cable run inspected and signed, the ITAS battery condition recorded, and the fault from last Thursday's range event already documented and submitted to the parts pipeline. The section chief does not say anything about it. He moves to the next crew. What he does do is tell the platoon sergeant that the LCpl on crew two runs a clean before-ops, and the platoon sergeant puts that in the next Pro/Con recommendation. By month six the good junior 0352 can recite the misfire and hang-fire immediate action sequences in the correct order without looking at the TM. By month nine he can diagnose three of the five most common ITAS fault codes before the section chief has to walk him through the troubleshooting tree. By month twelve the crew leader is letting him run the ITAS tracker on the simulated engagement sequence and calling corrections instead of taking the controls back. That progression does not happen by showing up and doing the minimum. It happens because the LCpl read TM 09151A-10/1 on his own time, asked the section chief questions about fault codes he did not understand, and treated the simulator as a training device not a video game. The section is small enough that the section chief and the crew leaders know every junior Marine by their actual performance, not their uniform. The good junior missileman is the Marine the crew leader trusts to run the pre-op checks while he is in the COC briefing the section leader. That trust is not given. It is built by being right every single time — until the crew leader does not feel the need to verify.

Preview — The Next Rank

Corporal (E-4) in the 0352 community is the crew leader rank — and the crew leader is the section's unit of accountability. When the section leader briefs the platoon commander on the section's readiness, he is counting up from crew leaders. When the section fails a gunnery table, the fault trace stops at the crew leader who signed the pre-op. When a crew executes a clean engagement at ITX and the OC/T names a position, the crew leader's name is the next word. The transition from junior missileman to crew leader is a responsibility transfer, not a pay increase. You will own the maintenance logbook for a $300,000 weapon system and the ITAS sight assembly, the crew's radios, and potentially a HMMWV on a hand receipt. You will write proficiency and conduct marks on two to three junior Marines whose composite score and eventual Cpl promotion timeline run through your monthly Pro/Con input. The platoon sergeant reads those marks and knows within the first quarter whether the new crew leader is tracking or not. The Corporals Course gate opens at Cpl — the slot is required for progression and it is gated, meaning the course seat that passes without your name on it does not return on the same timeline. The section chief and the company gunny know who has attended and who has not, and the Cpl who is waiting for a 'better quarter' to slot Corporals Course is the Cpl who is still explaining himself to the platoon sergeant a year later. Get the slot, go to the course, come back with the graduate certificate in the service record.
FAQ

0352 E1-E3 — Frequently Asked Questions

Q01What does a E1-E3 0352 (Anti-Tank Missileman) actually do?
You arrive at a weapons company or anti-armor platoon after the Anti-Tank Missileman course at Infantry Training Battalion, and the first thing the section chief does is put you on a vehicle or a ground mount and start testing what you actually retained from school.
Q02What's the most important thing to know as a E1-E3 0352?
The TOW is not a rifle.
Q03What does a typical day look like for a E1-E3 0352?
Time-blocked day at the E1-E3 0352 rank tier: 0500 Wake. PT uniform on. Phone check for any alert-force message from the platoon NCO chat. Nothing? Good. Head to the company area. You are not an NCO but you are early — the first junior Marine at the section vehicle is the first one the section chief sees, 0530-0545 PT formation. You account to your crew leader (Cpl), who accounts to the section leader (Sgt), who accounts to the platoon sergeant. Missing from PT = crew leader's problem, which becomes your problem retroactively. Be there, 0545-0700 Unit PT — runs, humps, weights,…
Q04What mistakes get E1-E3 0352 soldiers fired or relieved?
DUI, NJP, or liberty incident in the barracks. At PFC or LCpl this is a permanent record scar before you have any service credit to offset it — the FitRep system and the Cpl board will read it for the rest of your enlistment; OPSEC breach on social media — posting range card data, vehicle routes, system employment positions, or any imagery that tags the unit's engagement area. The S2 sweep happens; the section is the one who answers;…
Q05What career decisions matter most at the E1-E3 0352 rank tier?
Make Cpl through cutting score versus waiting for the meritorious promotion slate — The cutting score for 0352 Cpl is published in the current MARADMIN on the MMPB site — pull it before you ask your section chief where you stand. Composite score builds from monthly Pro/Con marks (proficiency and conduct), rifle qual, PFT/CFT scores, MCMAP belt progress, and education credits (Tuition Assistance, CCAF courses). The meritorious promotion slate is real but finite, and the sections that generate meritorious slates are the sections with 1st-Class PFT averages, clean gunnery tables,…
Q06What's next after E1-E3 for a 0352 (Anti-Tank Missileman) in the Marines?
Corporal (E-4) in the 0352 community is the crew leader rank — and the crew leader is the section's unit of accountability.
Q07What manuals and regulations does a E1-E3 0352 need to know cold?
TM 09151A-10/1 — Operator Manual for the TOW Weapon System (M220 series launcher): your maintenance bible from before-ops through after-ops.; TM 09151A-23P — Parts Manual for the TOW Weapon System: fault diagnosis reference the section chief uses to call your bluff when you write "NMC — awaiting parts."; NAVMC 3500.44 — Infantry Training and Readiness Manual: the source document for every individual and collective task you are evaluated against in the 03XX occfield.

This playbook has no tips yet. Be the first to share what you know.

Published by the Honest MOS Editorial DeskVerified against DoD/.gov sourcesUpdated May 2026Editorial standards