I'm looking for some advice about marrying a marine.?

i think the advice to wait is not bad advice. it also sounds like your career plans will put a marriage not exactly first. why not plan a long engagement? my brother and his wife were engaged for two years and are still married 27 years later. good luck!

find someone else, though you can continue to love him

RUN! Marines are the kind of guys you don't mind having a beer with, but you don't introduce them to your sister type of guys. Outside of that I have nothing against them, why in the navy we refer to them as "The Navy’s little HELPERS”

I am afraid you will not likely appreciate my answer to you. The following is based on my own observations and reading, not research, so take with a dose of skepticism.

First, in today's world, marrying young very seriously raises your risk of having a broken family later. In truth, most men do not reach emotional maturity until about the age of 25. Some women mature sooner but then undergo a period of crisis around 30-35. This is true without the complication of a military career thrown into the mix.

Second, your Marine will tell you that there is a saying in The Corps: "If the Corps wanted you to have a wife, they would have issued one." Its something of a truism. Life in The Corps is difficult and many serious choices are not the Marine's to make. As a Marine matures and advances, he is given more control over his life and his assignments, but his life still "belongs to The Corps." Prior to advancement to the grade of E-3, marriage is strongly discouraged by the Corps and family life is almost impossible. The deck is heavily stacked against you both and many young wives deeply resent their lack of control or even influence and ultimately blame their husband for their unhappiness, even though he has no control either.

Next, Marines go to war. I won't talk about death or bodily wounds -- those are easy to deal with as you obviously have little or no choice in the matter. What is hard are deployments -- and even harder -- the Marine's return from deployment. While he is deployed, you function as an independent woman and answer only to yourself, and to some extent to your employer (you will have to work because a family cannot survive on a young Marine's income alone). You will learn to be self reliant. Things around the house will be done your way. You are the Queen of the house.

When your Marine returns from deployment he will have changed. He will have had experiences that were not, and some that cannot be, shared. The environment within which he lived and survived was very different from yours. His habits, schedule, and way of life will have been very different. Suddenly, he comes home and his entire life is different, his wife seems distant, independent, with a life all her own. He will have dreamed of his homecoming and will have created a fantasy of what life at home will be like -- and really cannot possibly live up to his fantasy. You too will have created a fantasy about his homecoming and you too will be greatly disappointed.

Older more mature couples, some, find ways to cope with all of this. They will have had time to know themselves better, to have matured, and learned how to live with themselves -- and for them the situation will be very difficult, but not impossible to overcome. For two young people in their teens or early twenties who are "in love," the burden will be as close to impossible as you can imagine.

I cannot tell you none make it. A few do, but not many. If the two of you truly love one another, do each other a great favor and wait a few years. He may decide to leave the Corps or will have enough experience that he can begin to learn how to balance the needs of the Corps with the needs of his family. Right now, its just not likely to happen.

Run. Fast. In the opposite direction. Most men are bad enough, but Marines are trained to have no emotion and to kill on command. It's no accident that Lee Harvey Oswald and Charles Whitman (the first lone gunman mass murderer) were trained in the Marines.

Marines are married to the USMC, although they allow you to marry it is difficult to maintain a relationship when you are deployed so much, if you love him stay committed to each other and best of luck to you.