Uh, yes. Those of us who actually kept going in the career (28 years) are somewhat flinchy about that particular label ;-)
I was enlisted during the first four years and as disdainful as everybody else about "lifers"...until I got out and found that civilians were a lot harder to relate to. When the Corps offered me a commissioning program a bit later, I was enthusiastic about returning to uniform.
So, yes, I was a "lifer". Careerists are a separate subset of lifers: they are focused on getting themselves the choice assignments, the best promotion trajectory and they don't care what ethical/moral/integrity boundaries they need to bypass to get there. Today's careerist isn't just a "ticket puncher" - they abhor risk to the point that succeeding in our missions isn't even part of the program - it's just getting through that step of their careers without getting in trouble.
That's how we have ended up with combat troops loaded up like overweight turtles on the few times they venture out of their fortified cantonments or crammed into heavily armored vehicles with no real combat capability or no supporting arms readily available because of the overwhelming fear of "collateral damage".
The stunning rarity these days is a commander who actually engages the enemy and as our MoH candidate did, risks everything he had to save his men's lives.
You hit that exactly on the head. I too went from enlisted Marine to a commission. I turned down the Corps offers but accepted an AF program. There is a distinct lack of leadership at the trench level. I served around way too many who were “Jungle Fighters”, with a knife in each to plant in the backs on the way up the ladder. True leaders at the front are very rare and it would be little surprise if careerists were holding this back.
Chainmail,
We used to have 2 terms. Careerman described a man whose career was in the military. Lifer was a careerman who was an a-hole about it.
Amen, Marine.