Marine 0311 Rifleman vs 0341 Mortarman

0311 Rifleman and 0341 Mortarman both live inside the 03 infantry field, and both start with the same Boot Camp and School of Infantry pipeline. After Infantry Training Battalion, the two jobs split on a single axis: direct fire or indirect fire.

The rifleman closes with the enemy through fire and maneuver, engaging targets the team can see. The mortarman operates from covered positions, dropping rounds behind terrain, buildings, and obstacles that no rifle can reach.

Quick Comparison

Treat this as a fork in the infantry path, not a ranking. Both jobs are weapons platoon or rifle company assignments. Both deploy at standard infantry tempo, carry the same PFT and CFT requirements, and share the same field culture.

The differences that decide the choice sit in three places:

• The weapon at the center of the work: an individual rifle for fire and maneuver, or mortar tubes that engage targets by calculation.
• The ASVAB bar you clear: 0311 has no published standalone line-score cutoff, while 0341 requires CL 90 or GT 90.
• The schoolhouse that awards the MOS: ITB alone for 0311, or ITB plus the Infantry Mortarman Course for 0341.

Each gets its own section below.

The rifleman is the high-volume core of the infantry, so access is more predictable. The mortarman is a technical weapons specialist with a real test-score gate, and seats are limited within the weapons community. That single difference is worth knowing before you walk into the recruiting station, not after.

Both start with the same Boot Camp and Infantry Training Battalion pipeline. Both put you in the field, carrying weight, working in infantry units at the same duty stations. What differs is the weapon you answer for, the line score you need to qualify, and whether you want to fire directly at a target or calculate where to send a round over a ridgeline.

Get it right and you spend four years in the job that fits. Get it wrong and you are locked into a contract that does not.

To go deeper on either job, read the 0311 Rifleman profile or the 0341 Mortarman profile. Both sit inside the 03 Infantry field.

What Each Marine Actually Does

Both jobs share the infantry baseline: daily weapons maintenance, field exercises, patrols, and physical conditioning. What changes is the weapon and the skill set around it.

The Rifleman’s Role

The 0311 Rifleman is the primary ground combat specialist of the Marine Corps. The job is to locate and destroy enemy forces through fire and maneuver, defend positions, and operate inside a fire team or rifle squad.

A training day for a rifleman runs through individual movement techniques, marksmanship, patrol planning, land navigation, and physical conditioning. In a deployed or field environment, the work becomes combat patrols, ambushes, raids, observation post duty, and objective clearance.

The weapons a rifleman answers for signal the nature of the work:

• M27 Infantry Automatic Rifle, M16A4, and M4 carbine as primary weapons
• M203 grenade launcher, AT4 anti-armor rockets, and M67 fragmentation grenades
• Day and night optics including the ACOG and AN/PVS-14 night-vision monocular

The Mortarman’s Role

The 0341 Mortarman is responsible for the tactical employment of light and medium mortar systems in direct support of infantry operations. These Marines provide organic indirect fire capability to rifle companies and weapons platoons, delivering fires over terrain obstacles to suppress, neutralize, or destroy enemy forces at ranges beyond direct-fire weapons.

A typical day in a mortar section covers crew drills, emplacement and displacement exercises, firing data computation, and communication training for calling and adjusting fires with supported rifle units.

The systems a mortarman maintains and fires mark a complete shift from individual weapons:

• M224 60mm mortar at the platoon level
• M252 81mm mortar at the section and company level
• Ballistic computers and manual firing tables for data computation
• AN/PVS-14 night-vision and digital fire-control devices for forward observer work

The decision axis is concrete. A rifleman engages what the team can see, while a mortarman calculates where to put a round based on a grid, a forward observer call, and a firing table. Both are infantry, but the mental demand and the team structure around the weapon are different.

Qualification Gates

This is where the two contracts stop being interchangeable. Both use the ASVAB to set eligibility, and both require the standard active-duty AFQT minimum of 31 for high school diploma holders. The line-score requirement is what separates them.

The 0311 Rifleman has no published standalone line-score cutoff. Meeting the Marine enlistment baseline keeps you eligible. That is part of why riflemen are easier to contract.

The 0341 Mortarman requires a line score of CL 90 or GT 90. The CL and GT composites reflect the calculation, communication, and map-reading demands of indirect fire work. Mortarmen compute firing data accurately under field pressure, and the test filter selects for that aptitude.

Here is what those two composites are built from:

The CL and GT composites both weight verbal expression (VE), which reflects the communication requirements of fire direction work. A mortarman who cannot relay clear, accurate calls for fire creates errors on the gun line.

The 0341 also carries a WS-B water survival requirement that the 0311 contract does not include at the basic level.

Your ASVAB result is what opens or closes the mortarman door before your fitness ever comes into play. A rifleman contract forgives a softer score. A mortarman contract does not.

If 0341 is the target, build the academic preparation before the recruiter conversation. Start with the ASVAB guide and walk in with your line scores already in hand.

Training Path

Both pipelines start identically and diverge at one additional school. Every infantry Marine moves through Boot Camp and Infantry Training Battalion, where the rifleman MOS is awarded. The mortarman earns the MOS one school later.

Infantry Marines do not attend Marine Combat Training. They move directly from Boot Camp into Infantry Training Battalion, which is the MOS-producing school for every 03XX field.

For the 0311 Rifleman, ITB is the finish line. The course covers individual movement techniques, marksmanship, land navigation, patrolling, and direct-action work. The 0311 MOS is awarded at the end.

Mortarman Schoolhouse

The 0341 Mortarman continues after ITB. Future mortarmen attend the Infantry Mortarman Course, where mortar employment, firing data computation, forward observer basics, and crew drills are the focus. The MOS is awarded on completion of that course.

That extra schoolhouse is the structural reason 0341 is a technical specialist track inside the weapons community, while 0311 is the infantry baseline. Both fields open additional schools after the fleet. Riflemen can compete for the Scout Sniper Basic Course and other advanced qualifications, while mortarmen can attend the Advanced Mortarman Course and Infantry Small Unit Leaders Course for NCOs moving into section leader billets.

Physical Load and Work Setting

Both jobs are physically demanding, and both carry direct combat risk at the infantry level. The difference is what you carry and where the work happens on a typical day.

A rifleman carries between 60 and 100 pounds of gear on combat patrols. The daily work involves walking, running, low-crawling, and climbing in field conditions for extended periods. A mortarman carries mortar systems on top of personal combat gear.

The M252 81mm mortar weighs 89 pounds fully assembled. Section movement means distributing the tube, bipod, baseplate, and ammunition across the crew. Sustained fire missions require physical work under time pressure from a supported position.

Both jobs hold to the same PFT and CFT standards:

Source: marines.com. Verify current year standards against official Marine Corps publications.

Where each Marine works also differs. Riflemen operate in fire teams and rifle squads in field environments, training ranges, and deployed settings. Mortarmen work in weapons platoons within rifle battalions and in weapons companies at the battalion level, with mortar range time, section drills, and combined-arms exercises shaping the schedule more than garrison desk time.

Neither job requires a security clearance at the entry MOS level. Duty stations for both overlap at Camp Pendleton, Camp Lejeune, Kaneohe Bay, and Okinawa, with Twentynine Palms adding combined-arms training for weapons units.

Career Progression and Deployment

The rank timeline is nearly identical, which is worth knowing so you do not over-weight it. Both jobs advance through the same enlisted grades on roughly the same schedule. What differs is the billet each rank points toward.

• 0311 Rifleman: team member as a junior Marine, fire team leader around Corporal, rifle squad leader around Sergeant, then platoon sergeant and staff NCO billets at Staff Sergeant and above.
• 0341 Mortarman: gun crew member early, gun team leader around Corporal, section leader around Sergeant, then platoon sergeant or fire direction chief at Staff Sergeant and Gunnery Sergeant.

Deployment tempo is shared. Both jobs run at standard infantry tempo: approximately one seven-month deployment every 24 to 36 months, including MEU rotations that put Marines on ship for six to seven months. Mortar sections deploy as an integral part of the rifle battalion, so the two jobs ship together on the same cycle.

Junior Marines in both fields hold limited individual authority in early billets. The work is to execute your assigned role, prove yourself in the gun team or fire team, and earn the billet that puts you in charge of it. Authority comes with time in grade and performance.

Lateral moves open to both after the initial obligation, with command endorsement and an available school seat. Riflemen commonly move into reconnaissance or military police, while mortarmen who want to expand their fires expertise often look at field artillery billets. Both fields send Marines into law enforcement, security management, and emergency response after separation.

Which One Fits You

Both jobs demand high physical performance and a clean record. The 0341 line score is the one hard academic gate that separates them on paper. The rest of the choice comes down to what kind of infantry work you want to do every day.

0311 Rifleman

Choose it if you want the most direct ground combat role and you are motivated by tangible physical accomplishment outdoors. The rifleman is the easier contract to get and the broadest infantry foundation to build on.

• Best fit: physically competitive, comfortable in hard outdoor conditions, team-oriented, motivated by direct and visible results.
• Poor fit: you want a predictable schedule, prefer individual work, value personal comfort, or want a direct civilian job skill from day one.

0341 Mortarman

Choose it if you want weapons mastery in a technical crew system and you have the aptitude for calculation-based work inside a weapons platoon. Seats are limited and the test bar is real, so plan ahead.

• Best fit: you enjoy technical precision, can stay accurate when physically exhausted, want the distinct identity of the weapons community, and score well on verbal and math sections of the ASVAB.
• Poor fit: you dislike calculation-heavy work, prefer direct-action fire to fires coordination, or find crew maintenance and system drills tedious.

If both still appeal, let the ASVAB decide the order. Clear CL 90 or GT 90 and both doors stay open, giving you the most room to negotiate the contract you actually want.

More Information

Before you choose between 0311 and 0341, get the ASVAB handled, because the line score is what opens the mortarman door. Start with the ASVAB study guide for the composite breakdown and a prep plan, then talk with a Marine Corps recruiter about current 03 infantry contracts and Infantry Mortarman Course seat timing.

Explore more in the 03 Infantry field, review the full 0311 Rifleman and 0341 Mortarman profiles, or browse the rest of the Marine Corps guides for more decision-stage comparisons.