Officer Candidates School (United States Marine Corps)

Officer Candidates School
The OCS insignia
Active	1891 - present
Country	United States
Branch	United States Marine Corps
Type	Training
Role	Screen and evaluate officer candidates
Part of	Training and Education Command
Garrison/HQ	Marine Corps Base Quantico
Motto(s)	"Ductus Exemplo" "Leadership by Example"
Commanders
Current commander	Colonel Richard V. Mancini

The United States Marine Corps Officer Candidates School (OCS) is the entry-level training for Marine officers, equivalent to recruit training for enlisted Marines. Located at Marine Corps Base Quantico, the school trains, screens, and evaluates potential Marine Corps officers. Unlike the other United States military services, the majority of Marine Corps officers must complete OCS to earn a commission; the only exception are midshipmen from the United States Naval Academy.

Depending on the source, Officer Candidates go through either a 6-week, 10-week, or two 6-week courses over separate summers, designed primarily to screen and evaluate candidates' fitness to lead Marines by placing them in leadership positions in a stressful environment. Students are evaluated during 2-3 day garrison command billets at the company and platoon level, and squad and fire-team level tactical billets during field exercises.

History

Prior to World War I, Marine officers came primarily from the Naval Academy, or were commissioned from the enlisted ranks. But as the Marine Corps expanded, it needed its own training pipeline for officers. OCS traces its roots to the "School of Application", established in 1891 in Washington, D.C. With the expansion of the Marine Corps for World War I, all instructional efforts were consolidated in MCB Quantico, where they remain today.

Selection and entry

Entry to the Officer Candidates School comes from several different commissioning programs:

• Officer Candidates Class (OCC) for college seniors and graduates
• Platoon Leaders Class (PLC) for college students with more than one year left in school
• Naval Reserve Officer Training Corps (NROTC)
• Enlisted Commissioning Program (ECP) for enlisted Marines with a college degree
• Meritorious Commissioning Program (MCP) for enlisted Marines within 18 months of graduation
• Marine Enlisted Commissioning Education Program (MECEP)

Officer Candidates must pass a series of tests before being admitted into the Officer Candidate School. An Officer Selection Officer, usually a Captain, meets with a prospective Officer Candidate. Upon completing a satisfactory interview, the OSO then makes the decision to move the prospective candidate onto the next step. The prospective candidate then must complete a short essay about why they want to be a Marine Officer, provide identification (usually a birth certificate and Social Security card), pass a background check, provide five letters of recommendation from educators, former employers, or other distinguished leaders, and complete a physical medical exam.

After successful completion of these steps, the OSO may then conduct the Officer Candidate through a Physical Fitness Test. Upon reaching a score on the test that the OSO deems to be acceptable (usually in the range of 225 and above), the Officer Candidate then signs their contract (including their contract to attend the course, the fraternization policy acknowledgement and the Marine Corps drug policy acknowledgement). Candidates choose to enter the program as either a ground, air, or law contract.

After all of this information is compiled into their "package", it is sent to a review board, which will vote to decide if the Candidate should be accepted to the next installment of Officer Candidate School. These review boards generally convene only once a month. After receiving a majority vote of acceptance from the review board, the Officer Candidate is officially accepted into the Officer Candidate Program and scheduled for a class.

Training

Regardless of course, the instructors usually include seasoned officers (captain or above) to handle most academic instruction, while sergeant instructors, all of whom are Staff Noncommissioned Officers, will conduct the field and physical instruction. Officer Candidates on both courses receive a stipend while in training and have related expenses (including travel to and from Officer Candidate School, meals, and lodging) paid for them.

Platoon Leaders Class

The Platoon Leaders Class normally consists of two six-week training sessions taken between consecutive school years, which occur in the summers with no commitment during the school year. Young men and women at any accredited four-year college or university are eligible for this class, but must have one of the following to qualify: SAT score of 1000 or higher, ACT score of 22 or higher, or ASVAB score of 74 or higher.

Officer Candidates that attend the Platoon Leaders Class may opt for either the PLC Juniors/Seniors program or the PLC Combined program. In the Juniors/Seniors program, a freshman may attend the Junior PLC Junior course the summer between their freshman and sophomore years, then attend the PLC Senior course the summer before their senior year begins. Sophomores can attend the PLC Junior course the summer before their junior year in school and the PLC Senior course the following summer. PLC Combined is a ten-week program for those interested in completing officer screening during a single summer after completing their junior year in college.

Training includes academic and field topics. Academic subjects covered include Marine Corps history, leadership, close order drill, weapons handling, and general military subjects such as land navigation, the Uniform Code of Military Justice, interior guard, moral and ethical leadership, and basic combat. PLC candidates need to be physically fit as the physical training is demanding, for example, Officer Candidates in a PLC Senior course run and hike an average of 250 miles (400 km) or more during a six-week period.

Those that opt for the Juniors/Seniors program will find that the divided program is tailored to provide progressive training. The Junior course is an introduction into the Marine Corps, and allows the candidates to be evaluated and motivated for their possible commission. Rigorous physical training, small unit leadership, and basic infantry tactics are addressed, as well as significant academic instruction. PLC Seniors is an advanced course of indoctrination and contains similar physical training, small unit leadership, infantry tactics, and academics; but at a faster rate and with more instructor-induced stress. Those candidates that opt for the combined course cover the same areas of instruction, but it is integrated without the need to re-evaluate candidates due to a year-long gap.

Officer Candidates Course

The main alternative is the Officer Candidates Course, which is designed for college seniors or graduates and consists of one ten-week training session. While the curriculum is identical to the 10-week PLC Combined session, OCC is held three times a year (winter, summer, and fall), and accepts only college graduates.

Further Training

Officer candidates who complete OCS (and obtained their college degrees) are then commissioned as Second Lieutenants and sent to the The Basic School (TBS) at Quantico for six months of further training with other newly commissioned Marine officers from all other commissioning programs. At TBS, they receive the skills and knowledge necessary to lead Marines in combat; much like "every Marine is a rifleman", every officer is expected to be capable of leading an infantry platoon.

Criticism

The format of Marine OCS is often criticized by former and current Marines and Marine Officers, as well as the outside population. One strong, and often cited criticism is that the situations the candidates are put in are arbitrary, and the way in which they are evaluated are arbitrary. There have been many cases of Officer Candidates who have done extremely well on the remedial "Graded Events" (Leadership, Physical Fitness, Academics), as per the Candidate Regulations, yet be arbitrarily dropped. On the other hand, a number of Candidates graduate each cycle having failed numerous graded leadership, academic or physical events leading to a growing impression that the School functions subjectively and arbitrarily, with the goal not being to retain "The Best", but to maintain a cultural status quo.

The above goes hand in hand with the other often made criticism, that the Marine Corps as a whole, and OCS in particular, are to enlisted-centric: while the CO of OCS has ultimate say in the curriculum and fate of the Candidates, the reality is that it is with the enlisted staff that the Candidates' futures depend. The permanent enlisted staff are pulled almost exclusively from Marine Corps Recruit Depot Parris Island or San Diego, and they thus, bring that attitude to OCS. It is not at all uncommon, even in the final weeks of training at OCS for the Sergeant Instructors to still mistakenly refer to the Officer Candidates as "Recruits". The "Officer Culture" is all but non-existent, and the Officer Candidates are continually told they are their to "Serve the Enlisted Corps" above all else.

References

Template:USMCportallink  This article incorporates public domain material from websites or documents of the United States Marine Corps.

External links

• USMC Officer Candidates School website
• Comparison between Officer Candidate School and Basic (Enlisted) Recruit Training
• Marine OCS Forum
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