Talk:Officer Candidates School (United States Marine Corps)
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Is this the same page as seen here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Officer_Candidates_Class Maybe the page listed above should be re-directed to this page? Also, the proper name for the US Marine Corps officer training is "Officer Candidate COURSE," not "Officer Candidate SCHOOL."— Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.20.127.214 (talk • contribs) 09:03, 14 January 2007 (UTC)
- See the official website [1]. It is entitled "Officer Candidates School." — ERcheck (talk) 19:26, 28 January 2007 (UTC)
Officer Candidate School is the term applied to the entire officer training program at Quantico. Officer Candidate Course is the term applied to the program that candidates, who have received a four year degree and are no longer in college, apply to. Platoon Leaders Course is for candidates still in college. Both OCC and PLC are part of OCS.
"Escape" section - needs references or deletion
On 29 September 2007, an IP editor added a section entitled "ESCAPE" on candidates "escaping" from training. It is unreferenced. Without references, it doesn't belongs. If there are no referenced added in one week (or sooner if it is found to be false), I will delete the section. — ERcheck (talk) 21:35, 29 September 2007 (UTC)
- Escape is an amusing term, since you can DOR and go home in as soon as 24 hours. Candidates do snap under the pressure and do bizarre things, and I've heard all the stories entered by the IP. But as the last CO put it - no need to be so dramatic - walk out the gate and call a cab. Everyone'll know what you're doing and nobody will stop you. --Mmx1 21:46, 29 September 2007 (UTC)
In order to DOR, a Candidate must go through an identical process to a Candidate being droppeld; meet with platoon staff, then company staff, then the Colonel. In general they must also follow a similar time-line.
- Thanks Mmx1. I didn't want to be too heavy handed, but I agree with the deletion. — ERcheck (talk) 21:47, 29 September 2007 (UTC)
This entire page basically regurgitates Marine Corps propaganda/recruitment literature, and reads like an advertisement. If that is the point of the Marine Corps portal, this should be stated. Some of us actually went through Marine OCS, did the Marine thing, then returned to the world and have perspective/criticism. If the format is wrong, please correct it. But the tone lack of perspective with which this article is written would not be acceptable anywhere else on Wikipedia. The OCS program is highly flawed, there have been a number of published, and well respected critiques out there. "One Bullet Away" by Cpt Fick being probably the most notable example. The "training" and grading at OCS were totally arbitrary, and in almost no way reflect or screen for the attributes and skills needed by officers in the fleet. The Marine Corps continues to do itself a disservice by screening candidates in this manner. That of course is opinion based off of experience. Please feel free to make your own, but the facts are the physical,"leadership" and "academics" the candidates are put through are "Barney style" easy: everyone is brainwashed to think a three mile 18 min run is something impressive (for example). I witnessed some of the best candidates get dropped for no reason (near the top of their class in graded events) or minor injuries, while candidates who failed multiple events from all three categories skate through: the screening was arbitrary. What is the appropriate way to referenced this for an article? This is pretty common knowledge for anyone who has been through the program.