where do marine officers go to boot camp
Officer Candidates School (United States Marine Corps) Located at Marine Corps Base Quantico, the United States Marine Corps Officer Candidates School (OCS) is a physically demanding, mentally challenging training regimen designed to screen and evaluate potential Marine Corps Officers. The course is designed to create a controlled, challenging environment wherein the officer candidates are pushed to their physical and mental limits in order to screen their decision-making abilities while physically exhausted. Those who successfully complete the period of instruction earn the title United States Marine and are commissioned as a Second Lieutenant. Unlike the other United States military services, the majority of Marine Corps officers complete OCS to earn a commission; the exceptions are midshipmen from the United States Naval Academy , limited duty officers, and inter-service transfers. Additionally, OCS boasts an attrition rate of 30â€“50%.
United States Marine Corps Recruit Training The Crucible is the final test in recruit training, and represents the culmination of all of the skills and knowledge a Marine should possess. Designed in 1996[19] to emphasize the importance of teamwork in overcoming adversity, the Crucible is a rigorous 54-hour field training[20] exercise demanding the application of everything a recruit has learned until that point in recruit training and includes a total of 48 miles of marching.[21] It simulates typical combat situations with strenuous testing, hardship and the deprivation of food and sleep. Two recruits are given three MREs (a self-contained, individual field ration), each usually taking one, then splitting the third up how ever is agreeable between the two. The recruits are only allowed six hours of sleep through the entire 54-hour event.[21] Recruits are broken into squad-sized teams (possibly smaller) and placed under the charge of one drill instructor. West Coast recruits are returned to Edson Range for the Crucible. Parris Island recruits will conduct the Crucible in the derelict Page Airfield on the south end of the depot.