Starting from scratch;MIni-Officer Candidates School helps mold young officer candidates

10 Jun 2003 | Marine Corps Recruiting Command

Fifty officer candidates from the Bay Area recently got a glimpse of what Officer Candidate School will be like when they participated in Recruiting Station San Francisco's 2nd Mini-Officer Candidates School (MOCS), April 5th and 6th, at Camp Parks Reserve Forces Training Area in Dublin, Calif.

Mini OCS is designed to motivate, train and prepare the candidates for OCS.  It also helps to reduce candidate attrition and help to reduce the candidate's learning curve, according to RS San Francisco's Officer Selection Officers, Capt. Joshua B. Tuttle, OSO South Bay and Capt. Lynn M. Wisehart, OSO North Bay.

"What has been happening with new candidates is that they show up at OCS unprepared mentally.  Physically, they are prepared but not mentally and so they end up quitting primarily due to OCS not being what they expected and that is why we are out here," said Tuttle.

"The sergeant instructors are here to give them that first initial shock they would get the first few days of processing at OCS. That's where a lot of the candidates will start to doubt and start to falter their decision to be there and think in the back of their mind they want to quit. So this gives them that extra boost of confidence," added GySgt. Albert E. Christianson, OSO assistant, RS San Francisco, South Bay.  

The trip began Saturday morning with the candidates traveling by bus at dawn only to meet the friendly faces of 1stSgt. Peter A. Hall, Echo Company first sergeant, officer candidate school and 1stSgt. Lisa K. Nilsson, Charlie Company first sergeant, officer candidate school.

Minutes after being introduced, the candidates had quickly learned how to stand at attention, how to address the sergeant instructors and how to "sound-off." Day one was very fast paced, so candidates were constantly sounding off.

After completing the day's first event, the obstacle course, the candidates received classes on ethics, fire team tactics and weapons. They were then introduced to each RS Marine working behind the scenes, who was given time to talk about their Marine Corps career and military occupational specialty.

The da's highlight was a Robinson R-22 two-seat helicopter piloted by Capt. Eric B. Turner, the 12th Marine Corps District aviation assistant officer, who arrived to kick off the day's classes. Turner gave a quick introduction about Marine Corps aviation, followed by a safety brief.  Then one-by-one he gave individual rides to each candidate in the R-22, which measures just under 29-feet long by nine-feet tall.  Turner fondly referred to the R-22 as a "remote control toy."

Later that evening, the sergeant instructors explained how to field day the barracks and how to make a rack.  The necessity of attention to detail and how to work as part of a team were just some of the things Hall and Nilsson stressed to the candidates as they barked orders up and down the barracks.

"Some of this may seem silly to some of us now, but it is stuff that will become important to us at OCS," said 24-year-old Santa Clara University graduate, Joel S. Ellazar. "I hope this trip helps me clear out the jitters and helps me deal with the culture shock of OCS. I don't want to be that candidate who can't deal with the stress of OCS."

After field day, both Tuttle and Wisehart sat with the candidates for an MRE dinner, which seemed to brighten up their evening. The candidates got to talk one-on-one with the OSOs and were given the opportunity to ask the Marines anything.

The day wound down with a quick class on drill and then it was time to prepare for the next day's agenda: the leadership reaction course.

"As far as recruiting is concerned, I think MOCS is a great tool because these kids are going to go back to school and tell there friends what a challenging and great time they had. They are going to generate more interest and we are going to have more kids coming in to check out the Marine Corps and that is what we are looking for. They are great selling tools for us," said Christianson.



Marine Corps Recruiting Command