Pre-Marine Corps OCS Advice Letter

“What I wish I knew before OCS.” I wrote this letter in 2023 when I was a 2ndLt and mailed it to a friend shortly before he reported to Quantico. He found it useful and so might you. You’re about to start an adventure of a lifetime. The Marine Corps is a special institution. Cherish it while you’re in it. Rooting for you.

17 DEC 2023 Dear ____ First of all, congratulations. You’ve worked very hard to get into Officer Candidate School and earn the privilege of being a Marine. You are more prepared than you think you are and it’s evident you will become a stellar officer. I have a lot to share regarding life in the fleet, but that will come in due time. Your timeline will be nearly identical to mine: OCS graduation and commissioning in March, then straight to TBS, and TBS graduation in October. Then you’ll head to MOS school and hit the fleet in the spring of 2025.

In less than a month you’ll walk on Brown Field, following the steps of many great men and women before you. Here are some items to keep in mind:

• Take everything seriously, but not literally. OCS does not, I say again, does NOT represent how life is in the Fleet Marine Force. OCS is designed to break ‘civilian’ habits and indoctrinate you into a military mindset. You will fail. You will be yelled at — a lot. You will embarrass yourself. You will fail — again. And it’s all for a reason. Trust the process and wake up every day letting it “form” you. But don’t forget who you are and become a mindless robot. Don’t take comments from the instructors personally. Don’t take failures personally. Understand that it’s all part of an elaborate game to make you better. (Also don’t be weird and talk in the third person one-on-one in private or while you’re out on liberty.)
• Don’t quit; don’t get hurt. If you don’t quit (Drop on Request, ‘DOR, = QUIT) and don’t get hurt you will 100% make it. They don’t expect perfection. They expect confidence, a positive attitude, and a desire to improve. It will quickly come across if you genuinely want to be there or not. The first two weeks are designed to weed out those who aren’t bought in. The instructors will target 5–10 people and entice them to quit. (They are sharks looking for blood and easy prey. So don’t let them.) The only reason they can “drop” someone who doesn’t want to quit is due to integrity violations. In terms of getting hurt, you can’t always control what happens, but don’t make it harder on yourself. Stretch and roll out every night. Wear knee sleeves/braces if you need it. Don’t recklessly jump off a wall if there’s a rope. In short, do the right thing when no one is watching, don’t quit, don’t be psychically reckless. Don’t quit.
• Be a gray man as long as possible. Particularly during the first three weeks, do not bring on extra attention to yourself. Do not volunteer for anything. Don’t be a scribe. Don’t be an academic candidate. Don’t be an extra anything. The more you can blend in and have the sergeant instructors not even know your name, the better. Of course, if you get a billet, then you absolutely need to be vocal and confident but deal with that as it comes. Take the initiative to clean and do things to help your fellow candidates out; don’t do things to try to look important or good to the Platoon Commander and the instructors. You’ll get a higher billet during decision-making/mentorship phase, and you’ll have more of a chance to lead. But don’t make life harder on yourself. Grades matter at TBS, not at OCS.
• Not all priors are equal. Prior service Marines will have the advantage at OCS because they know the rules of the game from bootcamp. Get advice from the good ones. But don’t follow someone blindly just because he is a prior.
• Pray and always have a rosary with you. OCS is surprisingly spiritual. There is set time for prayer every night (form a group of Christians and go to the back of the squad bay to pray and vent a bit about the day). There’s also a lot of down time between evaluations and you’re just sitting on a camp stool or on a log somewhere. So have a rosary and/or prayer cards with you. Buy a Rite in the Rain cover with pockets and keep notes and spiritual items in there. Also, I would greatly look forward to Sunday and the one hour of peace, silence, and religious service.
• Don’t betray your style. You’ll find it a bit of an adjustment figuring out how to “lead your peers” while trying to implement what the sergeant instructors tell you to do. Observe your Platoon Commander and other billet holders and note what you like and don’t like. Implement the best of what you see into your style, but don’t ever think that there is only one way to lead in the Marine Corps. I fell trap to this thinking that the ‘right’ way to be a squad leader was to be yelling all the time because that’s what my SI said. It felt unnatural and I questioned if I didn’t fit the mold of what the Corps expected from a leader. Nothing could have been further from the truth. There is no single style of leadership the Marine Corps teaches or expects. As long as you achieve the objective and have confidence, run with it your way.
• Keep a journal. At the minimum make a weekly entry. You’ll enjoy going back and reflecting on how you’ve grown. (You’ll see how seemingly large issues weren’t so large after all.)
• Your Marines are already waiting for you. You’ll hear this a lot, but it is true: it’s not about you. The Marines deserve someone to be proud of, someone to challenge and elevate them. When it gets hard or you have trouble finding inspiration, picture your future Lance Corporal standing behind you and watching.

I’m very excited for you. See you around. Semper Fidelis,