Initial report from The Basic School

Here is the first post from The Basic School (TBS). Right now I am attending the Basic Officer Course at TBS, whose mission is to "train and educate newly commissioned officers in order....to prepare them for duty as company grade officers in the operating forces, with particular emphasis on the duties, responsibilities, and warfighting skills of a rifle platoon commander". In other words, TBS trains officers to lead Marines, and most of this training in centered around being a group of Marines with rifles. Every Marine, at the most basic level, is a rifleman, and every Marine Officer is a rifle platoon commander.



TBS is nothing like OCS. Just because I'm being trained by Marines doesn't mean I'm getting screamed at everyday. It's very much the opposite. At it's core, TBS is a learning institution, and the teaching here is extremely high quality. I was told the material we cover is 10th grade material, but the amount of infortmation is equivalent of two and half years of college. It's basic stuff, but it is a lot of basic stuff. Of this information, most of it will be learned in classroom (60% of our time at TBS) and then applied in the field (40% of our time at TBS). We are continually taught how to be professional leaders who are grounded in warfighting, and care for their men by holding them to the high standards established by the Marine Corps. Honestly, there is no officer school in the world quite like TBS. I don't know if it is the best officer school or not, but I know we are unique in that aspect.



So far at TBS we have done Martial Arts and are just beginning our work on the Rifle Range. Martial Arts were extremely interesting, albeit very basic, and gave us a good foundation on the basics of Marine Corps Martial Arts. We were taught how to hurt people and how to avoid being hurt too badly if caught in a bad situation. The Rifle Range portion of training are long days, but overall pretty fun. We learn how to accurately shoot both a service rifle (from 200, 300, and 50 yards) and service pistol (from distances between seven and twenty-five yards), and have some of the best instructors in the Marine Corps to instruct us.



Another mission of TBS is to assign newly commissioned officers the job specialties in the Marine Corps, from Infantry (the position with the most spots) to Intelligence, to Supply, Logistics, and many more. We are assigned these based on three things; our interests, the needs of the Marine Corps, and what our superiors believe we would be suited for. It is an extremely competitve process and it is something we think about a lot.



My goals for TBS are as follows: 1) To finish in the top 30% of my class
2) To graduate knowing I gave a complete effort
3) To be prepared to lead enlisted Marines

If I do the first two, the last one will take care of itself. Thanks for reading. Semper Fidelis.

For any more information visit www.tecom.usmc.mil/tbs. For pictures of training visit www.tecom.usmc.mil/tbs/student/Delta/galleryi.html.