Requirements To A Marine

Enlisted-to-officer program tweaks procedures

The Marine Corps is toughening up its enlisted-to-officer commissioning programs.

Eligibility requirements will remain the same, but things will get harder up-front. In the biggest change, Marines will have to prove themselves in Officer Candidates School before the Corps shells out the cash for college educations.

Other changes, detailed in Marine administrative message 415/11, include elimination of the Meritorious Commissioning Program and consolidation of the Marine Corps’ four remaining “E-to-O” selection boards.

The highlights:

In the past, Marines enrolled in the Marine Enlisted Commissioning Program completed OCS — a 10-week school that molds civilians and enlisted Marines into officers — after attending at least one year of school. But some failed to make the cut after costing the Corps thousands of dollars.

“There is no sense in sending Marines to school through the [Marine Enlisted Commissioning Education Program] if they can’t make it through OCS when the time comes,” said Capt. Adam Scott, the head of regular officer programs at Marine Corps Recruiting Command, in a Marine Corps news release.

“Officer Candidates School is usually the biggest hurdle for Marines,” Scott said. “By getting it out of the way right off the bat, we’re making sure that the Marine Corps isn’t wasting time and money.”

Completing OCS up-front will also enable enlisted Marines to help train civilian students enrolled in their school’s Naval Reserve Officers Training Corps program. Mentorship from enlisted Marines who have already completed OCS could help prepare students for success when their time in Quantico, Va., comes.

Marines selected by the third and final MECEP board this year, which convened in mid-June, will immediately attend OCS. They have two shots. If they fail both times, it’s back to the enlisted ranks for good.

Until now, every commissioning program had its own selection board.

There was one for MECEP, one for the Enlisted Commissioning Program, one for ECP-Reserve, one for the Meritorious Commissioning Program-Reserve, and one for the now-defunct Meritorious Commissioning Program.

Now, one single board will convene three times a year and make selections for all programs. That will streamline the process and conserve resources on the back end, according to the Corps, but the change is more administrative than anything.

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