Marine corps training

navyorairforce19

Prospective Cadet/Mdshpmn
5-Year Member
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May 31, 2011
Messages
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Instead of going to OCS, what kind of training do Midshipmen get before The Basic School?
 
Mids who want to go Marine Corps attend Leatherneck before 1/C year. It always goes during first block. Roughly 300 mids go each year. A few others go to MAGTF, or Marine Air-Ground Task Force, training, due to injury that prevents them going to Leatherneck or some other conflict, but Leatherneck is basically a requirement for Marine Corps now.
It's essentially a very condensed and basic version of TBS. You're taught land navigation (day and night), some MCMAP, organization of the rifle platoon/company, how to write orders, and go on at least one FEX (2012 did two), where you conduct exercises and squad assaults. You also do all of the different box-checks to go Marine Corps: at least one PFT, multiple CFTs, the Obstacle and Endurance Courses, and this year we finished up with a 9-mile+ hump (which is apparently a graduation requirement at OCS?). At the end you get a ranking based on your physical, academic/military skills, and leadership performance.
Leatherneck isn't OCS: you're not getting constantly yelled at by Sergeant Instructors or anything, but it's a higher pressure environment than other summer training and you're being constantly evaluated. Much is put into mids' hands to either succeed or fail.

Once you select Marine Corps, during the second semester of 1/C year you take the USMC Practicum. Practicum is a class (there's versions for each service selection) where you learn the basics of your future job. So, for the Marine Corps one, they learn more land nav, history of the Marine Corps, how to write operations orders, and other stuff to help them succeed at TBS.
 
Also, MAGTF is currently being reworked to be an equivalent of leatherneck.
 
I thought that MAGTF this year was limited to only prior enlisted Mids?
 
No. Some of the priors did MAGTF (a few prior Marines did Leatherneck too, though), but it was also made up of people who had sports conflicts or injuries. There were a few cases of people who put Leatherneck down and got MAGTF because they were considered top candidates for Marine Corps and so didn't need to be evaluated as much.
The reason this happened is they can only take so many people at Leatherneck: according to my Marine mentor, 400+ people put Leatherneck down as their top choice for summer training, but Quantico can only handle ~300.

mademu's right though...MAGTF is changing. I know the guys who did it this year spent time at USNA hitting all the wickets (E Course, O Course, PFT, CFT) as well and it sounded drastically different to what went down for 2011's MAGTF.
 
No. Some of the priors did MAGTF (a few prior Marines did Leatherneck too, though), but it was also made up of people who had sports conflicts or injuries. There were a few cases of people who put Leatherneck down and got MAGTF because they were considered top candidates for Marine Corps and so didn't need to be evaluated as much.
The reason this happened is they can only take so many people at Leatherneck: according to my Marine mentor, 400+ people put Leatherneck down as their top choice for summer training, but Quantico can only handle ~300.

mademu's right though...MAGTF is changing. I know the guys who did it this year spent time at USNA hitting all the wickets (E Course, O Course, PFT, CFT) as well and it sounded drastically different to what went down for 2011's MAGTF.

The issue they had with MAGTF was that it MIDN were not getting evaluated at it (E-course, o-course, CFT, PFT). To fix that, they are doing an evaluation period before MAGTF so that it's not just an event to skate out of leatherneck. Essentially, it's a 2 week haze-fest.

Source- Marines on the yard.
 
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