Quantico Letter IV

Hello folks,

Sorry it has been so long since my last letter. It has been a busy few months. I graduated Officer Candidate School, commissioned and picked up at The Basic School (TBS). TBS is a 6 month school. It is the heart of officer training before I join the Fleet. Overall things are going well.

I graduated OCS on December 10. All I can say about the last few weeks of OCS is that the Marines don’t let anybody “mail it in.” 10 Weeks means 10 weeks, and they were kicking people out for performance boards a week before graduation. I would like to describe more of our training for the last few weeks, but I don’t know how to do that without sounding like I’m complaining, so I won’t. There were, however, some fun parts. We had a battalion “moto-run”, carrying the colors and sounding off around base. There was a field meet with tug of war, a humvee race (pushing the idle humvee)s, log race through the woods (carrying a telephone pole), pull-up competition etc. In the last few days the enlisted personnel stayed up till the small hours of the night telling us war stories and drinking stories.  In my tour as Company Executive Officer I had numerous opportunities to speak with the officers and ask questions about their careers. Capt. Crompton said he liked being a tanker because his personal weapon was a 50 cal machine gun. Capt. Lasley, Naval Academy grad, said he thought that OCS was just as challenging as the Academy.

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We commissioned at the nearby Marine Corps Museum. We sat in the rotunda, wearing out Service A uniforms, under the massive glass canopy. A two-star general gave a short speech and we raised our right hands. As we took the oath of office I looked up through the glass. My only regret on that day was that my Grandpa Champ, Navy Cross winner, wasn’t there to see me take the oath. We took photos and I received my first salute from my Platoon Sergeant, GySgt. Gonzalez. I was now a Marine.

After a quick Christmas break we picked up at The Basic School (TBS). TBS is a school of weapons and leadership training. We learn shooting, land navigation, troop leading, patrolling, operation orders, tactics, strategy, doctrine, and anything else a rifle platoon commander needs to know. It is for all officers, but it is heavily infantry focused. After this I will go to a few more months of specialty training in my to-be-designated Military Occupational Specialty. I want to be in the Infantry. Initial indications are that we will have 40 Infantry slots out of about 230 eligible Lieutenants.

At the end of our first we received our welcome brief by the CO, Col Alford. The Colonel came on deck in his Service A (green wool suit) wearing the full bird rank insignia and a bronze star ribbon with two oak leaf clusters and a combat V. He stood about 6 feet tall, fit with a perfect flat top haircut. He told us what was expected during our period of instruction, and what would be expected of us in our careers. His demeanor was calm and fierce.  What stuck with me were his final words. At the end of the speech he clasped his hands in front of him, paused and said, “these are the things you must do if you want to be one of us, if you want to be part of our tribe.”

At the end of January we had the all-important Rifle Week (really 2 weeks), when we recieve our rifle and pistol qualifications.  The Weapons Training Battalion is a 3 mile hike from Camp Barrett. Every morning we got up around 0400, ate a hearty breakfast and hiked with a combat load (~40lbs) to the rifle range. The hike was nothing demanding, but is intended to familiarize us with the physical stress of a patrol. We got the opportunity to shoot about 100 M16 rounds and 50 9mm rounds a day. We shot the rifle from 200, 300 and 500 yards (reach out and touch someone!). The instruction was excellent.

To be honest I struggled with the rifle. On qualification day I almost failed and obtained the embarrassing rating of “marksmen”. I guess I could blame the blizzard or say I had a bad day, but the truth is I hadn’t mastered the weapon yet. When I came off the rifle range I was beside myself. The “marksmen” badge looks like a pizza box and carries the pejorative nickname. We had some waiting time before pistol qualification and I can easily say that was the lowest I have felt in years. When it came time for pistol qualification I salvaged a shred of dignity and qualified as a sharpshooter on the pistol.

 The good part about rifle qualification is there are two parts on two different days. “Table 1” is focused on long distance conventional marksmanship and carries the most weight. “Table 2”  focuses on modern combat marksmanship at close distances and focuses on speed. Your final designation depends on an aggregate score, not just your performance the first day. I showed up the next Monday for “Table 2” determined pull myself out of the “marksmen” category and into “sharpshooter”. I wouldn’t brag about being a sharpshooter, but it means no pizza box on the uniform. I needed to score 90/100 points. The first part of the test is headshots at 25 yards.

When the range officer shouted over the PA “taaaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrgets!”, I shot two well aimed rounds into the 3”x3” T-box across the eyes and nose of target. They both landed over the right eye of my target no more than 1/8 of an inch apart. I said to myself, this is going to be a good day. As we proceeded through the course of fire – standing, kneeling, 25, 20, 15, 10 and 5 yards – I kept on “hitting black”. I ended up scoring 100/100 on Table 2, tying for top score in my platoon. I’m still by no means a stud with the rifle, but I earned the sharpshooter badge and feel confident with it.

February has been filled with really fun stuff: Martial Arts,  Communication Equipment (don't call me Radio, Radio), Land Navigation and Operations Orders. It is really super interesting cool stuff. I don't really have the time to write it out, will have to wait for the next letter. Know that I am loving it and hit the I believe button.

Alone and Unafraid,

2^nd Lt. D.A. Bea