Iowa State’s NROTC Marines are gearing up for their home stretch of training before they participate in Officer Candidate School this summer.

Officer Candidate School is a six-week-long training school that Marine Midshipmen go through during the summer after their junior year in Quantico, Va.

According to the Marine Corps website, the mission and purpose of Officer Candidate School is to train, screen and evaluate candidates, who must demonstrate a high level of leadership potential and commitment to success in order to earn a commission.

“The training at [Officer Candidate School] is some of the most demanding training for officer candidates in the [U.S.] military,” said Jayson Rimer, midshipman and senior in communication studies.

Officer Candidate School consists of evaluations in the areas of leadership, academics and physical fitness. This training evaluation lasts about six weeks for ROTC Midshipmen, two six-week sessions for Platoon Leader Candidates and ten weeks for the Officer Candidate Course.

Rimer, who went through Officer Candidate School last summer, said the challenge and difficulty level of the training is very intense.

“For me personally [Officer Candidate School] was extremely challenging. You get very little sleep and you are always doing something,” Rimer said. “As a future leader of Marines I want to go through the challenges that they have and will face, and [Officer Candidate School] gives me that opportunity.”

Rimer said Officer Candidate School consists of physical events like hikes, obstacle course, endurance course, Marine Corps mixed martial arts as well as academic tests and practical application in the field.

There are usually about 240 candidates that go each summer, and there is a fairly large dropout rate for the training.

“Unlike boot camp where it is meant to break you down and then build you back up, [Officer Candidate School] is meant to evaluate you as a potential future Marine Corps officer,” Rimer said. 

“If the instructors see, at any point, that you do not have what it takes then they will drop you and send you home. That is why [Officer Candidate School] is so challenging, because Marines are the few and the proud, and Marine Corps officers are even fewer.”

Along with the physical toll the training takes on the Marines, one of the biggest factors in determining if a Marine has what it takes to make it through the training is their integrity.

“Really integrity is one of the key things, because when people really start placing the pressure on you, are you going to cave in and do the thing that seems easy but it’s the wrong thing to do?” said Capt. Jerome Borden, adjunct instructor of naval science. 

“Because if you do that you will get caught, and once you do that, that’s it because that’s a character flaw that really can’t be fixed through training and everything, that’s an individual decision on what kind of person you’re going to be and what you’re about, and [Officer Candidate School] pulls that out of people.”

If a Marine does fail out of Officer Candidate School for integrity reasons then they will not get invited back for a second chance. However if a Marine gets hurt or doesn’t pass some of the tests, they are likely get invited back for a second attempt.

Officer Candidate School is a culmination of what the Marine Midshipmen in the Naval ROTC program have learned during the past three years and Officer Candidate School puts that training to the test. So actually the Marines here at Iowa state have been training and getting ready for Officer Candidate School the past three years.

During the spring semester Marines do a couple of things to get ready. They take part in extra physical training, every other week they do extra various endurance weight exercises, on top of their regular physical training exercises.

The Bullpup, which occured April 13-14, 2013, was a weekend preview for the Marines to show what Officer Candidate School will be like. Officer Candidate School is often referred to as Bulldog.

ISU Naval ROTC is sending two Marines this year to Officer Candidate School, and they are expected to do very well.

“I think our guys will do great this year, we’ve got two pretty solid kids. And really it comes down to at the end of the day how much do they want it and are they going to stick too what they know is right,” Borden said.

“For them, when they come back you can tell the confidence boost. They’ve been through something that most other people haven’t.”