Inspection Hints, Tips, & Stories

[muc1]

There was a story on the OCS quotes page about an inspecting officer digging in a candidates pockets looking for IPs (Irish Pennants – loose threads, lint, …). I must admit that I don’t think I would’ve ever thought about de-IP’ing my pockets before…

What other hints, tips, or stories specifically about passing inspection can you share?

 

[fc2spyguy]

No matter how good your uniform is if they want you to fail then you'll fail. I'm basing this on boot camp, not OCS. But, I am assuming it's pretty much the same as far as inspections.

 

[Arc Angel]

IP's are big, but its also about your appearance. Remember to shave that morning, not the night before, trim your nose hair if you have to. Keep your finger nails trimmed and free of dirt. Do not wear your inspection boots for any reason other than inspection. Also your weapon is everything. If you even have a tiny bit of rust that's an automatic failure. Proper inspection arms is important too. Anything you're taught in class is free game for the knowledge questions they ask you. Certain inspectors like to focus on different things so you'll have to play that by ear. Your Candidate regs will tell you how to properly lable your gear for locker and junk on the bunk inspections. Just remember to clean everything and keep it clean. Still, remember that the inspections don't affect your grade all they do is screw with your liberty plans. The one exception to this is the Battalion inspection with the Colonel. Fail that and your overall grade drops 5%. Another good hint is to have any priors you have in your platoon to inspect your weapon and everyone should be looking over each other.

 

[NosniboR80]

Maybe this was just my platoon's staff, but your platoon can possibly save a lot of trouble by going ahead and making sure that everyone does everything the same way. The regs leave enough wiggle room on how to do things to create a lot of differences between you and your bunkmate, and you and the guy at the other end of the squadbay. I only went through two inspections before being NPQed, but that was important for those two. In fact, our platoon wasn't even within regs for the second inspection, but since we were all jacked up in the same way, they didn't get us for it.

For example, make sure that not only are the hanging items in the right order, but that the buttons and the flys are pointing in the right direction for everyone. The inspector should be able to look down the length of the squad bay and see that the whites of the beds, the bedposts, the boots under the bunk, and everything else should all make single lines all the way to the end.

 

[perchul]

Be real careful when you mark your gear, you'll often enough only get on chance to do it. The officer marking kits issued really blow, and you'll only really get one good chance to mark your cover and all your crap properly with the kit.

 

[usmcecho4]

Just a heads up: you will fail your sgt instructor inspection, fail your plt sgt inspection, pass your plt commander inspection, pass your company commander inspection, and pass your bn commander inspection. So don't sweat it the inspections too much as the results are pretty much predetermined.

s/f,
usmcecho4

 

[reapergm]

My 2 cents...
DONT EVEN WASTE YOUR TIME with the first inspection. EVERYONE WILL FAIL.. I spent way too much time prepping up and got torn a new one anyhow. All the Junk -on - the - bunk prep.. waste of time. Dont bother, SERIOUSLY. Clean yourself and clean your rifle.. then get a good night sleep. We didnt even have to get a reinspection after the first failure. After that you will have to come back from libo at 8am.. so you want to pay attention to those.

Funny stories: Just watching inspection can be funny... seeing people start to fall asleep at parade rest. We had one seriously funny inspection in our plt one day. First I had to sneeze and didnt want to move (b/c I knew Id get hit on bearing). When I did sneeze.. this GIANT wad of SNOT came flying out of my nose onto the ground and actually made a "SPLAT!" noise when it hit the ground. Needless to say, everyone lost their bearing on that one (even the plt hard @ss). Then good ol' Arc_Angel gets inspected. He gets asked some questions on female uniform issue and starts going into detail about pink shades of lipstick and the proper lipstick colors a woman should wear... long enough where even the Plt Cmdr lost his bearing. Funny day.

 

[Tiffak]

So far, everyone here has given you some golden advice. Another thing I would suggest is the morning of inspection, you'll (hopefully) be given an hour or so of prep time. Go ahead and clean the buttstock of your weapon. Tell the entire plattoon to do so and put some athletic tape on it until right before the inspection (you will still have to go to noon chow and this will save a couple of valuable minutes). Also, pay attention to where your area of POA. I set my weapon down in itty bitty dirt pile and got hit on it.

Just to reiterate: you WILL fail the first inspection. Everyone does. Quite a few will fail the next one too and after that, it simply depends on who does your inspection. I learned early on to sound off and sound confident...I only failed one inspection out of the 5 I was there for.

We were also told that they will dig only if you give them a reason. So if you sound off, sound confident, and have your uniform squared away they shouldn't do any digging. Besides, the higher up the chain of command you go, the inspections start leaning more towards knowledge rather than gear. Good luck!!

 

[Broadsword2004]

So you don't have to worry about being "politically correct" about that kind of stuff? I am just wondering because I remember in "Full Metal Jacket," when Hartman is like, "Private Joker, why did you join my beloved Corps!?"

Joker: "Sir, to kill, Sir!!"

I know that was supposedly in the 60s though, in today's military, I wasn't sure if something like that would pass or not.

I know the Marine Corps isn't supposed to be as politically correct as the Army currently is though (so I've heard).

 

[HueyCobra8151]

Broadsword: I can't speak for OCS, but I am assuming it is somewhat similar to Bootcamp.

"KILL" is pretty much like saying "Aye Aye Sir" there, especially in classes or hand to hand training.

In line or MCMAP you yell "KILL" everytime you throw a punch/kick/choke/throw/etc...

In classes every other sentence the instructor will say "NYalUnastanDat?" to which the class is expected to scream "KILL."

It goes something like this:

"The Marine Corps was formed in 1775 NYalUnastanDat? KILL
Captain Nicholas NYalUnastanDat? KILL
OORAH KOREAN WAR NYalUnastanDat? KIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIILLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL"

 

[perchul]

Our second inspection we had a candidate lock his knees and faint, the SI's and the Platoon sergeant all knew what happened before we did and went over and kicked him to get him back on his feet.

 

[Broadsword2004]

Why the heck did he faint!?

 

[HueyCobra8151]

If you lock your knees while standing at the position of attention for extended periods of time, it will reduce the blood flow to your lower legs and the loss of circulation will cause you to faint.

I had someone right next to me do it in bootcamp, he just fell over, stiff as a bored, eyes still open until he hit the deck. DI's came over and shook him up.

 

[starglimmer]

Hey, so what happened to the poor guy? Can something like that disqualify you?

 

[samadma]

Inspections

No matter how good your uniform is if they want you to fail then you'll fail. I'm basing this on boot camp, not OCS. But, I am assuming it's pretty much the same as far as inspections.

Concur with this remark. You will fail the first inspection, no matter how much you try (prior or not) they will find something. I think it's designed to make you pay more attention. By the end of OCS they won't be as strict, and you'll be you're worst enemy because you're now trained to try to be perfect.

Best advice I can give is have a set of inspection gear. Don't touch or wear it other than in inspection. Just keep it in a dry cleaning bar or something, and refine all the issues with it during the course of OCS.

Then once you become an Officer, I'm 99.99999% sure you'll never be inspected again in the OCS manner. The only inspection you'll most likely have is when you're at a Marine Corps Ball or something, and you're fellow Marines turned your Eagle, Globe, and Anchors out board. Then you're simply trying to figure out why everyone it laughing at you.

I hope this helps.