I was bored last night and decided to write this. Hopefully it will help some of you about to ship. Anyone who has been through OCS and has anything to add and/or disagree with, please feel free, I'd be interested to hear what others have to say about this.
A Guide to Candidate Billets
A large part of your leadership evaluation at OCS will be based on your performance as a billet holder. At first, the responsibilities billets present can seem confusing, or even overwhelming. In an effort to help future candidates prepare for the billets they will hold at OCS, I have prepared this guide. By no means will reading this guide guarantee you a favorable billet evaluation; furthermore, please remember that the ideas presented are my own and do not necessarily reflect official Marine Corps or OCS policy. My aim in writing this guide is to give future candidates a basic context for what each billet does so that they don’t get “lost in the sauce” when they are placed in a position of leadership at OCS.
There are a few important things to remember about candidate billets. The first and most important thing is to know the location of every candidate and rifle in your unit AT ALL TIMES. Accountability is everything at OCS; losing track of one rifle, even for a short period of time, will guarantee you a billet failure and probably a meeting with the Colonel as well. Second, your staff will be much harder on billet holders toward the beginning of OCS. Don’t get discouraged if your first billet evaluation is “unfavorable”; most candidates will fail their first billet. Use each billet as a learning experience and build on it. Third, don’t be afraid to take the initiative and make decisions in the absence of specific instructions. A commonly heard phrase at OCS is “good initiative, bad judgment”. Unless your judgment really is terrible (in which case your time in Quantico will be relatively short), it is better to have good initiative and bad judgment than no initiative at all. Finally, remember to work hard for other candidates who hold billets, and you will find that they will do the same for you when it is your turn to lead.
Fire Team Leader
Your first billet at OCS will probably be as a fire team leader, especially if you are non-prior service. Each squad will have 3-4 fire teams of 3-5 people. Your job as a fire team leader is relatively simple and straightforward. You simply must pass the word down from your squad leader, supervise your fire team in the conduct of various tasks such as cleaning (“field daying”) the house, and generally ensure that the candidates in your fire team are squared away. Your staff will not write a written evaluation on this billet, although your performance may factor into your leadership evaluation. Toward the end of your time at OCS, selection of fire team leaders becomes more informal and is not assigned; squad leaders usually pick them arbitrarily, choosing the candidates that they work with well.
Squad Leader
Each platoon consists of three squads. Your job as a squad leader is an important one, and you will be given a written evaluation of your performance by one of your sergeant instructors. You are expected to work with your candidate platoon commander and candidate platoon sergeant to accomplish missions which are tasked to you. For example, during field days, one squad will clean the head, another will clean the deck, and the third will tighten racks, square away the laundry room and do other miscellaneous tasks. You will be held personally accountable for your squad’s performance in these tasks; if your squad didn’t clean the head well, it is ENTIRELY YOUR FAULT. The secret to this billet, and indeed every billet, is attention to detail. If you are told to make sure that every candidate in your squad has a marked PT shirt ready for morning PT the next day, don’t tell them to do it and then trust that they’ll take care of it; INSPECT!! You are responsible for every candidate in your squad, and this applies to the higher billets as well, e.g. candidate platoon and company commander.
Candidate Guide
Many refer to this as the “non-billet” of OCS. As a guide you are basically the backup candidate platoon sergeant, and many a guide billet has been completed with the candidate doing more or less nothing. However, the guide does have important responsibilities, such as carrying the guide-on ahead of the company when your platoon is the duty platoon. This can be tough and you will have to rely on the candidates behind you to correct your drifting while marching. Remember to take charge at any opportunity if you get the guide billet. Candidate platoon sergeants tend to get yelled at a lot; if your staff is chewing out the C.P.S. in the corner, don’t just stand there, take charge and make sure that the platoon is doing what it should be doing. Also bear in mind that you will be evaluated by a sergeant instructor on this billet, and that you need to take charge and do something at some point to earn at least a “marginal” grade.
Candidate Platoon Sergeant
At OCS, Candidate Platoon Sergeant is probably the most demanding and stressful billet. You will be responsible for guiding the platoon through most of its basic routine—reveille, morning cleanup, formations, marching to/from chow, etc. As such, you will need to develop a command voice and learn to call cadence. You will also be subject to nearly constant pressure, correction, and even mockery from your enlisted staff, especially if you get this billet toward the beginning of OCS. Keeping your bearing and command presence is an absolute must during this billet. If you call a drill movement on the wrong foot, for example, your staff will make a very big deal of it; maintain your bearing and carry on, and thirty seconds later they will have forgotten about it and have moved on to something else.
Over the course of this billet, your staff will make you sound off until you lose your voice. Remember that they’re not looking for volume as much as intensity and continue to sound off as loudly as you can. The secret to this billet is to utilize your subordinates properly. Don’t try to explain to the entire platoon what they have to do next; call the squad leaders over, brief them, have them brief their fire team leaders, etc. Then all you have to do is give a brief command of execution instead of hollering at your entire platoon for minutes on end.
Candidate Platoon Commander
At first glance, this billet may seem easy. The candidate platoon commander serves as the liaison between the platoon commander (the Captain) and the platoon. As a general rule, officers rarely raise their voice at OCS; officers will not yell at you unless you do something really, really wrong, like lose your weapon or blatantly disrespect an OCS staff member. Because the platoon commander will not be in your face all the time, the minute-to-minute stress of this billet is considerably less than that of the candidate platoon sergeant. However, this billet holds a great deal of responsibility. The candidate platoon commander is directly responsible for the platoon’s performance in everything the platoon does. If the Captain isn’t happy with the platoon, you may find yourself writing a lot of essays at night about how you failed as a leader.
Your platoon commander will expect you to be fully knowledgeable on the welfare of every member of the platoon; you should know from memory who went to sick call today, whose feet are bothering them, etc. Expect the Captain to throw you curveballs constantly: before taps, he/she might ask you, “what did the platoon think about noon chow today?” or “Are Candidate Smuckatelli’s shin splints still bothering him?” Not knowing will be an indication that you’re not looking out for the welfare of the platoon. Likewise, having several candidates fall out of a hump due to heat exhaustion will be seen as a failure of leadership on your part since you didn’t adequately ensure that the platoon was hydrated prior to the beginning of the hump.
Take as much initiative as you can when you have this billet, especially in the way of maximizing the welfare of everyone in the platoon. Also, make sure that the platoon is squared away at all times, especially before they go to chow as this is when platoon commanders tend to give the platoon a once-over. Any time the platoon is in formation or marching anywhere, you should be walking around checking for loose pack straps, improperly bloused boots, etc. Another important thing to do is compile and maintain an alphabetized list of every candidate with their name, rifle serial number, and padlock combinations. If you don’t get this list handed down from the previous candidate platoon commander, making one should be the very first thing that you do. Use your squad leaders to get it done.
Candidate Company Staff
There are four billets in the candidate company staff: candidate company gunnery sergeant, candidate company first sergeant, candidate company executive officer, and candidate company commander. With the exception of PLC Seniors, the first company staff will be composed of priors. These billets carry by far the most responsibility; the staff is ultimately held responsible for everything the company does or fails to do. If you get one of these billets while the company is spending a lot of time in the field, it will constitute the most challenging and stressful portion of your time at OCS. There are two secrets to running an efficient candidate company staff.
First, work together. Instead of segregating itself into four separate jobs, the staff should work as a committee of four in planning and carrying out its duties. Clearly, each staff member will carry out his/her specific duties; for example, the candidate first sergeant will call the company to attention during formation, the candidate company CO will report the company to instructors, etc. However, don’t get caught in the “this is/isn’t my job” trap. You have to pick up each other’s slack as fluidly as possible. For example, keeping track of the official final rifle count is the joint responsibility of the candidate company gunnery sergeant and candidate company first sergeant. As you will find out when you get to Quantico, the count must be kept up-to date constantly, especially after the company leaves its weapons outside for chow. If the company is finishing chow, and the candidate company gunnery sergeant is taking care of hot chows while the candidate company first sergeant is getting lectured by the company First Sergeant about not maintaining the company log book properly, and you are the candidate company commander, PICK UP THEIR SLACK!! Either appoint a candidate platoon sergeant to get the company’s final weapons count or do it yourself. Saying “that’s their job, they should take care if it,” would a leadership failure on your part.
Secondly, think in advance. At night, look at the schedule for the next day and try to anticipate any logistical problems that will arise. For example, if you see that the company will only have twenty minutes to get cleaned up after the endurance course, tell the candidate platoon sergeants to make sure that all their candidates have clean cammies and dry boots to change into after the E course BEFORE they even hit the rack that night.
Everyone in the candidate company staff should keep very detailed and up-to-date records of the candidates on light duty/sick call, as well as an alphabetized list of every candidate and their rifle serial number and padlock combinations (see above).
A Guide to Candidate Billets
A large part of your leadership evaluation at OCS will be based on your performance as a billet holder. At first, the responsibilities billets present can seem confusing, or even overwhelming. In an effort to help future candidates prepare for the billets they will hold at OCS, I have prepared this guide. By no means will reading this guide guarantee you a favorable billet evaluation; furthermore, please remember that the ideas presented are my own and do not necessarily reflect official Marine Corps or OCS policy. My aim in writing this guide is to give future candidates a basic context for what each billet does so that they don’t get “lost in the sauce” when they are placed in a position of leadership at OCS.
There are a few important things to remember about candidate billets. The first and most important thing is to know the location of every candidate and rifle in your unit AT ALL TIMES. Accountability is everything at OCS; losing track of one rifle, even for a short period of time, will guarantee you a billet failure and probably a meeting with the Colonel as well. Second, your staff will be much harder on billet holders toward the beginning of OCS. Don’t get discouraged if your first billet evaluation is “unfavorable”; most candidates will fail their first billet. Use each billet as a learning experience and build on it. Third, don’t be afraid to take the initiative and make decisions in the absence of specific instructions. A commonly heard phrase at OCS is “good initiative, bad judgment”. Unless your judgment really is terrible (in which case your time in Quantico will be relatively short), it is better to have good initiative and bad judgment than no initiative at all. Finally, remember to work hard for other candidates who hold billets, and you will find that they will do the same for you when it is your turn to lead.
Fire Team Leader
Your first billet at OCS will probably be as a fire team leader, especially if you are non-prior service. Each squad will have 3-4 fire teams of 3-5 people. Your job as a fire team leader is relatively simple and straightforward. You simply must pass the word down from your squad leader, supervise your fire team in the conduct of various tasks such as cleaning (“field daying”) the house, and generally ensure that the candidates in your fire team are squared away. Your staff will not write a written evaluation on this billet, although your performance may factor into your leadership evaluation. Toward the end of your time at OCS, selection of fire team leaders becomes more informal and is not assigned; squad leaders usually pick them arbitrarily, choosing the candidates that they work with well.
Squad Leader
Each platoon consists of three squads. Your job as a squad leader is an important one, and you will be given a written evaluation of your performance by one of your sergeant instructors. You are expected to work with your candidate platoon commander and candidate platoon sergeant to accomplish missions which are tasked to you. For example, during field days, one squad will clean the head, another will clean the deck, and the third will tighten racks, square away the laundry room and do other miscellaneous tasks. You will be held personally accountable for your squad’s performance in these tasks; if your squad didn’t clean the head well, it is ENTIRELY YOUR FAULT. The secret to this billet, and indeed every billet, is attention to detail. If you are told to make sure that every candidate in your squad has a marked PT shirt ready for morning PT the next day, don’t tell them to do it and then trust that they’ll take care of it; INSPECT!! You are responsible for every candidate in your squad, and this applies to the higher billets as well, e.g. candidate platoon and company commander.
Candidate Guide
Many refer to this as the “non-billet” of OCS. As a guide you are basically the backup candidate platoon sergeant, and many a guide billet has been completed with the candidate doing more or less nothing. However, the guide does have important responsibilities, such as carrying the guide-on ahead of the company when your platoon is the duty platoon. This can be tough and you will have to rely on the candidates behind you to correct your drifting while marching. Remember to take charge at any opportunity if you get the guide billet. Candidate platoon sergeants tend to get yelled at a lot; if your staff is chewing out the C.P.S. in the corner, don’t just stand there, take charge and make sure that the platoon is doing what it should be doing. Also bear in mind that you will be evaluated by a sergeant instructor on this billet, and that you need to take charge and do something at some point to earn at least a “marginal” grade.
Candidate Platoon Sergeant
At OCS, Candidate Platoon Sergeant is probably the most demanding and stressful billet. You will be responsible for guiding the platoon through most of its basic routine—reveille, morning cleanup, formations, marching to/from chow, etc. As such, you will need to develop a command voice and learn to call cadence. You will also be subject to nearly constant pressure, correction, and even mockery from your enlisted staff, especially if you get this billet toward the beginning of OCS. Keeping your bearing and command presence is an absolute must during this billet. If you call a drill movement on the wrong foot, for example, your staff will make a very big deal of it; maintain your bearing and carry on, and thirty seconds later they will have forgotten about it and have moved on to something else.
Over the course of this billet, your staff will make you sound off until you lose your voice. Remember that they’re not looking for volume as much as intensity and continue to sound off as loudly as you can. The secret to this billet is to utilize your subordinates properly. Don’t try to explain to the entire platoon what they have to do next; call the squad leaders over, brief them, have them brief their fire team leaders, etc. Then all you have to do is give a brief command of execution instead of hollering at your entire platoon for minutes on end.
Candidate Platoon Commander
At first glance, this billet may seem easy. The candidate platoon commander serves as the liaison between the platoon commander (the Captain) and the platoon. As a general rule, officers rarely raise their voice at OCS; officers will not yell at you unless you do something really, really wrong, like lose your weapon or blatantly disrespect an OCS staff member. Because the platoon commander will not be in your face all the time, the minute-to-minute stress of this billet is considerably less than that of the candidate platoon sergeant. However, this billet holds a great deal of responsibility. The candidate platoon commander is directly responsible for the platoon’s performance in everything the platoon does. If the Captain isn’t happy with the platoon, you may find yourself writing a lot of essays at night about how you failed as a leader.
Your platoon commander will expect you to be fully knowledgeable on the welfare of every member of the platoon; you should know from memory who went to sick call today, whose feet are bothering them, etc. Expect the Captain to throw you curveballs constantly: before taps, he/she might ask you, “what did the platoon think about noon chow today?” or “Are Candidate Smuckatelli’s shin splints still bothering him?” Not knowing will be an indication that you’re not looking out for the welfare of the platoon. Likewise, having several candidates fall out of a hump due to heat exhaustion will be seen as a failure of leadership on your part since you didn’t adequately ensure that the platoon was hydrated prior to the beginning of the hump.
Take as much initiative as you can when you have this billet, especially in the way of maximizing the welfare of everyone in the platoon. Also, make sure that the platoon is squared away at all times, especially before they go to chow as this is when platoon commanders tend to give the platoon a once-over. Any time the platoon is in formation or marching anywhere, you should be walking around checking for loose pack straps, improperly bloused boots, etc. Another important thing to do is compile and maintain an alphabetized list of every candidate with their name, rifle serial number, and padlock combinations. If you don’t get this list handed down from the previous candidate platoon commander, making one should be the very first thing that you do. Use your squad leaders to get it done.
Candidate Company Staff
There are four billets in the candidate company staff: candidate company gunnery sergeant, candidate company first sergeant, candidate company executive officer, and candidate company commander. With the exception of PLC Seniors, the first company staff will be composed of priors. These billets carry by far the most responsibility; the staff is ultimately held responsible for everything the company does or fails to do. If you get one of these billets while the company is spending a lot of time in the field, it will constitute the most challenging and stressful portion of your time at OCS. There are two secrets to running an efficient candidate company staff.
First, work together. Instead of segregating itself into four separate jobs, the staff should work as a committee of four in planning and carrying out its duties. Clearly, each staff member will carry out his/her specific duties; for example, the candidate first sergeant will call the company to attention during formation, the candidate company CO will report the company to instructors, etc. However, don’t get caught in the “this is/isn’t my job” trap. You have to pick up each other’s slack as fluidly as possible. For example, keeping track of the official final rifle count is the joint responsibility of the candidate company gunnery sergeant and candidate company first sergeant. As you will find out when you get to Quantico, the count must be kept up-to date constantly, especially after the company leaves its weapons outside for chow. If the company is finishing chow, and the candidate company gunnery sergeant is taking care of hot chows while the candidate company first sergeant is getting lectured by the company First Sergeant about not maintaining the company log book properly, and you are the candidate company commander, PICK UP THEIR SLACK!! Either appoint a candidate platoon sergeant to get the company’s final weapons count or do it yourself. Saying “that’s their job, they should take care if it,” would a leadership failure on your part.
Secondly, think in advance. At night, look at the schedule for the next day and try to anticipate any logistical problems that will arise. For example, if you see that the company will only have twenty minutes to get cleaned up after the endurance course, tell the candidate platoon sergeants to make sure that all their candidates have clean cammies and dry boots to change into after the E course BEFORE they even hit the rack that night.
Everyone in the candidate company staff should keep very detailed and up-to-date records of the candidates on light duty/sick call, as well as an alphabetized list of every candidate and their rifle serial number and padlock combinations (see above).
