Damn, that's harsh.
How does PLC work? I mean, I came from the Enlisted side through SD MCRD, so the DI's kind of .....persuade you......to more or less get through it, but I do not remember anyone failing the initial PFT, which was a 1.5 miler.
Is that how they do you guys for your initial in OCS and stuff as well? Or do you have to jet out the 3 miler as your first PFT in training?
OCS is not training, per se. It is a screening process--a 6 or 10 week job interview, depending on the commissioning program. There is a limited amount of learning there, but they are really only teaching stuff for the purpose of evaluating your knowledge later. All the real learning starts at TBS.
So there's not much encouragement going on. If you don't make it, you don't make it, and the staff generally won't care too much, since they figure you wouldn't have made a good officer anyway. In Boot Camp, attrition was to be minimized--they want to make Marines out of the raw material they've gotten. At OCS attrition is a necessary part of the course--it's to check whether you are bringing the necessary talents to the table. This is speaking in broad brushstrokes--boot does launch some recruits, and OCS doesn't flunk everyone it should, but those are the operating concepts.
Of course, "back in the day" they had 50% attrition on check-in day, 40% died of heat stroke, and 10% were thrown out at the CO's inspection. People will go back and forth about how much attrition is okay and everyone will always say their OCS class was tougher.
