Dearest Members of forum.grunt.com,
First, I want to thank the moderators of the board and all the people who have chimed in. From reading past threads I have gotten a lot of previously asked questions answered.
Second, my question's are:
1. How do I become an officer and do the crucible? Go see your Marine Recruiter and ask to see the Officer Selection Officer (OSO), to see if you qualify. Officer's don't have a Crucible, only Enlisted, the Crucible is over-rated, OCS- itself is physically harder.
2. Are enlistment terms the same for all Marines as opposed to special commitment terms for officers? For example, if I go through officer training, is it also 8 total years (maybe stop loss)? Enlisted have EAS (End of Active Service date), Officers have "Indefinate" in the EAS blank. Enlisted will request to re-enlist and await approval, and then re-enlist. 80% of the Marine Officers are Reserve Officers, depending on their MOS, they will see if they get "Augmented", for Flyers it's at Major, most everyone else it's Captain. If you don't get Augmented, you will be requested to leave Active Duty and either go into the active Reserve or the Inactive Reserve. Marine Officers can be called back to active duty at anytime.
3. Correct me if I am wrong, there are two options (in my case) since I can not go the route of United States Naval Academy, to becoming an officer, USNA is one route, NROTC is another, PLC/OCS is another, along with programs for Enlisted Marines (Active or Reserve), like Enlisted Commissioning Program (ECP), MECEP. and Direct Commissioning.
1. PLC/ OCC and 2. NROTC. In any of these scenarios it does not say that I would be able to participate in the crucible.<No Crucible
Background information: I am 20 years old majoring in business about to transfer from junior community college to a 4 year school. At this point in time I am looking for military friendly schools (NROTC) preferably located in California. My grades are all at 3.0 GPA+ and I am currently doing cardio everyday, so far I have lost 30 pounds from 240 to now 210, at 5’6 I still need to lose 60 more pounds. Cal State Northridge, Pepperdine University, USC, UCLA, UCSD, USD, Chico, UCSF, the list is long.........hell even Berkley is okay, not an easy place, but you would have bragging rights that you made it!
Lose the wieght, run and run some more, be able to do more pull ups, than you are currently doing, get to be much more physically fit.
Thank you in advance and sincerely,
Ben