Marine Officers & Candidates OCS/TBS/MOS
Information for Parents of Officer Candidates and Marine Officers in TBS and MOS Schooling. As we collect more information, additional pages will be added to this section.
This is a new page, August 2020 with a focus on schooling for officer candidates and new officers. It was created to help understand the differences between training enlisted and officers and to guide the parents of Marine Officer Candidates after graduation from OCS.
Official Marine Parents Facebook Group for OCS/TBS: Facebook.com/groups/mpocs
Information on becoming a Marine Corps officer: MarineParents.com/MarineCorps/become-officer.asp
Acronyms and Definitions
- OCS: Officer Candidate School
- TBS: The Basic School
- MOS: Military Occupational Specialty
- OCC: Officer Candidate Course
- PLC: Platoon Leaders Class
OCS: Officer Candidate School
The mission of Officer Candidates School (OCS) is to educate and train officer candidates in Marine Corps knowledge and skills within a controlled and challenging environment in order to evaluate and screen individuals for the leadership, moral, mental, and physical qualities required for commissioning as a Marine Corps officer.
Click here for the USMC website for OCS.
TBS: The Basic School
The purpose of TBS is to train and educate newly commissioned or appointed officers in the high standards of professional knowledge, esprit-de-corps, and leadership required to prepare them for duty as company grade officers in the operating forces, with particular emphasis on the duties, responsibilities and warfighting skills required of a rifle platoon commander.
Click here for the USMC website for TBS.
MOS: Military Occupational Specialty
Officer Candidates have MOS options specific to officers. Officer Candidate School (OCS) and The Basic School (TBS) are also specific to officers as compared to enlisted who attend Recruit Training, also known as boot camp.
To view the Marine Officers MOS Handbook on the Marine Corps website, click here.
To download a PDF version of the handbook, right-click and select download here.
OCS Family Day And Graduation Dates
The Marine Corps updates the events for OCS family day and graduation on their Facebook page. You do not have to have a Facebook account to view the event dates. See: Facebook.com/pg/USMCOCS/events.
For more information on Family Day after OCS, see the USMC website Family Day Information
For more information on the Graduation Parade, see the USMC website Graduation Parade
COVID-19 Impact on Events
Due to COVID-19 mitigation measures these events may be drastically altered for the summer cycle (May-August 2020). Please see the OCS official Facebook page for more information Facebook.com/USMCOCS
During the Coronavirus pandemic, live feeds of the graduation ceremonies have typically been posted on the OCS Facebook page starting one hour before the ceremony begins. We encourage you to use their Facebook page to watch the ceremony.
Photographs During Training
Greenwood photography is the official photographer for OCC and PLC candidates. On their website, you need to click the "event" link (typically the company name) then login with YOUR email address using the password OCS.
Click here for events list.
To contact Greenwood Photography, visit this page of their website: https://greenwood-photography.hhimagehost.com/V2/Home/Index.
Written by David Ogden, Sgt. USMC '11-'16.
David was a Sergeant with the United States Marine Corps from 2011-2016. He is a combat veteran. He has worked at Marine Parents as a writer since he left the Marine Corps. He is currently in college and writes for the organization full-time. Click here to read more about the author.