Posted: 8/24/2006 6:09:00 PM EDT
| Any ever do this? My brother is thinking of joining up - but I'm trying to find out more details about it. Any info would be great. |
It is the best program for Marine officers. Two 6 week summer sessions, or one 10 week. At one time, it was considered to have the toughest PT of almost any school in the military. Not for those who aren't sure. |
Thanks for the info. Are you required to enlist upon the completion of college and PLC? |
No. There is no obligation at all. Once you complete the program, AND graduate, it is up to the candidate as to whether he wants to be commissioned. |
Not "enlist". Enlistment refers to going to Parris Island and becoming a Private, PFC, Lance Corporal, etc.... After College, he may choose to accept a "Commission". That means they will make him a 2nd Lieutenant. He will go to The Basic School, and then on to his MOS school. His committment will be for 4 years. 6 years if he becomes a pilot. 8 years toal committment, if you include his post actigve duty IRR time. |
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Im doing it, sophmore and going to OCS at the end of this school year(which just started) It's the best choice IMO to get into the military after college. If you go ROTC they pay for your school, but you OWE them 4 years minimum after you graduate. If you go PLC(Which only the Marine Corps offers) then you can graduate from OCS, then return and finish your senior year at school. Once you graduate, it is then your choice to accept the commission and then you are considered a 2nd Lt. Or, if in your last year at school you get a really good job offer, you can take it and be committment free to the military. But tell him to go to his local Officer Selection Office. BTW, You can enlist at 17, or after your graduate. But to get commissioned, you need a Bachelors. Private vs. Officer. PLC is for officers. One more thing, it is VERY physically demanding. In order to be allowed to go to PLC, you need a minimum of 250 PFT I believe, max is 300. I could have gone this past summer but decided to prep physically for another year so I dont get sent home. My buddy didnt, and got dropped on day 4. And that was because he could only run 3 miles in 23 minutes. When you go you should be running a 20 minute 3 mile, damn near 20 dead hang pull ups, and 100 crunches in 2 minutes. When you get back from OCS you will be running 18 minute 3 miles, or less. Ive dont PT with guys running 15.5 minute 3 miles. It isnt easy. |
...let me give you a piece of advice. I just retired after 23 years. I enlisted in the Marines in the 70's and then got out and went back to school on the GI bill. I then went back into the PLC program and did the two X 6 week sessions of OCS and was commisioned in 1983. I went to the 6 week sessions after my sophmore and junior years. For 12 months after I graduated from that first 6 week session, all I did was think about having to go back to the second session. They will wear your ass out from day one during that 6 week session and then start all over on you again when you come back the second time, just like you had never been there. The 10 week session is more like enlisted boot camp in certain ways...after you've been there for a while, you start learning the basics and the instructors start giving you some leeway. I'm not saying the 10 week course is easier physically or mentally, it's just that you are treated differently by week 8 than you are during week 1. When you do the two 6 week drills, they were merciless right up until the last damn day.  I still remmember during my first 6 weeks, all of the second 6 week guys laughing at us as we were turning our rifles in just after graduation and saying "wait 'til you come back!".... Why are we smiling in this picture?...because it was our last fucking day of the second 6 weeks... Just some food for thought...  |
| You actually do enlist into the IRR to attend PLC, that is one of things PLC has going for it over OCC and NROTC, the date of entry into service for day purposes is the day they enlisted into PLC. This means a difference of several hundred dollars a month for the newly commissioned 2ndLt. |