Amid bear crawls, arduous marches, and endless pushups directed by screaming instructors at the U.S. Marine Corps Officer Candidate School, the only thing that came to senior Jihye Kim’s mind was to pray and recite Bible verses.
“It was so hot that the floor was slick with sweat,” Kim said. “I was just like, ‘The Lord is my shepherd.’ There’s nothing else you can do. You’re just left with your own head, your own mind space, while they’re trying to break you mentally.”
With the Virginia humidity bearing down on her, Kim trained through six weeks of OCS, a rigorous program designed to break down and evaluate future officers of the Marine Corps, widely regarded as one of the most intense training regimens in the U.S.
Kim is a member of Hillsdale’s Marine Platoon Leader Class, a program for students that helps them become commissioned as Marine Corps officers upon graduation. But before they can receive a commission, students must complete two six-week summer sessions or a single 10-week session at OCS on the Marine Corps Base in Quantico, Virginia.
When Kim arrived at Quantico for her second six-week session last May, the pressure and intensity began immediately.
“As soon as the instructors introduce themselves, all hell breaks loose,” Kim said. “They start screaming, you start screaming, and the instructors are making everyone run around to try to cause friction and stress in you.”
Kim said, above all, OCS is a test of strength and character.
“The point is to see if you can take it all,” Kim said. “You just get used to being aggressive toward people and having them come up to your face and yelling, sometimes literally with spittle raining down on you.”
Junior Macartan Moore, who underwent the first of his six-week sessions at OCS as a sophomore and plans to return this summer, described OCS as challenging and hard, but also rewarding.
“It’s the funniest place you can’t laugh at,” Moore said. “They yell at you. They make you do some push-ups. They make you hold things above your head for a long period of time, and then sometimes do a collective punishment if someone else messes up. Ultimately, it’s a part of the bonding experience between you and your platoon. You get to work as a unit in order to be better. There are no lone wolves in that.”
Senior David Meyers, who has completed all of his sessions at OCS, said the main lesson OCS taught him is that everyone is responsible for one another in the Marine Corps.
“While OCS is grueling, it is more than feasible to complete all the physical challenges with a little perseverance,” Meyers said. “What was more difficult was to look out for other candidates who were struggling, all while you are under the stress of weather, physical exertion, and screaming instructors.”
Moore said OCS has given him the ability to build his life around service.
“It gives me purpose,” Moore said. “I believe that everyone should go through something like that at some point in their life.”
Kim, along with Meyers and three other Hillsdale seniors, is set to commission into the Marine Corps as officers upon the morning of graduation on May 9. She said that above all, her experience in officer candidate training has shaped her leadership, personality, and faith.
“I think God taught me a lot about having confidence in him, being able to confront hard things, having had conversations, and being a better leader,” Kim said. “If you are considering being a Marine officer, that’s a weighty thing, and you’re part of a noble tradition and something that’s greater than yourself.”
