[Saije]

Interesting article. I would imagine that there must be some surprises in who makes it and who doesn't.

[Former]

My son is there now.

[MSF BU]

"Arthur Colby, 20, of the District reached Quantico after a life in elite private schools, drawn by a sense of duty and patriotism that many of his peers consider antiquated, even strange."

Interesting that after five tries the Romney family never produced these sentiments in any of their five huskey sons.

[MSF BU]

So far not bad. The author would leave the uniformed reader with the impression though, that the men and women are going through the same training with the same standards. Nothing is further from the truth.

[offduty]

Back in the 70’s, I was in the Guard and went through a state-run OCS program. They allowed us to check in a night early. All night there was the sounds of soft elevator music and the click of the TAC staff's heel plates on hard floors. Needless to say, NO ONE got any sleep that night and by noon the next day we were lucky to remember our own names.It was a psychological hell on earth and I think those candidates have no clue what they are getting into. We lost 10 guys within 2 days. To this day, the sound of heel plates evoke a shiver running up my spine.

[pajama pundit]

This brings back one of those “I’m glad I did it, but don’t want to ever do that again” memories. I went through the “Combined Course” which was one 10 week period instead of two 6 week periods. After my experience it would have been very hard to get motivated to go back for the second 6 weeks.

Indeed the hardest part was the lack of sleep which for us averaged about 3 hours a night for the first two weeks.

[oh8eleven]

For the U.S. Marine Corps, this season's crop of candidates is vitally important.
For the U.S. Marine Corps, this EVERY season's crop of candidates is vitally important. Semper Fi ...

[A.A. Cunningham]

But 15 to 30 percent of the candidates usually wash out,

That would include the POS named Hollis French, Sarah Palin's "trooper-gate" nemesis in Alaska.

[opbuzz]

But 15 to 30 percent of the candidates usually wash out

In the early 70s it was about 50% the first summer and another 50% the second, so the overall pass rate was 25%.