One of Us: Officers of Marines--Their Training, Traditions, and Values

(Hardback)

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This engaging book plunges readers into the culture shock of Marine Officer Candidates School, a ten-week physical, intellectual, and emotional testing ground so grueling that every fourth candidate fails to complete. What does it take to become a Marine Officer This engaging book transports readers through the culture shock of Marine Officer Candidates School, a ten-week physical, intellectual, and emotional testing ground that every fourth candidate fails to complete. The Sergeant Instructors' intensity is palpable as candidates are made to strip away civilian habits and attitudes, replacing them the Marine Corps ethos in the hopes of becoming officers. Anecdotes and personal recollections of OCS by two generations of officers provide instructive, poignant, and humorous interludes for the reader. A second focus of the book involves research into the demographics, attitudes, and opinions of two groups of officers, separated in time by 50 years. This comparison across a wide range of personal and social issues and beliefs renders some surprising results that lie in opposition to conventional wisdom. From the older generation, the reader will better understand the lifelong impact of the Marine leadership experience. From today's officers, the reader will discover the motivations of today's allegedly soft and coddled young people to follow the difficult path to a lieutenant's gold bars. This book is required reading for anyone with an interest in the Marine Corps and its culture.

Reviews

"It's a must read for...anyone who is trying to understand the changes that have made the Corps today a finer fighting force than it has ever been."-Ed Fouhy, stateline.org
One of Us is a solid line of departure for further examination of how the Corps selects, screens, and indoctrinates its officers. It reinforces what Xenophon wrote centuries ago, "No one can be a good officer who does not undergo more than those he commands."-Marine Corps Gazette
Social scientists will wish there were some expository notes and willl regret that the index and bibliography are cursory. This will not diminish the enjoyment of readers who want to be reassured that essential ethic of the marine corps endures and is being passed on to future generations of Marine leaders.-Proceedings
"One of Us is a solid line of departure for further examination of how the Corps selects, screens, and indoctrinates its officers. It reinforces what Xenophon wrote centuries ago, "No one can be a good officer who does not undergo more than those he commands.""-Marine Corps Gazette
"Social scientists will wish there were some expository notes and willl regret that the index and bibliography are cursory. This will not diminish the enjoyment of readers who want to be reassured that essential ethic of the marine corps endures and is being passed on to future generations of Marine leaders."-Proceedings

Author Bio

JACK RUPPERT is Director of Ruppert Associates of Cincinnati, Ohio.