The Basic School

The Basic School
The Basic School Insignia
Country	United States
Branch	USMC
Type	Training
Role	Train and educate newly commissioned or appointed United States Marine Corps Officers
Part of	Training and Education Command
Garrison/HQ	Camp Barrett, Virginia
Commanders
Current commander	Colonel Mark H. Clingan
Notable commanders	General James T. Conway General John R. Allen

General James T. Conway

The Basic School (TBS) is where all newly commissioned and appointed (for warrant officers) United States Marine Corps officers are taught the basics of being an "Officer of Marines". The Basic School is at Camp Barrett, Quantico, Virginia, in the south-west of the Marine Corps Base Quantico complex. Each year over 1,700 new officers are trained, representing such diverse commissioning sources as the U.S. Naval Academy, Naval ROTC, the Platoon Leaders Class program (PLC-Air, PLC-Ground, PLC-Law) for non-NROTC college and university students, Officer Candidates School, and Marine Corps Limited Duty Officer (LDO) and Warrant Officer accession programs.

The School's "Five Horizontal Themes" define the expectations of every student officer at TBS.

They are:

After earning a commission, Unrestricted Line Officer Marine lieutenants complete the Officer Basic Course prior to beginning their Military Occupational Speciality (MOS) qualification training to prepare them for service in the Fleet Marine Force or other operating forces assignments (viz., Marine Corps Security Force Regiment or the Marine Corps Embassy Security Group). The majority of Marine Corps officers are commissioned through the USMC Officer Candidate School (OCS), most of the balance are commissioned through the Marine Corps option at either the U.S. Naval Academy or the Naval Reserve Officer Training Corps (NROTC) at a civilian college or university. (Annually, there are a few officers who graduate from one of the other US federal service academies who are granted permission to receive USMC commissions.) Restricted Line/Limited Duty Officers are direct commissioned from the chief warrant officer ranks as either a first lieutenant or captain and do not attend BOC; however, as warrant officers they have already completed the WOBC at TBS prior to beginning their officer service in the operating forces.