The Officer Candidates School has lead the way in training the Corps’ future leaders and, on top of that, they have been training their Marines to constantly improve their ethical knowledge during their Ethical Decision Game training that has been in place since Oct. 12, 2012.

Last year, the Marine Administrative Message 362/12 directed commanding officers to implement ethics training for all Marines within their command. Soon after, the leaders at OCS began pushing for all of their Marines to participate in EDG training to help Marines engage in ethical decision-making processes, and participate in on-going discussion and debate.

 For nearly six months, OCS has trained Marines using EDG training. The training is an hourlong guided discussion on various topics such as leadership traits. The Marines are also given a scenario and discuss in detail, how they would handle the situation and the effects it could have on the unit.

The Operations section at OCS discussed a scenario Feb. 21 about a non-commissioned officer who had been meritoriously promoted, but ended up failing on a drug test. The EDG training is meant to guide Marines’ of all ranks through the “what ifs?” and “what would you do if you were in this Marines’ chain of command?” type questions.

 “This allows the Marines to voice their opinion and see more experienced staff non-commissioned officers’ and officers’ points of view and reasoning behind how they would handle common problems within unit,” said Sgt. James McGregor, information system coordinator, OCS. “Some Marines might not know how to attack the problem, but these discussions, help them learn a new way to address problems that may occur in their journey throughout the Corps.”

The command at OCS has made this training mandatory. Every month, Marines at OCS participate in the EDG training.

“As Marines, we must have a foundation based on virtue and doing the right thing, always,” said Capt. Brook Ashford, operations officer, OCS.  “These decision games help us to think through situations that some may have faced, in their Marine Corps careers. When we are faced with an ethical decision, we will know how to handle it based on the foundation that we have laid for ourselves through study and the leadership guidance here at Officer Candidates School.”