MARINE CORPS BASE QUANTICO, Va. -- The Corps’ newest officers were sworn in Dec. 14 by Gen. James F. Amos, commandant of the Marine Corps, in a ceremony at the National Museum of the Marine Corps.
Before administering the oath of office, Amos told the 99 members of the Officer Candidates School’s Charlie Co. that they should feel both the weight of the responsibility they were undertaking and the pride of having earned the right to wear the eagle, globe and anchor of the Marine Corps insignia.
As an example of an officer’s high standards and profound duty, he read from a citation for a Marine Corps lieutenant receiving the Bronze Star for heroic service in combat against the enemy, detailing the explosive devices uncovered and insurgents eliminated during the more than 600 combat patrols the young officer had coordinated and executed in the Helmand Province of Afghanistan.
“I can’t begin to tell you how many of these kinds of citations I’ve read over the last decade,” Amos said.
“It’s not so much a matter of the fact that I need you,” he continued. “Rather, it’s the lance corporals, the [privates first class] and the young NCOs.” Those Marines and their parents, Amos said, have high expectations of the Corps’ officers.
He noted that most of the graduating candidates were only finishing grade school when terrorists perpetrated the 9/11 attacks, uniting the country against a common enemy. As the War on Terror continues more than a decade later, he said, “you’ve stepped forward to serve in the toughest service in a time of war.”
Amos thanked the OCS staff and leadership for training and shaping the new officers.
“They leave here today as champions,” he said. “They have overcome.”
To the family members filling the floor, stairways and balconies of the museum’s atrium, he said, “Congratulations. Thank you for loaning us your sons and your daughters, and thank you for raising young men and women of honor and character.”
— Writer: mdicicco@quanticosentryonline.com