MARINE CORPS BASE QUANTICO, Va. (Feb 25.) -- MARINE CORPS BASE QUANTICO, Va. (Feb 25.) – Headquarters and Service Battalion’s first sponsored Corporals Course graduated on Monday returning 28 empowered noncommissioned officers and one lance corporal to units across the base.
The young warfighters of Corporals Course 602-13 spent three weeks with instructors learning various aspects of the NCO corps such as history of the Marine NCO, ceremonial responsibilities, combat fitness and more. For the Marines in the course, progress was gauged by multiple tests and evaluated by squad mentors who were with them each step of the way.
“Our role as squad mentors was to advise and lead the Marines,” said Sgt. Anthony Fajardo Jr., training chief for Combat Development Company, Headquarters and Service Battalion, who served as First Squad’s Mentor. “We also counseled the Marines and helped keep the physical training on track.”
Fajardo, when asked to participate as an advisor, accepted gladly. “The course is put in place for a reason,” Fajardo said. “It’s not to make corporals, but to guide them in the right direction as far as learning the basics one might encounter in a unit or section.”
Although the majority of the participants are corporals, lance corporals due to be promoted may also attend the course.
“Getting everything together was one of the hardest parts of the course,” said Gunnery Sgt. Jonathan Graham, the staff noncommissioned officer-in-charge of the course. “I had to print off all of the packets myself and get all of the gear we would need: the radios, swords, guidons, all of it.”
Cpl. Oscar Turcios, who serves as noncommissioned officer-in-charge of the Repairable Issue Point, Service Company, graduated as the Honor Graduate above 28 of his peers due to his advanced level of physical fitness and dedication as the platoon guide.
“It feels good to be honor graduate,” Turcios said. “You know you studied and tried hard, and then you get rewarded for it. It makes you feel good.”
According to Turcios, he learned a great deal about leadership, including the ins-and-outs of sword manual and guidon manual. He also learned where an NCOs power comes from historically.
“I think they were trying to define the line between a lance corporal and an NCO,” Turcios said. “They were showing us our responsibilities as NCOs and that we should know how to mentor and counsel, how to use the sword and guidon, how to direct a fire team in combat and so many other things a corporal of Marines should know.”
According to Graham, the course not only builds on foundations for leadership, but also allows a Marine to meet peers on whom he can rely wherever he goes in his career.
“Aside from teaching everything that we do, the course is about learning who your peers are,” Graham said. “The Marines you meet in academies throughout your career will be able to help you time and time again.”
The biggest lesson Graham wanted the young Marines to take away from the course is it’s not always about you or your job, but rather it’s about the Corps and taking care of your Marines.
The next Corporals Course is slated for May, and will have a few changes to the curriculum, primarily to make it more current to the Marine Corps and what is used today. Also, according to Graham, a more rigorous PT schedule and more time for drill would be added.
With the graduation of Corporals Course 602-13, 29 Marines were released back into Quantico with a refreshed point of review on the power of an NCO, their responsibilities to their units, and their responsibilities to the Corps.
Correspondent: Paris.Capers@usmc.mil