Marines excel in MARSOC prep course - Marine Corps News | News from Afghanistan & Iraq - Marine Corps Times

Marines excel in MARSOC prep course

Results from the first prep course designed to help Marines get in shape for the grueling special operations Assessment and Selection process showed a promising rate of success.

Of 91 Marines who reported to Camp Lejeune, N.C., in mid-September for the new 21-day Assessment and Selection Preparation and Orientation Course, 84 did well enough to make it to the next step to becoming an operator: the 19-day Assessment and Selection process, according to Marine Corps Forces Special Operations Command.

During the three weeks of ASPOC, the Marines were taken through deliberate daily schedules that gradually moved them toward their peak mental and physical capabilities with a combination of strength conditioning and rest, lessons on boot and foot care, land navigation, hiking, running, swimming, fitness and nutrition.

The average point increase on the physical fitness test — gauged at the start of the course and the end — was 20 points, according to results compiled at ASPOC and provided to Marine Corps Times. Performance times on the swim assessment improved from 12 minutes, three seconds to 10 minutes, 53 seconds.

At the end of the three weeks, the average hike time was two hours and 50 minutes, well within the four hours allowed, according to results compiled at ASPOC and sent via e-mail from a MARSOC public affairs officer.

The jury is still out on how those 84 will perform during A&S, which will conclude around Oct. 30, but it is a shred of positive news for MARSOC, which has battled an average 46 percent washout rate among volunteers trying out to become critical skills operators.

MARSOC stood up in 2006 and is on track to meet its authorized strength of almost 2,700 by 2014. The jobs are open to any military occupational specialty in the Marine Air Ground Task Force.

But concerns from top leadership that the harsh screening process for becoming an operator was turning many hopeful Marines away prompted the command to establish the new prep course.

ASPOC is mandatory for candidates in the ranks of sergeant and below, which is MARSOC’s target population. But officers and staff noncommissioned officers may be required to attend once the course is reviewed and the cadre has a chance to evaluate what worked well and what more might be needed.

Breadth of expertise

Staffing the course are active-duty critical skills operators, former reconnaissance Marines and former Army Special Forces operators hired on contract.

The breadth of expertise allows for a coaching and mentoring environment and first-hand accounts on the realities of working in special operations, especially for Marines in military occupational specialties who may not have spent any significant time on the front lines.

But the first order of business at ASPOC is helping Marines to improve their chances of making it through the pre-A&S screening.

Here’s a look at how performance improved between Sept. 15 and Oct. 5, the dates of the first ASPOC, according to MARSOC-provided data. The official screening tests were administered Oct. 7 and Oct. 8. Those who failed any one event were ineligible to go to A&S.

• The average PFT score was 274, up from an average 254 at the start of ASPOC. The minimum requirement to pass is 225.

• Two out of four students who started ASPOC with swim technique difficulties did not pass the assessment, but the other two made the cut.

The swim test is performed barefoot in blouse and trousers. It consists of a 300-meter swim, a high-platform water entry and a water-tread drill of 15 minutes, the last four of which are used to fashion a flotation device from a piece of clothing.

• Five Marines failed to make the standard on either the PFT or swim requirements, and one Marine quit for personal reasons.

• On the second day of screening, 85 of the 91 original Marines continued on to the 12-mile hike, which is done with a 45-pound ruck with a four-hour time limit.

• By Oct. 9, 84 candidates were on a bus being transported to the A&S site after a seventh Marine dropped out.

• On or about Oct. 11, the Marines began going through the demanding A&S course, whose events and location are kept under wraps.

The course is intended as a kind of warm-up to help Marines get to a point of performance, but course leaders highly recommend that Marines coming to A&S use the 10-week MARSOC workout, highlighted in the July 12 issue of Marine Corps Times, to begin the process of getting into shape.

Marines are encouraged to arrive at ASPOC having completed about half the workout, and those who fail the pre-A&S screening are eligible to return for the next ASPOC, which begins Jan. 12.