ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Officer candidate school

Officer Candidate School (OCS) is like a big school where grown-up people go to learn how to be leaders in the military.

To go to OCS, you need to be a special kind of person called an officer candidate. That means you want to be a leader in the military and you've taken some important tests and made some good choices to show that you have the potential to be a great leader.

When you get to OCS, you'll meet lots of other officer candidates who are just like you. Together, you'll learn all sorts of important things like how to lead a team of people, how to make decisions when things are tough, how to stay strong in difficult situations, and how to use military equipment.

OCS is a little bit like a school playground, but it's also kind of like a military boot camp. That means you'll have to follow lots of rules and do things like wake up really early and exercise a lot. But this is all to help you become a strong and dependable leader.

If you work really hard and do everything you're supposed to do, then you might graduate from OCS and become a real officer in the military. And that means you'll have lots of important responsibilities, but you'll also have the power to lead and help lots of people.
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