United States Marine Corps School of Infantry - History

History

Prior to 1953, there was no formal infantry training in the Marine Corps, and all Marines received combat training at recruit training. The Marine Corps established Infantry Training Regiments at Camp Lejeune and Camp Pendleton in that year. Between 1965 & 1971, Marines assigned a non-infantry specialty were receiving only two weeks of Infantry Combat Training while their infantry counterparts were training for four to six weeks. In 1971, infantry skills training for non-infantry Marines was folded into recruit training and entailed only 60 training hours. During the late 70's & 80's Marines assigned an Infantry MOS went to Infantry Training School, commonly referred to as "ITS". This lasted until the Marine Corps established Marine Combat Training as a 28-day course in 1988 to teach rifleman skills to all male Marines. In 1996, the 2nd Marine Division disbanded Division Schools, passing the role of advanced infantry training to the newly established Advanced Infantry Training Company at the School of Infantry (SOI). Prior to 1997, only male Marines were trained at SOI schools; females went directly to their MOS schools.