Welcome to "What's After Boot™", a community for parents, spouses, and family memers of newly graduated Marines. This program of MarineParents.com will help answer some of the questions you and/or your new Marine may have about what to expect after bootcamp.

Before your new Marine can be assigned to a "Permanent Duty Station", s/he must complete additional training. After graduation from Recruit Training, all Marines will complete at least two additional types of training and schooling:

• SOI: School of Infantry
  This is step one after bootcamp. All Marines, male and female, will attend the School of Infantry. Those who graduated from MCRD Parris Island will attend SOI/East. Those who graduated from MCRD San Diego will attend SOI/West.

• MOS: Military Occupational Specialty
  After graduation from SOI, your Marine will go on to training for his/her Military Occupational Specialty, or MOS. Each MOS will entail different lengths of schooling, requirements for graduation, and locations.

PDS: Permanent Duty Station
Your Marine will NOT be assigned to a PDS until after he or she has successfully completed both SOI and MOS. After all the schooling is complete, your Marine will be assigned to a "Unit" which will have a "PDS", or permanent duty station. Until that time, your Marine needs to travel light and only take necessities with him/her from one training location to another. Storage is minimal, particularly at SOI where Marines continue to live in squad bays. Valuables should not be taken with them to SOI.