HOW OFFICERS WERE OBTAINED.
The outbreak of war made it essential that the corps should be filled as far as practicable with officers who had had prior military experience and training, and immediate steps were taken to arrange for the designation and examination of Marine Corps warrant officers, noncommissioned officers, graduates of military colleges, and other civilians with military experience and training.
The appointment of officers subsequent to the declaration of war up to October, 1917, both for the permanent service and for the temporary increase authorized for the duration of the war, were drawn from the following sources:
| Graduates of the Naval Academy | 6 |
| Former officer of the Marine Corps | 1 |
| Former graduate of the Naval Academy | 1 |
| Warrant officers and paymaster’s clerks of the Marine Corps | 89 |
| Meritorious noncommissioned officers of the Marine Corps | 122 |
| Reserve officers and National Naval Volunteers | 36 |
| Graduates of military colleges | 284 |
| Other civilians with prior military or naval experience or training | 136 |
| Other civilians passing the competitive examination held July 10, 1917 | 86 |
In order to expedite the training of the new officers, advantage was taken of the law providing for a Marine Corps Reserve, and successful candidates were immediately enrolled as second lieutenants in the reserve and ordered to Marine Corps posts for instruction pending the issuance of their commissions in the regular service. Candidates designated for the examination held July 10, 1917, were authorized upon designation to enroll as privates in the Marine Corps Reserve, with the understanding that upon the completion of their examination they would be ordered to the Recruit Depot at Parris Island, S. C., for training pending the receipt of the report of the examining board. This policy was carried out, and the successful candidates were commissioned second lieutenants in the Marine Corps, while the unsuccessful candidates were given the option of continuing in the service as enlisted men or of being discharged therefrom.
Owing to the unusually large number of young men of excellent education and fine attainments who had enlisted in the Marine Corps after the outbreak of war, it was decided that no further appointments of civilians to the rank of second lieutenant would be made during the continuance of the war, and that all vacancies occurring in that grade, not required for graduates of the Naval Academy, would be filled by the promotion of meritorious noncommissioned officers. This decision was promulgated to the service in Marine Corps Orders No. 25 (Series 1917).