Caleb Bubash with retired Marine Corps Commandant Gen. James Amos.
If his close-cropped haircut doesn’t give him away, his vise-grip handshake or booming voice are likely to reveal that Caleb Bubash is not your typical college student: He’s also a U.S. Marine.
And if that alone is not enough to make you take notice, you should know that Bubash, a senior business administration major, is among the best of the best. Earlier this year, he was awarded the Marine Corps Commandant’s Trophy, a prestigious honor bestowed annually upon the top graduate from the corps’ Officer Candidate School (OCS) in Quantico, Va.
The 10-week training program is designed to test – and weed out – those who think they have what it takes to lead other Marines in battle. Based on his excellent academic performance, physical fitness and leadership, Bubash was singled out for the award among some 400 other officer candidates in his class this past summer. He is the first College of Charleston student to earn the award.
“I just worked hard,” he says. “I had no idea right until the point they told me.”
Upon his graduation from the College in May, Bubash will officially become a commissioned officer in the Marines. And about two weeks after commencement, he’ll marry his fiancé, CofC alumna Nicole Newman ’14.
Caleb Bubash with his fiancé Nicole Newman ’14. The couple is getting married on May 20, 2016.
A native of Easley, S.C., Bubash says he’s always wanted to be a Marine, and he’s had plenty of inspiration from other family members who’ve served in the military, including his older brother, a first lieutenant stationed at Camp Lejeune, N.C.
Bubash, 22, was so intent on becoming a Marine that he planned to enlist right out of high school before his parents and brother talked him out of it, encouraging him to attend college first and enter the Marines as an officer.
But after heading to The Citadel in 2011, he wound up enlisting in the Marine Corps Reserve, where he currently holds the rank of lance corporal. After two years at the military college and a one-year stint working construction, he transferred to CofC in 2014.
“I went to boot camp after my knob year at The Citadel,” he says. “I decided that would be good experience if I wanted to be an officer.”
But as difficult as boot camp was, he says OCS was even harder. A 4:30 a.m. wake-up, followed by physical training, drilling, land navigation, obstacle courses, road marches, classroom instruction and other demanding tasks would leave him and his fellow candidates struggling to keep their eyes open.
Caleb Bubash on a trip to the Bahamas.
Physically and mentally exhausted and wanting only to catch a few winks before the next morning’s wake-up, Bubash learned to push through fatigue, to crack his books and study for the numerous tests he had to take on topics ranging from military tactics and customs to courtesies and uniforms.
“That’s what makes OCS the hardest, I think, is doing the academics. To sit down and make yourself study late at night –11 or 12 o’clock, when you have to get up at 4:30, that’s the hardest part,” he says. “You are mentally exhausted and you have to push through it, and you have to decide if you really want to be there.”
Since winning the Commandant’s Trophy and returning to classes at the College this semester as well as a part-time job as an assistant accountant, Bubash says he tries to appreciate just how good life can be for a college student.
“It’s a huge change going from OCS back to here,” he says. “You appreciate the time you have here a lot more. You realize that with the academics here all you have to do is work hard, whereas at OCS it was exhausting. We have a lot more free time here than we often think we do.”
