QUANTCO, Va. — The top man in charge of Quantico’s Officer’s Candidate School, where three Marines died in March, is out of a job.
The Marine Corps Times reports decorated infantry officer Col. Kris Stillings was relieved of command Monday. Stillings was selected to lead OCS two years ago, but officials told the corps newspaper the decision to relieve him was a “painful” one that “boiled down to accountability.”
In the late evening hours of March 22, Quantico and the surrounding area was rocked with the sound of gunfire that emanated from inside the OCS barracks. The base was placed on lock down, with many Marines and their families living on base being told to stay indoors and heed warnings delivered over a large loudspeaker known as Giant Voice.
By sunrise the next morning, word was given that an armed staff member at OCS, Sergeant Eusebio Lopez, 25, of Pacifica, Calif. shot and killed Lance Cpl. Sara Castromata, 19, of Oakley, Calif., and Corporal Jacob Wooley, 23, of Guntown, Miss.
