Dylan Gurl is flanked my his mother Anthea Perkinson and father Shaun Gurl after graduating from Marine Corps Officer Candidate School.

Dylan Gurl of Pelham, New York graduated from Marine Corps Officer Candidate School in Quantico, Virginia on August 3, 2024.

Dylan will be commissioned as a Marine Corps 2^nd Lieutenant after completing his senior year at William & Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia, in May 2025. Dylan, a dual economics and public policy major, will then begin a four-year active-duty commitment to the Marine Corps.

The Marine Corps Officer Candidate School—whose motto is “We Make Marine Officers”—is a grueling 10-week course that tests the limits of candidates’ physical and mental toughness. Just 309 of the 490 candidates selected for Dylan’s OCS class graduated.

Dylan, son of Anthea Perkinson and Shaun Gurl, grew up in Pelham and graduated from Pelham Memorial High School in 2019. At PMHS, Dylan held leadership roles in the band and the Military History Club, was a member of the National Honor Society and received both the Campbell Whitford Scholarship Award and the Lt. Joseph G. Leavey Memorial Scholarship upon graduation. He was also an active member of the Boy Scouts Troop 1 as Senior Patrol Leader and later earned the rank of Eagle Scout.

When Covid disrupted his freshman year, Dylan put his college studies on hold. He first worked in a warehouse and as a school janitor, then joined the AmeriCorps National Civil Community Corps performing service projects in communities throughout the Midwest. Dylan subsequently joined the AmeriCorps City Year program for six months, working long but fulfilling days as a teacher’s aide and after-school program manager in a public middle school in the Bronx.

Once commissioned, Dylan will report back to Quantico for the Marine Corps officer training course called The Basic School (TBS). TBS is six months of all-around combat training that teaches newly-commissioned 2^nd Lieutenants skills like leading combat fire teams, weapons qualifications and land navigation. After TBS, 2^nd Lieutenants then are assigned to a specialty school (e.g. Infantry, Field Artillery, Flight School, etc.) for at least four additional months of training based on preference and class ranking.

Dylan is following in the footsteps of his grandfather, John T. Gurl, who graduated from OCS in Quantico in 1959 and was commissioned as a Marine Corps officer upon his own college graduation in 1960. He spent nearly eight years on active duty as a Marine Corps aviator before joining the USMC Reserves and eventually retiring with the rank of Major.

Editor’s note: This announcement was provided by the family.