January 3, 2010

I reported to Naval Education Training Center, Newport, RI for twelve weeks of OCS, Officer Candidate School, on January 3, 2010 at about 8:30 in the morning.  I picked up a guy in my hotel and another at a different hotel and away we went.  On the way we speculated about what the next twelve weeks of our lives would be like.  Well, we were basically all wrong.

I was part of class 12-10.  The twelfth class of the fiscal year, 2010.  I was in Hotel Company.  My sister company was Golf Company.  There were 48 people in my company on that first day.  There should have been 50.  The first day was a lot of admin stuff in the morning then it all began.  Yelling, pivoting, and moving quickly while never looking anyone in the eye was the norm for the next few weeks.

My class was the fourth class in the new program.  It focused very heavily on academics and there were some schedule changes.  The first 3 weeks were Military Indoctrination.  The next 6 weeks were Academics and the last 3 weeks were Candidate Officer.  All three weeks at the beginning were dedicated to the first inspection, RLP, Room Locker Personnel.  Nothing but stamping my name, folding, picking fuzzies and dust off, and clipping all the little strings from the stitches was happening.  Meanwhile, I got up at 4:50, with Reveille at 5:00, to make my "rack" or bed and put my shoes on.  I would sleep in my PT, Physical Training,  gear and when the alarm would go off, I would sit up, turn to my right and slip my "go-fasters" on.  We would PT until about 6:30 or 7:00 and then shower.  Breakfast took about an hour, but we only had 20 minutes to eat.  And that was a 10 step process to take one bite and have one drink all with my left hand and a spoon, which was kept on the right side of my plate.  Lunch came about 11:30 and dinner was 5:30.  We would work on our RLP preparation until Taps at 10:00.

I failed my first inspection because of a missing item, but it was for the best.  My re-inspection came with a price.  My Chief Petty Officer for my company made me do so many jumping jacks, leg lifts, and many other things.  It hurt, but I passed very easily this time.  The Drill Instructor was the one who failed me.  I'm on the left of the picture with the big glasses.

Academics came soon enough and I was learning away.  I had four classes: Sea Power (Naval History), Engineering and Weapons Systems, Navigation, and Seamanship.  There were midterm tests and final tests.  I scored well on all of them.  Even though academics was going on, I still had another inspection to prepare for and homework to do for the classes.  I didn't get by so easily on this one.  But, I did pass.

The last three weeks were just about the worst.  Waking up at 4:50 each morning I would come to find a luxury.  As a Candidate Officer, it was my job to help run the place and teach the students below me.  I was up at 4, sometimes 4:15 each morning and going to bed at 11 or 11:30 each night.  But, I could basically do whatever I wanted.  I was the Battalion II adjutant.  All I had to do was make sure the two classes below me in Battalion II had their reports in each day.  These kids had it figured out, so I spent my time teaching them Seamanship and Navigation in their off time.  I helped with inspection preparation and passed on everything I could.  I enjoyed it and I also got to wear my khaki uniform to church, a big plus.  I also could finally wear my personal glasses.

There's so much more that I can say about OCS.  It was the hardest/easiest thing I have ever done.  The hardest because I had never ran so much in my life (95% of the time it was inside up and down stairs), but it wasn't intense every minute of every day.  There were down times were I found time to smile and pick myself up from being frustrated about the day.  I would not trade any experience for it and I'm glad to say I've been through it.  If there's anything I've not covered, drop a line and I'll get to it.