summering in newport... its an east coast dream... unless you're at ocs, then i
ts a nightmare. until you graduate,then it's amusing... or when you're in your final weeks and you're a candidate officer (candi-0). the progression of ocs is, indoctrination candidate, officer candidate,
candidate officer. the first day is fun. you show up and candi-os yell at you. they get you processed in, and try to get you ready for when you meet your drill instructor. that first wednesday you meet your DI, and
then the real fun begins... the first week is mostly about learning the fundamentals of military life. including a fun filled and action packed guided tour around the building... inside and out. and then, suddenly, you're no longer an indoctrination candidate. you've bearcrawled your
way into officer candidate status. weeks two, three, and four are geared towards preparing for RLP, the room, locker, and personel inspection. once you've gotten through that, you have a 95% completon rate with your class. as long as you dont get hurt or do something stupid, you'll graduate on time. RLP is fun because the drill instructors come and make you do exercise while going through all your things and making sure everything is exactly so. shirts folded to a certain level, shoes shined, and no dirt inside the inside of the soles. you have to have an 80 to pass, and you get a chance thursday, and if you fail that, then you do it again saturday... our class lost 5 of
45 to RLP. once RLP is finished, its like a weight has been taken off your shoulders. after RLP academics begin. each week a new course, naval warfare, engineering, maneuvering boards, and navigation. each week you have another fun filled thing to do the same day as the test. engineering we had 6th week personel inspection, and mo-boards we had rifle drill, and navigation we had 8th week PI... and then, after 8th week PI, we were almost done.
but it all seemed so far away.
6th week PI is in our wash khakis, and the Chiefs come and inspect your uniform and ask you questions about things we needed to know like the chain of command, general orders of a sentry, and the code of conduct. it was fun. after 6th week PI, the next major event was rifle drill. we'd practiced a long time with our M-1 rifles for the manual of arms, and after that, we got liberty. which was nice.
the first time we got off-base liberty we got to go into town an
d eat ice cream. which was awesome. the weeks went on, we were in a routine by then, wake up at 430, get ready for pt, go and run 3.5 miles or so, eat breakfast, go to class, eat lunch, go to class, eat dinner, clean the building, read/write letters, shower, go to sleep. repeat.
when the 8th week came, we had 8th week PI, we graded ourselv
es now. this was one of our final evolutions. out-pfa, victory run, and candi-o phase. candi-o phase we ran the regiment, we made sure people got to class, took care of problems, and got the privileges that went with it, living in the slightly nicer barracks... nicer because there were fewer people AND a big computer lab... and then, we were ensigns. and we all packed up, and went our seperate ways. the subs and suppos went home, the aviators to pensacola, and the cec's to their duty stations. the swos, went across the base. collected our two weeks leave chits and went wherever and then came back for 3 weeks of swos intro, and then to our ships.
ts a nightmare. until you graduate,then it's amusing... or when you're in your final weeks and you're a candidate officer (candi-0). the progression of ocs is, indoctrination candidate, officer candidate, 
candidate officer. the first day is fun. you show up and candi-os yell at you. they get you processed in, and try to get you ready for when you meet your drill instructor. that first wednesday you meet your DI, and
then the real fun begins... the first week is mostly about learning the fundamentals of military life. including a fun filled and action packed guided tour around the building... inside and out. and then, suddenly, you're no longer an indoctrination candidate. you've bearcrawled your 
way into officer candidate status. weeks two, three, and four are geared towards preparing for RLP, the room, locker, and personel inspection. once you've gotten through that, you have a 95% completon rate with your class. as long as you dont get hurt or do something stupid, you'll graduate on time. RLP is fun because the drill instructors come and make you do exercise while going through all your things and making sure everything is exactly so. shirts folded to a certain level, shoes shined, and no dirt inside the inside of the soles. you have to have an 80 to pass, and you get a chance thursday, and if you fail that, then you do it again saturday... our class lost 5 of 
45 to RLP. once RLP is finished, its like a weight has been taken off your shoulders. after RLP academics begin. each week a new course, naval warfare, engineering, maneuvering boards, and navigation. each week you have another fun filled thing to do the same day as the test. engineering we had 6th week personel inspection, and mo-boards we had rifle drill, and navigation we had 8th week PI... and then, after 8th week PI, we were almost done. 
but it all seemed so far away.
6th week PI is in our wash khakis, and the Chiefs come and inspect your uniform and ask you questions about things we needed to know like the chain of command, general orders of a sentry, and the code of conduct. it was fun. after 6th week PI, the next major event was rifle drill. we'd practiced a long time with our M-1 rifles for the manual of arms, and after that, we got liberty. which was nice. 
the first time we got off-base liberty we got to go into town an
d eat ice cream. which was awesome. the weeks went on, we were in a routine by then, wake up at 430, get ready for pt, go and run 3.5 miles or so, eat breakfast, go to class, eat lunch, go to class, eat dinner, clean the building, read/write letters, shower, go to sleep. repeat.
when the 8th week came, we had 8th week PI, we graded ourselv
es now. this was one of our final evolutions. out-pfa, victory run, and candi-o phase. candi-o phase we ran the regiment, we made sure people got to class, took care of problems, and got the privileges that went with it, living in the slightly nicer barracks... nicer because there were fewer people AND a big computer lab... and then, we were ensigns. and we all packed up, and went our seperate ways. the subs and suppos went home, the aviators to pensacola, and the cec's to their duty stations. the swos, went across the base. collected our two weeks leave chits and went wherever and then came back for 3 weeks of swos intro, and then to our ships.
