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Insider Scoop on Navy OCS

scottwith1t

east coast
pilot
if there is to be one benefit of student pool its that its basically an orgy. LOTS of action being had in that hallway...
 

Flugelman

Well-Known Member
Contributor
...words... ...at least, as much as a Chief ever respects JO's!!:icon_wink
I always had respect for the JO, until they proved themselves un-worthy of that respect by lying or other despicable behavior. Rarely happened but there were a couple of cases. The senior enlisted folk have heard most of it and will know...
 

Nikki2184

Member
A Chief I know has a cartoon up on his desk....It shows a JO talking to a Chief and asking "So, a Chief can become an officer, why can't an officer become a Chief?" The Chief tells him "Because we have standards." :)

I was mainly joking, just meant that when you've been in the Navy since breakfast (like yours truely!), there are a lot of real Navy experiences you haven't had yet, like a westpac, IA or earning a pin or whatever, so your opinion is weighed accordingly, as it rightly should be.
 

Spekkio

He bowls overhand.
Let's be honest. An officer candidate doesn't REALLY do anything to prove their worth as an officer. You can graduate making only the decisions that are obviously necessary to survive the program. You could throw people under the bus, not take care of your classmates, have a horrible attitude, and still graduate if you went about it the right(wrong?) way. OCS is hard, but it REALLY DOES boil down to speed, volume, intensity. If you can do those three things it doesn't matter what kind of leader / person you are, you can get through OCS. Maybe this was not true about AOCS and in Pcola, but it is from what I observed. OCS seems to me more about prooving you want to be an officer enough to put up with the BS than anything else.
If becoming an officer is that easy, then there's no reason to DOR.

So, when I show up to OCS and I'm being treated like an E1 all over again, it was a bit degrading. When I had a 22 year old college kid yelling at me, telling me to stand at attention, I wanted to punch him in the throat and go back to my squadron. Just saying, for a prior, it's easy to DOR. It doesn't necessarily mean he was a spineless quitter, just that he already had a great career and didn't need to go through the bs. Hopefully, my perspective gives you some insight as to why it might happen. I seriously don't think it would do anything to deminish the respect they get from their Sailors. A Chief is still a Chief and they've been leading Sailors for a long time, so shouldn't be an issue.
If I were an enlisted sailor, not knowing anything about what goes on at OCS, I would lose respect for a man who DOR'ed at OCS just because they already had a good career. What you just posted boils down to that they had a goal and decided not to pursue it because it was hard.
 

bb1125

Member
None
If I were an enlisted sailor, not knowing anything about what goes on at OCS, I would lose respect for a man who DOR'ed at OCS just because they already had a good career. What you just posted boils down to that they had a goal and decided not to pursue it because it was hard.
Well, I think you missed my point. Becoming an officer isn't the end all, be all ultimate goal of every Sailor. Personally, I had to be pushed quite a bit from officers in my command to actually put in a package. I know a lot of other priors that were the same way. It's not like I'd be crying in the corner if I were still enlisted. I loved it and I actually miss it at times. I know that may sound weird to some kids that wanted to be an officer since they were 6 years old, but that's the way it is for a lot of us. So, it wouldn't be that hard for a prior with that same mindset to DOR.

Now to expound on the respect argument. I really don't think it would be an issue. Once you get to the fleet(I'm just assuming you're not there yet), you'll see that 99% of Sailors have more respect for an anchor than a butter bar. That comes from the role of the Chief rather than the rank. Dropping out of OCS wouldn't change that, in my opinion. Well, that's enough beating the dead horse. Maybe we'll just have to agree to disagree.
 

lmnop

Active Member
If I were an enlisted sailor, not knowing anything about what goes on at OCS, I would lose respect for a man who DOR'ed at OCS just because they already had a good career. What you just posted boils down to that they had a goal and decided not to pursue it because it was hard.

But you're not, so all of this is just mental masturbation. I worked for a Senior Chief that attrited from OCS by way of the DOR. I had the utmost respect for the man regardless of HIS choices regarding HIS career. OCS and the subsequent wardroom shenanigans aren't for everyone. I fail to understand why so many OCS grads feel the need to paint that particular course of instruction as the end-all be-all career achievement.
 

BACONATOR

Well-Known Member
pilot
Contributor
But you're not, so all of this is just mental masturbation. I worked for a Senior Chief that attrited from OCS by way of the DOR. I had the utmost respect for the man regardless of HIS choices regarding HIS career. OCS and the subsequent wardroom shenanigans aren't for everyone. I fail to understand why so many OCS grads feel the need to paint that particular course of instruction as the end-all be-all career achievement.

You make a good point. 12 weeks of 3 square meals (hot ones, too), forced PT, self-improvement, and relatively no responsibility beyond speed, volume and intensity is probably very little in the scheme of things. I imagine a deployment, IA, leading a division etc etc are far more difficult (granted, in different ways) than a trip to OCS.

It's not as if it's a secret. We heard from day one "This is the EASY part. It only gets harder in the fleet!"


Well, maybe AFTER flight school.... :D
 

utak

Registered User
If becoming an officer is that easy, then there's no reason to DOR.

If I were an enlisted sailor, not knowing anything about what goes on at OCS, I would lose respect for a man who DOR'ed at OCS just because they already had a good career. What you just posted boils down to that they had a goal and decided not to pursue it because it was hard.

You can't put it all in just black and white.

If a prior quits because he loves his job and wants to be a deckplate leader and supervise people up close and personally rather then being a manager, then more power to him, he left with his head held high. If working with enlisted sailors and seeing that young E-1 just out of high school and seeing him/her mature into to a veteran Petty Officer or Chief is his thing, then let him do it, cause that's a reward in itself, something money can't buy.

But if a prior quits because he couldn't take the physical aspect, then to hell with them, because that boils down to "I'm fat and I didn't prepare." Send them back to where they came, and they'll end up making up some B.S. story and lie to everyone who would listen to them about how they got "hurt" or "NPQ" or "screwed" or had "family issues".
 

Spekkio

He bowls overhand.
If a prior quits because he loves his job and wants to be a deckplate leader and supervise people up close and personally rather then being a manager, then more power to him, he left with his head held high. If working with enlisted sailors and seeing that young E-1 just out of high school and seeing him/her mature into to a veteran Petty Officer or Chief is his thing, then let him do it, cause that's a reward in itself, something money can't buy.

I fail to understand why so many OCS grads feel the need to paint that particular course of instruction as the end-all be-all career achievement.
I suppose, then, that I don't understand why said person would apply for a commission in the first place. There is very little at OCS that mimics being an officer, so I don't understand why it would suddenly give someone a change of heart in that respect, especially when chiefs have exposure to the types of duties officers do in the fleet prior to applying.

I don't think that there's anything wrong with pursuing an enlisted career path, mind you.
 

edgarw38

New Member
confessions of an OCS dopout

I can completely relate to the original post, since I was standing right next to him in Chief Drill instructor's office, and I DOR'd about 1 minute after he did. He can tell you all about our exciting adventures in student pool.

I had some different reasons behind my decision. I had just returned from a 9 month deployment, and turned around and left for OCS a month after I got back. The scene that kept going through my mind was my 5 year old daughter crying at the airport because daddy just got home, and was leaving again. It was simply too soon emotionally to try to tackle something like OCS, and my mind was not in Newport, it was at home.

Whatever the reason, though, the bottom line is I didn't make it, and it really was nobody's fault but my own.

It's all hindsight now, anyway. I always tell anyone when it comes up that if you meet anyone that has completed Navy OCS, they have earned it!
 

picklesuit

Dirty Hinge
pilot
Contributor
When I went to OCS, I was an AW2, was basically PQS complete, and just had to do my board to be qualified. I had advanced quickly, had a promising career in the back of the Toob, and was getting ready to go on deployment for the first time with an awesome aircrew (CAC-8 baby!) at a great squadron that was on top of its game...basically one of the best parts of being enlisted...I had a wife who was pregnant, we were broke, and we had to go to NMCRS to pay the electric bill 4 weeks into OCS...

When I was hating life, had just failed RLP, missed my wife/dog/freedom, and was sick of being the embarrassment of the class (I was a little weak, to say the least) it was my junior enlisted shipmates that helped keep me in there. I could not face them having failed. I saw DOR'ing as failure, no matter what the circumstances. I am a believer that you finish what you start. I took someone elses spot to go to OCS, that guy may have been the next CNO, if he had a chance...but I was there instead.

I had three officers who signed their name to my LOR's saying how good I was, basically putting their reputation behind my success. I had 2 different skippers write great letters for me...including the current skipper of the squadron I would have returned to if I had DOR'd...what would I tell him? How the fuck would I ever expect to earn an EP from him again?

Anyone who thinks you can just return to your old life as another "deckplate sailor" (or topside toob-slug in my case) is kidding themselves. The Navy is a small world, and once you get a reputation, it follows you. A shitbag is a shitbag, and a hot-shit dude is hot-shit until they prove otherwise....you put it out that you are not good enough to be a simple butter-bar good luck explaining to the goat-locker that you are worthy of joining them...
 

utak

Registered User
Anyone who thinks you can just return to your old life as another "deckplate sailor" (or topside toob-slug in my case) is kidding themselves. The Navy is a small world, and once you get a reputation, it follows you. A shitbag is a shitbag, and a hot-shit dude is hot-shit until they prove otherwise....you put it out that you are not good enough to be a simple butter-bar good luck explaining to the goat-locker that you are worthy of joining them...

It's really easy for that E-6 LPO or Chief who DORs. Any junior or lower-ranking guy who questions them or starts making waves on why they DOR'ed from OCS, just gets screwed with extra duty, EMI, or perhaps no liberty or lots of night watches on the watchbill. The LPO or Chief also has the option of using that tried and true, time-honored fashion called "pulling rank", when they talk to that person up close and say "Shipmate (cause there's no better way of talking down to a subordinate using that term, cause it lets them know that you don't acknowledge them enough to call them by their actual name). . . I'm an E-6, you're just an E-3. You don't know sh*t, I do."

And if it comes to an issue, they just get screwed on the next fitrep/eval, or their division ranking magically just gets lower. And of course, it's the LPO/Chief who gets to write/rank them. Then their evals are backed up and signed off by the SWOs, who of course, are so tight ass that they just believe whatever the LPO/Chief says and never say anything different, cause the SWO mentality is to never question anything or make waves.

It's how the Fleet works :tongue2_1

-extremely sarcastic and cynical Nick

(note, the above comment was meant as an over the top and extremely cynical mockery, it in no way reflects what I really think about the issue)
 
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