Insider Scoop on Navy OCS

[Angry]

That's pretty gay. If the worst thing the CDO has to worry about is a candi-o staying up past their bedtime, then I'd say his watch is going pretty smoothly.

If memory serves, Candios don't HAVE bedtimes. I think I got about 6 hours of sleep total as a Candio during Indoc week because we were up all night prepping for the next day's events and finally taking time to shower and check our email. Not to mention doing laundry so the Indocs had clean poopy suits the next day.

 

[LFCFan]

No longer BOOD, but now the CDO is cracking down on us being up after taps. One in particular went outside Nimitz Hall and started knocking on all the windows of people who still had lights on at 2205. The candio windows, no less. I think we're responsible enough to manage our own time how we see fit, but whatever.

Are you serious? That CDO probably doesn't actually understand what the hell goes on at OCS. Especially during indoc week.

 

[jtmedli]

If memory serves, Candios don't HAVE bedtimes. I think I got about 6 hours of sleep total as a Candio during Indoc week because we were up all night prepping for the next day's events and finally taking time to shower and check our email. Not to mention doing laundry so the Indocs had clean poopy suits the next day.

And Ladies and Gentlemen, this is why you should be on battalion staff. I didn't do crap during Indoc week and it was awesome.

 

[Spekkio]

Batt suppo is where it's at.

 

[Angry]

And Ladies and Gentlemen, this is why you should be on battalion staff. I didn't do crap during Indoc week and it was awesome.

To each their own - I enjoyed being on Indoc even though it meant more work. The experience was a great one even if it was tiring, and getting to know the Marines on a level besides "GET ON YOUR FACE" was awesome.

 

[jtmedli]

To each their own - I enjoyed being on Indoc even though it meant more work. The experience was a great one even if it was tiring, and getting to know the Marines on a level besides "GET ON YOUR FACE" was awesome.

Yeah, I'll take disappearing into my room for a mid-afternoon 2 hour nap over that 7 days a week and twice on Sunday.

 

[Angry]

Yeah, I'll take disappearing into my room for a mid-afternoon 2 hour nap over that 7 days a week and twice on Sunday.

Like I said, to each their own.

 

[jtmedli]

Like I said, to each their own.

We got plenty of face time with the DIs on Batt Staff. Don't think we didn't. Also, plenty of nap time. It was legit.

 

[Tycho_Brohe]

As far as the "Do candios have bedtimes" issue goes, the crux with us was that a bunch of people had mentioned in their critiques that they didn't get enough sleep in any phase, so they're being all anal about it. Same goes for eating. People complained that they didn't eat enough, so we actually had an EMI on getting three meals a day. ISYN. They felt it necessary to actually order us to eat and sleep. Meanwhile, I'm bat adj, so life is pretty good, even when there are some collateral duties to pick up.

 

[Spekkio]

Good lesson for you guys about being careful who bitch to and how you do it I guess.

First, the guys complaining about food are retarded. You eat like kings in OCS compared to some of your other servicemembers in arms. Boo-hoo, no dairy/dressings/fatty crap for 8 weeks. I was force-fed more food than I could eat 3x a day during indoc I had to calorie-count to lose weight after about week 3-4. You were allowed as much hot food as you could stuff down in 20 min. Pensacola might have been a different time according to legend, but the DIs can't fuck with you during chow in Newport so there's no reason you can't eat an appropriate amount of calories. And it certainly doesn't help your case that your brothers in green are humping dozens of miles on one ration/MRE a day during their training and deployments. "First world problems..."

If they had a legitimate complaint that your DI/CPO decided to be more 'motivated' than his peers when it came to diet, and it resulted in lack of caloric intake, that's one thing. But presumably that wouldn't lead to EMI on proper eating.

As for the sleep, it's part of the training to learn time-management. Your peers openly complained to senior leadership that they routinely broke the rules because they couldn't figure out how to manage their time. Yea, I know that the staff does things that makes it so you HAVE to stay up, and watch rotation in a small class blows, but at least be smart enough to realize that bitching to senior leadership about sleep in a training program designed to be stressful is going to send the message 'we stayed out of the rack passed the authorized time every night because we suck' and be monitored accordingly. TBH, once RLP was over-with, I tended to have 30-45 min before 2200 on most nights where I could just write a letter home or just get an extra bit of sleep on a night I had watch. It helped that I could understand basic vectors.

 

[Tycho_Brohe]

Words words words.

Agree with everything said here. The funny thing is, I figure the complaints mostly came from the course critiques of previous classes. I personally never had a problem getting enough to eat, especially after the salad bar, PB&J, and hot/wets were unlocked a few weeks in. And as OC's, once we had our team meetings out of the way, we were free to do what we wanted, so I'd start powering down about a half hour early on most nights. So our class was fine with all that. The previous classes, on the other hand, were not as blessed as we are in the class team department. One DI in particular is notorious for leaving his classes on grab-and-go for over a month. His current class, which has been here for five weeks, just got napkins unlocked a few days ago. Napkins.
But the other thing I hear is that the quality of the food here is well above just about any other galley in the Navy, and especially that of a ship. So people complaining about the food at Ney Hall should count their blessings. That said, I echo their sentiments that it's rather carb-heavy. "I hope we get rice and potatoes again for dinner tonight!" Said no candidate ever.

 

[LFCFan]

I hated being batt staff. They always had more for us to do at 3 or 4AM than 3 or 4PM, and I felt like a dirtbag sleeping, especially since my roommate was indoc supply. I didn't like the fact that it basically robbed my candio phase of any chance to lead. I covered H class for an afternoon, did a mock RLP with one class, and helped guinea pig some of the new "capstone" activities. All were fun and rewarding, but I was disappointed to not get indoc staff. I got more leadership time popping down to the P-ways of junior classes as an OC just to help them out with stuff than during candio phase. (And yes, I bugged people to give me things to do during candio because I wanted to get more out of OCS)

I personally never had a problem getting enough to eat, especially after the salad bar, PB&J, and hot/wets were unlocked a few weeks in.

I always thought it was funny how we talked about chow hall privileges like they were video game objectives.

One DI in particular is notorious for leaving his classes on grab-and-go for over a month. His current class, which has been here for five weeks, just got napkins unlocked a few days ago. Napkins.

I always thought that was a bit ridiculous. I was lucky in that my class team gave us a few key things but nothing excessive. We took pride in not having that stuff. Then there was the day that a class got desserts for destroying one of their PFAs.....you could just feel the collective silent "WTF?!" echoing through Nay.

 

[jtmedli]

I hated being batt staff. They always had more for us to do at 3 or 4AM than 3 or 4PM, and I felt like a dirtbag sleeping, especially since my roommate was indoc supply. I didn't like the fact that it basically robbed my candio phase of any chance to lead. I covered H class for an afternoon, did a mock RLP with one class, and helped guinea pig some of the new "capstone" activities. All were fun and rewarding, but I was disappointed to not get indoc staff. I got more leadership time popping down to the P-ways of junior classes as an OC just to help them out with stuff than during candio phase. (And yes, I bugged people to give me things to do during candio because I wanted to get more out of OCS)

If you weren't "leading" on Batt staff. You were doing it wrong. I got plenty of hands-on time with the 'older' classes helping them with RLP and ORLP. I made some pretty good friends with them and we still keep up. Yelling at someone for 16hrs/day =/= the only form of leadership (though it may seem that way at OCS). Sometimes the best form of leadership a CO can offer a stressed out OC at OCS is poking your head in their hatch and asking them where they are from while you help them fold a T-shirt correctly.

 

[LFCFan]

If you weren't "leading" on Batt staff. You were doing it wrong. I got plenty of hands-on time with the 'older' classes helping them with RLP and ORLP. I made some pretty good friends with them and we still keep up. Yelling at someone for 16hrs/day =/= the only form of leadership (though it may seem that way at OCS). Sometimes the best form of leadership a CO can offer a stressed out OC at OCS is poking your head in their hatch and asking them where they are from while you help them fold a T-shirt correctly.

I should clarify: I wanted indoc staff mainly because I wasn't expecting a one-person billet (like a commander position) - not because I thought that 16 hours a day of telling the indocs to say my ditty right now was the only type of leadership there is to learn there. I did the kind of stuff you talk about when I was on batt staff, but still felt like I didn't spend enough time doing the stuff I wanted to do in candio phase, and envied those who seemed to feel fulfilled by what they did on indoc staff.

 

[LET73]

The chow hall was different in Pensacola since it was just for OCS, but the DIs didn't mess with us too much while we were actually eating (before and after, different story), and they did make sure we actually ate. My complaint about the food in Pcola was that it was terrible for you--high calorie, yes, but I gained muscle and fat at OCS, and it was a relief to have lower fat choices in candio phase.

Also, leadership at OCS is exactly like leadership anywhere else. You can take the time to be a leader, or not, but it shouldn't have anything to do with whether you're on indoc staff, and it doesn't suddenly start when you're a candio. You're in a position to be a leader as soon as the next class shows up.