Phun?

[ironmanc]

Do you ever get to play any sports?

 

[Thisguy]

Do you ever get to play any sports?

When we were candios, we got to go to the gym in our free time to play some basketball. That's about it. Oh yeah, there's the Staff/Candidate softball game at the end too.

 

[S.O.B.]

I did SERE twice. I would rather do SERE3 than OCS again.

I enjoyed SERE except for the last 2 days.

I'll take 2 REALLY BAD days over 13 weeks of nitnoid BS. Candio Phase alone vs SERE, Gimme my one-bar

How or why would you do SERE twice? Failure to Navigate?

 

[MasterBates]

Doc pulled me for things in my medical record he did not like.

 

[S.O.B.]

Does anyone else look at OCS and all the tasks that accompanying as something that is fun? Everyone asks me why I would like to be in the military and put myself through all of this and I simply say, "It will be fun." Is this just my ignorance showing through? I know it will be hard, I know it will be challenging but damn it seems like it will be so exciting. I see this as being my adult recess. Am I in for a rude awakening?
~X

I look back at OCS as being somewhat fun. I enjoyed the galley and liberty other than that it sucked. Oh yea I made some good friends.

 

[Cordespc]

I see this as being my adult recess. Am I in for a rude awakening?
~X

My limited experience in the Marine Corps has been this: There is definitely an "adult recess" factor involved, but they have painstakingly removed all of the fun from it. For instance, letting you shoot machine guns (after practicing running and dropping to the prone with it for hours). Teaching you martial arts (ensuring every set of knuckles in the company is bleeding, and everyone has lower back pain from repeated break falls and forward shoulder rolls).

All of the sexy, high-speed stuff is nowhere near as enjoyable as you would think on 3 hours of sleep either. A lot of stuff in the military really sucks, but you learn to love how much it sucks, and even find yourself thinking of ways to make it suck some more (I heard that from someone else, but it's true). All in all, I wouldn't trade any of my experiences in the Navy or the Marine Corps for anything the civilian world has to offer.

-Paul

 

[pdx]

I think Navy OCS has considerably less "adult recess" factor. From what I have seen, Marine Corps OCS is more difficult, but has a little more potential for "fun." In Navy OCS you will not shoot things, do martial arts or anything like that.

 

[Cordespc]

I think Navy OCS has considerably less "adult recess" factor. From what I have seen, Marine Corps OCS is more difficult, but has a little more potential for "fun." In Navy OCS you will not shoot things, do martial arts or anything like that.

Oh, those activities aren't fully introduced until The Basic School. They are "simulated" at OCS though, in full-on hazing mode, with a healthy berating for good measure. Still loved it

-Paul

 

[pdx]

Oh, those activities aren't fully introduced until The Basic School. They are "simulated" at OCS though, in full-on hazing mode, with a healthy berating for good measure. Still loved it

-Paul

Our drill instructors were all Marine Gunnies (of course, we didn't call them that), so we also had the "healthy berating." I would say the DIs are the best part of OCS. You really develop that love/hate relationship that people seem to talk about. You hate to see them walk around the corner because you know they are going to kick your a$$. Plus, they always seem to enjoy it so much. Still, by the end of things, I had more respect for my DI than any other member of my class team. And they are more fun to have a beer with after everything is over.

 

[PropStop]

OCS was "fun" once you got with the program and began to understand the game and it was only fun within the confines of that game. The constant immersion in the game causes a bit of Stockholm syndrome and you do begin, well some do anyhow, to enjoy it. You develop really tight bonds with people, that's fun. You succeed as a team, that's fun. You also get beat down as a team, not so fun. If your class is hosed up (as my first class was) then life can be fairly painful.

It's not a bad experience, it does have fun times, but I'll take being on my own any day over living that kind of life. And I would do SERE twice before I'd got to OCS once again. I loved SERE, greatest school the Navy has.

 

[pdx]

I am "looking forward" to SERE in a couple of months. Also, I had no problem playing the game at OCS. I actually did well there (not that it really matters), but it still felt retarded. I talked like 6x6" underwear were important, I acted like 6x6" underwear were important, and to an outside observer, it may have even seemed I felt like 6x6" underwear were important. But they weren't.

I personally think flight school is a better school than SERE, but I haven't been to SERE, so my opinion doesn't have much weight.

 

[Cornellianintel]

OCS was "fun" once you got with the program and began to understand the game and it was only fun within the confines of that game. The constant immersion in the game causes a bit of Stockholm syndrome and you do begin, well some do anyhow, to enjoy it. You develop really tight bonds with people, that's fun. You succeed as a team, that's fun. You also get beat down as a team, not so fun. If your class is hosed up (as my first class was) then life can be fairly painful.

It's not a bad experience, it does have fun times, but I'll take being on my own any day over living that kind of life. And I would do SERE twice before I'd got to OCS once again. I loved SERE, greatest school the Navy has.

That's a great way to describe it.

 

[wink]

I did SERE twice. I would rather do SERE3 than OCS again.

I enjoyed SERE except for the last 2 days.

I'll take 2 REALLY BAD days over 13 weeks of nitnoid BS. Candio Phase alone vs SERE, Gimme my one-bar

Don't want to start down that road where us old guys insist on how easy you newbies and nuggets have it, but I'll throw a rock down it. I think most anyone comparing the old AOCS program to today's OCS, especially after the recent changes, was tougher in many respects. But I had no idea of how easy SERE must have gotten. We don't talk many specifics because of the confidential nature of the training, but if you guys are willing to take SERE over OCS, then SERE must be for pussies now.

 

[PropStop]

We don't talk many specifics because of the confidential nature of the training, but if you guys are willing to take SERE over OCS, then SERE must be for pussies now.

OCS is very much easier I expect. As for SERE, i suspect not so much. It wasn't easy, and parts of it were not fun (you know which parts), but the overall experience was very good and I did enjoy learning all of it - even the not so pleasant parts. Maybe i'm weird that way. SERE is much shorter than OCS. I just found OCS irritating after a while.

 

[Gatordev]

Don't want to start down that road where us old guys insist on how easy you newbies and nuggets have it, ubt I'll throw a rock down it. I think most anyone comparing the old AOCS program to todays OCS, esecially after the recent changes, was tougher in many respects. But I had no idea of how easy SERE must have gotten. We don't talk many specifics because of the confidential nature of the training, but if you guys are willing to take SERE over OCS, then SERE must be for pussies now.

When Adm Stockdale originally engineered the SERE we know now, his philosophy was that if you lose one student a year (ie, he dies), it's acceptable. Obviously that's not the case nowadays, so it's probably easier, but perhaps not by much. We're starting to get to a different topic here, but the key to success in SERE is to listen to all the stuff they tell you in class. The quicker you meet the individual course requirements and play the game along the way, the "easier" it is on you.

I'm sure the same is true for OCS (or any indoc program), but the catch is that you don't have as many people motivated like you do in SERE. You'll always get the guys that know it's going to take 13 weeks (or whatever the timeframe is), so they'll drag ass the whole time, which of course drags down the rest of his/her group.