AOCS has always been in Pensacola. You're thinking of the movie "Officer and a Gentleman" which depicted AOCS up in a no longer used Navy facility in Port Townsend, WA (across the sound from NAS Whidbey Island). AOCS was never at Port Townsend, nor would it particularly make sense to move it back there, if it had, in fact, been there in the first place. BRAC is about consolidation, not expansion.
When the Navy was asked to cooperate with the making of "An Officer and a Gentleman," they read the script and then said, "Hell, no!" They thought it created a bad impression of AOCS and the Navy. Of course, the Navy was wrong --the movie was a big hit and a recruiting tool. So the producers changed "Pensacola Debs" to "Puget Sound Debs" and filmed in WA.
Moving OCS (or what's left of it since they've dropped all the tough PT requirements and stopped "hands on" training from DIs) to RI makes little sense (bad wx in winter) except for saving on dropping a training base. I suspect part of the reason is that the Navy is building-up the remaining FL bases.
When the Navy was asked to cooperate with the making of "An Officer and a Gentleman," they read the script and then said, "Hell, no!" They thought it created a bad impression of AOCS and the Navy. Of course, the Navy was wrong --the movie was a big hit and a recruiting tool. So the producers changed "Pensacola Debs" to "Puget Sound Debs" and filmed in WA.
Moving OCS (or what's left of it since they've dropped all the tough PT requirements and stopped "hands on" training from DIs) to RI makes little sense (bad wx in winter) except for saving on dropping a training base. I suspect part of the reason is that the Navy is building-up the remaining FL bases.
