I've been on the receiving end of a few conversations that started out "Hey Soldier..." Yeah, none of theme ended well for me.
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sTUPID qUESTIONS aBOUT ocs
- Thread starter TheBubba
- Start date
I've been on the receiving end of a few conversations that started out "Hey Soldier..." Yeah, none of theme ended well for me.
I can see E7 and above. They want you guys calling E6 and below Sir? I can understand if your DI is a SSGT (mine was).
blarged
ready
It wasn't really black and white for my class, I don't remember ever being told how to address <=E6 at OCS (other than our DI who was also an E6). I think we went with error on the side of caution and called everyone sir or ma'am and typically the instructors that were <=E6 would respond with, "no no, it's DC1"
That makes sense. We didn't know either and we were calling E4s sir. They didn't stop us - they probably enjoyed it.
When I was going through NACCS in P-Cola the AOCS school house was across the street, as I'm sure many of you remember. There was a couple OCs that had yet to graduate stop my buddy and I. They told us to salute them as they were officers and we were only enlisted. We would have easily obliged but previously instructed to not even converse with them. Anyways these two individuals didn't see the DI come around the corner when they were telling us this. Needless to say there was a bunch of yelling and a whole lot of pain that came their way. I saw the DI a couple days later and talked to him about various things such as saluting squirrels to what training I was there for. Well, he brought up the incident that occurred a couple days earlier. He said if any of his OCs didn't refer to me as sir then come get him so he could easily correct the situation. His reasoning was that the OCs are technically not in the military yet. I figure if I’m put in a situation of addressing junior enlisted when I’m an OC I will address them appropriately as this DI described to me.
If the Drill Instructor really said this (and I have no reason to think that he didn't), than he's full of shit. Of course Officer Candidates are in the military, there's no "technically" about it. They may be in a sort of limbo-land between enlisted and officer, but they are definitely in the military, having taken the oath of enlistment, reported on active duty orders to their initial accession training, subject to the UCMJ, issued a military ID card and getting paid as an E-5 (for non-priors, at least when I went through AOCS).
OC Land is kind of a gray area. Luckily for them, in Newps, Training Country is fairly separate from the rest of the base and the rules about customs and courtesies are laid out pretty well. I personally thought some of the funnier "awkward" moments were around the comissioned JGs/LTs at ODS. They were even more clueless than us.
On paper you have done everything required to be in the military and thus subject to its laws so I do agree with you. But when I enlisted the first time and did all the things you have described I never considered my self truly in the military until I passed bootcamp. This is because at anytime during that period you can get out of the military with no ill remarks. Maybe this is what he was alluding to when he made that statement to me. But he could have very easily meant what you said in that they are in limbo state at that point. So I can only speculate but I will be going back to OCS with the mentality that I'm not in the military, I have to earn my keep, and when I get those gold bars on my shoulder I have achieved one goal in the numerous ones I have set before me.
A
AlexSmart
Guest
Can you go to sleep before Taps?
If you have a death wish.
You will more than likely be studying or preparing for an inspection or doing sweepers, so no.
Ah, sweepers. I see that some things never change. "An Officer and a Janitor"
There are, they just wouldn't want us to go without having the experience of sweepers. It's probably the most fun time you'll have at OCS...
Many candidates stay up after taps every night to study, prep, etc.