sTUPID qUESTIONS aBOUT ocs

[LFCFan]

Hello all, I've started checking off items I need to bring for OCS. My step-dad (Retired AT1) purchased white Kirkland shirts for me that are much longer than regular shirts. He said he found this to be helpful when in uniform. My question: Should I just stick with regular length white shirts? I'm not too sure if we'll be wearing those white shirts for anything else, however if we do I have a feeling they will get messed up. Thanks.

I'm not sure why that would be more helpful. You'll be wearing shirt stays with khakis and summer whites when you wear them anyway. I think you have to have a white folded shirt for RLP, so in that case you'd probably want to use the issued one. They probably won't get too messed up, I wouldn't worry about it.

 

[ladiesman217]

I'm not sure why that would be more helpful. You'll be wearing shirt stays with khakis and summer whites when you wear them anyway. I think you have to have a white folded shirt for RLP, so in that case you'd probably want to use the issued one. They probably won't get too messed up, I wouldn't worry about it.

He found it more useful when wearing his uniform because the shirt stays tucked pretty well. Good point with the folded shirt for RLP. Thanks for the advice.

 

[Skyler Barger]

Sorry about the change of subject but this seems like the right place to post this question.

During the initial strength test on the 2nd day of OCS is it necessary to stay in the plank position and continue to try to do push-ups for the entire two minutes or can I just knock out as many as I can and then hit the deck to end the test? I can do about 50-55 push-ups with good form, it gets ridiculous after that and I find that it is easier to knock them out up front and then hit the deck than to find a slower pace and struggle throughout the entire two minutes.

 

[AllYourBass]

Sorry about the change of subject but this seems like the right place to post this question.

During the initial strength test on the 2nd day of OCS is it necessary to stay in the plank position and continue to try to do push-ups for the entire two minutes or can I just knock out as many as I can and then hit the deck to end the test? I can do about 50-55 push-ups with good form, it gets ridiculous after that and I find that it is easier to knock them out up front and then hit the deck than to find a slower pace and struggle throughout the entire two minutes.

You can hit the deck whenever you want to end the count. If you blow away your pushups, save your energy for the situps and the 1.5-mile run, I say Just make sure you know the number you're supposed to hit (it's less than 50-55). It would be a shame to stick around three extra weeks on accident!

 

[Skyler Barger]

You can hit the deck whenever you want to end the count. If you blow away your pushups, save your energy for the situps and the 1.5-mile run, I say Just make sure you know the number you're supposed to hit (it's less than 50-55). It would be a shame to stick around three extra weeks on accident!

Good to know. Sat for my age group is 34 push-ups. I thought that it would be fine but I thought I read somewhere that the DIs might fail you if you weren't trying for the entire 2 minutes regardless of how many you actually did in those two minutes before hitting the deck.

 

[Kyler Boeck]

Good to know. Sat for my age group is 34 push-ups. I thought that it would be fine but I thought I read somewhere that the DIs might fail you if you weren't trying for the entire 2 minutes regardless of how many you actually did in those two minutes before hitting the deck.

I've heard the same thing.

 

[AllYourBass]

I've heard the same thing.

I mean, two minutes isn't a long time...worst case scenario, just stay up and do a pushup every 10 seconds or so to kill the rest of the time, or just stay in the up position. But I haven't witnessed the "fail for being on the deck" thing myself.

 

[LFCFan]

Your class team will tell you what to do. In some cases you stand or take a knee when you've finished, others will tell you to remain in the leaning rest. Just depends.

 

[Skyler Barger]

Thanks. I guess I'll find out for myself in a few days. I'll do my best regardless of the policy, I was just curious.

 

[Tycho_Brohe]

Good to know. Sat for my age group is 34 push-ups. I thought that it would be fine but I thought I read somewhere that the DIs might fail you if you weren't trying for the entire 2 minutes regardless of how many you actually did in those two minutes before hitting the deck.

I really doubt they can fail you for doing that. In fact, that was the way we were taught how to do them: bang out as many as you can right away (in your case, do a quick twenty, take a breather, hit another ten to twenty, break, another ten, and so on), and then once you hit your goal number, start doing about five at a time between short breaks until your arms give out. Straight from our senior chief's mouth.
They can tell whether you're putting out or sandbagging. If you do hit the deck, your count stops there, and some class teams will make you keep pushing after that until the two minutes is up (although not for the Out-PFA, and I'm pretty sure not for the IST either), which totally sucks, but it does make you better at pushups in the long run.

 

[dcushman13]

So I have a question which I doubt too many of you have run into before: I am currently on ADSW orders (I am a reservist), I will swear in for OCS before my orders end, will I rate a full PCS move from my current duty station to my follow on school (Pcola)?

 

[eddieoctane]

Maybe a dumb question, but as people are now apparently getting FS and a class date in the middle of November, I wanted to ask. Does this mean that every earlier class is full and thus the soonest I can go to OCS is November? Or might I somehow get a report date that isn't a week and a half before Thanksgiving?

 

[LFCFan]

Maybe a dumb question, but as people are now apparently getting FS and a class date in the middle of November, I wanted to ask. Does this mean that every earlier class is full and thus the soonest I can go to OCS is November? Or might I somehow get a report date that isn't a week and a half before Thanksgiving?

They are probably full. You're going to miss holidays in the Navy, but you'll at least have a leave option around the xmas/new years time frame when you're up in Newport. As I understand it there are two one week leave blocks, and you can take one of them off.

I'm not sure if this is a factor or not, but right now OCS is short on DIs - they've had several rotate out in the last few months and only one new one show up. I know that at least one more is probably due to rotate out soon. The class sizes don't seem to be shrinking, but they are doing some odd things like not splitting huge classes into companies, or having one DI and two chiefs per class instead of one of each, etc. So until some new guys (or gals) start rolling in to inflict the pain and discipline, I wouldn't expect them to want to stick anyone in an earlier class.

Also, your designator matters a bit. Some people are supposedly given OCS dates that align with their follow-on school. If you're in a big community like SWO or aviation it probably won't be as big a factor in when you get sent to OCS.

 

[FormerRecruitingGuru]

LFC is right, there's a shortage with DI's right now which is impacting future class loads and sizes. As a result FINSEL letters and OCS dates are taking longer than usual in most cases.

 

[exNavyOffRec]

The class sizes for a while were up to 100, then they changed them to 50 max and did not go above, then they became kind of flexible on the sizes going up past 50 so besides the reason mentioned above they might be trying to balance the sizes out again over the year.