Search results

We had someone in Pensacola who did that (minus the matchmaking, although she did start off by telling us how she had spent her youth chasing officer candidates and finally caught one). That was mainly to prepare us for our dining out.

1) Yes. 2) Yes. 3) Maybe. Basically, the Navy will move you from your home of record to your first permanent duty station. However, if they can move your stuff from your inlaws' at no additional cost to the government (i.e., your inlaws don't live any farther from Pensacola than you do), you...

What exactly is your question about the security clearance process? Basically, you submit the form, they do the investigation, and after some period of time you are (hopefully) granted a security clearance. Someone who is prior enlisted and held a job that required a clearance would already...

When I was at OCS in 2007, everyone went to the chapel on Sunday mornings for a couple hours regardless of whether we were going to attend services. There were donuts and coffee, and we could make phone calls home. Sundays weren't days off, but they were more relaxed than the rest of the week.

Nah, if it goes really badly, they'll all be working on the same intel watch floor.

Adding to the chorus above, don't worry about knowing everything ahead of time. Like every other military training program, OCS caters to the lowest common denominator--by which I mean it is set up so that someone who knows nothing coming in will, by the end of it, know what he needs to...

Pretty sure the obvious answer is to apply for both. If you get picked up for OCS, you can hold off on the MA. (If you're only looking at the MSC program, looks like you can go ahead and do the MA since quotas are already filled.) I got my MA before OCS, mainly because there was one program I...

Good on you for 1) re-evaluating your initial statement and 2) coming back and admitting it. Being in the Navy means that you will miss out on a lot, but at the same time, there's a reason we put up with it. The rewards are there.

I kind of dated myself with the wash khakis reference, didn't I?

If I'm remembering correctly, we got a uniform allowance for the initial uniform issue (wash khakis, PT gear, etc.) for stuff we wore at OCS. Uniforms for after OCS were on our dime (SDBs, choker whites, etc.). There was a payment plan available for that, though. As far as expenses...

I don't know... the "great unwashed" attitude is alive and well, too, even if there's less overt expression of it. I think the real issue is that so few people know someone who's in the military that they see the extremes--it's either the guy who failed at civilian life and joined the military...

I know the boards are looking for technical degrees for IDC these days, but that's asinine. You don't need physics or calc to be an intel officer. To be a good intel officer, you need some common sense (sorely lacking in the field). An ability to understand historical trends can help. The...

choc18, I went to a tiny liberal arts college that no one has heard of (other than people in academia). I know two other Navy officers who also went to my tiny, obscure liberal arts college filled with super-liberal people. It's probably a lot like the college you're looking at. Don't base...

Besides the usual crappy high school/college summer retail job, I got paid to stand in line and hold a place for lobbyists to attend congressional hearings and did copy monkey/data entry work while I was in grad school. I quit that job after I got my MA, and got rejected by temp agencies before...

Picking your major should involve a combination of what interests you and what will help you out professionally in the long run, whether that's in the Navy or elsewhere. What do you do if you get a degree that's narrowly focused on being an aviator and that doesn't work out for whatever reason...

Honestly, jacks, if you come to a forum looking for advice, and you get it from people who know what they're talking about, and you keep arguing with them, what's the point of asking? It's almost as if you don't like the answers you're getting, since they don't fit with this idea you've got of...

Dude... every scenario ever has the potential for corruption. Do you think someone whose daddy is an admiral has a better shot at OCS? Probably yes. It's not a reason to give up. Most people's daddies aren't admirals or congressmen, and they make it into the academy or OCS or whatever other...

I was in a similar situation to yours a few years ago. As a senior in college, I was looking at masters programs and talking to recruiters. Ultimately, I found one MA program that fit perfectly, and decided that if I was accepted, I'd go and see what happened after. I got in, did the MA, and...

This gouge is five years old, so take it with plenty of grains of salt, but we didn't do tons of running when I was at OCS. Make sure you can run 1.5 miles in the appropriate time for your age group, and beyond that, focus more on strength and conditioning. Everyone in your class will look...

I think the farther we (certainly I) get from OCS, the easier it is to laugh at that kind of question--at least, until I remember the morning during indoc week when I noticed my shoe was untied and believed my DI would see it and roll me then and there. I do think the availability of gouge...

Yes, it's possible to get a waiver for a DUI, so don't give up and assume you're out of luck. There are no guarantees, but you'll never know until you try. (And Beefalo is right; getting a DUI as an officer is pretty much a career-ender.) Also, out of curiosity, why are you so set on SWO...

Check out this thread http://www.airwarriors.com/forum/showthread.php/155311-Pro-Rec-ed-Nov-10-OCS-Summer-12 where they are talking about the same issue you are having. Looks like SWO nuke is still open--SWO nuke is not the same as SWO, so it's not necessarily closed just because SWO is. I...

What about SWO nuke? If the pipeline hasn't changed in the last year or so, you would do a conventional SWO tour on a smallboy, then do the nuke training and go to a carrier. You would get the chance to be a division officer and get all the leadership experience that comes with being a SWO...

Yeah, under two weeks sounds about right. I think I got mine a week or so before (then again, I got about a week's notice that I was going at all, so...).

You'll get orders.

Seconding what Brett said, if you have a real antipathy to sitting behind a desk, don't be an intel officer. Are there excellent opportunities to do some cool stuff? Absolutely, there are. It depends on whether you think that getting the chance to have a couple awesome tours makes up for the...

Keep trying. ORs are super-busy, but showing the motivation to actually get through to one is kind of like Step One of the application process... they don't really have time for people who aren't committed, and the way to show your commitment is to do everything you can to get a hold of someone...

No worries; I figured you probably did, but thought I'd go ahead and clarify for any n00bs who were planning on mouthing off to anyone without wings.... :D

+1. Recruiters get a lot of people walking through the door wanting to fly airplanes. It's on you to get the process moving along, and you may not get a whole lot of help from your recruiter. He or she isn't going to waste time on someone who wants to get picked up for a popular designator...

You didn't ask me, but I'm going to go ahead and weigh in anyway. I think you're the only one who can answer that question. It's not uncommon for people to shoot from the hip while typing on the internet, and sometimes things come across very differently in anonymous text than they would in...

They will look for all of the above. Foreign travel makes the process take longer (I did some study abroad and other foreign travel, so I'm speaking from experience here), and the African travel will complicate things. Western Europe, probably not so much. You've picked two of the most...

Bottom line up front: 1) Everyone who wanted to make it through OCS, made it through. Some people got rolled back, but they still made it through if they wanted it badly enough. 2) If you're dumb enough to think that you're not going to have to PT hard, or that the DIs aren't going to play...

Don't waste your money on "museum gear." I had one pair of running shoes through OCS, and never got hit in an inspection because they were dirty (which they were). I mean, clean the worst of the chunks of dirt off, but they don't have to be pristine. The DIs understand that you actually wear...

On the carrier, we normally just ask, "Mind if I join you?" It's basically a courtesy so you're not just barging in on someone's lunch. That said, I was TAD to an LCC. Their wardroom had long tables. I was sitting at the very end of one table with a couple people, including an O-5. A SWO...

Oh, sorry.... How it is in the fleet is that most people will have stars on their shoulder boards, but you'll run into a good number of people with oak leaves and other staff corps insignia. On the shoulder boards, it shows up in place of the star on both shoulder boards, and in other uniforms...

It's always a star. I'm pretty sure I never really had to learn the staff corps insignia for OCS--I don't remember being asked about it, and I do remember showing up at my first command and being pretty confused about all the weird collar devices the supply, JAG, medical, etc., types had on...

Low, for the simple reason that Intel is one of the most competitive communities to get picked up for as a civilian (other than PAO and EOD, to name a couple). The important thing is how badly you want it. I would definitely recommend taking the OAR again, and putting together a motivational...

That's hilarious. Those poor kids.... I work with a bunch of LDO types who went through knife and fork school in Newport after OCS moved up there. They always found chow pretty entertaining, watching the OCS guys. I'm sure the DIs have come up with things to make up for the more relaxed chow...

I bet they don't let the DIs stand on the table and kick trays anymore.... Kind of a shame, really.

He caught our class a couple times and beat us to the point where our own notorious DI actually rescued us (after a while, anyway).

Generally, no. You might earn the right to eat different types of items, though. I still remember the first day I got to eat cereal--best Raisin Bran I've ever had. One thing I noticed about the video was the two candios eating left-handed. Do you really get to eat by the numbers left-handed...

It's a pretty sweet party trick, though. How many people do you know who can eat ribs with a war spoon?

That looks so much more civilized than it was in Pensacola. It was a lot different when the candidates didn't have to share a chow hall with everyone else.

There were a handful of people at OCS who had the braces for shin splints (they didn't bring them, but were issued them when their shin splints got really bad). They obviously heard about it a lot from the DIs, but that still beats rolling to H.

"Should" is the operative word. Pay issues aren't uncommon early on, so stay on top of it and make sure you're getting 1) paid and 2) the right amount.

Yes, you'll have time to go through your stuff and pack it up before commissioning. I had my bags packed the night before and could have been gone 15 minutes after the ceremony ended (though I stuck around for a couple hours). You'll also be able to set up flights while you're at OCS--just...

I worked with two recruiters, neither of whom was particularly knowledgeable about the OCS application process. The first was a chief who seemed not to be in the office much and wouldn't respond to calls or emails until I'd left at least three or four messages. She did say that the lack of...

OK, it's bad enough we'll have to wear a pin, but does it have to be THAT? I was somewhat hoping that the pin had died quietly during all the hype over the intel realignment, but apparently no such luck.

Yes, verbatim. That said, also make sure that you understand what you're describing, so that if for some reason you're under stress when asked to define it, you know what you're defining and can describe it in your own words. That's particularly important for warfare pins, which can get elaborate.

Look. It's simple--give 100 percent all the time, don't expect any special treatment because you're a female, and don't drag down your class. I had a great time at OCS (not that I'd ever do it again, but come on, you can do anything for 12 weeks), and ended up getting along just fine with my...