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Thread jack: I have to fill out the security form for a 2nd time because they switched over to the 'net while I was waiting to go to King's Bay (d'oh), and there is a question on there: "Have you ever seen a doctor or other mental health professional to treat a mental illness." Might be...

Do you find the gear they give you is warm enough, or do you freeze your ass off for the first five minutes until PT makes you forget about the cold entirely?

You should go through the "must read" forum. There is a ton of info there that already covers this. Bottom line: apply as soon as you can, and try to get it done as quickly as you can. The Navy will usually do something to make it take longer than it should anyway. In my case, I had to wait 3...

I went to the recruiting station to complete it there, then got sent the link to it to redo it on my own computer 1 month later.

It says 7 when they ask the questions on the EPSQ.

Yes, but I don't own a pair of glasses.

Yea, I plan on doing it sometime after. I'm not applying for pilot, so the fact that my vision is on the cusp of the 20/40 limit really doesn't matter.

Exactly my sentiments. I'm probably just gonna go straight for Lasik/PRK when I can afford it and skip glasses entirely. That is unless I am made to wear the dorky glasses at OCS.

My vision is in the 20/30 - 20/40 range. I've never bothered to get glasses because I can still get around just fine without them (and I don't have health insurance atm). Are they going to test my eyes at OCS and hand me those dorky strap glasses because my vision isn't 20/20?

Thanks for clearing that up, although the officers on the VIP trip informed us of the imaginary line over in the Gulf. Must be a pretty good deal to work over there.

You realize that a 55 5/5/5 is pretty bad if you're going for aviation, right?

So you ever find the holy plates that that dude who created Mormonism hid under his pillow? The story of how Mormons came to be is hilarious. Granted, most creation myths/religious beginnings are funny and outlandish to begin with, but Mormons take the cake.

Some points: -If you're not sure, you shouldn't join the military. You will find yourself in a miserable existance very quickly. The military lifestyle, from the little I've been able to sample thus far, is very different than that of a wall street stock broker. I personally can't wait to be...

The security questionnaire asks two separate questions if you were ever 180 days/90 days deliquent on a debt. It also asks if you are over X amount in debt, although I can't remember what that amount is because I'm under it. If you answer yes, I imagine they want you to explain it. Saying that...

You mean they don't hand Naval officers a memo every month about the available scholarship money for NROTC and the extremely dynamic available pilot billets?! How are you supposed to do your job if you don't know these things?

Felonies and drug abuse beyond weed are pretty sure show-stoppers. Working on Wall Street, eh? Yea, you should stay away from those coke parties.

I don't doubt that I will make it through. I just have no illusions about how much it is going to suck horrendously in OCS -- and I'm probably under-estimating it. I'm trying to think of how much it sucked running endless suicides at the end of lax practice because "Chestnut" couldn't figure out...

I actually just heard that I FINALLY got funding to get to the Nuke VIP trip next week, so my application can move forward. I'm psyched about becoming an officer, too. But psyched about doing squat-thrusts in the snow because my classmate's buttons were not perfectly aligned with his zipper...

I'm not quite as enthusiastic about OCS as you are. Just a stepping stone toward the goal.

They're training you to function in the stresses of battle, teaching you discipline, and building solidarity between you and everyone else who is simultaneously getting shit on. Probably some other stuff, too.

Some recruiters will tell you misinformation because they are trying to fill billets for specific communities. However, the 2nd recruiter seems more pragmatic, so go with him. Do the best you can on the ASTB and then apply. Oh, and there's a big difference between Navy and Marine pilots. You...

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I would honestly rather not know what I'm in for at OCS. In sophomore year of high school, my lax coach was ex-military. We also had 16 guys on the team, which is about half of what a normal lax team carries. Had I known that I would end up dropping 10 lbs in 2 weeks (going from 5'9" 145 to 5'9"...

I just run cold, too (and at 7 am before work), so can't really help there.

So instead of manning up and working hard to improve, you quit? Pussy.

Wow, with all the abbreviations in this thread I really have no idea wtf anyone is talking about.

Thanks. I'll need that luck -- as I type this, I am one of 18/30 people without funding for the NVIP trip. My application cannot go forward until I go on this trip, and I've been waiting for 3 1/2 months now. Some lady at the main office swears my funding will come through by tomorrow, but my...

I have never spoken to my processor, but your account seems strange given that one of the stickies details advice that states to get to know your processor.

Unless you're trying to get appointed to the Supreme Court or become the next Surgeon General, it doesn't make a goddamn difference where you go to college so long as it's at an accredited university. The difference between Harvard and the local community college is twofold: first, that...

Yea just found out that bit of information today. Thanks for the response.

I was speaking generally about "spec ops" school; I realize that the training pipeline is different depending on the spec ops community one is trying to join. The attrition rates I quoted were from Ranger and SEAL school. I presumed that Recon would have a similar attrition rate.

The bottom line that everyone is hinting at here is that if you really want to go spec ops, you should enlist. Just be aware that saying that spec ops school is "hard" is a huge understatement. Attrition rates approach 70-90%. It has nothing to do with physical fitness, and everything to do with...

Ah, didn't know that. And yea, it's a real bitch when the process takes a lot longer than expected.

Err, OCS is only 3 months. After that, isn't it off to a base and onto sea duty?

Well, it's no secret that this damn VIP trip has gotten delayed three times now -- Oct because they couldn't get the money released, and the Nov date got pushed back. Hopefully everything will finally work out and I'll get there for the Nov 18-20 trip. My question is that my recruiter...

What other people are hinting at is what a soldier told me when I first started thinking about applying for a commission: if you're gonna join the military, do it cuz you wanna join the military. Don't do it because you want to get a scholarship or because you want to beef up your resume for...

Why weren't you working out during the 3 years of trying to get an OCS date? Good-low is not particularly difficult. If you are in any sort of reasonable shape, you should be able to run 1.5 miles in under 12 min, do 50 pushups and 60 situps in 2 min, and touch your toes.

I was told by my recruiter that the big thing for Nukes is color-blindness. Depth perception, while tested, doesn't matter so much. I also hear there's a psych eval for subs (no surprise there), but I'm not sure what that entails.

Just remember that you have to pay those loans back one day.

According to my recruiter, since your commission is not guarunteed, you are entitled to nothing until you graduate OCS. Moreover, the clock doesn't start ticking on your obligation until you graduate OCS, either.

Ever consider taking a year off and going to work? Finding yourself in a miserable career is one hell of a motivation to figure out where you want to go in life.

It's seriously a matter of taking a few drops of blood, adding the A/B antigens, and seeing whether or not it coagulates. If they have his blood, they should be able to do this.

They didn't take your blood at the flight physical?

If you're talking about OCS and not the Naval Academy, this sounds like a fish story to me. It's hard for me to believe that the USN was as strict about GPA as medical schools. Also, I'm fairly sure that a 3.5 GPA puts you in the top 10-15% of students, which doesn't leave the Navy much of an...

The only documentation I needed at MEPS was photo ID, and it was the only documentation I had with me.

You should ask your recruiter this question, as each one might want to do it differently. What mine told me is that you need 3 employers to fill out the reference sheet. If they choose to write something extra for you, great. Anything other than 3 employers counts as character references.

Is 2 semesters of calc and 2 semesters of calc-based physics required for pilot, too? If so, I doubt someone with a degree in business management has those courses under his belt.

That's a great question and one I'd like to know, too. The only advice I've heard thus far is to respect your NCO's and try to get on their good side.

Huh? Is the security contract so strict that you can't even say "I was impressed with what they showed us?"

This is actually my dilemma for the nuke choice. I've heard a lot of people say similar things to this about fast attack subs. So the choice is between bad ass missions that I can't talk about in cramped space, or boring missions with comfort of living. Then there's the complication of possibly...