...take this for what it's worth....
I think many of us are curious about OCS vs. TBS. My son attended OCS 184 and was commissioned on December 12th. He's now at TBS, graduating on July 8th. He tells me that, overall, TBS is much more difficult (demanding) than OCS. I assumed one of the tough parts of OCS was getting yelled at all the time and never feeling there was enough time to do anything. Apparently, that is certainly true about OCS. For someone my age, I wouldn't look forward to that. I also know the "scheduled" PT and other physical activities are pretty rough. I think that regardless of how good a shape a candidate is in, the physical part pretty much breaks down your body because you don't have enough time for your body to rest and "build back up" due to the constant physical "events". My son was in pretty good shape going into OCS but he was as "poor as a snake" by the time he finished the 10 weeks. Visually, it looked like he lost a lot of muscle mass. However, he could "run like a deer" and run forever by the time it was over. He tells me that the overall routine at TBS is worse than OCS. He said that most folks have no idea how hard the Lieutenants work during TBS. Obviously, there is the physical or field time as well as class time, as there is at OCS, but I gather that it is just at a higher lever....not necessarily physical like the scheduled daily stuff as in OCS, but still very demanding. Certainly the "free time" is better at TBS but, apparently, overall, things are not "fun" all the time. The Lieutenants still get yelled at by the staff when necessary. Afterall, even though they are now Lieutenants and not Candidates, they are still all "butter bars" so, at TBS, they are still the low-man on the totem pole. I guess TBS is called the "big suck" for a reason. I'm looking forward to seeing my son at his TBS graduation in July and having some time, face-to-face, for him to more completely fill me in on what went on. By the way, his current lineal standing is 27 out of the 215 Lieutenants in his Company. Obvioulsy, I'm proud of my son! Oh, yea, he's got a pilot contract...in case you are interested. Good luck to all of you......