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Old school aocs (1973)
- Thread starter ea6bflyr
- Start date
Yes.
Yeah the Chiefs just don't have the same "flare" as the Gunnies. Although my Chief was voted "Chief of the Year" and was a physical specimen... and he could bring some serious pain. 25 minutes of straight push-ups... "Welcome to being a Candi-O" :icon_roll
19-06 Heat Shield BABY!!
SSgt Wieckowski was my DI. He and Penn were best buddies and they used to "tag-team" us, when it came to PT and general harassment. Here's my favorite "personal experience" story from my AOCS days:
Candidate J******* and myself were on sub-swim the entire time we were at P-cola. One day, late in the afternoon, we were called to the SSgt Wieckowski's office. After properly executing our "Office Entry" procedure and standing at attention in front of his desk, he kindly stated he didn't want us to be left behind to graduate with another class, that he wanted to help us master swimming. (Was he really human after all...did he really have a heart?) He asked us if we had to do the frog kick in some of the strokes involved in swimming. (Maybe he really was interested in helping us.) He said he thought he had an idea that might help us improve.
"FROG-F***ERS BEGIN!!!!!"
For 10-15 minutes he "lectured" us that we weren't really trying hard enough while we were doing our squat-thrusts. He stopped lecturing but we continued PT-ing in his office, fearing for our lives if we should even think about slacking off. Sometime later, we lay exhausted on the floor of his office in our own pools of sweat, waiting for his voice to expound about our sorry, lady-like performance. Silence - except for our heavy breathing. We lay on the floor looking at each other. Slowly, we looked up toward his desk, still expecting to be chastised. His chair was empty. We sat up. His Smokey the Bear hat was gone. Crawling over to the window, we gazed out towards the spot where his car was normally parked - only to notice that his car was GONE! He had left us PT-ing in his office and had gone home for the day.......undoubtedly laughing all the way home!
+ a bunch !!! GREAT STORIES, Zip and all the rest of you 'old guys' ... busted a gut laughin' ....
And Cat: I had forgotten about the Chiefs' kids @ the CPO pool on the downwind side of the C-Course ... those little bastards !!! We'd YELL at them as we went by ...
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All this talk has got the ol' juices stirring. You ol' guys .. help me out on the O-Course down by Mustin Beach O'Club regimen :
Tires .... left/right/left/right .... chop/chop/chop/chop .... sand, sand, sand ...
Run to the 12' (?) wall w/ ropes ... pull ... walk up ... pull ... walk up ... foot over ... leg over ... over you go ...
Run to the 8' (?) wall ... run, hit it high and keep going (hopefully) ... leg/belly over ... over you go don't sprain you ankle on either wall when you drop down ...
Run over some logs ... more sand ....
Jungle Jim bars ... handoverhand/hand/swing/hand/swing ... repeat ...
More sand (I'm forgetting something here ... ) ...
More logs ... GOD it's fuckin' HOT out here ... !!!!
More sand ... over to the barbed wire ...
Down on your belly ... crawl ... sweat ... sand ... sweat ... crawl ... some guys did it on their backs .... more sand ... ptooey !!! ... spit sand ... back up on your feet .... run ...
I'm missing some things here ... I know there's more ...
More sand ....
Maze ... back & forth ... left/right/left/right ... you're dyin' now ... pulling yourself through ... lots of sand ... sweat ... bile rising ...
Final run to the finish line ... more sand .... TIME !!!
Can anyone who 'cares' fill in the gaps ???
And Cat: I had forgotten about the Chiefs' kids @ the CPO pool on the downwind side of the C-Course ... those little bastards !!! We'd YELL at them as we went by ...
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
All this talk has got the ol' juices stirring. You ol' guys .. help me out on the O-Course down by Mustin Beach O'Club regimen :
Tires .... left/right/left/right .... chop/chop/chop/chop .... sand, sand, sand ...
Run to the 12' (?) wall w/ ropes ... pull ... walk up ... pull ... walk up ... foot over ... leg over ... over you go ...
Run to the 8' (?) wall ... run, hit it high and keep going (hopefully) ... leg/belly over ... over you go don't sprain you ankle on either wall when you drop down ...
Run over some logs ... more sand ....
Jungle Jim bars ... handoverhand/hand/swing/hand/swing ... repeat ...
More sand (I'm forgetting something here ... ) ...
More logs ... GOD it's fuckin' HOT out here ... !!!!
More sand ... over to the barbed wire ...
Down on your belly ... crawl ... sweat ... sand ... sweat ... crawl ... some guys did it on their backs .... more sand ... ptooey !!! ... spit sand ... back up on your feet .... run ...
I'm missing some things here ... I know there's more ...
More sand ....
Maze ... back & forth ... left/right/left/right ... you're dyin' now ... pulling yourself through ... lots of sand ... sweat ... bile rising ...
Final run to the finish line ... more sand .... TIME !!!
Can anyone who 'cares' fill in the gaps ???
I got caught taking a nap in my chair. I thought I was smart having the chair next to the hatch so it made it look like I was sitting up studying. Well Gunny looked through the gap where the door hinge was since we're not allowed to close it completely. Sends us out to the rose garden and beats the hell out of us. Of course I wasn't allowed to participate I had to lay in the rose garden and use my combo cover as a pillow and suck my thumb. He even asked if I was comfortable.
I guess everyone was doing the same thing as nobody called "attention on deck! stand by!" when he entered. Which of course I was banking on.
I guess everyone was doing the same thing as nobody called "attention on deck! stand by!" when he entered. Which of course I was banking on.
A-4's - Your memory of the O-course is certainly better than mine - must have burned more brain cells than you. Once you described it the memories returned.
Having just come from TBS, I thought the O-course would be a snap. However, at TBS the course is run in boots & utes and on hard pack dirt.
All that soft sand really kicked my ass :icon_tong
Having just come from TBS, I thought the O-course would be a snap. However, at TBS the course is run in boots & utes and on hard pack dirt.
All that soft sand really kicked my ass :icon_tong
There were the balance beams and the 20 or 30 foot tower to negotiate, too.
The bad thing about the first couple of times you went through the course to practice it was that you were already dead from the run from the battalions up the sea wall to the course. We'd do "Geronimo's" all the way there. (As you'd run, the back guy in each column would sprint to the head of the column and yell "Geronimo!" which was the clue for the guy who was now in the rear of the column to do it, too. Wash, rinse, repeat 'till you puked)
Then you'd run back to the battalions, usually picking up the C-Course somewhere in the middle. The guys who were slow (and there was always ONE guy who couldn't keep up) would drop back and start to walk. This was the clue for the Gunny to turn around the class in formation and run circles around the miscreant until he decided to start running again. Did not win him any popularity contests.
The bad thing about the first couple of times you went through the course to practice it was that you were already dead from the run from the battalions up the sea wall to the course. We'd do "Geronimo's" all the way there. (As you'd run, the back guy in each column would sprint to the head of the column and yell "Geronimo!" which was the clue for the guy who was now in the rear of the column to do it, too. Wash, rinse, repeat 'till you puked)
Then you'd run back to the battalions, usually picking up the C-Course somewhere in the middle. The guys who were slow (and there was always ONE guy who couldn't keep up) would drop back and start to walk. This was the clue for the Gunny to turn around the class in formation and run circles around the miscreant until he decided to start running again. Did not win him any popularity contests.
Indian Run! Still en vogue at Newport, although you do them for the whole 2.6 mile morning run. Yay Fridays! Ditto for people falling out, the rest of the group gets to do exercises or sprints until the person catches up. My ClassO was awesome though, verbally berating the people falling out from the slow groups as we passed them in the rabbit group.
Roger that; I'd forgot about towers and that little AOC/AVROC detail of running back & forth from the gym/Battalion barracks ....
As my 'group' consisted soley of commissioned Officers we'd DRIVE to the O'Course/C'Course in our Porches, Shelbys, GTOs, 442's, SS396's, Mustangs, 'Vettes, Chargers, and whatever else passed for male masculinity in a steel-enhanced form back then. We had to run the O & C Courses twice -- once when we showed up prior to Preflight as an 'in-test' and once as an 'out-test' when we left for VT-1 & Saufley.
When we came back to PCOLA from Meridian for FORM, NIGHT, GUNS & CQ in VT-4 ... somebody w/ WA-A-A-A-A-A--A-A-AAAY too much time on their hands decided we'd do 'em BOTH again prior to shipping off for Texas ... but on the scheduled day, no one showed up at either course. In fact, if memory serves, we went to the Mustin Beach O'Club, instead ... just to 'confirm' that no one showed. :icon_smil
What were 'they' gonna' do to us?? Send us to sea ??? Send us to war ???
My class elected name for my class shirt was "Napster" since I had a knack for sleeping anytime, anywhere.
I think right after the tires (left right left right) there was a low (3 ft) barrier that we vaulted over, then the left turn to the 12 ft wall. After the 8 ft wall there was a "crawl-under", then some balance beams. All of it was pretty straight forward, but it was the sand that killed you. Passing time in AOCS was 4:10. Had a guy in Batt One who was a hurdler on the UCLA track team who, during Batt Competition, ran it in something like 2:15.
In Batt Competition, each battalion would field a team of something like 20 participants. They would have two or three rabbits, then a bunch of guys helping each other over the obstacles. They could do anything they wanted to help each other thru the course. The rest of the battalion would be at the Start/Finish line, banging on trash cans and yelling. The DIs would just be going nuts, yelling at the other DIs and accusing the other teams of cheating. How in the hell can you cheat if there's no rules? They would then average the total times, and the winning battalion would have the all-important bragging rights for the DIs.
In Batt Competition, each battalion would field a team of something like 20 participants. They would have two or three rabbits, then a bunch of guys helping each other over the obstacles. They could do anything they wanted to help each other thru the course. The rest of the battalion would be at the Start/Finish line, banging on trash cans and yelling. The DIs would just be going nuts, yelling at the other DIs and accusing the other teams of cheating. How in the hell can you cheat if there's no rules? They would then average the total times, and the winning battalion would have the all-important bragging rights for the DIs.
What really bothered me about the O'course was not the obstacles or the sand, but my knee.
The Navy initially turned me down medically for a knee I had wrecked playing football. I finally had to get a civilian orthopedist who shook his head and said the Navy still probably wouldn't accept me, but he signed my request for a waiver anyway. And the Navy, hungry for bodies with a war going on, finally accepted me.
But on the O'Course I was always very concerned that jumping off the wall or falling off the balance beams etc. would wreck my knee again and nip my naval career in the bud. As much as the sand was a killer to run in, I was always thankful for the sand as it cushioned my knee ... which was usually in some pain, always, but I kept quiet about it.
The Navy initially turned me down medically for a knee I had wrecked playing football. I finally had to get a civilian orthopedist who shook his head and said the Navy still probably wouldn't accept me, but he signed my request for a waiver anyway. And the Navy, hungry for bodies with a war going on, finally accepted me.
But on the O'Course I was always very concerned that jumping off the wall or falling off the balance beams etc. would wreck my knee again and nip my naval career in the bud. As much as the sand was a killer to run in, I was always thankful for the sand as it cushioned my knee ... which was usually in some pain, always, but I kept quiet about it.
The OP's video was shot after my time. They were wearing two-piece poopy suits. Ours were heavy cotton one-piece weapons of discomfort.
I was in RF-2, the second class to try a new system. 10 days in Indoc, wondering what the hell we had gotten ourselves into, then half of the pilot candidates were immediately sent to Saufley for Primary, along with a class officer and a DI. No ground school, no commissioning, nothing but the firehose of primary and a DI along to make sure we would get dicked over on a regular basis. We were still shell shocked from Indoc when we started, and we were competing with everyone who was commissioned and who had completed Flight Systems (ground school). Tough competition.
The other studs didn't know what to make of us. The AOCS guys were universally pricks to us, the Academy guys were still in their casually arrogant phase, and the Marines were all really cool with us. After primary, we got a "Solo Bar" to wear over our name tag, then back to AOCS.
I don't know how long this experiment went on for, but we sure thought it was a very unfair way to do things.
I was in RF-2, the second class to try a new system. 10 days in Indoc, wondering what the hell we had gotten ourselves into, then half of the pilot candidates were immediately sent to Saufley for Primary, along with a class officer and a DI. No ground school, no commissioning, nothing but the firehose of primary and a DI along to make sure we would get dicked over on a regular basis. We were still shell shocked from Indoc when we started, and we were competing with everyone who was commissioned and who had completed Flight Systems (ground school). Tough competition.
The other studs didn't know what to make of us. The AOCS guys were universally pricks to us, the Academy guys were still in their casually arrogant phase, and the Marines were all really cool with us. After primary, we got a "Solo Bar" to wear over our name tag, then back to AOCS.
I don't know how long this experiment went on for, but we sure thought it was a very unfair way to do things.
Ya hear a couple of things... and the memories come flooding back.
One piece poopy suits... yep... been there, done that. We got one the first week... and one the second week... hence the name "poopy" 'cause that's what they smelled like in mid-summer in P-Cola. I think they marched themselves to the laundry after we took them off after wearing them for a week.
The AVROCS didn't get the flight boots, but mid-quarter boondockers. The guys in the sister AOC class in Indoc (we were mixed together -- the AVROCS and the AOCs -- in indoc and spent the first 2 weeks that way before being separated when we got to Batt III) had to lace up their high-top flight boots whereas the AVROCS only had half the eyelets to contend with. Hence the saying: "Are you left lacing while others are racing?"
After commissioning, a goodly number of fresh-made O-1s made the pilgrimage to the local Chevy dealer... the famous Pensacola Buggy Works... and purchased the Ensignmobile of choice... the Chevy Corvette. More that one stud had car payments that were not that much less then their takehome pay. I once heard that Pensacola Buggy Works sold more 'Vettes than any other dealer in the States.
The Regimental Sports Day was big. There was a cycle of competition between the battalions (there were three for my first summer, but cuts in the pipeline narrowed it to two when I returned in '71) and the winner received some worthwhile perks, like getting in the chowline first and a bunch of stuff like that. It was so important to some, that one of the AVROCS from a class ahead of mine stayed over for the weekend after he was supposed to return home to compete. One of the events was a mile run, and we thought that we (Batt III) had a lock on the race. Little did we know that a candidate had reported into Batt I Friday night from Indoc that had been a middle distance track guy from the University of Oregon. He finished about a lap ahead of everyone else and looked like he could have run about 6 or 8 more miles. The other guys in the race staggered in and were in severe exhaustion... new guy was hardly breathing hard. Fast forward 25 years and I was talking to Mike McCabe (MiG killer in Vietnam, then a Captain and CAG-14 and later three-stars and 3rd Fleet) about it during a conversation. He said..."Yeah. That guy who was the ringer..... that was ME!" Small world sometimes.
One piece poopy suits... yep... been there, done that. We got one the first week... and one the second week... hence the name "poopy" 'cause that's what they smelled like in mid-summer in P-Cola. I think they marched themselves to the laundry after we took them off after wearing them for a week.
The AVROCS didn't get the flight boots, but mid-quarter boondockers. The guys in the sister AOC class in Indoc (we were mixed together -- the AVROCS and the AOCs -- in indoc and spent the first 2 weeks that way before being separated when we got to Batt III) had to lace up their high-top flight boots whereas the AVROCS only had half the eyelets to contend with. Hence the saying: "Are you left lacing while others are racing?"
After commissioning, a goodly number of fresh-made O-1s made the pilgrimage to the local Chevy dealer... the famous Pensacola Buggy Works... and purchased the Ensignmobile of choice... the Chevy Corvette. More that one stud had car payments that were not that much less then their takehome pay. I once heard that Pensacola Buggy Works sold more 'Vettes than any other dealer in the States.
The Regimental Sports Day was big. There was a cycle of competition between the battalions (there were three for my first summer, but cuts in the pipeline narrowed it to two when I returned in '71) and the winner received some worthwhile perks, like getting in the chowline first and a bunch of stuff like that. It was so important to some, that one of the AVROCS from a class ahead of mine stayed over for the weekend after he was supposed to return home to compete. One of the events was a mile run, and we thought that we (Batt III) had a lock on the race. Little did we know that a candidate had reported into Batt I Friday night from Indoc that had been a middle distance track guy from the University of Oregon. He finished about a lap ahead of everyone else and looked like he could have run about 6 or 8 more miles. The other guys in the race staggered in and were in severe exhaustion... new guy was hardly breathing hard. Fast forward 25 years and I was talking to Mike McCabe (MiG killer in Vietnam, then a Captain and CAG-14 and later three-stars and 3rd Fleet) about it during a conversation. He said..."Yeah. That guy who was the ringer..... that was ME!" Small world sometimes.