Prior enlisted advice

[mccabe1919]

Does anybody have any good advice for prior enlisted candidates going to OCS. What are the big differeces between OCS and enlisted training?

 

[EA-6B1]

McCabe, check your PM box.

 

[BigWorm]

Mccabe – this is coming from someone who is not prior enlisted, and despite what some of my “speervals” said, just paying attention and observing. When you go through OCS, you will be looked up to by your peers and have higher expectations. It is your responsibility to lock them on, and show them the ways. There isn’t a lot of time spent showing them some of the little things, and after the cammies are issued, you will see someone that can’t figure out how to blouse there boots. It is your job to make sure that they learn all the little things. For whatever reason, at OCS, the prior enlisted were either awesome, or they sucked, there was not a lot of middle ground – for example, we had a prior machine gunner that would pass out and eat fecal matter on the PLCjr humps. The hardest part for priors, I think had to do with pride. OCS, wasn’t about breaking you down and building you up, it was more of creating friction to see how you will react. The best thing you can do to counter that is to focus on helping your peers vs. worrying about “playing the game” again. As soon as someone would flip out, they would find themselves on a plane a few days later. It was more of a really long and physical job interview if you want to look at it that way.

As you progress to TBS, and earn the bars, you will see a dramatic shift in attitude. The former candidates, that couldn’t blouse their boots a few years earlier, will catch up fast. After being the hero at OCS, the attitude would often shift to who is this A-hole trying to help me out. The term thrown around was “prior enlisted baggage”. I don’t know how to explain that one, but I am sure you can use your imagination. Just some stuff to think about as you begin to make the transition.

Again, these were just my observations, there are a few other guys on the site that could validate this, or tell me what I’m full of.

 

[fraz76]

McCabe, Are you going to OCS Navy or OCC Marine Corp?

 

[E5B]

Originally posted by fraz76
McCabe, Are you going to OCS Navy or OCC Marine Corp?

My guess is that becase he posted this in the USMC OCS forum, that he is more than likely going to USMC OCS....just a guess, though.

McCabe,

I am a prior and one of the hardest things for me was PT. As you already know, pt in boot camp was minimal, not counting the IT'ing. At OCS, PT is everyday (- sun) and it's pretty demanding PT at that. Mentally, I didn't think it was all that challenging because I would think to myself (OK, this is where he throws the foot locker) and I would be prepared for that kinda stuff. I didn't think it compared to boot in the mental hazing department. Another big difference is leadership. In boot one could slime his/her way through it by sounding off and not drawing any attention. It's harder to get through OCS without and peope/leadership skills. At OCS the candidates run the show and the SI's watch with eagle eyes waiting for something as little as a prepatory command being called on the wrong foot. Luckily I attended Cpl's course and drill and inspections came easier to me. The knowledge part is similar to the boot camp tests. One thing that kicked my butt was the 5-paragraph order. I came from the grunts, but being a mortarman on the gunline, we never had the opportunity to work with them let alone see them. I dedicated a whole liberty to it and finally caught up. Make sure you know it and can scrible out the skeleton in a reasonabe amount of time.

As for the "baggage" that BigWorm is talking about, that applied more-so at TBS. At times (and BigWorm can attest because he was in my Plt at TBS) I found it very hard to stay motivated because I went from being half-way up the food chain to right back at the bottom. Acually, at TBS you are arern't even in the food chain. It was also hard to keep my mouth shut when other Lt's were in charge. Plus I was already set in my ways with 8+ years in the Corps, and some of those "ways" just don't cut it anymore, especially at TBS. Personally, I think the non-priors have the advantage at TBS. I managed to survive.

Biggest piece of advice for both OCS and TBS is:
Don't be that guy/gal...



Beetle

 

[BigWorm]

I have not been through boot camp to attest to the differences, but with everything else, I think that nailed it.

 

[mccabe1919]

Thanks for all of the advice. I can hopefully take this with me. As for PFT that shouldn't really be the drag I think the toughest thing will be such a huge change from the ways of training e/g more leadership less game playing.
Thanks again!