Reliability of Christmas Dates Set on OCS website

[D_mac05]

This question is for OCS graduates that have attended OCS during the Christmas holiday in previous years.

My question is, how reliable is the date set on the http://www.nsgreatlakes.navy.mil/otcp/ website? Can we count on the dates AND times that are set for the Christmas break? I have gotten word that my classes' officer has informed us of a totally different set of dates/times, thus there are some discrepencies.(sp?) For others that will be attending OCS during the 2003/2004 christmas break, here is what is said on the website VERBATIM:



HOLIDAY LEAVE DATES FOR 2003/2004 LEAVE PERIOD:
Candidates leaving the Pensacola area via air travel may depart the base at 1600 on Thursday, 18 DEC (it takes approximately 1/2 hour to get to the airport, ensure you allow enough time in your scheduling to make your flight). Personnel driving will be authorized to leave Friday, 19 December at 0730. All candidates will return no later than 2000 on Saturday, 03 Jan 2003.
You have an opportunity to take 16 days of leave, however, you will only earn 7.5 days of leave while at Officer Candidate School. You may plan to start or stop your leave at any point during the 16 day period to avoid a negative leave balance. Negative leave balances must be settled by payment prior to commissioning.

Also, for the ones that DID attend OCS during the holiday break, did you purchase your airline tickets PRIOR to showing up to OCS? Any regrets/problems that you had with this? Thanks for the gouge!!

D

 

[tali264]

D_mac...what were the discrepencies? What other dates were you given?

 

[jaerose]

That sucks...should we just take all 16 days of leave?

JR

 

[D_mac05]

tali

A future OCS classmate of ours (Oct 18th class) contacted our class officer somehow, and asked her when we'd be released for Christmas break. The class officer told her that we would be able to leave somewhere around 1200 on December 19th, and to be back no later than 1600 on Jan 4th. Obviously, this could cause problems if I purchased my tickets to be back in P'Cola on the 4th. The website says differently. I was just wondering how accurate these dates are. Do we take them CUM GRANO SALIS, or do we take them as being Official? (Most tickets have a $100 service charge to change the date/time if even possible...its Christmas season!)

Discovery, you're right on. You get the dirty chores if you stay behind during OCS. What did you think? They'd let you sit around and play PlayStation2 all day long in the barracks??

Thanks for everyone's commments, especially the ones that PM'd me about this topic and gave me some insight.

 

[rnoffke]

When it says that negative leave has to be settled by payment prior to commission what does that mean?? I going in as a civilian so I don't have any leave at all. I would like to take the full time off but would like to know how you pay back negative. Thanks

 

[submariner8]

What I would like to know is why they let those who fly leave a day earlier than those who drive. Unless you are driving a very short distance it almost always takes a lot longer to drive than to fly. This seems odd to me...

 

[jaerose]

You pay it back by deducting it from your pay and/or paying via some other method. You'll earn 7.5 days of leave at OCS, so that would mean you'd have to pay for 8.5 days of leave. You can figure it out by figuring your base pay (E-5) divided by 30 (approximation of the days in a month) and that's your pay per day. Multiply this by 8.5 and that's what you'd probably end up paying back. Kind of sucky, huh? You might be able to set it up so they dock it from your pay each month instead of coughing it all up, or you could save it yourself. For example, if you get paid $50/day, then you'd owe about $425 (that's based off of $1500/month). I am no expert, but I think that's how it would work.

Feel free to enlighten us if you know the exact way this works.

JR

BTW, we BDCPers are lucky...I've got 90 days on the books and will probably sell some back...I wonder if you can give some away?

 

[Sammie]

If you absolutely have to buy an advance ticket, here's a hint: buy it for the most conservative of the dates. That way if they decide on the worst of the two dates, you are fine. If you have to spend a couple of extra days in Pensacola, no big deal.

 

[D_mac05]

Well, I was thinking in advance, because I didn't think it would be easy getting a ticket a couple of days (or even the day of) when I find out exactly when our leave would be in mid-December. This is a peak flying period. I would rather pay low dollar right now if at all possible. Thanks for the replies.

D

 

[gin_e]

the latest dates from the 08-04 (18oct) class officer:

From the Director's meeting yesterday...

Christmas holiday is as follows:

-18 Dec (Thurs) 1600, candidates can fly out, if driving they can leave the morning of the 19th Dec.

-Candidate Officers must return Friday, 02 Jan by 2359 to prep for new class reporting.

-Officer Candidates must return Sunday, 04 Jan by 1600.

You will not be a Candidate Officer before Christmas leave. Remember, you will not have earned this many leave days, and you must settle your negative leave balance by payment before you graduate.