OCS is currently on a standdown. Thought to write some quick notes on the current gouge of OCS, and my experience including the infamous OCS flight physical.
Hope this can give some info I found lacking on the forum/ease some anxieties without spoiling anything major about OCS.
Pre-OCS
Work out. Be in good shape. Study bravo. Read that again.
Please, please, please do not show up out of shape. The number of people that showed up clearly out of shape, not even capable of passing the basic IST is shocking.
Welcome to OCS.
And again, study bravo.
Rolling
I am shocked this is not a more discussed topic of OCS. Rolling classes is extremely common. An average of 40% of an original OCS class will roll to H-company. H-company is a temporary holding company comprised primarily of injury or event rolled candidates. H-company is a very nice place. You have lots of time to study, sleep and hang out. Most people who rolled to H reflect positively on their time, so if you end up in H for whatever circumstances arise, please do not be discouraged.
Event rolling occurs during one of the major “rollable events”. I won’t give too many details on these events as it spoils the fun. Keep in mind, someone dumber and in worse shape than you has made it through these events. Scream your head off. At some points, you are going to be standing on your face while pulling knowledge from the back of your brain, so learn bravo like a second language.
Men
Buy a good razor. You’ll be shaving every single day if not twice a day if you have fast-growing hair. If you have skin issues that make it impossible/ painful to shave every day, try to get yourself to medical as soon as possible to get a paperwork exception. In the first couple of weeks, everyone has a bald head and a shaved face, so it takes the staff a bit to figure out who you are individual. Take advantage of that momentary anonymousness.
Ladies
OCS is a subjective program. However, a man in mediocre shape stands out a lot less than a female in mediocre shape. You do not have to keep pace with the Spec Ops men who can crank out 200 pushups, but be able to do as many burpees, pushups, v-ups as you can then get up and run without gassing yourself. The DIs know female maxes are different, so they care far more about resilience than keeping pace with a prospective Navy SEAL. You will not be targeted because you are female at OCS, but you will be targeted for falling behind.
NAMI/ Medical Physicals
Early in the first week, the whole class will go to medical. They’ll ask if anything has changed in your medical history, give you a flu shot, blood, urinalysis, chest x-ray and call it a day. Later that week, they’ll check your dental record. For non aviators, this should be the end of your visits to medical.
As for you aviators, depending on the number of NFOs/SNAs in your class, they’ll send you in groups over the course of a couple of days. NAMI will take all day. You’ll start off with a meeting with the Flight Doc and quickly talk about your medical history. After that, you’ll be sitting around studying Bravo as they check your eyes in every possible way. They’ll check hearing, your measurements, EKG along with another couple of odd things. Most people will need a consult of some kind which is a follow-up appointment that will be scheduled later at OCS. A minority will be told, “your stuff should be okay.” No one will leave the flight physical with 100% certainty as everything needs to be processed in Pensacola in the next couple of months.
Ask questions throughout the day. They will tell you on the spot if you DQ at any point. They will immediately tell you if a waiver is possible or not and your odds. The same rule applies for consults. They will tell you why they are sending you for a consult, if they think they need to waiver you or not, or if they are sending you just “to have someone else tell me there is nothing wrong with you.”. Unless you roll, all aviators are currently going to student pool regardless of waivers or not. This is highly subject to change in the future.
The flight doc is extremely friendly and will try to waiver you for everything he/she can. Please tell the flight docs everything. They are on your side. We were told that by the end of the flight school, more than half of aviators are on a waiver of some kind.
Anecdotally, in my group of 15, 1 DQed on the spot, 10 needed consults, 2 DQed with waivers and 2 were told “your stuff should be okay.” Every group will be different.
It is impossible to figure out the % of aviators that DQ at OCS. People choose to DOR without saying anything, some people roll to different classes before you can learn their names. For what it’s worth, in my class, I believe we had 5 aviators DQ with no waivers offered.
Hope this can give some info I found lacking on the forum/ease some anxieties without spoiling anything major about OCS.
Pre-OCS
Work out. Be in good shape. Study bravo. Read that again.
Please, please, please do not show up out of shape. The number of people that showed up clearly out of shape, not even capable of passing the basic IST is shocking.
Welcome to OCS.
And again, study bravo.
Rolling
I am shocked this is not a more discussed topic of OCS. Rolling classes is extremely common. An average of 40% of an original OCS class will roll to H-company. H-company is a temporary holding company comprised primarily of injury or event rolled candidates. H-company is a very nice place. You have lots of time to study, sleep and hang out. Most people who rolled to H reflect positively on their time, so if you end up in H for whatever circumstances arise, please do not be discouraged.
Event rolling occurs during one of the major “rollable events”. I won’t give too many details on these events as it spoils the fun. Keep in mind, someone dumber and in worse shape than you has made it through these events. Scream your head off. At some points, you are going to be standing on your face while pulling knowledge from the back of your brain, so learn bravo like a second language.
Men
Buy a good razor. You’ll be shaving every single day if not twice a day if you have fast-growing hair. If you have skin issues that make it impossible/ painful to shave every day, try to get yourself to medical as soon as possible to get a paperwork exception. In the first couple of weeks, everyone has a bald head and a shaved face, so it takes the staff a bit to figure out who you are individual. Take advantage of that momentary anonymousness.
Ladies
OCS is a subjective program. However, a man in mediocre shape stands out a lot less than a female in mediocre shape. You do not have to keep pace with the Spec Ops men who can crank out 200 pushups, but be able to do as many burpees, pushups, v-ups as you can then get up and run without gassing yourself. The DIs know female maxes are different, so they care far more about resilience than keeping pace with a prospective Navy SEAL. You will not be targeted because you are female at OCS, but you will be targeted for falling behind.
NAMI/ Medical Physicals
Early in the first week, the whole class will go to medical. They’ll ask if anything has changed in your medical history, give you a flu shot, blood, urinalysis, chest x-ray and call it a day. Later that week, they’ll check your dental record. For non aviators, this should be the end of your visits to medical.
As for you aviators, depending on the number of NFOs/SNAs in your class, they’ll send you in groups over the course of a couple of days. NAMI will take all day. You’ll start off with a meeting with the Flight Doc and quickly talk about your medical history. After that, you’ll be sitting around studying Bravo as they check your eyes in every possible way. They’ll check hearing, your measurements, EKG along with another couple of odd things. Most people will need a consult of some kind which is a follow-up appointment that will be scheduled later at OCS. A minority will be told, “your stuff should be okay.” No one will leave the flight physical with 100% certainty as everything needs to be processed in Pensacola in the next couple of months.
Ask questions throughout the day. They will tell you on the spot if you DQ at any point. They will immediately tell you if a waiver is possible or not and your odds. The same rule applies for consults. They will tell you why they are sending you for a consult, if they think they need to waiver you or not, or if they are sending you just “to have someone else tell me there is nothing wrong with you.”. Unless you roll, all aviators are currently going to student pool regardless of waivers or not. This is highly subject to change in the future.
The flight doc is extremely friendly and will try to waiver you for everything he/she can. Please tell the flight docs everything. They are on your side. We were told that by the end of the flight school, more than half of aviators are on a waiver of some kind.
Anecdotally, in my group of 15, 1 DQed on the spot, 10 needed consults, 2 DQed with waivers and 2 were told “your stuff should be okay.” Every group will be different.
It is impossible to figure out the % of aviators that DQ at OCS. People choose to DOR without saying anything, some people roll to different classes before you can learn their names. For what it’s worth, in my class, I believe we had 5 aviators DQ with no waivers offered.
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