Hey guys myself and some fellow marines are headed to vance for JSUPT on OCT.14. If anyone could give me a heads up on what to expect when I get there that would be great. By the way dont reply if you are gonna ***** about how it is the worst place in the world and its so hard. Any marine can appreciate it when I say "THERE IS NO WAY IT IS WORSE THAN TBS!!" Thanks
a recent Vance Volunteer just contacted me with questions... here was my reply:
Well, I gotta say... it was silly to request living in Enid, OK... but I suppose the damage is done... and you must have your reasons...
Living arrangements work as such: If the dormitories have less than 90% occupancy... you will be REQUIRED to live in them. They are tiny, think of a room you can barely fit a Queen-sized bed in... and give it a small RV sized kitchen and bath.
Since I arrived in June, they haven't gotten full yet. And it keeps emptying every week as people graduate. It can change quickly, but plan on living on base. I got out through a loophole... but they have since closed the loop. If you get here and wind up getting permission to live off base, look me up... I need a roomie.
Aren't the 12-hour days helpful for studying? Well... depends on if that is your kind of studying. I do things better my own way. What really drives me nuts... dont expect classes like API. Everything is taught to us by computer program. Kinda like flipping through powerpoints for several hours a day, and then getting a API style exam on all the material. Oh, and you are not allowed to highlight your texts like we could in API. You need to turn your texts in after training, and they only permit one color of highliter, with no more than a few words per page highlighted. Also, there are no "gouge sites" like some people used in API.
How soon after API did you report? I could not attend my API graduation in Pensacola. None of the Vance people I know were able to. Your movers will arrive around 0730 - 0900 on graduation Friday. You need to report to Vance by midnight on Monday. So, you basically have to haul ass to get here. And your movers wont be here till a week after you get here... so bring all your uniforms in your car with you. (report aboard in Khakis your first day. Nobody wears whites)
You cannot choose your squadron. It's assigned by which squadron needs students. Your class will all be in one squadron (the 8th or the 33rd) and you'll just be split into two flights. What else.... OH! I arrived here June 18th... classed up with 07-13 and started on July 27th.
Hmm... what else to tell you... the bugs up here are INSANE. I kill atleast one Brown Recluse (extremely poisonous) spider a day in my apartment. The dormitories are worse. I've called around, apparently they are almost immune to sprays and insecticides. Two days ago I found a scorpion hanging on my wall by the lightswitch, and yesterday one of the AF guys found a Black Widow in his dormitory room. He brought it to class... keeping it as a pet.
Oh, and there's nothing to do here. I mean... literally. There is ONE bar/club to go to... and it's... um... not worth it. Enid is the third largest town in Oklahoma... we have the Wal-mart. And a bunch of fast-food. And that's it. The Mall has half the stores out of business. If you want to go to Best Buy, Circuit City, Any major chain store besides Walmart or Staples... it's 110 miles each way to Oklahoma City.
There's a lot of ****... and I wouldn't recommend coming here... but since you're coming now, you can atleast look forward to the T-6. Which is better than the T-34... And you'll finish Primary a month or two before the Corpus boys... Is it worth it? I dunno... its up to you. Hope I didn't scare you too much.
See you soon, shipmate. welcome to The "new" Suck... Marine.
Good luck.
