![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif?v=92){kind=small}
Well, Priti is midway through Navy OCS, I miss her a lot but I'm at least used to missing her which makes it slightly less bad. I'm somehow scraping through the second half of junior year in aerospace still. The weather is getting better and my usual winter semidepression is fading. I've been hitting Crossfit 3-4 days a week for the past couple weeks now, and I'm back on the pull-up bandwagon. (I did 12x4 today). Yesterday I completed "Karen" as prescribed, my first as-prescribed Crossfit WOD in a while; 150 wall-ball shots with a 20lb ball. Better faster stronger etc.
I made chocolate-black pepper ice cream this week. It's interesting and it's tasty and I don't eat much at a time because eating it all means I'll make more and then it'll spiral out of control. Never mind I got my ice cream cookbook (yes I own an ice cream cookbook) autographed by the author last week during a quick jaunt to Chicago during spring break.
Anyway I guess that's a quick state of the whatever. Just figured I'd post something.
Hooray, technology.
( Yeah. Baking. )
All from scratch. They're good. I like this hobby.
As a final note, vaporized corneal tissue has a unique smell all its own...
Caveats: I am not an officer. I may be wrong in what I'm about to say. These are my opinions and not those of the US Government, US Marine Corps, or any other person or agency.
So, As a graduate of the PLC Juniors course, I am halfway through the OCS program. That's not entirely accurate, though. The PLC Seniors course has a whole lot more in it; it's the part of the PLC program designed to really screen and evaluate the candidates. PLC Juniors is more of an "Intro to OCS" course. It's 6 weeks long, but your hand is held pretty tightly at first, and there is actually a lot of free-ish time in which to get things done.
One of the things that was asked of me quite often by other candidates while I was at OCS was "How is OCS compared to boot camp?" The other question was "Is boot camp harder?" The short answers I gave them were "OCS is different." and "If I hadn't gone to boot camp first, OCS would be harder than boot camp was."
Boot camp is designed to break a recruit down, then build him up with a desired mentality, while imparting the required skills for him/her to function as a basic Marine. As such, it focuses heavily on discipline (the instant and unhesitating obedience to all orders), speed, intensity, and the like.
OCS is not designed to train you. OCS is designed to screen and evaluate you. Yes, you are taught things, but that's not the real point of OCS. The OCS instructors are trying to see how you react and operate while in a new, stressful, and unfamiliar environment.
Some examples. In OCS, the candidates run things. There is a candidate chain of command. The candidates form themselves, move themselves, and basically operate the company so that everyone can get to/from required training. Well, in theory, at least; things never actually WORK. These are candidates, and candidates make mistakes.
So here you are at OCS. You are being subjected to some reasonably strenuous physical training. You are constantly under observation. You have these classes to go to, and you have written exams, usually 1 or 2 a week. But you don't have any time to study. When you aren't in class, you are cleaning the house, or at close order drill, or out in the field getting tactical instruction.
You have things that need to be done before tomorrow morning. Your gear needs to be ready. What gear do you need? You don't know! Your candidate staff needs to figure it out, pass the word, and ensure that it's followed. But you don't have any time to do any of that, either.
You need to take care of yourself. You need to be stretching, you need to be taking care of your personal hygiene, and you need to make sure things like your laundry get done. But you don't have any time to do any of that, either!
So, we've established that you have a lot to do and no time to do it in. How do you get it done? You pull from the only time available to you; your sleep time. By the schedule, you're given 8 hours of sleep per night. If you're sleeping 8 full hours of sleep a night, something is horribly wrong with you, and you're not going to last long. I was averaging about 3 hours of sleep per night for the first training week. If I were to put a finger on it, the single largest stressor at OCS was the lack of sleep. This is probably where being a prior-enlisted candidate helped out the most; I had a good base of knowledge so the academics were not hard, and I was already on board with some of the basic tactical stuff they were teaching. I could re-allocate the time that others used figuring all that out, and use it for sleep or something.
Compare this to boot camp. At boot camp, life during the day was harsher. Every single second of your time, you were surrounded by drill instructors. The instant you let off, they would jump you and make you pay, sure. But every night at lights, you went to sleep, and you got your 8 hours. God help you if you were out of your bunk for any reason short of using the bathroom. If you were out of your bed trying to 'get ahead' before lights came on, you'd get lit up by the drill instructors.
At OCS we would have blocks of time, sometimes as long as an hour, where we were in essence on our own. This was not a luxury. This was evaluation. How would the platoon use its time? Would the platoon staff implement something? Would it devolve into chaos? Often times it would; then the sergeant instructors were out, and we were paying for it. Self-governance was the name of the game, and it took a month before the platoon was able to figure that out. Even at the end, there were problems. We were nowhere near as disciplined as a recruit platoon, and as near as I can tell, that's expected.
There is much more effort placed on leadership. You're forced into leadership roles. You need to lead your peers effectively. You have to make decisions. You're forced into decision points where there are no right answers. You will fail, guaranteed. How will you handle it? You're under the spotlight, you're being watched. Will you freeze up? You can't afford to. You're being evaluated.
You get liberty at OCS! Time off, about 24 hours per week after the 3rd week. This, too, isn't a luxury. It's evaluation. Are you going to get back on time? What will you be doing when nobody's watching? (Here's a hint; there are still people watching). We had a candidate get caught fraternizing with an enlisted Marine. The captain who saw her reported her to our company CO. He asked her for her story. The stories didn't add up.
She was gone the next day. Leave OCS, never come back, they told her. You blew it.
It's a different beast. Hopefully all these words made sense. Comments/questions are welcomed.
- 17:30 First OCS liberty! Am alive & well. Address is I Company, 3rd platoon, not first. 3 weeks to go! #
- 08:31 I am in India Company, First Platoon, unless I get switched during the 3 days of inprocessing. #
- 15:30 Did a fitness workout 1 mile in 1 hour and felt alright. Pullups 6x10, 1mi run in 7:20, ab work, dips, 3x10 s... dailymile.com/e/7QbO #
- 21:32 Ran 3 miles in 27 mins and felt blah. I hate treadmills; this run sucked. Also pullups, 9x6. #
- 07:59 Ran 2.5 miles in 18 mins and felt good. .5mi warmup then 2x1mi sprints, 6min rest between.
1) 6:18
2) 6:46 #
