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It was a day a long time coming and one that all of us were waiting for. As COL Kessler said during his speach, the best part of OCS might have been seeing it in our rear view window. But, I must say I've learned a lot during these past 12 weeks and hopefully I've grown from it.
The week was mainly administrative stuff. We had our new ID cards made, we had our DD214s signed, and we had to deal with some interesting demands from our student chain of command. One of them being that we stay late into the evening on Wednesday to clean the barracks. Normally, this would not be a weird request, but it turns out that final barracks cleaning was on Thursday morning anyway. What was the point of cleaning the barracks on Wednesday night just to mess them up as people lived there to re clean the same spots the next morning? Also, not a big deal if our families were not in town. A lot of us will have very few opportunities to spend with our families over the next year. With me, it will be the next year and a half at least since I am set to deploy after BOLC 3. I blame the student chain on this, because as it turns out the cadre actually recommended that we be released Wednesday night. The student chain chose to keep us late for no reason. How do I know this? A little birdie told me. Either way.
Graduation on Thursday was bittersweet. We had the oath of office at 11, the ceremony at 1, and the pinning at 2. I chose the airborne walk for my pinning. Most people chose the Ranger memorial. I have a lot of love for paratroopers. Hopefully, I'll get to go to jump school sometime soon.
After 2:30 or so, I drove up to Atlanta to fly back to Killeen, TX. That's it.
So, I guess before I close this I should say a few things. The cadre of D CO 3/11th IN Regt. are a group of very dedicated, skilled, and demanding NCOs and Officers. I learned a great deal from each and every one of them. SSG Rowzee was the enlisted cadre member of the cycle with CPT Surber becoming the officer cadre member of the cycle. I voted for both of them. SSG Rowzee due to all the extra time he spent preparing all of us for the field, handling our paperwork issues, and just treating us like human beings. CPT Surber due to his incredible planning skills such as the FLX 1-2. He also taught a class in land nav that if you paid complete attention to, you would not fail the land nav course. Sadly, I hear he is leaving the Army. The officers of 3rd platoon, my friends and colleagues, who all pulled together when needed and were always there for each other. I will miss this group. I will see them all individually in other places, but as a group, we could not be beat. I loved every one of them.
So, as I finally close out this blog, it's nice to say that I could theoretically retitle it "OCS 16 November through 19 February." "Hopefully" no longer figures. I have to credit my beautiful and supportive wife, Susie, for constantly telling me that I would make it even when I was a minute away from walking into the commander's office and asking for a release from the course. She kept my spirits high and gave me a goal to fight for. To my little daughter, Annemie, my precious child who looks at Daddy and smiles no matter what. Hopefully she will grow up to know that the reason why Daddy was gone so much was to keep her world safe.
So, finally, it pleases me to say: 2LT Sharp, signing off.
Where are we at today?
I'll tell you. We're now less than a week from OCS graduation. When I first came here, I doubted that this week would even come. Now that it is here, I'm still amazed that it is here. Week 11 was all completely administrative. The last block to check as of Monday was the end of cycle PT test. I did very well, having received a 288 on it. That is an increase of 41 points from the last time. That is a testament to the physical training we have endured since day 1. There were a few highlights to the week. The biggest one for me is the fact that we have all signed our DD 214's. That is the discharge form for the military. I received an honorable discharge! You have to be discharged from active enlisted service before you are commissioned into the officer corps. Between the 18th and 19th, I will be a civilian (technically) for 24 hours. Beer anyone?
I also had my ID card made. I thought it was a shock to see 2LT Douglas Sharp on it rather than Staff Sergeant Douglas Sharp. Can I get used to this new world? I guess I'll find out rather quickly. The evenings were rather filled with random things. Many people are getting complacent about things and irritability is picking up. 12 weeks in this environment yields that I suppose. I keep trying to remind people that this is not the last time we will have to work with each other. The officer's world is very small and has to be civil. The complacency has led the cadre to constantly make threats to take away our weekend and our family time next week. I have issues with these type of threats, but that's another story for another time.
I wish I had more to report about this week. The excitement is gathering very quickly. The cadre has encouraged us to begin moving out of the barracks. Today I packed up about half my belongings to prepare for my departure next Thursday. After this posting, I can only imagine that there will be only one more. That will, of course, be about graduation week. Until then....
SOC Sharp
So, since I am now just a week away from graduation I figured I would finally make my list of "20 Things That Are Important To Know About Army OCS." This blog was not just a blog to take down my thoughts and chronicle my beloved OCS time, but it was also designed to give those thinking about going to OCS an idea of what it's like. So with that, here is my little list of things to expect when embarking on this journey.
1) After our class graduates, prior service candidates will no longer be branched prior to OCS. They will have to compete with everyone else for a top spot on the Order of Merit List (OML). Pretty much everyone will get about the same average on everything except for two events: The Bolton Obstacle Course, and the initial PT test. If I had done well on both of those, I would be much higher on the OML. In other words, if you are thinking of going to OCS, be in great great shape before you get there. You want to be high on that OML or be prepared for a crappy branch.
2) When packing your stuff, download the packing list off of www.infantry.army.mil. But, also download the OCSSOP from the same website and make sure you bring the same items on that packing list as well. If you don't and you have a lousy cadre, you might be kicked out of your OCS course and put in HHC. That is about the most depressing place on Earth and you will have to start at day 1 again. You don't want that.
3) Do not sign into OCS until the date on your orders. If you sign in early, you are under the control of HHC until your class starts. You don't want that, believe me.
4) They will give you an outline of the fraternization policy at OCS. DO NOT violate this policy. I don't care how good looking the gals are here or the guys, do not date your fellow candidates and definitely do not date candidates in other companies.
5) Do not lie, cheat, or steal or tolerate others who do. There is an investigation underway right now centering around someone in the platoon who cheated and the individuals who knew and did nothing about it. Your career is worth more than that idiot who wants to take a short cut while you work your butt off.
6) Start to practice saying sentences without profanity. It really has no place in the officer world.
7) The first two weeks be prepared for severe indigestion almost every meal. They make you run right after eating. It's required and for two weeks I did nothing but puke. Led to a dramatic weight loss though.
8) Be prepared for a dramatic weight loss. But, you might gain some of it back when you hit senior phase and they start treating you like a person again.
9) The Bolton obstacle course is about the hardest physical thing I have ever done. Make sure you are proficient at climbing ropes and your upper body strength is solid. You have to pass this to move on.
10) Pressure your student leadership in week one to make a simple room SOP leaving lots of room in it for personal space. The SOP only has to be as strict as the students make it. The less strict it is, the easier life will be because the cadre use the SOP to inspect the students. If you make it stupid, life will be stupid. (I wrote our class SOP. I only put 6 inspectable spaces in it. There are probably a possible 20 places that could go in this SOP.)
11) Make sure your spouse, your girlfriend, or significant other are aware that they may not be talking to you much in the first 3 weeks. They try to schedule your time virtually around the clock during those weeks.
12) Bring civilian underwear as well as the military underwear. Much more comfortable.
13) Wash your laundry whenever you get enough free time. It doesn't come up often, especially in the first 4 weeks or so and there are very few washers in the company. I washed my laundry during the weekends, but I was assigned to a good company who had no problem with giving passes on the weekends. Other companies (A, B) give virtually no weekend passes until week 10. Other companies (C, D, E) are much more frequent in their pass giving.
14) If you have hotel points, use them here. I had 60,000 hotel points from the 3 TDY's I had taken over the past couple of years allowing me to stay in hotels almost every weekend. If you don't have hotel points, save up. When you actually get weekends hotels are great for resting up, getting privacy (which is a rarity here), and just having some time to goof off. If you stay in the barracks on a weekend it is very loud and un-relaxing.
15) Actually read your assigned book in OCS. It's really obvious who didn't read it and just wrote their papers from an online report or something. The cadre lose a lot of respect for you if you do this.
16) Being an officer is special and very important. Treat this course like you are pursuing an honor that very few people obtain. Don't ever take it for granted especially during the last weeks. complacency is killing us right now because many people have "senioritis" and believe they are done helping out with things like cleaning and stuff. Because of this, we've been severely reduced in our privileges.
17) Support your student chain of command as if they were the "real" chain of command. Unfortunately, 99 percent of the stupidity that can occur at OCS is a direct result of the student chain of command making decisions that just don't make any sense or them just wanting to be jerks to look "hard" in front of the cadre. They still have to be supported. If you give them ammunition to be jerks, they will be even bigger jerks. If they feel they've lost control of the company, then they will really be bad. Always support the student chain.
18) In the Army it is often the case that some rules are bent. Do not bend any OCS rules. Class 2's (an article 15 type of deal where they take away time and put you on details) were handed out like candy here. They will have random inspections to check if you have all of the 100 inspectable items we had to carry with us at all times. (There were a lot too. My cargo pockets were bulging every day.) Follow all rules given by the cadre and by the student chain. Later in your career you can bend some, but this isn't the place.
19) If you are tapped to be in the student leadership, use common sense when making your decisions. When scheduling the DEFAC, 1 hour is not enough time for a company of 180 people to eat and shower before class. Just think about little things like that and always think of the troops first before thinking about your own personal leadership eval.
20) The first two weeks are the hardest. Once you get through that, the remaining 10 will not be too, too bad. Just stick with it and you have to want it.
SOC Sharp
This was the worst week of OCS yet, and as I write this it still isn't over.
It all started with a nice weekend when we got back from the field. That weekend was the result of us doing the initial recovery in a quick and efficient manner. If you haven't figured out already, the initial recovery was about all that went well. Because, to ruin a perfectly good weekend, you have Monday.
We reported in at 0900 on Monday probably given to us on account of the Super Bowl (a very disappointing game, by the way.) We had a few briefings before we found ourselves in the push up position being yelled at for being complacent. Apparently the barracks were a mess. I find that hard to believe considering all of us were in cleaning mode all weekend and the student leadership had inspected. (More on the student leadership later.) With that, our "walking to chow" privileges as well as our off barracks privileges were revoked for tonight. We spent it cleaning TA-50 gear and cleaning our weapons - well into the dark of night.
Now, to further complicate the week, the second History test was on for Friday. Normally, this wouldn't be a huge deal but with a huge recovery inspection on Thursday as well as a room and wall locker inspection, study time was in horribly short supply. Not only that, but many people needed facilities outside the confines of the barracks in order to properly clean their Class A's and TA50 gear. We lost our off barracks privileges on Monday and it would continue into Tuesday. Now, we get to Tuesday. First Sergeant yanked our privileges making us clean stuff all night. Apparently, on Tuesday, the barracks were still a mess. I guess that may have been correct, in a parallel universe or something, but with all the crap we had been taking I assure you that they were gleaming. Many people believed the cadre were playing a game or something to tighten the leash a little to remind us we weren't done yet. I sort of agree. It also didn't help that 8 people went to sick call on Tuesday when we had Monday morning off for them to do it. That would make me mad too, I think. Oh yeah, and the 1 mile run to the track where we do PT. Many people fell out of that little run. At this point, I was wondering if I'd ever get off post.
Sleep, like time, was almost non existent this week. I got a full night's sleep on Monday, I think. Otherwise I was up most of the night every night this week. The only real night I got to study for the test was Thursday after the inspection. I won't talk much about the inspection. Like all others, it didn't take long. Preparing for it was much more painful than the inspection itself. But, alas, the weapons were apparently really bad. No weekend for us.
Now, this week wouldn't have been nearly as bad if it weren't for the collective failures on the part of the student leadership. Each one of them are very good people. I like them all. But something went horribly wrong this week. First off, as we cleaned weapons and believed they were clean, the cadre inspections indicated the contrary. The student leadership's response was that everyone must go back down and clean their weapon. Usually, after a recovery in a real unit, you clean your weapons and the armorer inspects them. The weapons that are clean start to go in a separate pile. Then those who cleaned the first weapons help to clean the remaining weapons. Usually, in one day's time, you have all of the company's weapons clean and ready. Here, there was just an angry directive to "clean weapons." Nobody in leadership set up a cleaning plan, nobody used their heads and asked the cadre what the problems they were seeing were, nobody set up weapons inspectors, nothing. What's worse? Every time the prior service offered advice, the current leadership (student CO) waved his hand at them and just sent them away not listening. I don't blame the college options folks in leadership positions to lack experience in this stuff, but I do blame them when they make no effort to listen to a better and viable plan. So, no surprise, weapons didn't get cleaned in time. This same leadership took on a "blue falcon" approach to their operations as well. Many of us overheard the student CO telling the cadre that we deserved to have our senior privileges stripped. Well, that's what happened this week. But that moment took away any ability the leadership had to get full support from their soldiers. It's like in the real army, when you screw your soldiers over and give them the idea that you won't take care of them, you lose their support. Oh yes, they'll do what you say, but they won't give you that little bit extra. And that little bit extra determines a failed mission or a successful one. The student leadership this week was constantly frustrated that they couldn't get that little bit extra from us this week. Their blue falcon ways were why. So, they continued their yelling and screaming all week, but they constantly tried to turn people into cadre. They also refused to release a schedule this week. Try going to a unit and not posting a T to T+6 training schedule and see what happens. Then they didn't release an inspection SOP until Wednesday, the day before the inspection!!!! That also was unacceptable. I am looking forward to the leadership change on Sunday.
Meanwhile, I sit here preparing for a formation on Saturday to spend 6 hours cleaning weapons and cleaning barracks. If we're lucky we might get released at 5 or so. When that happens, I'm going to get a very large alcoholic beverage. I'm also looking forward to finally calling my wife, who I haven't talked to in days because of the hellish fiasco that became this week. On a happy note, I did pass my history test.
Next week - week 11 - The PT test is really all we have left and that will be on Monday morning. I have no idea what we have to do after that. I guess it's another week where they can mess with us, but we shall see. Until next time....
SOC Sharp.
A few weeks ago, I was told by the cadre that DA is assigning our first duty posts based on deployment schedules. Supposedly, the duty post you are at is supposed to deploy within 6 weeks of arriving there. About 6 or so months ago when I looked up 502nd MI's deployment schedule I found that they were likely deploying in November of 2008. That would mean they return in November of 2009 and I would have about a year before actually deploying myself. After cadre had told me this, I emailed my contact who is in the 502nd and I finally got an email back from him yesterday. 502nd will probably deploy in October of this year. My contact told me that I should not start packing my bags or anything because with the new president and everything else going on most information is more a weather prediction than anything else, but if they are truly deploying in October, they should get their orders within the next couple of months. What does this mean? Well, it means that a month after reporting to Lewis I will deploy to Iraq. This changes our plans greatly. If I will only be in the states a mere month after reporting, it might make more sense to keep Susie and the baby in Texas until I get back from Iraq just because they will have a support network down there. It also might make PCSing from 15th a little shorter if I'm not transporting my household goods. Either way, it makes me very sad. I haven't spent much time with the family at all within the last couple of months and now it's looking like that time will stretch for years. Such is the life of an Army soldier I guess.
We were all very, very tired. We returned from the second week in the field late Friday night, and only had about 40 hours off. It did not feel like enough time. Squad lanes were long, stressful, and physically exhausting. Unfortunately, when we boarded the buses that Sunday, we had no idea how hard the following week would be.
I've always liked going to the field. But like running, I have this attitude toward the field in which I dread actually going to the field. Once I get there, I tend to have a good time and the time passes quickly. This week we were so busy that time just flew by. Now, as I sit chilling out during a two and a half day weekend I reflect on the last three weeks. The field was supposed to be dreadful. It wasn't. In fact, I think the last three weeks may have salvaged the course for me. I learned a lot in the field and am very glad that they organized it the way they did.
Anyway, enough rambling.
Sunday night 158 candidates arrived at the McBride's Bridge training site at Ft. Benning, Georgia to spend a glorious week in the field engaging in simulated anti terrorist operations. Just like last week, this one began with an Operations Order. The terrorists we fought last week as squad sized elements were driven from our immediate area of operation. Now, they have regrouped in a neighboring region and have consolidated their resources to attack in larger elements. Now we must go out in platoon sized elements to fight them. Instead of the squad leader planner and executor that got evaluated during squad lanes, the following positions were evaluated during platoon lanes: platoon leader planner, platoon leader executor, platoon sergeant, three squad leaders, and a weapons squad leader. During the week, I got a third look as weapons squad leader. It required me to figure out how to place heavy machine guns when attacking an objective. Given my limited experience actually doing this, it was rough. Or at least, I thought it was. The company commander was my actual evaluator and he gave me a great evaluation. Guess I didn't do as bad as I thought.
There were a number of people in the company who are on the fence, generally because of planning. As I stated earlier, the platoon leader planner receives an operations order from the evaluating cadre and must take that information about the enemy and create his own operation order for the mission. It must fit into the specific operation order format. I feared this particular evaluation, mainly because in my experience the amount of information intel can give you about an objective would mean that it would take you hours to create a viable operations plan. At OCS, you have 40 minutes to plan, create a sand table, brief, and then move out. In Platoon lanes, you have an hour to do all that. However, the OPORD the cadre give us are short and the information is not quite as detailed. When I did planning, it was not a huge problem. However, there were many people who could not quite get it. They deviated from the OPORD format, which is basically an immediate NO GO. Although this might sound like a minor detail, it really isn't. The job of the officer is to plan missions. It's central and it's important. OCS recognizes this all to well in that failing the lanes means that you are a day one recycle into OCS. But two things disturbed me about those who failed the lanes: 1) to pass, all they had to do was not deviate from the very simple, structured format and 2) most of the failures were prior service with years of experience. Prior service candidates really, in my mind, have few excuses for screwing this up. Even in my strategic little MI world I have heard dozens of OPORDs briefed. I guess this is an indication of how very little soldiers truly listen to their officers brief the mission.
On Wednesday, we had our OPFOR time again where we went out and attacked other platoons trying to do their lanes. It was a good time except for the fact that Wednesday was the only day of the week it rained. We had fantastic weather during our three weeks. Other than the cold, there wasn't any problems. Wednesday was our only rainy day. It also kind of spoiled things because Sunday through Wednesday was very warm. The rain brought the cold back to Columbus. I prefer cold over rain though.
The long, long week in the field ended with the 10 mile ruck march. This was the last such march in the course and it was a little difficult after a week of running through the long platoon lanes. Some of the lanes required us to move, sprint, and crawl through kilometers of terrain. The 10 mile ruck march kind of made my already aching feet protest. However, I somehow made it out of the march without blisters or serious foot pain. After this, the only three graded events are the History 2 test, the commander's graduation run (which is very slow), and the PT test. By the middle of week eleven, everything should be done. Before that though, we must delve into week 10. After going to the field, there is a long period of recovery. We came back from the field at 1 PM on Friday and spent the next 6 hours cleaning the equipment. The student leadership was smart in deviding the labor efficiently among the platoons. They did it so well in fact, that the only stuff we have left to clean are the weapons and our personal gear. The cadre first sergeant was so impressed, that he released us for the weekend on Friday night. This was a surprise, considering none of us expected to be released at all. This weekend was supposed to be two days of cleaning the gear. That's ok, I won't complain.
Next up? Week 10. Recovery, History after 1865, and the Commander's graduation run on Friday. I cannot believe I am so close to the end. Until next week then....
SOC Sharp
Week 2 of the field is now over. And what a week it was. I was extremely apprehensive about this week mainly because I have heard absolute horror stories about the leadership in the field evaluations. Not only can they be difficult, but failure of this particular task recycles you all the way back to day one. An extra 12 weeks of OCS to me sounds tragic, so I wanted to do as well as I could.
After the long 4 day weekend last week, we all met up at 5 and hopped a school bus to our site. We got there in the dead, cold night after a long drive. It was hard to make out details but it seemed a little more inviting than the sleeping bag in a hole setup we had last week. This week, we live on a FOB with tents containing cots. The tents are even heated! That was definitely a perk considering that it was very cold this week. I froze my butt off the entire week, so it was nice to have heated shelter at night. Of course, eventually you had to leave the heated shelter and that was never any fun.
Tuesday was basically a “day off” for third platoon. Our only tasks were to defend the FOB from the “insurgents” operating in our area and pull CQ. If you weren’t doing either of those things that took up only about 2 hours out of your 24 hour day, you were chillin. Many people were very nervous about their evaluations, so we spent a lot of the day running battle drills and briefing operation orders at each other. It was a very relaxing day.
Wednesday and Friday were our lane evaluations. You were evaluated on two points: operation order planning and executions. The OPORD is the bread and butter of the Army officer’s life. It is in a standard 5 paragraph format that lays out exactly how a unit will conduct an operation. In recent years these things have become very detailed. (Example: the OPORD for D-day was only 8 pages long. The OPORD for last year’s 15th MI Bn holiday ball was at least 20 pages.) Execution required the leader to simply execute the plan. Sound easy? Well, it can be very hard. You are usually given an azimuth and a distance that you have to dead reckon over intense terrain. If you fall off your azimuth and never make it to your objective, you automatically fail your evaluation. What makes this even harder is that since you are taking up the squad leader position, the compass and pace men are two different people in the squad. So basically, if your compass man has a brain fart, you are a failure. To add to it, you had to react to indirect artillery fire that can throw you off azimuth and react to any dangers that the cadre might decide to throw your way like injuring one of your men and you have to find a way to transport him and still complete your objective. Mine was a simple squad attack. We arrived on our objective early, attacked, and killed everyone there in a nice, violent, and efficient Army fashion. I got a GO in execution. On Friday I was evaluated on my OPORD and got a GO on that too. Money. Next week is platoon lanes. Even though each lane will evaluate 7 people at a time, they are planning to evaluate the NO GOs and those they feel are struggling first. I’m pretty sure I’m not on the struggling list, so I don’t see me being evaluated more than once. Even if I get a NO GO on that evaluation, I still stay in the course because you have to have a 50 percent GO to keep going. They would have to evaluate me three times and give me a NO GO each time for me to fail now. I feel very relaxed right now. Bring on that 10 mile ruck march.
Now before I depart, I have to bring up an interesting thing. One day out of the week (it was Thursday for us) you have OPFOR (opposing forces) duty where you are the objective that gets attacked by those being evaluated. Tuesday, one of our platoons somehow missed the fact that 5 people were missing at 2000 hours. It turned out that they were one OPFOR team that was forgotten. Lucky for them, they built a fire otherwise they might have been in big trouble. I think it was down into the 20s that day. The part I didn’t like was this one incident led the student leadership to conduct accountability formations about three times an evening for the rest of the week. OCS would be a fantastic place if it wasn’t for the student leaders. Now, they get their jobs done, but so many of them are so inexperienced at Army ways that they seem to think that formations are the only means of getting accountability (that’s why we have team leaders, squad leaders, and platoon sergeants), putting out information (again, those pesky team leaders are good at that too), and just saying “hello” sometimes. I think we have one formation a day in a typical Army unit. At OCS, thanks to the student leadership, we have about 14. I hate formations. Especially in the cold.
Ok, next week. Week three in the field. The highs are expected to be in the 70s with lows in the 50s. Cake baby, cake. Of course, the sweat will now likely add to the grime. MMMM, grime. Yeah, I was pretty dirty. But platoon lanes should be pretty easy after this week I think. Next week ends in a 10 mile road march. I’ve heard it’s pretty easy just because you are very motivated to get it done. Hopefully, we get to take items out of our 85 pound ruck. Anyway, I am off to enjoy my 30 hours off. Will write again next week.
SOC Sharp
