Weekend Update: 2/27

Right now I'm taking a study break from midterms so I figured it'd be a good time to post an update on how everything is going. For starters - I apologize for the dearth in posts. It's not that I feel like I'm letting down a legion of fans that can't wait to read every new post, I just feel that in order for this to serve as a resource for others going through the OCS process then I need to be a little better about documenting the details of my selection process. 

For the most part, it's been a pretty quiet week. The majority of my Marine Officer Program application has been submitted and I'm really just waiting for the rest of my college transcripts and reference letters to arrive. PT is hard, as always, but I certainly feel myself becoming a better runner. My crunches are also getting better, although I still should be doing more than I am to improve though. Pull-ups, conversely, are still my weakest part of the PFT. But really all I can do there is keep working on them and work to be better about doing more push-ups. 

 

Fuck you

Aside from my PFT, I've started studying for the ASTB, which is the Navy and Marine Corps flight exam. In order to not waste a 'metric shitton of tax-payer dollars' [citation needed], the military uses tests like the ASTB to judge whether or not candidates would be likely to successfully complete flight school and go on to be pilots. Training is pretty damn expensive, and any test that can provide some predictive validity helps in sending the right candidates to be trained as aviators.  


For my purposes, the ASTB sucks. I haven't taken math in a while, and 'mechanical concepts' is an area of study that I've worked very, very hard to avoid for the first 23 years of my life. Learning basic flight and nautical information won't be especially fun either. The test is pretty complex, so I'll designate another post to a full explanation of the ASTB. Between studying for this and my school mid-terms, my next two weeks is going to particularly suck. 

Wait a damn second here. I paid $70 and this thing won't even take the test for me?!

On a side note - the Navy was on campus a couple of days ago so I ventured over to introduce myself and see what information I could get from them on OCS. For the most part, the officer I spoke to wasn't very helpful. He seemed a little more concerned about hitting on the college girls around me than giving any particular insight into his branch. From what he did tell me I was able to gather that, like the Army, I would have to wait until I graduated from college before I went to any form of OCS. So of the three branches, the USMC is the only service that will let me go to OCS while I'm still pursuing my undergraduate degree. While that may not seem like a big deal, it moves to solidify the USMC's place as my personal favorite just a little bit more. I'd like to start training and get my foot in the door as soon as possible, so if I can do that with the Marines the soonest (while not making any major concessions), then that's preferable. This is also true if I can secure an aviation contract with the Marine Corps. In that case, I'd more or less be doing the exact same job with the Navy and the Marines so I'd have even less incentive to wait around for the Navy after college. We'll see how it progresses from here.