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. 

Initial Meeting #2: US Army

Not just any other branch, either...

Well ladies and gents, after a long week of trading emails and finding a good time for a meeting I can finally say I've spoken to a representative of another branch of the military.
Last Wednesday I met Staff Sergeant Monsale of the US Army. Unlike the Marine Corps, the Army uses enlisted personnel as recruiters for enlisted soldiers as well as officers (at least from what I can tell). This would also be a great time for a disclaimer: my knowledge of the Army's recruiting process is very limited, at best. I will probably make multiple incorrect assumptions in this post alone. I highly encourage anyone with a more intricate knowledge of the Army's recruiting procedures to comment and correct any misconceptions and mistakes that I make here.
With that said, I did my best to get a feel for how the Army differed from the Marine Corps. Not only in the broad sense of it's mission as a force, but also just the intricacies in the OCS process. Obviously, I was mainly concerned with what my specific options were. The Army does not do a course like PLC in the Marine Corps; I could technically "join," however there's no way I could go complete OCS while in college. That's a little bit of a bummer. Not necessarily a deal-breaker though. 


One plus with the Army is the student-loan repayment plan (I'm not sure what the technical name is). From what I gathered, the Army will pay up to $65,000 in student loans, in lieu of your G.I. Bill. That's a pretty solid perk. Truthfully, I don't have that many loans though, and I personally think it'd be more worthwhile for them to pay for my grad school.. so that aspect is really a non-issue. 

As for the differences, the best place to start would be with actual OCS. Army officer training is broken up into three phases: Basic Officer Leadership Course (BOLC) I, II, and III. The first phase is OCS, which lasts twelve weeks. Phase II last six weeks and Phase III is branch-specific training. In the Army, you apply for a "branch" such as Infantry, Finance, Aviation, etc. It's more or less like a MOS with the USMC. The third phase is job training, which can last from six to fourteen weeks, depending on what branch you're selected for. Like the Marine Corps, you do have a choice, but that largely depends on your performance in the first two phases of BOLC and the needs of the Army.

The different branches are pretty similar to the MOS choices offered by the Marine Corps. You have to select three for your preference and one of the three has to be a combat branch. To me, this says there are probably a decent amount of people trying to join the Army with no intention of serving in a combat role. While the Army needs support elements, I think trying to entirely avoid combat in the US Army is kind of missing the point. 

Much like the Marines, you and your recruiter put together an application package to be sent to a selection board with many of the same required documents. Some of these include recommendation letters, a dress photo in a suit, letter stating why you want to become an officer, college transcripts, etc. From what I understand, you then are interviewed by a panel of officers to gauge appearance, confidence and how well-spoken you are, among other things. On top of that, I'll also need to take the Armed Service Vocational Aptitude Battery (ASVAB), which shouldn't be too difficult. In the office I did very well on the practice test (frankly, it doesn't judge very tough material) so I'm not especially worried. 


For the most part, I liked what SSGT Monsale had to say, but it really didn't do a whole lot to change where the Army stands in my list of choices. He generally confirmed what I was expecting in a lack of a comparable program to PLC. Also, the Army still seems like an inferior version of the Marine Corps, at least in combat elements. Marines are largely in better shape than their Army counterparts and I'd feel much better going into a combat zone with the Corps. Having said that, the Army did also show that it's an organization where motivated and ambitious soldiers can accomplish some very good things. The advanced education offered for soldiers in schools such as Jump School in Fort Benning, GA is just one of many opportunities for Army officers with a little drive to have opportunities to better themselves in their profession. With that in mind, if the Marine Corps doesn't work for me this summer, I'll definitely be giving the Army a strong look after I graduate.

A Little Bit Of PT Goes A Long Way...



PT? Fun? Surely you jest...

 For those of you I didn't hound via Facebook or text, this morning was my first PT session with my OSO and fellow Officer Candidates. For those unfamiliar with the Marine Corps or the military in general, PT = Physical Training. Like many words in the military vocabulary, PT can be both a noun or verb. In any event, we all met at a park a couple miles east of FAU at 4:45AM and PTed for roughly an hour. Personally, I had been looking at it a little apprehensively because of the unknown. Really the only guarantee was that it was going to be hard, and it certainly didn't disappoint in that regard. We had all sorts of fun running, doing pull-ups, and completing an exercise circuit on the beach, with more running. As hard as the PT was, it was also a lot more fun that I would've expected.

There's a certain amount of group camaraderie that goes with a bunch of Officer Candidates working out together. Sure, the work is hard and it does suck.. but having people suffer through it with you makes a huge difference. It also fosters competition between the group as well as encouragement and motivation. It's much easier to finish a workout when you've got ten other candidates pushing you towards the finish line.

Captain Pages made it pretty clear that first time attendees really needed to focus on finishing the workout. It's pretty hard stuff, but it'll come with practice. Thankfully, I held my own. Definitely wasn't the worst there but also a long way from being at the top of the group. Some of these candidates have been going balls to the wall for five or six months, so it's going to take some work to catch up. And trust me, I have a lot of catching up to do.

Captain Pages and a few Lieutenants are on campus this week recruiting the FAU area so I was able to see them later in the day and finish filling out my application to be in the Marine Officer Program. From what I understand, the program is pretty much just the applicant pool and training program for people who are trying to get selected for OCS. With that completed, I can focus on my PFT score, getting my recommendation letters squared away, and start studying for the ASTB.

As for what's on the horizon: PT, PT, and more PT. We only meet formally as a group once a week on Wednesday, but the other candidates get together at other times to do additonal PT. This is very necessary because once a week really won't cut it for preparing for OCS. Aside from that, I've also got my own routine that I've been working on to keep me busy. Once I get my weight down to 185lbs (seven more pounds to go) I can get physically qualified at MEPS (Military Entrance Processing Command) and move further along with my selection package for OCS.

I still need to formally speak with the Navy and Army when I get the chance. The Navy's tough to arrange a meeting with because their office is a pretty far distance from me and I have difficulty going during the week with my class schedule. I'll hopefully find some time in the next couple of weeks to schedule an appointment and speak to someone.

As for the Army, I've been having a pretty good deal of trouble with their recruiting process. It's disjointed at best. From their website I wasn't exactly clear on who I needed to speak to for an officer program so I requested more information. This put me in contact with a civilian contractor that had me fill out and return a questionnaire of pre-qualifying questions. She informed me that my local recruiting command would contact me in the next couple of days. After about a week she checked in to see if I had been contacted, which I hadn't, so she put me in touch with the recruiter that I should speak to. We've exchanged a couple of emails, but thus far he's been pretty slow to respond and hasn't really answered many of my questions. I'm hopeful that we'll be able to clear this up in the next week or so, but for right now the Army is looking more and more like a last resort to the Marines and Navy. As well as things are going with the Marine Corps, I'm pretty tempted to keep doing that as long as I'm still getting the situation that I want.

Weekend Update: Superbowl Sunday

It's been almost a week since my last post, but frankly there hasn't been a whole lot of new information to relay. Today is Superbowl Sunday, but sadly my Dolphins were out of the hunt right around week three of the regular season, so I'll be spending the day (and most of the evening) in the library.

There's always next year...

Mainly I've just been working on my nutrition and doing push-ups. Lots and lots of push-ups. This is mainly because I realized that I could do a lot less pull-ups than I remember, and push-ups are a good way to start building the necessary upper body strength for pull-ups. It's a good routine to get into, and frankly I've been slacking during my acclimation to being back at a four-year school. The good news is I've lost five pounds since my meeting with the Marine OSO. Conversely, the bad news is I've still got another eight pounds before I'm within my maximum weight (185lbs) and I'd like to lose another five on top of that. It'll come, especially with PT looming.

I did call Captain Pages to touch base and let him know that I thought about it and would like to do the two six-week increments of PLC for OCS. As I mentioned earlier, there are some good benefits to PLC Jrs and Srs, including an easier road to selection as well as a better chance of avoiding injury at OCS. The only set-back is another semester is school, but I can deal.

On another note, I did finally receive and e-mail from an Army Recruiter. He wants me to call or reply via email if I'm still interested in the Army in order to ask a few questions to see if I qualify. If so, he wants to set up a time to take the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery, more commonly referred to as the ASVAB. I was a little surprised by this, because it's normally a test reserved for enlisted service members and not taken by Marine or Navy Officer Candidates. From what I do recall about Army OCS, I think I have to go to regular Basic Training for nine weeks and then OCS for another twelve, so maybe that may have something to do with it. The whole process to get in touch with this recruiter has been slightly disjointed, so it could also be confusion about what I'm trying to do, which of course is OCS. The only way to find out is to check, so I'll be getting back in touch with him this week and hopefully get the chance to sit down and discuss my options.

As far as the coming week goes, mainly just more class, studying, and working out. Captain Pages will be up in Boca all week recruiting the FAU area so I'll get a chance to go over my mostly-completed application for the Marine Officer Program, meet some other officer candidates, and PT with them. I'm dreading the last part, because I know it's going to suck. I've got a pretty steep learning curve, but that's really the best way for me to get ready for OCS. Some of these guys have been there and other will probably go to Quantico with me this summer if I choose the Marine Corps so it'll be good to be training with people working towards the same goal, despite whatever rough transition awaits me.

Forecast for Thursday: Pain

In any event, keep it real - I'll update when some new information comes to me and as always, feel free to add any additional info or comment.