Day 4 (Wake up Wednesday!)
The worst, like, hell day during my first week of OCS!
A Drill Instructor kicked open our door at 0400 in the morning and shouted at everyone. Some of us were not ready, some of us did not know what was going on. They came and called everyone for attention at their front door, no matter what we were wearing, immediately! Then everyone had merely a minute to put everything on properly. It was just a start of a hell day.
For this day, nobody did everything right and nobody was fast enough. The Drill Instructors just RPTed everyone again and again.
Did you just sneeze? Give me 10 (push-ups).
Did you eyeball me? Give me 10.
Shout louder. Then 10 push-ups.
You don’t look at the deck (floor) when i’m talking to you. Give me another 10…
Nothing was enough for this day. They wanted to weed out the people who was not ready, mentally and physically.
A few tips I can give for those who want to know how to survive:
- While doing pushup, rest in hand-stand position, or elbows. Do not rest your body down or even let your knee touch the floor. The moment you do that, you are doomed.
- Bend your elbow a little but move your butt all the way down like you are stretching your back. Your 2 hands will thank you later.
- Do when instructed, as instructed. They may change the rhythm and frequency while doing RPT (Remedial Physical Training sessions). The moment you are ahead of your class or behind your class rhythm, you are doomed.
Believe it or not, this will pass by the time you know it, only an hour or so. It will repeat throughout the day but your body will adapt to it and you won’t feel much, until next day after waking up 🙂 Trust me I wished I had a bottle of Tylenol at that time.
Show your determination, show that you want to be an Office, a United States Navy Officer. At the end of your OCS, they will be the ones who salute you!
Day 5 (Poopie Christmas!)
Uniform fittings take place on Thursday. That day was the day I finally got to visit the uniform department and tried on all the uniforms I’ve dreamed of wearing (Back in my time we still use the blueberry NWU type 1). I was excited as that was one of the reasons why I joined the Navy. There may be some shouting and rushing around, but it won’t be as bad as on Wednesdays or Fridays.
Later in the afternoon of day 5, we went to the pool for our initial 3rd Class Swimmer test (click the link to learn more). I will drop a note here to let you know that you do not need to know how to swim prior to attend OCS, but I will elaborate more on future post. The afternoon pool training was not hard, they just tested our ability to float without any devices for a few minutes.
We closed our evening with the Drill Instructors showing us how to prepare for the “outpost” day which is the next following day.
1. If you're new here, I suggest jumping right into Part 1 of my Navy OCS series.
2. I went to OCS back in the 2010s, so it's possible that a lot has changed since then. This information is being shared with you solely for your own education.
Photo credits: Navy OCS Page (Remember that we are not allowed to use phone/electronic devices during OCS so there was no way any candidate can take any picture during OCS)
