Day 6 (Outpost) (Black Friday)
“Outpost” meant that we had to prepare our locker for moving when there was an order, immediately. We learned how to pack our seabag (rucksack) as many and as tidy as we could. This is different from the RLP in Week 3 but this is also a rollable event. Remember that the seabag is heavy, it contains personal things and you have to carry it without locking your hands together. I read somewhere that this event is to weed out the short people as they will struggle putting on the bag, or even carrying it around. I’m 5’9 and honestly I struggled as well. How heavy you may ask? Around 35-40lbs if I recall correctly.
In this event, you are heading to your new Battalion and never see the old rack again. Unfortunately, OCS was designed so that it was not pleasant while doing so. We got our stuff mixed up as the instructors threw every thing around, emptied our bags and drilled us with questions while doing it (What is the Code of Conduct? Mission of the Navy? etc.)
(click on the left/right button on the images to see more)
We started our day at 0400 with the Drill Instructors banging on our door again. We put on our “poopie green” and joined them in some physical exercise: a short run, some push-up, rolling and some short runs again.
I still remember we had a really strict Drill Instructor. After instructing us to put down our seabags, he shuffled the bags and made us find our own. As a result, we did some extra miles because we were stumbling on each others while finding our bags.
It’s the last time we saw our “poopie green” as we disposed them at the end of the day. The day ended early for us in the new Battalion, we used our time to unpack and organize the mess in our seabag.
Day 7 (Black Saturday)
Final day of first Indoc week. My advice: Get ready for your PT like you’ve never PT before. It’s impossible to know what will happen in this day because there are so many possible scenarios your Drill Instructor could choose from. It was our last physical push before week 2.
The day started when we received and worn our NWU (Navy Working Uniform) for the first time. But don’t get too excited, at the end of the day my NWU was soggy, drenched after all the exercise, rolling, crawling in muddy pits, sand pits etc.
For my class, the Drill Instructor also appointed a class president, class vice president who will in charge of everyone (we call it CO, XO and OIC). I honestly did not want that but it’s advisable if you could. One thing I did not mention throughout the series is that each of the candidate will be graded, and the final grade will decide how they are doing in the class. What’s the benefit of that? Read below.
At the end of the OCS, people will have the priority to choose their ship/station based on their overall ranking within the class. I was second of my class, and I had a lot of options.
Day 8 (Relax Sunday)
Today was the first day we could relax after working nonstop for the past seven days. I have the chance to make friends with both other candidates and another Candio. His advice was that, whether or not we are religious, we should all sign up for Sunday Church services. The only justification was that we would have to clean the bilet and other related tasks if we didn’t. The first service is “Protestant Liturgical,” the second service is the “Catholic service”, the final service is “Protestant non liturgical.”
I had originally planned to attend all three, and my church duties ended sooner than expected, freeing me up to meet and mingle with other candidates. In fact, I connected with a fellow alum of my alma mater.
We were fortunate to have time for break and could be able to write for our family. The first day of the second week is when you should expect to hear from or write to members of your family (monday), in case you wonder.
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)
