Let me back up a bit and explain how I got here. I started in the Marine Corps back in 2012. Then I had my first MEPS experience and oath of enlistment. Since then I have served to 10 years 8 months and four days in the Marine Corps. I am now transitioning over to the Army and commissioning as an officer at the same time. It has been a long process, a lot of paper work, a lot of hurry up and wait, balancing requirements for the USMC while concurrently working on the Army requirements to get screened, boarded, and given an OCS class date.
Getting physically cleared for military service has taken an extremely long time. And it is strange as I am already in the military, currently on active duty and with an updated physical health assessment, immunization, dental, lab work, etc. But as per the process I have to go to MEPS with everyone else and get physical cleared to serve. This portion of the process has taken the better part of a year to get here. Tomorrow I will actually go to MEPS and get the physical to clear me to serve.
After MEPS I will have to attend an interview board (scheduled Dec 30, 2022) with a panel of officers. From what I understand it is just a standard military board with the normal questions of: why do you want to join the military, what is your motivation, what do you want to do in the military, etc. After the board agrees that they will take you the entire package is submitted to United States Army Recruiting Command (USAREC) for review. The review process is supposed to take around 30 days before a determination is made. From there an OCS class date will be assigned.
At the end of my MEPS journey I had to get a waiver signed due to passing out being in my record. The waiver process was relatively short and after being submitted I was approved to continue the process in about two weeks. The OCS interview board was actually on January 9th (Dec 30th, was the package submission deadline). I drove down to Raleigh NC on January 8th and go a quiet hotel room. I wanted to prepare mentally for the board and any questions they may have for me. I thought through standard interview questions I thought they would ask and just gathered my thoughts. I did not want to write anything down and be to scripted but I also didn't want to get caught unaware and struggle for an answer.
On January 9th I slept in as much as I could and got my hotel breakfast. I took it easy in the hotel most of the morning, my time slot for my interview was at 11:10 AM. I slowly started getting dressed in my suite and tie for the interview. I was a bit nervous but also confident at the same time. I met my recruiter at the board location and went in a bit early. Upon arriving we sat at a large table with several other OCS candidates and their respective recruiters. The board was running behind schedule (by several hours) so the wait began. There was a bit of nervous chatter between candidates and as people left the board they came back over and said it wasn't bad. The average interview seemed to be going for about 45minutes to an hour.
When it was finally my turn a lady escorted me to the board door and told me to knock 3 times, wait to be told to enter, then enter the room. I did as instructed and entered in a very formal Marine manner. Marched in, in a confident voice announced SSgt Hale Reporting to the Senior Member of the Board as ordered. The panel of 3 officers were taken aback by the report in and told me to have a seat and relax a bit. Luckily there was a prior Marine that had commissioned into the Army as a member of the board and he understood. They said relax and the prior Marine said this is relaxed for him, he is a Marine. I had a few harder questions and quite a few soft ball questions while they were just trying to get me talking to see if I was a good candidate. One of the officers in the room said he had no questions for me and made fun of the other officers for even asking me questions saying he knew by how I reported in that I would be fine and no questions were necessary. I was in and out of the room in 15 minutes max. The panel said I did good and was a good fit for the Army. I made the 3.5 hour drive back home and then the waiting began again.
From that board the package was sent to USAREC (Unites States Army Recruiting Command) as previously stated. But the review process is a lot lengthier than originally anticipated. I have to wait until March 3rd, 2023 for results from their review to get the green light to commission (almost 3 full months after the board). I am being told that upon getting results on March 3rd, I will have 10 days to come back to the MEPS center to swear in. From there I am supposedly going to get my OCS class date and it should only be 1-2 more months down the road (from what I am being told). This puts my at OCS around April-May 2023. I am back to standing by just waiting for results so I can make the next steps necessary in the process.
March 1st, 2023 - the anticipation sucks. Just waiting for my future to be decided so I can start making some life moves. I have a few COA's (Courses of Action) depending on the board results but feel as if I will make it. I really just want my OCS class date so I can plan out my next few months of my life. Right now everything is taken day by day.
March 7th, 2023 - I received the call March 3rd informing me that I have been selected to go to OCS. The recruiter was trying to be all excited and dramatic on the phone when releasing the information but I was to the point in asking what is the next step as soon as they gave me the results. I was pretty confident I would be selected so it wasn't a big surprise. When I asked whats next they did not know. I know I have to swear in at MEPS and then possibly get my OCS ship date then but the recruiters are saying they need time to do some paperwork or something before they can send me down. I am scheduled to go down March 13th and swear in and hopefully find out my OCS ship date then.
April 23rd, 2023 - Time to back up and fill in the gap. The recruiters finally got their shit straight and told me to be at MEPS March 10th to swear in. I made the trip down to Raleigh again, got a hotel the night prior and showed up to MEPS at 0600 on March 10th as instructed. I was in and out pretty quickly only having to take a TAPAS (or something like that) test that essentially was a personality test to make sure I was not crazy. I did get my OCS class date at this point, May 1st, 2023. Although I did not swear in as I am still in the Marine Corps and I could not swear into the Army while being in the Marines simultaneously. I am to report to MEPS again May 1st, and swear in and receive follow on orders to report to Ft Benning Georgia to start OCS ( or that is what I am tracking at this point). I was originally told I could not drive and they would provide transportation for me but I found several sources (Ft Benning website and OCS welcome aboard letter) that both say I am allowed to drive. I ran it by the recruiters who confirmed I could after asking around so that is what I am doing. I will drive my truck down to MEPS May 1st, swear in, receive follow on orders to Benning, and drive on down to start OCS. Hopefully things go smoothly but if it is anything like what I have experienced so far something is bound to go wrong. I have also found the OCS packing list online (not provided to me by MEPS or recruiters which I find strange) and acquired all the gear I could for OCS to be prepared when I arrive. As a prior service Marine I will not go through BCT first so I will report to OCS in my civilian attire without a uniform to my name. Hopefully it all gets sorted quickly and efficiently upon arrival.
April 30th, 2023 - Today is the day I leave. Everyone is still asleep this early in the morning, it is just me and the dog that is awake. I have a bit of running around to do this morning to finalize things before I get on the road. It is Sunday (aka doughnut day for my kids) so I have to go pick up some doughnuts for the kids, I need to return Kayla's last set of books we checked out from the local public library, fill up my wifes car with gas, and spend some time watching cartoons with the kids. It is always bitter sweet on days like this. I am excited to go to OCS, to start a new career within the military, but I hate leaving my family. I know they will be fine but I will miss them. I also know OCS is just the beginning. If things go as planned I will branch infantry and spend much more time away from them between the infantry school and ranger school before we finally settle down at our first duty station. Time away can be good and bad for family and relationships. Besides missing them I also worry that if anything goes wrong I will not be around to help which sucks. I hate leaving 100% of the responsibilities on my wife. If my dryer quits working, kids get in trouble at school, someone gets sick or hurt I will be helpless 800 miles away while my wife deals with it alone. I hate the feeling of being unable to support my family, especially in times of need.
May 1st 2023 - so far this has been an absolute shit show. I arrived at MEPS early and waited outside to be let in. Upon doing some paperwork and starting the process I saw I had a plane ticket, even though I had been told I could drive and had my truck packed with supplies with me. After at least 5 hours of killing time and fighting to get my orders changed to allow me to drive I was finally out of there and on the road to ft Benning. I arrived at ft Benning around 730pm and came to talk to my first drill sergeant. He told me to leave and come back by 1000pm to start the process. It is now 12:30 am and I still haven't done anything but wait. At this point I don't know if I'll get to sleep at all, they have handed me breakfast food and told to sit and wait. Breakfast likely means no sleep for no fucking reason while I just sit and wait on nothing.
After waiting for 5+ hours we finally start processing and they issue us the bare minimum gear to get us started. Just tshirts, shorts and shoes and take us to the barracks. By the time we get to the barracks it's 4:45 am and the rest of the guys in the barracks start waking up about 5:15am. I half assed made my bed in the dark and laid down for 20 minutes or so and then was right back up. Now I haven't shit, slept, drank much water, water or anything in since really lunch time the day prior. I hurry and get dressed and follow what the other guys seem to be doing (they have been here longer and have a better idea). Off to breakfast chow we go.From there we do a bit of medical, dental checks, and I processing. A lot of hurry up and wait. Get some more gear issued, now I at least have a set of army Cammie's. We get done around 3pm but have another mandatory formation at 545 and again around 8ish. So I can't really sleep, I have to keep getting into formations. But I got some decent sleep that night (may 2nd).
May 3rd 2023- Bored as fuck. We finished everything by 9am today and then had nothing to do besides the mandatory formations. There is one for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and final formation around 9pm. Besides that there isnt anything to do. I ran a bit over 5 miles and did a quick little workout just to get something in to regulate my body. I did shit, and am staying more hydrated. The caffeine withdrawal is almost over....I hope. Just residual headaches, not as bad as it was. I think there is legit nothing tomorrow and then Friday will be immunization.
May 8th - still waiting. This weekend we got passed to go anywhere on base. I could not use my truck, instead we had to call a cab to take us to the px and movies. Ate some real food at the food court and watched 3 movies over the weekend just to kill time. Got some good running in and some lifts. Overall not bad, just boring waiting. Monday is waiting again with nothing to do, but Tuesday we will get our dress uniforms issued and head over to the OCS side of base.
May 9th- moving day. Going from the HHC barracks with all prior service guys over to the OCS footprint ( assuming a temporary holding room/squad bay there as well). We won't be doing much from what I understand but it's a start. Getting one step closer to actually beginning training.
May 11th- well we got to HHC, did minimal inprocessing again and am already moving out over to B Company today. We don't officially class up till the 15th but they expect a large influx of people of the weekend and will be unable to house them all here so we are moving over to make space for them. This will be my 3rd move with all my shit in 11 days. It would be nice to get my real room and settle in. I'm hearing a bunch of stuff about B company and their rules but I don't listen to it. Ill just wait and find out what it's actually like once I'm there.
May 12 - more paperwork, went to medical to get a "memo" to authorize me to use stupid stuff like a foam roller, or stretching bands. Apparently these items are "contraband" here and the only way to keep it without getting in trouble for having it is to get a memo from medical authorizing it's use. But medical said they are no longer doing memos because it's stupid (which I agree) but now I have to take some of those items out of my room to my truck to not have any contraband in my possession.
May 15- Day 1. Finally starting. We got up early to do the acft. It was my first ever and I did pretty good.
Deadlift - 345 x 3
Pushups- 58
Sprint Drag carry - 1:22 (or something close that, I can't remember but I got the max score possible)
Ball throw - 12"4'
2 mile run - 11:28
We had some introductory classes with the company commander outlining the rules, SOPs, and standards we will be held to. Then we had the layout. This was a ton of fun. It is where you get everything you own, take it outside into the field and dump it all out into a giant pile. They don't give you enough time to do this so they keep making you do pushups every time you don't make the time hacks, which is every time. Then once everything you own is dumped out they make you grab anything considered contraband and turn it in. Then starts the inventory. They call out an item and you hold it up in the air. Make sure you have everything. They were saying (don't know if they went through with it) that start the drop paperwork for people who didn't have the right items. Then they don't give you enough time to repack your bags or get them to your rooms so you do more pushups. The entire time while standing in 90⁰ direct sunlight for probably 2 -3 hours straight. Day 1 complete.
Rest of the week followed similar pattern of pt in the morning around 0500, shower quick, breakfast then classroom instructions. I think it was Thursday we had a battalion run, one of the other companies was graduating and has to do their graduation run so they just got all of us together for the run. It was only a slow 3 mile but we lost 1 guys to heat casualty. Then Friday was the black to gold phase up event. It entailed running with water cans, litters, ammo kettle bells, some obstacle course stuff, rope climbs, lots of yelling and exercises between events to finish with around a 100 yard low crawl across a field to then phase up. Week 1 complete.
May 22nd - week 2 begins. This is history week were they cram a masters level college semester of history down your throat in 8 days then you take a test on it. The real struggle is staying awake while sitting in a hot ass classroom with no A/C talking about history. We also had our 4 mile run test this week. I've never done a 4 mile ru n but knew I could probably finish pretty quickly. I came in at 23:45. So just a bit faster than 6:00min/mile pace and was proud of that. I came in first place out of the 141 students in my course. Physically we don't do much here so I feel my fitness slipping. After dinner (usually around 6-630pm) we can run/exercise on our own but that's also your study time for history, hygiene time, and sleep time so you have to be efficient and prioritize things well. And it also sucks having to run or workout after your final meal of the day. Running on a full stomach sucks and then knowing you can't have a post workout meal sucks too.
May 29th - Week 3 - Nothing real notable this week. It was more history lessons in the morning and random leadership classes in the afternoons. History test in on Friday.
June 5th - Week 4- Heading out to land navigation. This is were the fun begins. We packed up our gear loaded busses and headed out to Red Diamond Land navigation course. It started with day time cadre led runs to a few points giving instructions and tips and tricks along the way. We came back to our bed down area and had a bit of time to rest before going back out at night for more of the same (but in the dark). We had to wait till around 8:30pm to start getting ready to step out around 9:00 pm once it was dark. We finished the cadre led night land nav around 01:00AM and at 1:30 AM started buddy pair night land nav. They just grouped random pairs together and sent you back out to do it with a buddy to see if you could figure it out together. We finished that around 3:30AM or so and got to bed around 4:00AM. We were back up at 06:00AM to start the next day, so not a lot of rest at all. We woke up, ate our MRE's and headed back out for buddy day land nav. Essentially the same thing as the previous night but in daylight this time. We worked on that from 0800-1200. Once we returned from that we had our lunch MRE and then got to catch a bit of rest if we could. It was about 90 degrees and we had very limited shade so trying to catch up on sleep was quite difficult. At around 6:00PM we had out dinner MRE and then started setting up to go back out on individual night land nav. This time it was what they called a pre-test evaluation where they ran it just like the test and if you passed then it also counted as passing the test and you would not be required to take the test the following night. I quickly got my first 4 points (all that is required to pass the test) in the first 1.5 hours of the 4 hour time block. They were quite spread out and I had about a 45 minute walk back to the starting point. I did not want to be late because I had already score high enough to pass and if you are late then you are disqualified and it doesn't matter how many points you found you fail if you aren't back on time. There were 7 points total but my last 3 points were even further away from the start point so instead of going deeper out and giving myself a longer walk back I just safe sided it and headed back. In the end I regret doing this because I could have gotten all 7 points but at one point when briefing us the instructor said we had to be back at midnight. He had misspoken and actually meant be back by 0100 because we were starting at 9:00PM but for some reason that had stuck in my head and I kept thinking I needed to be back by midnight. Long story short, I had quite a bit more time than I realized left and I could have just gotten the other points as well and returned (as I should have) but I safe sided it and returned. While out and about I ran across a while hog that was crossing the little path I was one. I had heard people say they were out there but had not seen one yet. I heard rustling in the woods expecting a deer to cross my path when the dark low shape of a hog ran across the trail. I also had an experience were there was some random animal making a sound at me as I entered into the bushes heading to my point. I paused for a second trying to figure out what it was but heard nothing else. I decided to keep going in and it made the sound again. I pulled out my knife, let out a war cry telling whatever it was that I am coming and headed towards my point. I never found out what was making the sounds but I also never heard it again. From there we got a few hours of sleep again from around 0200 AM - 0600AM and got up to start the next days activities. The next day was individual day land navigation. I got all 7 points this time with ease and made it back to the start point with about an hour and 30 minutes left on the clock. The only cool thing I saw on this trek through the woods was a baby deer caught in a blackberry patch I was pushing through. I was within a foot of the deer and could of reached out and touched him. Instead I just said high and turned to go around him. He didn't move the entire time. He was scared and stuck so he just froze. When we got back we had out lunch MRE's again then had a bit of rest till night time started. I was debating going back out at night which was optional for me. I had passed but I could go back out and improve my score if I wanted to. And those that had failed the pre-test had to go back out. I was uncertain if it was worth the effort of stomping around in the dark woods of Georgia again until it started pouring on us. It rained pretty hard and steady for about 2-3 hours and that sealed the deal for me. I wasnt going to go out in slippery wet terrain with multiple water crossings ( that were now flowing good) and risk getting injured stumbling around in the dark for an extra point or two. I just was not worth it. So for me this was the end of land nav. When the night crew went back out to test the rest of us that had passed got the opportunity to sleep which was greatly appreciated. The next morning was the retest for the day land nav for those that had not passed the day pre- test. I had gotten all 7 of my points so there was no point in my going out as I couldn't improve my score. One of my friends though had a point he could not find last night and swore it was not there so they let me and him head out to go find it while the other guys were retesting. Unfortunate for him we did find it right where it was supposed to be and he had just missed it. Once everyone got back from the day evolution we cleaned up, packed up and loaded the bussed back to the barracks. Of our class of 132, I believe the number is 26 failed the pretest (which counts if you pass it) and the test, so they get 1 more retest attempt then are dropped from the course. I am guessing about half of them will not make it through their attempt tonight as it is their 3rd attempt. If they didn't get it the first 2 nights I am not sure what will change that will help them get it their third try. Week 4 complete.
June 12th - Week 5 - Time to fill in some blanks. We did end up losing a few to land nav but not near as many as I had guessed. I think the number we lost was around 4 total. They have since been dropped from our company and will pick back up with a later class. Week 5 we had a few test. We did both Small Unit Tactics and Call for Fire testing. Both test were really easy and the cadre literally went over the exact test and read off each question and we answered it aloud prior to being handed that same test and actually doing it for score. So naturally we all passed that. Not much happened week 5 besides some classes and those test.
June 18- 24th - Week 6 - This week was essentially finals week in college. We had a pretty busy schedule between doing OPORD's (operation orders), WTBD (Warrior Task and Battle Drills), had to write a Battle Analysis, and complete the 9 mile ruck. I will break down each event below.
OPORD's classes were long and terrible but in the end they gave us a platoon level operations order that we had to turn into a squad level operations order and brief it. It included all the parts to an operations order like the Situation, Mission, Execution, Concept of Operations, Sustain, Command and Signal. We had to complete the OPORD and COA (course of Action) sketch within 2 hours from the information contained in the Platoon OPORD. Then we had to come brief the Squad level OPORD in 20 minutes to the instructors who graded us. Overall it wasnt bad if you knew what you were doing but we had 20+ people fail it their first go around and today they are doing their retest. TBD how many fail it again and get recycled. We also had to do a battle analysis which consisted of reading about a battle and analyzing it using the principles of war and how they were implemented well. This does not sound bad at first but here is the kicker. We had 0 resources available, not even the questions or the source documentation. You had to read all of it, memorize all the facts, how you planned to analyze it, etc. then come game day just sit down and hand write it. But thats not all. The day we had to write the battle analysis we woke up at 0230 to be outside with all of our gear by 0300 to start our 9 mile hike. We hiked with 35llbs rucks plus the TAPS system with 2 quarts of water plus some other misc stuff + 2L camel back + carrying our weapon. Total I would guess around 50lbs or so. Mine was a bit heavy intentionally so probably 55lbs. We finished the ruck then had to hurry and shower, eat a shitty MRE, then go straight into writing out battle analysis. Not ideal conditions by any means but I got it done. The WTBD stuff was simply clear and safe the weapon, dissemble, reassemble, and perform a functions check. They gave us like 2:30minutes to disassemble then another 2:30 to reassemble. It was pretty easy and we had plenty of time but a lot of people kept making mistakes. We also ran our second ACFT for score towards the OML this week.
Deadlift 345 x 3
Pushups - 52 (yeah I got worse)
Plank 3:40
Ball throw 13"6'
2 Mile Run: 11:15
Sprint Drag Carry 1:20 something (perfect score).
The only thing I didnt get a perfect score on was the pushpus and I ended up with a 595/600 as my score again. There will be one final ACFT later in the course I can use for redemption.
June 25- July 2nd - Week 7- This week we were in the field all week for STX (Small unit tactics). What it all boils down to is getting graded on your ability to brief a mission to your team and execute the mission. They are all really simple assault to clear objective types of missions and they expect you to do the same battle drill each time. There are three graded positions and you will be graded in each of the three throughout the week. Squad Leader (SL), Alpha Team leader (ATL), and Bravo Team Leader (BTL). ATL does the route planning, goes out on leaders recon, and typically sets your base of fire during actions on. BTL builds the terrain model, and controls the assaulting element during actions on. The SL is responsible for everything as they are in charge of the mission, tasking out subordinates and ensuring everything goes smoothly. What actually happens is really inexperienced people (95% of which will not be going into a combat arms MOS) try to do the bare minimum to pass the graded evolution without shooting their own people (fratricide) or shooting when they didn't mean to (Negligent discharge of the weapon). I got to play the opposition at one point so I watched the "recon element" get ridiculously close to me, in plain sight under 30 meters away and continue to low crawl even closer to me without any cover. I had my rifle pointed at them showing them I could see them but they just kept coming closer. Once I began firing my blanks they retreated. What I am getting at is 99% of the people here have little to no tactical training and struggle their way through the lanes. We had recon elements getting discovered because of no cover, people never being able to find their objective in the woods so they could not begin the assault, people ND their rifles when trying to clear them, people wandering around with the weapon on fire with no targets in the area. It was all terrible but hey, I did what I had to to get a passing grade. We slept in the field and I use the term sleep very loosely because their wasn't much of that at all. We were done for the day by dinner time, had been issued our ammo and MRE's for breakfast and lunch the following day and just sat there for hours and hours for no reason. The only real reason is sleep deprivation to make the training a bit harder and induce more stress but it was literally pointless sitting there till 2AM. When we finally made it to our patrol base for the night we had 3 hours till we had to wake up again and at least 33% of us had to hold security. Meaning of the 3 hours you got to sleep for 2 and the other hour you were on security. This pattern held for the entire week till the last night. The last night I got a full 5.5 hours of sleep and it felt great. After a full week of 100 degree temperatures and very little sleep I was pretty beat when we got back to the barracks. I completed all 3 of my graded positions but I we all have to go back out next week and keep doing it for the guys that haven't finished all their positions and for those that failed and need a retest. We leave again Wednesday morning for the field (since we are off for the 4th of July weekend (and by off I mean just sitting in our prison cells of rooms unable to go or do anything still)).
July 2 - 9th - Week 8 - This was a fairly easy week. We went back out to the field to continue STX but it was after the 4th of July weekend. Meaning we did not go back into the field until Wednesday July 5th. By the time we got started continuing STX lanes for those that did not have a chance to go yet and the retest for those that failed and need to retest the week was over. We had to run about 6 lanes or so to get everyone graded and then we left the field by Friday. It was a short week with just a lot of weapons cleaning, lack of sleep, and staying in the field Wednesday - Friday.
July 9 - 16th - Week 9 - This is branching week, meaning I find out if I got the job I wanted or not based on my OML ranking in the class. Monday and Tuesday we have just been doing some admin stuff, still trying to get my pays fixed, had a class or two but really didn't do much. Wednesday at 1300 I find out my branch then Wednesday afternoon is the branching social were we go and talk to people from the branches that we received about said branches. I am hopeful I will get infantry but there is only 8 spot for it and a lot of guys competing for it. If i don't get it my second choice is Engineer with third option being Field Artillery. I will know what I got by Wednesday. Well I got Infantry as I wanted. After the branching ceremony we had a social event in which we got to talk to officers that hold the same branch as us. What really happened was everyone got drunk and started acting stupid. It was the first time anyone had a drink in months and people had more than they should have. We have 2 candidates on the chopping block now for behavior that occurred while intoxicated at the social. It was dumb. Here is alcohol, enjoy yourself, but we are going to watch you like a hawk and wait for you to make a mistake and crucify you for it. I didn't drink knowing how these things go and in the end was glad to get it over with. We didn't do much this week at all besides branching. We cleaned a lot of weapons and wasted a lot of time. Just 3 weeks left.
Nov 10th, 2023 - Yeah I know, I left a bit out. The end of OCS was nothing spectacular, we just wasted 3 more weeks of cleaning weapons, pointless classes, graduation practices, etc. Then I graduated August 4th, 2023. Dave (civilian employee at NSWDG, my prior "boss" came down to see the graduation). Then I wasted away in a new barracks room for about 1.5 months waiting on housing to become available so i could move my family down to Ft Moore GA. I finally got my house, flew home, packed up the family into a box truck and moved down to GA. Then we unpacked, established new bills, refurnished a house, got the kids into school here, etc. November 2nd, I checked into Infantry Basic Officer Leadership Course (IBOLC) and have been doing annual training, receiving classes from all the organizations that support DOD like TSP classes, EFMP, Life Insurance, etc. Mostly boring stuff that I have heard before but possibly beneficial for some of the new kids that have never served. We have another week ahead of us doing medical and admin in processing before we actually start real classes Nov 20th.
