Camping in California

Big Sur, California



This past weekend in January, Kenny and I were able to go camping in the beautiful state of California! I am not really an "outdoorsy" camping kind of person, but am usually up for an adventure, and eager to explore and meet new people. A group of other Ensigns (navy 01 officers) were organizing a camping trip to Big Sur National Park, so Kenny and I went along with them! 

Big Sur is about 7 hours north of Naval Base San Diego and contains many beautiful ocean views and forests with the famous red wood trees (that's all we knew about it). We geared up with 2 cars, tents rented from the base, food supplies, clothes for 3 days, and headed out! The drive up went according to plan, yet we got separated from the other car not too far into it. The traffic going through Los Angeles is always a nightmare and we definitely got stuck in it. After driving about 5 hrs we stopped for dinner at this beautiful little stop along the beach that had a pier and restaurant, then got back on the road. 

We drove on Highway 101 for most of the trip, and the drive is one of the most beautiful scenic routes in the country! The highway snakes along the coast right by the water and the backdrop transforms from flat open land to climbing cliffs and coastal ridges - incredible! Once you get to the mountains the road gets very WINDY with a STEEP drop only feet away - many spots without even a rail. The Big Sur portion of the highway is definitely not for the faint of heart, reckless drivers, or big trucks or RVs. 

As one fellow camper put it, the view is "a mixture of beauty and terror". The ocean is IMMENSE, going out as far as the eye can see, and jagged cliffs below sprinkled with age old trees promise sure death to any who drop from the road into the crashing waves. :O

The highway goes along the mountainous coast for about 2.5 hrs, with hardly any other alternate roads along it. By the time we got to the mountains night had already fallen unfortunately, so all we could see was perilously winding roads with a jagged cliff-face on one side and inky shimmery blackness on the other. 

The campgrounds we passed along the road all said full, and there was ZERO cell phone reception, so we couldn't contact the other car! At this point it was getting quite late, so once we got back into reception range we contacted the other people, decided to stay in a hotel in Mt. Carmel (closest town north of the mountains), and find a campsite in the morning. 

Saturday:
The next morning we decided to venture more inland off the beaten path (Hwy 101). We turned off the highway down a easily-missed narrow road into the depths of the forest. The road twisted and turned through the thick woods of the mountains. After about 30 perilous winding steep minutes, the road finally ended at a small parking lot and National forest camping ground. 

The breathtaking view by our campsite! - don't tumble off the cliff though ! :O

We quickly set up each of our tents and unpacked the two cars. Our campsite was pretty much between cliff and the small parking lot, so it was easy to move our things from the cars. The area seemed to be a popular spot for hikers to start from. Since we had just driven by all of the beautiful beach and coastal views that morning, we decided to go and explore the beach for the rest of the afternoon. 

Pfeiffer Beach

Much of the coast in Big Sur is actually mountainous rock going straight to the water. Pfeiffer Beach is one of the few state park areas where visitors can walk on the sandy beach formed after centuries of waves pounding on the rocks. Each car needs to pay $5 to park in the limited parking area, but the stunning views are more than worth it!
Take a walk on the beach with us ... :)

Walking on the path to the beach!

The waves were really big, and very few people ventured into the water, besides a few brave wet-suited surfers. 

stunning blue aqua waves

Water in Motion!

The waves gushed through this opening in the rocks, practically like a setting out of a movie (;

Kenny made a sand castle, strategically constructed behind the protective shield of a beached sea weed clump. He was very proud of his construction, and other tourists were even taking pictures of it that afternoon! Or they could have been taking pictures of the ocean rocks right behind it ... 

We decided to stay on the beach a few more hours to watch the sunset. We read, sat awhile on the highest point of the sand going up the cliff, and walked around the area. The sunset we waited for really was stunning!

That evening we drove back to the campground, roasted hot dogs (organic chicken sausage, not cancer dogs) on skewers over the fire and made s'mores to finish the quintessential camping evening. We talked around the fire and later went to bed sandy, smelly and happy. 

Campers near us were using in hammocks! They looked like string beans hanging in the forest, lol. 

Sunday: Hiking Day

View from a high ridge on the hike

On Sunday we all woke up bright and early (I don't think anyone was that comfortable over the night anyway), ate a quick breakfast, packed some lunch stuffs, and headed out on the trail to hike. After looking at the map awhile they decided on a roughly 10 mile trail going along a ridge and to Devil's Peak. 

The trail was really good, and while it was pretty steep at times and bone dry (CA is definitely going through a drought now), it had some really great views of the valley and ocean! It took us about 1.5 hrs to hike to a 3 mile marker on the trail. Directly ahead the trail went up a pretty steep, very dry and dusty mountain. For me, going uphill on trails is fine, but going downhill is Awful! I literally teeter/shuffle along and still feel the ground sliding underneath so I practically skoot down or cling to the unfortunate person in front of me (lol!)
Kenny was ready to head back, and we wanted to go slower and take in the views, so we stopped at that point and the rest of the group forged ahead to Devil's Peak. 

We stopped and soaked in the view for awhile, then headed back to the campsite. 

Amazing views! This is from the top of the ridge on the hike. 

Campfire Banana Boat

Campfire Banana Boat - 
Cut a banana, place chocolate, marshmallow, peanut butter, and/or nutella inside, wrap in tin foil and roast on a skewer over the fire. Goey, sweet yumminess.

Unfortunate side story: 
During the hike my hands were feeling strangely sore/tight/puffy. I thought it might be from the hand sanitizer I had been using on the trip (no running water. gross toilets. old hand sanitizer = only option), but Kenny thought I might have brushed against something poisonous on the trail. I was wearing my wedding ring, and since my hands were feeling so strange and puffy I decided to take it off. I twisted and pulled and finally got it off, then Carefully placed it in the front pocket of my book bag. Kenny and I both knew where it was and were very careful to make sure it was safe. After a nice hike back to camp, we ate some lunch, lounged around,  read books and what-not. Around 3pm the others made it back to camp, and we just had a good evening of resting and relaxing. The next morning I looked in the bookbag pocket to get my ring, but it was not there!!! Kenny and I emptied the entire book bag, tore through my purse, all my belongings, all his belongings, the entire tent, all around the campsite, re-traced our steps, and we could not find it anywhere !!!! D:,  It still has not turned, so I officially lost my wedding ring in the woods of California. I feel so stupid, but oh well ... I literally don't know what I did wrong. I thought I was keeping track of it the whole time! 
Wedding rings are only material things though, and don't have eternal value I guess.... I don't need jewelry to prove that I am married or to embody my love for someone. A huge part of this camping trip is teaching me there are a lot of things I don't need to live, and that even earthly treasures mean nothing compared to the treasures in Heaven and what God really values. 

We stopped at one of the Vista Points on the highway to admire the view again. God is truly a master artist!

Overall the trip was great! By Monday we were very dirty, sandy, smelly, gross, and in desperate need of a full bathroom. On the trip we were grateful to have some sort of toilet, even if it was just a pit in the ground thronged with flies and smelling of the seventh hell. However by the end of the weekend I think we were all ready for a good dose of civilization again. 

I am very grateful for the chance to have gotten to know more of Kenny's Navy co-workers and to have seen these AMAZING views this side of the country!

Navy Officer Candidate School (OCS) Part 3

Navy Officer Candidate School

Candidate Officer Phase

These are the days that everyone in OCS looks forward to. Once you "dawn the brown" or put on those khakis you will be given more responsibility and more liberty. Basically candidate officer phase is the culmination of everything you have learned into a practical test of leadership. As a class you will be given the responsibility of running the regiment. Everything from being in charge of checking in the indocs and taking care of their every need, to making sure everyone has toilet paper. There are a variety of billets available that will be selected for you by your class team (sometimes with your input). I personally wanted to be on Indoc staff, I tried to get indoc sub commander but I wasn't selected for it. Either way I had a blast working as indoc staff. As indoc staff you do everything that your candios did for you when you were an indoc. I was in charge of mentoring and preparing the new class so that they would be ready for OCS and beyond. It was an honor to be working with them on their first days in the navy and helping them in any way I could. When you reach candio phase you have seen which classes lead the regiment well and which don't. So you can go into candio phase knowing how you want to be and who you want to emulate. It seems like each class goes back forth like a pendulum on how strict they are with everyone. When I was an indoc, our candios were very strict about everything. You were never allowed to sit against the bulkhead or ever ask a question without the proper procedure. Once they graduated the class that followed them were very lax, and had a chill attitude about them. They were approachable but they didnt do a very job of maintaining the regiment. So the class that followed them felt like they had to be strict again to make up for the laxness that the previous class left them. This class was very strict on greetings in particular. If you ever passed a candio and didnt give the proper greeting of the day, or opened a conversation with one then you were reprimanded. I still remember when every younger class was given a "stern talking to" by a candio that came around and told us we wernt giving them the proper respect because they felt they wernt being greeted properly all the time. So... we decided we would give them EVERY greeting we could. When entering through the doors on a weekend you go single file, so when a few candios walked out, every single one of us in the 63 person line, one by one, yelled as loud as they could "Good morning gentleman!"

In order to become a candidate officer you must pass all the classes, pass the mid-PFA, and then complete Capstone. There has been a lot of talk recently about changing what the capstone is, but in essense it is a bunch of team building exersices you would see at a camp, just a little more physically demanding sometimes. When my class did it we had a blast up until the end when we found out that were going to have to wait another day to be considered a Candio. This to us was a huge blow, we were a perfect class, probably the last honor class for a long time, had no failures on the first round of NAV and NOS and yet it felt like we were being punished. Normally you change into your khakis after capstone and go to lunch and eat normally after 9 weeks of being harped on. Instead we were given our bars in a ceremony and then immediatly told, "You haven't arrived" and we were still Officer candidates until the class ahead of us graduated friday morning.

Part of the Capstone

That Friday we put on the khakis and took over our billets in the regiment and that night we finially got to open our Candio boxes. Candio-Boxes are like the care package to celebrate finially becoming a candio. Since up to this point you couldnt eat or drink what you wanted normally they are filled with candy and snacks. The night of the candio box is typically filled with over eating.

An example Candio-Box

The rest of candio phase is really about managent of the regiment and doing your job even though no one told you to do it. It wall fall on the class to uphold everything and maintain the regiment and a good class will do it well. If you are lucky then you will receive liberty on the weekends to go out to town. I suggest dont drinking until after graduation, too many idiots have come back drunk and got kicked out of the navy or sometimes arrested for DUI's. Its not worth it, you have waited 9 weeks, 3 more wont kill you. In my time there I saw at least 4 incidents where people went in front of review boards for alcohol related incidents, and those are the ones they caught!

Hi-Moms, the night before gradation we celebrate with family

By time the last week comes around you will be counting the mintues until you can see your loved ones, and by time wednsday hits and the class below you has completed capstone you are free to leave and spend the rest of the time with your family on overnight liberty. This was definatly the best part of OCS, which was finially being done and seeing my wife again.

Now there is a lot I left out, and there is a lot that has changed since then but hopefully this has given you a basic overview. I didnt go into to much detail on fire training, damage control training, PT procedures or touring the USS Constitution, there are a lot of cool things you do but you will just have to go and experience them yourself!

The only time you smile is as a Candio (ok not totally true).

1 Minute Luscious Chocolate Shake

1 Min. Chocolate Shake!

 

 Ingredients: 

• 1 Banana 
• 2 spoonfuls of Greek yogurt
• A cup of milk
• A handful of Chocolate chips
• Nutribullet

So I bet you love my super specific measurements, well they are not more specific because I grab handfuls of chocolate, I dont use a measuring cup. Its chocolate!

I normally start out with a little less chocolate chips than I think I need and dump everything into the cup and blend it in the nutribullet. I taste it, if it is not chocolatey enough or if it needs to be more liquidy, I adjust it. If it comes not runny enough drink some and then add more milk and reblend.

It is that simple.

One thing of note here is that each time I make this I adjust the proportions a bit depending on what I have and how it looks. You can put a half banana or a whole banana, you can put more greek yogurt if you want or more chocolate. The basics are, some banana for flavor and texture. A spoonful of greek yogurt prevent the chocolate from forming at the bottom. Milk for volume, and of course chocolate for flavor!

Navy Officer Candidate School (OCS) Part 2

Navy Officer Candidate School

Officer Candidate Phase

After you get through Friday of week 1 you officially become an "Officer Candidate." Please note that you are not a "Candidate Officer", but an "Officer Candidate." A candidate officer is a candidate who has reached the last phase of training and is in charge of running the regiment. It is easy to get two terms confused, but we shorten candidate officer to candio often times and it helps alleviate some confusion.

Classes

As an officer candidate your days now consist of class and drill. I know I was looking forward to the classes and learning what I considered some very interesting topics. The first class you start is Seapower. Seapower is basically naval history, some find it very boring but honestly I found it fascinating and the I actually read the book on the battles for fun. (When I say for fun I mean I added it to my study routine to break up the basic memorization but it was very interesting). After Seapower you take 2 classes, NOW and Eng-Weps. "NOW" is basically a lot of random facts about the admin side of the navy, lots of random facts, many of the useful. The problem with this class is it extremely dry and will put anyone to sleep in a matter of minutes if they wern't drinking their weight in water every couple hours. Eng-Weps is a mix between the basics of engineering and studying some weapon systems employed by the navy. Since I studied mechanical engineering in college this class was pretty easy, but even if you don't have a technical background it is just memorization of different cycles and part and weapon names. After this cycle of classes you hit your last 2 and the hardest 2: Nav-Nos. Nav stands for Navigation, and is basically plotting on navigation charts. NOS is something like Naval operational seamanship or something, basically it is using MO-boards. A mo-board is what is used to plot other ships compared to you on the ocean. Its kind of like a paper version radar. These two classes are famous for failing people. The trick to these classes is practice! Unlike the other classes this class is not pure memorization, it does have some (which you shouldn't forget about) but a big part comes from being able to do the plotting techniques shown in class. In fact about 75% of the class is working on plotting on Mo boards and the chart. During this class if you are having problems find someone who has it down and ask for help, if you have it down look for people that are struggling and help them. When I took this class, I luckily picked it up quickly and was able to help quite a few in my class pass. Almost every night for the week leading to the test I led a study session in an empty hatch for those struggling (I had to go ask them if they wanted to study with me). In the end we didn't have a single failure in either class, this is practically unheard of for these classes and it secured us the academic streamer and made us an honor class.

If you fail a class you will have a chance to retake the following Monday. (Tests are on Thursday/Fridays). So if you do poorly on a quiz, which marks the half way point, study up. If you fail the test, get help and rock the retake. You don't want to roll 3 weeks because you were tired and didn't study. Honestly studying is more important than another coat of polish on those boots anyway.

Drill

Toe to toe allignment

Besides classes, the other main focus of your life as an officer candidate will be drill. Every drill instructor is different and will teach to a different degree. I have found that brand new drill instructors have to "prove" themselves as capable to the other DI's so they drill their company harder than the standard. When I was there as part of class 16-13, we were the biggest single company to date. Since we came in with just under 70 people we wern't split into two companies but stayed as 16-13. Normally if you have more than 70 in a class you will be split into say "12-14 Alpha and 12-14 Bravo company." When the companies are split they compete against each other in events such as RLP and Drill. Sometimes this can make them work harder but I also saw unnecessary fighting between companies when they both reached candio phase.

Anyways, drill is conducted multiple times a day and is basically learning to do certain "actions" with the rifle. If you want an example look up marine silent drill team on youtube. You won't be nearly that good but you learn alot of the basic moves they do. Luckily we didn't do any throwing of the rifle. Sometimes drill periods can last as long as 3 or 4 hours, which is extremely taxing. It may not sound like learning to do "port arms" is hard but when a DI is making everyone do pushups or high knees every time someone in a 63 person platoon messes up... it can hurt. At the end of OCS you will be able to show your loved ones some of the drill moves you learned in what is called "Pass in Review."

 RLP

LOUDER!

Now, the most daunting of events in OCS is RLP, or atleast it is built up to be. RLP stands for Room locker and Personnel inspection. (Even though some DI's joke it stands for Relocation program). RLP is supposed to teach you how to pay attention to detail, and maintain bearing under stressful situations. In the weeks leading up to the event you will learn to fold your clothes just right, learn to make a rack with hospital corners, and learn to yell as loud as you can when asked a question. The main thing the DI's look for is confidence and bearing, in addition to a tidy appearance. First impressions matter in this, so come out looking like trash and don't start the "interview" correctly then they will look for something wrong to mark off. If you come out loud and know your stuff they will want to be done with you as soon as possible.

I would highly suggest organizing your class into teams and break up the work between everyone so that one team folds socks, one team folds shirts, one team makes racks, etc. This way when someone gets good at doing something they can do it for the whole platoon, and everyone looks great. This makes everyone good at something, and everyone contributes to the team. Our class did this under  the guidance of our candios and we were prepared early week 2 for RLP, which is a week 3 event. Some of the other class teams didn't like the fact that we did this so they forbid their classes following us from doing it but made everyone do it themselves. I personally think that this doesn't promote working as a team, but being too caught up in personal achievement. Even with the help of the class preparing everything together, that will only take you so far. Once you are standing at attention in front of your room and the DI or chief squares off on you, then everything is up to you at that point. Even if you have the most clean and spot on room, if they dont think you deserve to pass because you couldn't maintain your bearing then they will find something wrong and not pass you. They want men and women they can follow in the heat of battle not someone who is going to sit in the corner and cry. So study your knowledge, maintain bearing, clean your room and you are good to go.

So you may be asking yourself, what can I study beforehand so I can be ready? Well good question! You need to know the 11 general orders of a sentry, the 6 articles of the code of conduct, the sailors creed, your chain of command, ranks and insignia, and the service songs of the navy and marine corp. 

My personal experience with RLP

Before coming to OCS I had learned the 11 general orders, and had started the code of conduct. I studied my butt off every spare moment I had in OCS to prepare for RLP. When the time came, I felt confident but still nervous. The night before my hatch mate and I took some PT matts from the laundry room to sleep on the floor with, that way we didn't have to disturb our perfectly made bed. I stayed up an hour after taps doing last minute checks, a little studying and cleaning but I knew sleep was important. My hatch mate had been there something like 8 months already in med hold so he had his knowledge but wanted to make sure the room was perfect and everyone of his items was perfectly prepared, so he stayed up a little later stressing about it. The next morning came and after breakfast we did last minute sweeping and cleaning and finished just in time. We stood outside of our room with everything inside prepared perfectly. Everyone in the hall was checking each others appearance and each others rooms for a last minute spot check. Then when the 5 minute warning was given we all got in position and got really quiet. There was mumbling from inside the hall as everyone practiced their intro speech under their breath. When the time came a stream of drill instructors and chiefs marched quickly down the hall and stopped in front of people. That's when the madness began. You could hear every question and answer which was being screamed at the top of their lungs. You could hear if people answered incorrectly and you could hear when they lost their bearing. When a Chief squared off in front of me, I came to attention, saluted and yelled "Good morning Sir! Officer Candidate (Name here), room Mike-2-7-3!" He checked my uniform then told me to go inside where he proceeded to ask me questions while he checked my locker. About a minute in he had me do pushups while answering, when he could tell I was getting tired he switched me to high knees and then 6-90's. It was all over very quickly I would guess under 6 minutes and he only asked me the 11 general orders, the rank structure of the navy from bottom to top and the marine corp service song. Before I got to the second verse he told me to grab my canteen and go outside. I was done! He did similar questions for my hatch mate and finished with him. It took him a little longer because my hatch mate fumbled on some answers and has a pretty thick Porto Rican accent. In the end we both passes and moved on.

Please note that all pictures are from the Officer Training Command Newport's Facebook page.

Navy Officer Candidate School (OCS) Part 1

Navy Officer Candidate School

Indoctrination Phase

This is a special guest post by Kenny!

I completed OCS a couple months ago, and I know before going I was freaking out reading everything I could to prepare for it. Well if you are for some reason in that boat, congratulations for being accepted into OCS! Now you are wondering what do I need to do get ready? Well the first thing is make sure you are mentally prepared to push through no matter what. I don't want to scare you but people do drop out the first week because they cant take it mentally or physically. If you have the drive and motivation you will succeed.

What a lot of the recruiting people don't tell you is that you are not guaranteed to finish in 12 weeks. If you cannot keep up on roll-able events such as wake up Wednesday or outpost, then you roll into H-Class, which is short for holding company. When you "roll" you basically move from your current class to a group of candidates waiting to class up with the next class. Some would have just rolled with you and some could be coming in from med-hold. In 3 weeks you will get another chance to join the class the day before you rolled and attempt the event that rolled you last time. If for some reason you get injured, say a broken leg, then you will get treated and put in "med hold" which is similar to H-class but with a few perks. In med hold you no longer are treated as an indoc but as a human again. You are allowed to go out on liberty on weekends and you do odd jobs around training country during the day. Once you are well enough to class up you will go first to H class then class up with the next class. Another little tid-bit they leave out before coming is something called "student pool." Student pool is basically where you go if you decide to drop out of OCS, or if you finish OCS without a designator or some other reason is requiring you to stay with OCS even though you arn't in training. I personally was put here after graduating and was stuck for a good 9 weeks, waiting for the navy to move its wheels and get me out of there. If you drop out of OCS because you cant take it, you don't go home the next day, you go to student pool for about 2 weeks while they out process you. So if you are thinking of quiting just think by time you get out of Newport most likely your class will be done with RLP.

Ok enough with student pool and H class. Lets get down to my experience with OCS and the basics behind it, since it is no great secret on how they train officers.

I was accepted into the Navy Nuclear Propulsion Officer Candidate Program (NUPOC) my junior year of college. The rest of time in college I was getting paid to get good grades and keep in shape. I my write another post later about getting in the NUPOC program because that is some good info too. Anyways after I graduated I was told report to OCS at the end of June. Near the end of May I got a call asking me if I wanted to report 3 weeks early for OCS by my recruiter since they had a couple slots open. I said no, since I had already purchased tickets out there, and set up reservations, and plus I wanted three more weeks with my wife during this down time.

When I flew in to Providence I went over to the shuttle kiosk and asked about the shuttle to the base, he said it would take about an hour so I sat down and studied "Gouge" (the navy word for study material or knowledge). It didn't take long for 2 more people going to OCS to come over and sit down. We talked asked about each others designators (What you will do in the navy), and generally tried to maintain calm and collected and not show that we were worried. After taking the shuttle and arriving on base, we dropped our stuff off in our rooms and met up to go into town for our "last meal." We went down to the Red parrot a pretty cheap restaurant with decent food. As you can understand there wasn't much conversation between 3 people thinking about what was going to happen tomorrow.

Day 1:

The next morning we met in the lobby of the hotel, checked out and walked over together, pulling our suitcases behind us.  As we walked over we passed other officer candidates going to church and it was weird thinking I would be one of them in a few weeks looking at new indocs. When we got to the check in we were told to stand with our luggage against a wall and don't talk. So about 10 of us stood as if were were on a firing line looking straight ahead of us, the tension and fear setting in. We were then told to follow someone from room to room as we checked in. This process was basically a lot of paperwork as well as being issued our seabag and canteen.

Filling out paperwork upon arrival

We got to the final station, which was a demonstration of "Ballistics" (term used for shouting). I remember sitting in my chair as the 2 candidate officers yelled commands and responses at each other. The speed and volume was intense and I thought there was no way I could be as loud as them. We were then given "a last chance to ask questions." We all just stared blankly back at him. Well we were then herded like sheep to the "Dungeon" where the yelling and screaming truly began. They yell commands so quickly that you cant understand all of them, you just stumble around trying to catch the majority of what they are saying and not be so lost. I still remember we were in a hall way where someone was teaching us the navy words for ceiling (Overhead), floor (deck),  window (porthole) and white board (visual aid panel). Well when she yelled "This is a visual aid panel, what is this candidate!?" We all just yelled a mumbled sounds that sounded similar back at her, and as she repeated the question about 5 times trying to get us to say it right she finally slowed down so we could actually here what it was called and yell it back. The rest of the day is basically sitting cross legged, or standing at attention, drinking out of a canteen, being yelled at and herded like sheep from place to place. I didn't "practice" standing at attention or sitting at attention nor should you, but you will defiantly be sore by the end of the day. Late in the day you will also be given your haircuts. which will be hidden by a nice "chrome dome" while outside. The chrome dome is basically an old Vietnam style helmet spray painted silver probably the day after the war as it has faded on most of them. While running, or speed walking you your nice little chrome dome with bounce on your head and block your vision, and you are not supposed to fix it so it sits half obscuring your view as you stand there.

An Indoc waiting to be told what to do

Day 2:
Medical Monday! For this day you go to the hospital on base sit at attention in the chairs and get a few tests done. This is a great day to get some studying done. If you have some really chill candios they will you actually put your back against the chair back like a normally person but if your candios are instructed to be really strict or if they want to feel like they have power, they will nit pick you every time you don't sit at perfect attention. My candios were really strict on sitting at attention so I was always really sore by the end of the day. My tip for this day, besides studying, is ask for the vegetarian meal. Often times the normal meal is a nasty ham and cheese sub sandwich, but the vegetarian meal was a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. (MUCH BETTER!)

Day 3:

Running the mile and a half!

Pushups!

This morning is your first physical fitness test. You need a satisfactory to pass, so know your numbers and shoot for at least 5 above it so you don't stop 1 short by accident and roll to H-class. (It happens probably once every 2 or 3 classes). Historically this is where most people roll. (I know because during my time in student pool I had access to the "roll logs"). Come to OCS in shape! You don't have to be a lifting god but you do have to be able to run a mile and a half at a decent speed and do some push ups so practice beforehand and save yourself 3 weeks of extra pain. The rest of the day is basically going from place to place being yelled at by your candios.



Day 4:

Good Morning!

Wake up Wednesday!

Most likely you knew this was coming, everyone does. But when it happens it is still pretty intense. The Drill instructor will come screaming in at 4 am and wake everyone up and tell them to get at attention outside their door. Basically you will be screamed at, RPT'd and RPT'd some more. This day is to make sure you can do the strength and conditioning days. My biggest tip is one given to me by someone I met in the hotel before going to OCS, he had just graduated and told me he rolled because his knees touched the deck while doing push ups. The drill instructors are looking for people they don't think can take it and arnt strong enough yet. Your DI wants to weed out the people he doesn't want to hold his company back during drill so he is looking for people who will quit on him. letting your knees touching the floor while doing push ups is a big tell tale sign to them. During the endless push ups you will get tired, you will want to lay down or let your knees cave, DON'T DO IT! Instead drop your butt low and arch like its a back stretch just don't let those knees touch. Give it your all, your arms might shake but that means you have determination even in the pain. You can do, thousands do it every year, so can you. Once you are done with the morning "fun" and go to breakfast you will be thrilled that you got through the hardest part of the day. I remember going back to my room to shower thinking that it wasn't that bad. Many DI's will give random RPT (Remedial Physical Training sessions) through out the day, so the day is defiantly not over with but the morning is defiantly the hardest part, so be proud and push through.

Day 5:
I am pretty sure Thursday is when you go and get fitted for uniforms. This is a cool day since you get to go to the uniform shop and try on those uniforms you have envisioned yourself in. This is a more relaxed day so enjoy in. There is most likely some yelling and running but nothing compared to Wednesday or Friday.

Day 6:
Outpost!

Another big rollable event is called outpost. Over the years it has gotten easier and easier because of safety standards. apparently you used to have to carry the bag in front of you with out locking your hands together, but too many people were getting injured and it was weeding out the shorter people too much since they would trip on the giant seabag. When you wake up at 4am by the soothing voice of the drill instructor you will do exactly what he tells you to do. Most likely he will tell you to put on socks, then shoes then your belt. Then he will tell you what to load into your seabag (normally prepared the night before with the help of your candios) and you will put them on your back and follow him on a short run. After the run you do some physical activities, such as pushups, lunges, situps, 6-90's and other assorted physical fun.  Quick note: Before you go in, remember where you put down your bag. When you come out you will have to find your bag and put it on while everyone is scrambling and grabbing bags and trying to get in formation. So often time people get tripped up trying to find their bag. You will then run back to the "House" and do another RPT session and be done. Congratulations you made it through Outpost! Shower off and endure the chowhall procedures and random RPT sessions of the day but if you get to that evening in tact you will throw your "poopy suit" in a bin and never wear it again (unless your company is REALLY bad).

Day 7: Saturday, you will be wearing NWU's (The blue camo navy working uniform) and most likely will start some drill. At first you will like drill because it is actually kind of fun to learn how to handle a weapon in such a way. Stay positive because it is REALLY easy to hate drill, and most if not all do by the end, but enjoy it while you can because you learn it to show to your loved ones when you graduate.

Day 8: Sunday. GO TO CHURCH. I don't care if you believe in God or not, I don't care if you don't like church. GO TO CHURCH. Sign up for all three services. The first service is "Protestant Liturgical," the second service is the Catholic service, the final service is "Protestant non liturgical." You don't have to go in all three services if you sign up for them, you can go and chill outside or in the common room, talk and eat donuts. It is the best part of the week, a time you can relax, eat junk food, drink coffee, and write letters. It is a time to rejuvenate and ready yourself for the next week. If you don't go to church you will have to sit out in the hall preparing for RLP.

Some random things that are good to know:

• The rooms are quite nice, I was one of the first classes to be in the "New Nimitz" building. Each room has 2 desks, 2 warlockers, 2 beds that lift up for storage space, and a private toilet and sink. Two rooms connect via a shower area, where 2 rooms (4 people) share 2 shower stalls. You will have to get used to showering quick and alternating showering to get ready quickly enough to get out in time.
• The food has gotten a lot better too. They have a 21 day menu, where the food repeats after 3 weeks. During the beginning or as long as you are on "Grab and go" you take what ever entree the staff gives you for a meal (excluding those with food allergies or religious reasons cant eat something). Depending on your class team you will be restricted from everything except getting salad and a fruit in addition to this. If your class team is nice, you can "unlock" cheese, milk, other drinks, cereal, salad dressings, condiments, peanut butter, bread and coffee. Normally though you will not be given access to everything until candio phase. Personally we weren't given anything except peanut butter and bread after 5 weeks. While younger classes had pretty much everything by week 2. It all depends on your DI.
• You are assigned a roommate when you arrive, normally after three weeks when you change rooms you can choose your roommate, and again at the beginning of candio phase on week 9.
• Each class team is different and has a different teaching style, so not all experiences are the same.
• You will start receiving letters normally the beginning of week 2. Have loved ones write letters, because they will make your day, and help carry you through. (Thanks Kim, Mom and Dad!)
• READ THE OCR. The OCR is like the rule book for OCS. It has everything from uniform standards, to protocols for everything from chow hall procedures to seeing the chaplain. If its in the OCR and you reference it when asking for something to your chief, normally you will be ok. Not always, but most of the time. 
• You will never be denied water or using the head (navy word for the bathroom). So dont be afraid to ask a candio to use the head. Also drink a lot! Dehydration is what took the most people from my company, we even had 3 incidents of people fainting during drill practice because they wern't drinking enough. So drink up and save yourself the trouble.

In the next post I will talk about more about RLP and Officer Candidate Phase.

Hopefully this will help someone.

Please note that all pictures are from the Officer Training Command Newport's Facebook page.