OCS Stress [Archive] - Marine Corps

1776dad

01-25-08, 02:13 PM

The 21 year old college kids are going to look up to you for
leadership. They will expect you to have judgement and
they will expect you to have skills that they don't and won't
have in that hot humid Quantico summer. Your experience
matters and you will have to be ready to lead from day one.
From day one you will be expected to perform by Instructors
and Candidates alike at a level that is above everyone else.
AND yet you cannot cross the line and step into your old
role. Green Candidates will lead you at times and you will
have to support them even when it makes your head hurt!
Be ready to Lead, be Tolerant and Encouraging to the 21 year
olds and subvert your ego all at the same time. Set a great
example, make it look hard for you even if sometimes it isn't.
Help weed the class if you are asked to do so. Leaders make
tough decisions and that is what you are being groomed for
there. It is only that you care about doing it well that makes
you dwell on it now - And you will do well!
Then again an extra two 6 minute miles a day from now till then
won't hurt....

gwladgarwr

01-25-08, 02:16 PM

I am heading to OCS this summer and I am already losing sleep over it.
Boot camp was soo long ago and I am not as young as I used to be.

ANY ADVICE???

SSgt:

That's great you're going over to the Dark Side - much luck to you!

I'm not going to post my entire OCS experience here so if you want to PM me, I can fill you in.

Don't lose sleep over it now - you'll have plenty of time at OCS to lose sleep! :banana: Since you'll be a "prior" there, the Sgt Instructors and PltSgts will call on you and other priors to help run the platoon, esp. if you're a SNCO. (BTW, the instructor staff will not give you much slack because you are prior/current Marine or a SNCO - at least not in the beginning; you'd have to turn in your military ID and dog tags while you're there and be forced to carry a copy of your OCS orders/warrant as ID.) After about two weeks (since this is the summer course), they will expect you and your fellow priors to run a lot of the candidate show, plus, they will expect you to train them on stuff like manual-of-arms, rifle maintenance, Marine Corps history, etc. that is second nature to you. You have the advantage over other candidates because you are a prior; use it to your advantage and you won't be as stressed out (and be sure to make "alliances" with your priors - this will come in handy during the entire course but particularly during periodic "peer evals" when your platoon buddies will "rate" each other - this is the main thing the staff uses to drop candidates, and the higher you are peer-rated, the less likely you will be dropped.)

In short, they will expect more from you since you're already a Marine and have been in the fleet. But, that's a good thing since you already know how to deal with things in the Marine Corps way (and how to lead, obviously.)

Your time to shine will be during candidate billet times (at least once during PLC/ECP and at least twice during OCC, you'll assume the candidate version of a platoon or company billet like candidate platoon sergeant, company XO, etc., and will "shadow" the real billet holder for two to two and half days.) This is when you'll be REALLY be tired since you'll be up after lights-out (brings back boot camp memories, don't it?) doing paperwork, accountability stuff, mock fitreps and evals on your fellow candidate billet holders under your direction, and of course, doing all that while attending lectures, PTing, going to chow, and studying. Oh, and reading up on the billet "job description" itself when you get the job.

One word of advice: upon arrival for check-in, identify all of the priors -whether non-rates, NCO/SNCO, and non-Marine priors - then surround yourself immediately with them. Those priors who end up in your platoon will be the ones whom the sgt instructors will lean on to help run the platoon, making the job easier on both you and the staff. You will depend on them and vice-versa during the six-week course, and the sooner you "cultivate" that relationship with them, the less stressful the course will be. Don't expect the staff to cut you slack, but they may ease up on you a little if you perform like the SNCO you are. Not accusing you of sandbagging it, btw - just telling you that they take it for granted that they already have a ready-made officer candidate that they don't have to spend so much time on to baby-sit, and if they did, for any reason, they will be doubly hard on you.)

One last good one: instead of being quarterdecked, you will occasionally be given "punishment essays", the length of which is anywhere between 200-500 words, depending on the mood of the evil sgt instructor. If you want to save some time, write at least two or three punishment essays of 200, 300, and 400 words each before you get there. The topic will be something like "The Importance of Following Orders" or "The Importance of Retaining Bearing". A word only counts as a word if it's 3 or 4 letters (not counting "if", "and", "or", "but", etc.) The essay MUST be exactly whatever number the instructor demands (not counting the "uncountable" words.) They do this to see how efficiently and succinctly you can express yourself in writing. If you come with some essays already written, and if/when they make you do one, you'll have one ready and will avoid staying up after lights-out writing one. You may have to re-word some things and edit the pre-made essay, but you'd be saving a lot of sleep time! I can provide an example of one of mine if you're interested.

Dad is also right: the green candidates WILL look up to you, and sometimes they will have to lead YOU. Let them perform. But, as a leader, you WILL be expected to make some hard decisions, and that may entail weeding out fellow candidates. Just be sure you are fair about it.

Hey, hoping to make SSgt in the coming months myself!

Sgt gw:flag: