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Comment by Rachel on May 17, 2017 at 4:43pm

Hello, OCS moms!  My son just got to OCS, and I have a couple of questions.  Is it appropriate to send anything to him other than letters?  Are there "special occasions" when they can receive gifts at all?  I miss him so very much already and he just started.  Used to speaking with him two or three times a day and am in some serious withdrawal.  Also, how much advance notice will I get to book flights, etc.?  I am a planner, so all this wait and see stuff is pretty brutal.  Thanks in advance <3

Comment by Anna on May 16, 2017 at 9:39pm

SWAF,

My daughter wanted pilot but got NFO instead.  She was told she could never fly in jets tho cause she is too small and would never survive an ejection seat!!!  So I'm not surprised to hear your daughter wasn't the right size for something.  

Comment by M's mom on May 16, 2017 at 6:07pm

SWAF:  Sorry to hear that your daughter didn't "measure up," but I know they have certain size requirements that you can't be too big for the cockpit, or too small so you can't reach the controls.  Seems pretty crass and unprofessional that someone made a lame joke about "putting on two inches of back fat so she would qualify."  

Far be it for me to question the United States Navy, but it seems to me they could make sure these young people qualify in advance, before accepting them to OCS for a certain designator, then dashing their hopes once they get there and finding out they don't qualify.  I mean, they couldn't have measured her arms at her MEPS physical and told her then that she wasn't big enough?

Something similar happened to my son. He also started OCS as a pilot candidate.  He did extremely well on the aptitude tests and passed TWO different military physicals at the MEPS with flying colors.  Then he went to OCS, and about 6 weeks in, they gave him a flight physical, in which they apparently scan every square inch inside and out.  They determined that he has a minor congenital heart anomaly that one percent of the population have.  It is not life-threatening, and he could stay in the Navy, but it DQ'd him from pilot or NFO.  (Before they had the technology to scan for this, I'm sure there were hundreds of pilots who flew with it, but now that they can find it, they err on the side of caution, I guess.)

My son was pretty upset to say the least, but the Navy did allow him to transfer to Intelligence and graduate from OCS.  It was probably a blessing in disguise for him since he now loves being an Intel officer, and I think he is probably better suited to it than he would have been a pilot.  

I just wish they would screen the pilot/NFO candidates better before they even go to OCS.  Unfortunately, this happens frequently.    I hope your daughter is able to transfer to some other designator that she finds rewarding. 

Comment by M's mom on May 16, 2017 at 2:04pm

Tess099:

It's been 5 years ago, but I think my son's OCS orders came to his recruiter, who then called him, and then forwarded the printed orders to my son by email.

Hurry up & wait, or wait & now hurry up are the way it is in the military.  Sometimes deployments are delayed after months of personal planning to leave, or worse, moved UP, so the military family has to scramble to get everything in place before the loved one leaves. Sailors and their families just have to learn to roll with it.   "Semper Gumby" they say----Always Flexible!!!!!

Tell your son to use this time to memorize all the Navy knowledge, ranks, etc. that his recruiter should have given him, and work out hard daily.   He will have a much easier time at OCS if he has all that stuff memorized and is in great physical shape going in.

Comment by SWAF on May 16, 2017 at 12:52am

My daughter is at OCS in RI right now. She has been working hard to get into the program for either NFO or pilot. They told her two weeks ago she had 48 hours to show up for this last class. She declined because she had a trip planned, so she went on her trip and went the next class, which started this past Sunday. This morning, she called and was extremely upset because they told her that "her arms were 2" too short for NFO or pilot...and if she put on 2" of back-fat, she would pass". Do you think they're just jerking her around or what?  She is tiny, but tough. She wants this bad. I encouraged her to hang in there, etc. She wasn't kicked out, just is facing choosing another route. Have you ever heard of something like this?

Comment by Tess099 on May 15, 2017 at 11:38pm

Thanks, M's mom!  I appreciate your note.  Did he get a letter of acceptance or was it just a phone call from the recruiter? My son's recruiter told him he would get his "orders?" in about 1 month.  That was late-March.  It's been almost two months.  Someone told me all Navy review boards were halted due to some "problems" in one of them...

Comment by M's mom on May 15, 2017 at 10:07am

Tess099,  I know the waiting can be hard for a report date.  My son was accepted to OCS right before his college graduation, but then he was told that it might be a year before OCS had room for him.  So he was resigned to trying to find a job for a year, while being honest with employers that he was waiting to go to the military!    All of a sudden, his recruiter called him the first of April, and said he was to report to OCS in 60 days in June!

Even if your LO has no estimate on when the OCS orders will come, he/she needs to use that time to get in the best physical shape ever, because they will greatly regret it if they show up to OCS out of shape!  

The orders can come in any time even if they were given a long estimate like my son, so I know the uncertainty is hard, but this is the military--- wait, wait, wait, and now HURRY UP!!!

Comment by Tess099 on May 15, 2017 at 8:37am

Is anyone out there who's son/daughter is waiting for orders to actually go to OCS?

Comment by Gina Mills on May 13, 2017 at 2:47pm

My son had to report within a week after graduation, but did not actually start for a couple of weeks. First was his pre-flight indoctrination in where he had to fly Cessna solo. He is in API now with two weeks left. Last of academics is next week so pray he passes the last two finals, before survival training. Lots of studying.

Comment by USNmom2017 on May 13, 2017 at 12:23pm

Thank you Noni and Gina for that information. I am guessing that housing is readily available being that they graduate on Friday and possibly need to report the next week.

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