Travel101
I wore a suit to my daughters Hi Mom my husband was also in a suit. Most were suited nice. For graduation I wore dress pants and a nice shirt. My daughters was in-door on Halloween. We left right after to come home.
We did the same for our son's graduation 5 years ago. My son still uses his today. They certainly can't fit all of their gear and uniforms into the seabag they are issued.
The class number is 14-18, and there may be an actual friends and family page for the class but you may have to do some research. One of the family members created one for my LO's class but I'm not sure what the name of your groups would be.
Hello and CONGRATULATIONS to anyone whose son/daughter graduated from OCS. My son just graduated and became an Officer, class 10-18. It is a proud moment and the Hi Moms dinner and Graduation Ceremony was wonderful. To see your child in uniform for the first time is something you never forget. Somethings I learned throughout this experience are: Write as many letters as you want. Do Not expect to receive as many as you write. Make a Cando Box and send for week nine. Plan an taking your Newly commissioned officer out to a dinner after the ceremony. Plan on picking up and having room for his belongings before the ceremony starts. Do take as many pictures as you like. Do attend/watch the final run at 6:30 am on graduation day. Know that they will survive OCS. Know that you have a new family-The Navy. Good Luck to eveyone who has a loved one attending OCS.
Check out https://www.facebook.com/pg/OTCNewport to see pictures of you son/daughte's OCS class.You have to check often for pictures to be posted and updated.
PKM, Congrats to you and your new Ensign! Yes, the OCS graduation ceremony is so emotional for the families, because you know what your LO has endured for the last few weeks. Good advice in your post below to Dana and other newbie OCS Moms.
Now you can join the group "Moms of Officers" here on N4M's, and also look for a group for whatever you son's designator is, and those Moms can answer any questions you may have about his next school.
I hope you will also stick around here on OCS Graduate Moms and help us answer the newbies' questions. You're now a voice of experience!
PKM, that is where we stayed, too. It was much nicer than the Hampton Inn in which we stayed in Providence before leaving the day after the graduation. I agree!
As PKM posted, write lots of letters to your LO (Loved One) at OCS, but do NOT send anything else but letters until week 9-10 when they can receive a gift box, called a Candio box. Make sure everyone to whom you give your son's OCS mailing address knows this, ---not to send treats or anything else. Anything but letters will be confiscated as contraband, and the candidate will be punished with many extra pushups or other exercises as punishment, even if they didn't ask for it to be sent!!!! So make sure Grandma doesn't send him any goodies!
We stayed at the Holiday Inn Express in Middletown for OCS graduation, and it was nice also. Hotels in Middletown are actually closer to the base than Newport is, and way cheaper in the summer when Newport is crawling with tourists.
Hi: All advice is welcome and it helps us to not make any mistakes. I learned a lot this week and have so much to learn. It is true that we are now part of another family. The "Navy Family". You are correct. Be careful what you send. I only wrote letters on lined paper. I didn't want to add anymore push ups to his day. The OCS Candidates work very, very hard to graduate and deserve their rank.
Thank you for being so generous with your information. Thank you Sonnenschien for the class number!
I just went on Facebook and typed in, "navy ocs class 14-18 friends and family". Then it gave me, "Groups-US Navy ocs class 14-18 (commences 29-APR-18) Friends and Family page". Then it gave me a "Friend Request".
The administrator of the group should accept you soon. It's nice to know it's a closed group. You should also join a few groups before yours so you can see all the information being passed around:) it's very helpful.
Hey Everyone! My son graduated from OCS in 2010 (and is in the training pipeline for his department he'd tour aboard a surface ship) so my info about OCS itself is a bit dated. But I traveled to Newport 1-2 times per month for the last 5 years (up until last summer) when I worked for the Navy so I may have some info there. Even though I was an OCS graduate many, many years ago, this forum was very helpful when my son was in OCS and I'm still friends with some of the folks I met on this forum. Thanks for accepting me (again) in the group!
If your sending you Child (funny we use the word child, but they always are our children) to OCS, send a protractor with them. It will help with making the bed perfect.
My son graduated from OCS in 2012. So much has changed now from how it was done back then, but we can still offer support to the new OCS Moms. I just remember feeling very anxious while my son was at OCS, and fearful that he wouldn't make it, and I appreciated the support I found here from the veteran OCS Moms, so I try to pay it forward.
Welcome to any Mom future or past. It was quite an adventure having a son at OCS. Viewing the photos on the website was a great way to see what is going on. Worrying if they will get rolled and how to support them if they do. My son said the letters he received was the best support he could get.
Yes, those encouraging letters from home to OCS are so important, even if they don't admit it, because it is their only connection to the outside world for many weeks.
The candidates are deliberately kept isolated from TV, newspapers, internet, and smart phones at first to wean them off constant communication with their loved ones. When they are deployed on a ship or sub, there is infrequent communication, and it can be quite difficult if both parties are used to constantly texting. Letters and care packages are also so important when they are deployed!!
I am revising my earlier suggestion of sending a protractor with your child heading off to OCS. I just had an afternoon with my OCS Graduate and he said, "Do Not send anything that is not on the approved list." His advice was to just take what is on the list and a change of civilian clothes. He said have friends and family send lots of letters. Also, Please tell friends and family that even if they think it might be funny; DO NOT, PLEASE DO NOT send No Contraband.
You are right about sending nothing but letters to OCS. In my son's class, someone's dear Auntie innocently sent their candidate COOKIES at week three. The Drill Instructor made the poor kid do 800 (that's Eight Hundred) pushups as punishment for contraband! OCS didn't really make it clear back then that they weren't to be sent anything, so you can imagine how bad his Aunt felt about that, not to mention how bad the candidate felt!!!!
I heard a story about someone thinking that sending a potato was funny. Not for the Person at OCS...... To family of a son/daughter at OCS believe in your candidate, write letters of encouragement and the weeks go by quickly. If they get Rolled into holding company; it is not as big a deal as it sounds. It gives them a chance to improve where they are weak. Oh yeah, they will probably get sick, my son did; but they will get through that too.
Yes, each OCS class seems to have a wave of upper respiratory illness sweep through in the early weeks. The candidates live in such close quarters, and are under such physical and emotional stress and lack of sleep, that their immune systems get weakened. Someone always brings in a bug, and then they all get it.
You are so right. My son was sick for 6 weeks total before he finally got healthy. But he kept pushing through. Oh yeah, They also loose their voices too.
And if they haven't had their wisdom teeth out yet that usally gets done at OCS too! They don't want to have to dock or come topside to send someone to take care of it if it becomes a problem out at sea.
Right. Fortunately, my son had his wisdom teeth removed at age 16, but there were several who had their wisdom teeth removed at OCS the week of graduation!!! Poor things still had their cheeks and jaws all swollen at the graduation ceremony.
My advice to those accepted to OCS, besides getting in excellent physical shape before reporting, is to have those wisdom teeth removed at home before reporting, so they have time to recuperate at home.
With respect to wisdom teeth, our dentist told our son he needed his removed. His recruiter told him he couldn’t have them removed (no physical changes or procedures) while he was waiting for selection board approval, then again no changes after approval and waiting for OCS.
The recruiter said they would be removed at OCS. And two were. The same dentist noted a crack in his front tooth (knocked out when he was 10 and put back in his gum, eventually needing an implant). He said he couldn’t clear him medically if he didn’t remove his front tooth! What?!! So the dentist removed his front tooth and gave him a temporary fake tooth just in time for OCS graduation. The saga continued for years in flight training.... He has his implant now.)
That's just nuts. The military has some screwy policies. What if an OCS candidate is waiting to report and has an attack of acute appendicitis? Are they allowed to have their appendix removed?
For the pilot candidates, they apparently don't give them a complete flight physical at MEPS, which is more stringent than the usual one. Then they get to OCS, and are given a flight physical and then some are medically DQ'd for flight, after all that work it took to get to OCS!!!!
That happened to my son. He went to OCS as a pilot candidate, then was medically DQ'd for some minor anomaly that wasn't caught in two different MEPS physicals. Fortunately, he was allowed to remain at OCS and switch to a different designator. If he would have been thrown out of OCS at that point, after all the hoops he had to jump through to get there, we all would have been furious. (Not that it would have done any good!) But how cruel to let these kids into OCS, and then DQ them for something that should have been caught before.
My son is a PP and we still went to 2 different flight surgeons that were military just to make sure he would pass the flight physical before he started this process. Even a FAA medical doctor may not give the same flight physical that they do in the military. So if you know anyone wanting to be a SNA tell them to find a FAA medical doctor that is ex-military and get a full exam!!
One more for the crazy side: a daughter of a friend went to OSC as a pilot. During her physical, her arms were measured and found to be less than an inch too short to be a pilot! She appealed the findings and was told she could still go thru as a pilot, however, because her arms were too short, she ran a high risk of injury and/or death in training and she would waive all her beneficiary rights! She also was able to switch to a different designator.
My DS was told by OCS doctors that he had "virtually no chance" of becoming a pilot because of some medical history and they showed him the written regulations. But he convinced them to send in the paperwork anyway to see what would happen. He is a Patriots fan and he kept telling us, "28 to 3, you never know." (Pats fans will know what I mean). Two months later, he called us screaming "Touch down! I made it." :-)
Good for him!! I know the military can issue waivers on a case-by-case basis, so I'm glad your son insisted they try for him.
I understand that pilots/NFO's must have certain physical size and abilities for their own and everyone's safety when flying, but it seems to me, before being accepted to OCS as SNA/NFO, they could be given a full flight physical. It just seems so wrong to accept these kids to OCS, and then DQ them for flight in the middle of OCS, after all they've put into it.
There was one Mom here in this group a while back who said her son was medically DQ'd for flight at OCS, and was told there were no other open designators he could switch to. He was told he had to leave OCS, and was discharged!!!!!!! That's just ridiculously cruel. The poor kid.
So as I read these postings, I realize that anyone who has made it it OCS Graduation has run the gauntlet of things that can and often do go wrong. I agree with the items that should have been cleared, or "fixed" or will just DQ them before the candidates go off to OCS. I am learning that what we see as reasonable or common sense is seen very differently by the military. Good luck to all new supporters of an OCS son/daughter,
Regarding the Hi Mom's Dinner. Some people dressed very formally, long dresses (but no tuxedos). Others had on very nice dresses and the men wore suits and ties. Wear what is comfortable and just have a good time.
I believe that is now correct. When my son was at OCS six years ago, they COULD receive food in their boxes, so of course, we moms all sent our candidates boxes stuffed with homemade cookies and other sweet treats. Since they were all sugar-deprived at that point, having not been allowed any desserts or between-meal snacks for 9 weeks, they all gorged themselves on the goodies and made themselves sick. (My son said it was worth it, though. ha!) So, I think that is why they don't allow food anymore.
Anyway, DO NOT send anything but letters, until they officially become CANDIOs (Candidate Officers) at week ten. Write CANDIO on the outside of the box, so the mailroom will know they are allowed to have it.
Some families have sent magazines of interest and books, but the CANDIOs will be running the training regiment then, and have little time for reading anyway. I suppose you could ask your LO if there are any non-food items that they would like you to send. It kind of takes the fun out of it if we can't send homemade goodies, but this is just a baking Mom talking here!
jesnavymom, most of the experiences of the moms here may be outdated on Candio boxes. The best insight for current Candio boxes rules would be your class Facebook page. There is usually an admin that can and does provide current protocol. As for the boxes themselves, Pinterest is loaded with great ideas and examples. It’s a fun project and expression of love and fun to your LO. Enjoy!
I just sent my LO’s box a couple of weeks ago. To answer your question on food..they only allow power bars. I even tried to sneak in a protein cookie and he had to put in his “lucky bag” for after OCS. One good idea was a good pen since they always have to carry one. The one thing I wish I would have thought of was his wireless earbuds ( unless your LO brought them to OCS)
My son graduated from OCS in October and there was NO food allowed and the power bars had to be a certain brand so I didn't even send those since they were able to get them at the NEX at that point in OCS. We sent pictures, a day planner, some magazines of his hobbies (surfing etc) and he loved those since they don't have much contact with the outside world. We were also able to fit a fleece blanket. It was really thin and could be rolled pretty small and that was nice because they usually sleep on the outside of their made beds. Lots of ideas on the internet on how to decorate the boxes. Very fun to do!
It has almost been a month from when my son graduated from OCS. The time goes fast, but the memories last forever. I love looking at the photos that are/were on the OCS Newport facebook page. I printed off some of the photos and put them in a scrapbook for my graduate.
CAmom
They do get a sea bag which fits a lot of their stuff but we bought a garment bag on Amazon and brought it to graduation.
Apr 17, 2018
travel101
Apr 17, 2018
Noni
I wore a suit to my daughters Hi Mom my husband was also in a suit. Most were suited nice. For graduation I wore dress pants and a nice shirt. My daughters was in-door on Halloween. We left right after to come home.
Apr 17, 2018
Andrea S
I had a garment bag monogrammed for a graduation gift. It was a really good suggestion on our class FB page
Apr 20, 2018
M's mom
Andrea S,
We did the same for our son's graduation 5 years ago. My son still uses his today. They certainly can't fit all of their gear and uniforms into the seabag they are issued.
Apr 20, 2018
Dana
Hi Everyone,
My son checked in to OCS Rhode Island this morning. Does anyone know what that class number is? And, how do I find his class on Facebook?
Apr 29, 2018
Sonnenschien
Apr 29, 2018
Dana
Easy enough. Thanks much!!
Apr 29, 2018
Sonnenschien
Apr 29, 2018
Andy'sMom
Welcome Dana!
As Sonnenschien said, search OSC class 14-18 friends and family.
Apr 29, 2018
PKM
Hello and CONGRATULATIONS to anyone whose son/daughter graduated from OCS. My son just graduated and became an Officer, class 10-18. It is a proud moment and the Hi Moms dinner and Graduation Ceremony was wonderful. To see your child in uniform for the first time is something you never forget. Somethings I learned throughout this experience are: Write as many letters as you want. Do Not expect to receive as many as you write. Make a Cando Box and send for week nine. Plan an taking your Newly commissioned officer out to a dinner after the ceremony. Plan on picking up and having room for his belongings before the ceremony starts. Do take as many pictures as you like. Do attend/watch the final run at 6:30 am on graduation day. Know that they will survive OCS. Know that you have a new family-The Navy. Good Luck to eveyone who has a loved one attending OCS.
Apr 29, 2018
PKM
Check out https://www.facebook.com/pg/OTCNewport to see pictures of you son/daughte's OCS class.You have to check often for pictures to be posted and updated.
Apr 29, 2018
PKM
Hotel Suggestion for OCS graduation:
Howard Johnson in Middletown, Newport Area. Close to the base and Very Very reasonably priced. Do not let the name or pictures turn you off.
Apr 29, 2018
M's mom
PKM, Congrats to you and your new Ensign! Yes, the OCS graduation ceremony is so emotional for the families, because you know what your LO has endured for the last few weeks. Good advice in your post below to Dana and other newbie OCS Moms.
Now you can join the group "Moms of Officers" here on N4M's, and also look for a group for whatever you son's designator is, and those Moms can answer any questions you may have about his next school.
I hope you will also stick around here on OCS Graduate Moms and help us answer the newbies' questions. You're now a voice of experience!
Apr 29, 2018
jsefamily
PKM, that is where we stayed, too. It was much nicer than the Hampton Inn in which we stayed in Providence before leaving the day after the graduation. I agree!
Apr 29, 2018
M's mom
Welcome, Dana !
As PKM posted, write lots of letters to your LO (Loved One) at OCS, but do NOT send anything else but letters until week 9-10 when they can receive a gift box, called a Candio box. Make sure everyone to whom you give your son's OCS mailing address knows this, ---not to send treats or anything else. Anything but letters will be confiscated as contraband, and the candidate will be punished with many extra pushups or other exercises as punishment, even if they didn't ask for it to be sent!!!! So make sure Grandma doesn't send him any goodies!
Apr 29, 2018
M's mom
We stayed at the Holiday Inn Express in Middletown for OCS graduation, and it was nice also. Hotels in Middletown are actually closer to the base than Newport is, and way cheaper in the summer when Newport is crawling with tourists.
Apr 29, 2018
Andy'sMom
PKM, Congrats! We are right behind you...May 18!
Go Navy!
Apr 30, 2018
PKM
Hi: All advice is welcome and it helps us to not make any mistakes. I learned a lot this week and have so much to learn. It is true that we are now part of another family. The "Navy Family". You are correct. Be careful what you send. I only wrote letters on lined paper. I didn't want to add anymore push ups to his day. The OCS Candidates work very, very hard to graduate and deserve their rank.
Apr 30, 2018
PKM
By the way, if you ask they will not iron their, or your socks after OCS is complete.
Apr 30, 2018
Dana
Hi Everyone,
Thank you for being so generous with your information. Thank you Sonnenschien for the class number!
I just went on Facebook and typed in, "navy ocs class 14-18 friends and family". Then it gave me, "Groups-US Navy ocs class 14-18 (commences 29-APR-18) Friends and Family page". Then it gave me a "Friend Request".
May 1, 2018
CAmom
The administrator of the group should accept you soon. It's nice to know it's a closed group. You should also join a few groups before yours so you can see all the information being passed around:) it's very helpful.
May 1, 2018
LEANNEJB
Hey Everyone! My son graduated from OCS in 2010 (and is in the training pipeline for his department he'd tour aboard a surface ship) so my info about OCS itself is a bit dated. But I traveled to Newport 1-2 times per month for the last 5 years (up until last summer) when I worked for the Navy so I may have some info there. Even though I was an OCS graduate many, many years ago, this forum was very helpful when my son was in OCS and I'm still friends with some of the folks I met on this forum. Thanks for accepting me (again) in the group!
May 4, 2018
PKM
Hello:
If your sending you Child (funny we use the word child, but they always are our children) to OCS, send a protractor with them. It will help with making the bed perfect.
May 4, 2018
M's mom
Welcome back, LEANNEJB!
My son graduated from OCS in 2012. So much has changed now from how it was done back then, but we can still offer support to the new OCS Moms. I just remember feeling very anxious while my son was at OCS, and fearful that he wouldn't make it, and I appreciated the support I found here from the veteran OCS Moms, so I try to pay it forward.
May 5, 2018
PKM
Welcome to any Mom future or past. It was quite an adventure having a son at OCS. Viewing the photos on the website was a great way to see what is going on. Worrying if they will get rolled and how to support them if they do. My son said the letters he received was the best support he could get.
May 5, 2018
M's mom
PKM,
Yes, those encouraging letters from home to OCS are so important, even if they don't admit it, because it is their only connection to the outside world for many weeks.
The candidates are deliberately kept isolated from TV, newspapers, internet, and smart phones at first to wean them off constant communication with their loved ones. When they are deployed on a ship or sub, there is infrequent communication, and it can be quite difficult if both parties are used to constantly texting. Letters and care packages are also so important when they are deployed!!
May 5, 2018
PKM
Good Evening:
I am revising my earlier suggestion of sending a protractor with your child heading off to OCS. I just had an afternoon with my OCS Graduate and he said, "Do Not send anything that is not on the approved list." His advice was to just take what is on the list and a change of civilian clothes. He said have friends and family send lots of letters. Also, Please tell friends and family that even if they think it might be funny; DO NOT, PLEASE DO NOT send No Contraband.
May 6, 2018
M's mom
PKM
You are right about sending nothing but letters to OCS. In my son's class, someone's dear Auntie innocently sent their candidate COOKIES at week three. The Drill Instructor made the poor kid do 800 (that's Eight Hundred) pushups as punishment for contraband! OCS didn't really make it clear back then that they weren't to be sent anything, so you can imagine how bad his Aunt felt about that, not to mention how bad the candidate felt!!!!
May 7, 2018
PKM
I heard a story about someone thinking that sending a potato was funny. Not for the Person at OCS...... To family of a son/daughter at OCS believe in your candidate, write letters of encouragement and the weeks go by quickly. If they get Rolled into holding company; it is not as big a deal as it sounds. It gives them a chance to improve where they are weak. Oh yeah, they will probably get sick, my son did; but they will get through that too.
May 8, 2018
M's mom
PKM,
Yes, each OCS class seems to have a wave of upper respiratory illness sweep through in the early weeks. The candidates live in such close quarters, and are under such physical and emotional stress and lack of sleep, that their immune systems get weakened. Someone always brings in a bug, and then they all get it.
May 9, 2018
PKM
You are so right. My son was sick for 6 weeks total before he finally got healthy. But he kept pushing through. Oh yeah, They also loose their voices too.
May 10, 2018
Eaglemom01
And if they haven't had their wisdom teeth out yet that usally gets done at OCS too! They don't want to have to dock or come topside to send someone to take care of it if it becomes a problem out at sea.
May 10, 2018
M's mom
Eaglemom01,
Right. Fortunately, my son had his wisdom teeth removed at age 16, but there were several who had their wisdom teeth removed at OCS the week of graduation!!! Poor things still had their cheeks and jaws all swollen at the graduation ceremony.
My advice to those accepted to OCS, besides getting in excellent physical shape before reporting, is to have those wisdom teeth removed at home before reporting, so they have time to recuperate at home.
May 11, 2018
jsefamily
The recruiter said they would be removed at OCS. And two were. The same dentist noted a crack in his front tooth (knocked out when he was 10 and put back in his gum, eventually needing an implant). He said he couldn’t clear him medically if he didn’t remove his front tooth! What?!! So the dentist removed his front tooth and gave him a temporary fake tooth just in time for OCS graduation. The saga continued for years in flight training.... He has his implant now.)
May 11, 2018
M's mom
jsefamily:
That's just nuts. The military has some screwy policies. What if an OCS candidate is waiting to report and has an attack of acute appendicitis? Are they allowed to have their appendix removed?
For the pilot candidates, they apparently don't give them a complete flight physical at MEPS, which is more stringent than the usual one. Then they get to OCS, and are given a flight physical and then some are medically DQ'd for flight, after all that work it took to get to OCS!!!!
That happened to my son. He went to OCS as a pilot candidate, then was medically DQ'd for some minor anomaly that wasn't caught in two different MEPS physicals. Fortunately, he was allowed to remain at OCS and switch to a different designator. If he would have been thrown out of OCS at that point, after all the hoops he had to jump through to get there, we all would have been furious. (Not that it would have done any good!) But how cruel to let these kids into OCS, and then DQ them for something that should have been caught before.
May 12, 2018
Andrea S
My son is a PP and we still went to 2 different flight surgeons that were military just to make sure he would pass the flight physical before he started this process. Even a FAA medical doctor may not give the same flight physical that they do in the military. So if you know anyone wanting to be a SNA tell them to find a FAA medical doctor that is ex-military and get a full exam!!
May 12, 2018
Andy'sMom
One more for the crazy side: a daughter of a friend went to OSC as a pilot. During her physical, her arms were measured and found to be less than an inch too short to be a pilot! She appealed the findings and was told she could still go thru as a pilot, however, because her arms were too short, she ran a high risk of injury and/or death in training and she would waive all her beneficiary rights! She also was able to switch to a different designator.
May 12, 2018
Allison
My DS was told by OCS doctors that he had "virtually no chance" of becoming a pilot because of some medical history and they showed him the written regulations. But he convinced them to send in the paperwork anyway to see what would happen. He is a Patriots fan and he kept telling us, "28 to 3, you never know." (Pats fans will know what I mean). Two months later, he called us screaming "Touch down! I made it." :-)
May 12, 2018
M's mom
Allison,
Good for him!! I know the military can issue waivers on a case-by-case basis, so I'm glad your son insisted they try for him.
I understand that pilots/NFO's must have certain physical size and abilities for their own and everyone's safety when flying, but it seems to me, before being accepted to OCS as SNA/NFO, they could be given a full flight physical. It just seems so wrong to accept these kids to OCS, and then DQ them for flight in the middle of OCS, after all they've put into it.
There was one Mom here in this group a while back who said her son was medically DQ'd for flight at OCS, and was told there were no other open designators he could switch to. He was told he had to leave OCS, and was discharged!!!!!!! That's just ridiculously cruel. The poor kid.
May 13, 2018
PKM
So as I read these postings, I realize that anyone who has made it it OCS Graduation has run the gauntlet of things that can and often do go wrong. I agree with the items that should have been cleared, or "fixed" or will just DQ them before the candidates go off to OCS. I am learning that what we see as reasonable or common sense is seen very differently by the military. Good luck to all new supporters of an OCS son/daughter,
May 14, 2018
PKM
Regarding the Hi Mom's Dinner. Some people dressed very formally, long dresses (but no tuxedos). Others had on very nice dresses and the men wore suits and ties. Wear what is comfortable and just have a good time.
May 14, 2018
jesnavymom
Do we send CANDIO boxes for our LOs in OCS? If so, I was told it CANNOT include food. Correct?
May 16, 2018
M's mom
jesnavymom:
I believe that is now correct. When my son was at OCS six years ago, they COULD receive food in their boxes, so of course, we moms all sent our candidates boxes stuffed with homemade cookies and other sweet treats. Since they were all sugar-deprived at that point, having not been allowed any desserts or between-meal snacks for 9 weeks, they all gorged themselves on the goodies and made themselves sick. (My son said it was worth it, though. ha!) So, I think that is why they don't allow food anymore.
Anyway, DO NOT send anything but letters, until they officially become CANDIOs (Candidate Officers) at week ten. Write CANDIO on the outside of the box, so the mailroom will know they are allowed to have it.
Some families have sent magazines of interest and books, but the CANDIOs will be running the training regiment then, and have little time for reading anyway. I suppose you could ask your LO if there are any non-food items that they would like you to send. It kind of takes the fun out of it if we can't send homemade goodies, but this is just a baking Mom talking here!
May 16, 2018
jsefamily
May 16, 2018
Andrea S
I just sent my LO’s box a couple of weeks ago. To answer your question on food..they only allow power bars. I even tried to sneak in a protein cookie and he had to put in his “lucky bag” for after OCS. One good idea was a good pen since they always have to carry one. The one thing I wish I would have thought of was his wireless earbuds ( unless your LO brought them to OCS)
May 16, 2018
CAmom
My son graduated from OCS in October and there was NO food allowed and the power bars had to be a certain brand so I didn't even send those since they were able to get them at the NEX at that point in OCS. We sent pictures, a day planner, some magazines of his hobbies (surfing etc) and he loved those since they don't have much contact with the outside world. We were also able to fit a fleece blanket. It was really thin and could be rolled pretty small and that was nice because they usually sleep on the outside of their made beds. Lots of ideas on the internet on how to decorate the boxes. Very fun to do!
May 16, 2018
PKM
Great ideas everyone. The more we share, the better!
May 17, 2018
PKM
It has almost been a month from when my son graduated from OCS. The time goes fast, but the memories last forever. I love looking at the photos that are/were on the OCS Newport facebook page. I printed off some of the photos and put them in a scrapbook for my graduate.
May 23, 2018
M's mom
PKM,
Has your son reported to Dam Neck, VA yet?
May 23, 2018