Class 14-10

[ddsso]

My fiance is in class 14-10. I got to talk to him for about 5 minutes last night and he's already lost his voice! They have to yell everything at the top of their lungs! I'm in the Navy also and I'm so used to being the one who leaves! I'm the one who has to tell everyone else not to worry, so its really weird being on the other side of it!

[cjeanb2]

Hi discoe, my son also classed up with 14-10 Charlie. Did not stay there long, to our surprise; only 4 days! Do you know which week they get to start wearing the cami's? My son said they're warmer than the poopie suits. I'm concerned, because when my LO was in 13-10, he caught bronchitis.

[discoe]

I remember reading in the 13-10 discussion that they got to start wearing NWUs sometime in week 3. Not positive though as some of that discussion was conjecture. Did your son get to wear NWUs before he rolled? I thought they got to wear NWUs before RLP week.

[discoe]

Just thought I'd add this from the class 13-10 discussion. Great Info. Here are some helpful tips from the other class N4M's.


Here are some tips and info from other moms from previous class postings
THE “KEY” TO SOME OF THE ABBREVIATIONS ON THESE N4M SITES:
LO =loved ones Generic term for Brothers, Sisters, sons, daughters, girl/boyfriends, etc.
DI =drill instructor
H =holding. Where LO rolled go until they are added to a new class.
Rolled = Held back to join a different class later. Can be illness, failing a test/inspection, physical fitness or a not so obvious reason.
PT =physical training
RLP =room, locker, personal inspection. Very big hurdle to jump. Very precise inspection that will never make sense to the rest of us.
PIR =pass in review. Parading at GRADUATION! A very big deal. And a major tearjerker.
OC =officer candidate
CO =candidate officers. Next advancement af.ter OC
Candio =CO
OCS Survival Guide = Officer Candidate School

MAIL:
OC Last Name, First Initial, Middle Initial
Officer Candidate School
Class # 14-10
Officer Training Command Newport
291 Kollmeyer St
Newport, RI 02841-1641

Indocs are not granted any sort of mail privileges... sending or receiving. While I don't know for sure, I would guess that they will not be allowed to send mail- the class won't be able to have any mail privileges until they have the time to elect their class officers and get a mail body, which is usually not until the officer candidate phase. From what the new changes sounded like... it seemed like the first 3 weeks were going to be very tough and demanding with little time to write. They also probably don't have access to paper/pens/stamps! (They are only allowed to take bare essentials with them as Indocs. Send letters and cards- as often as you can-your LO's really need them to sustain them in their fight to becoming a new Ensign. Indoc group comes onboard Sunday.....

If he/she doesn't have a car they will want to find someone who does so they can use it as a storage locker. Bring protein bars and energy drinks. The Navy's way of giving them a small unofficial break when they aren't ready for liberty.

FOR SWO (surface warfare officer)
PHONE: The area code is (401) and the numbers are usually [phone] or 0374
They don't get their cell phones until they are candio's.
They go through three stages, first being an Indoctrination Candidate, then an Officer Candidate and finally a Candidate Officer. Usually, once they are candio's they have more privileges as well as taking on responsibilities for the classes behind them.

"The thing people are not sure about is since they are staying indoctrination Candidates for three weeks, Indoctrination Candidates are not guaranteed phone or mail privileges. There is one DI who allows his Indoctrination Candidates to send/receive mail right away, the others make them wait until they are Officer Candidates (which previously was Saturday of week 1). In the Officer Candidate Regulations (OCR) handbook, OC's are guaranteed phone privileges between 1-4 Sunday afternoons (little known fact!). One DI was very strictly & adhered to the OCR. Once you get to that class and they are in the OC phase, we get a weekly phone call. I know some of the DI's also follow the rules of the OCR very strictly, which would mean no phone privileges or mail privileges for the new classes for the first 3 weeks, and DEFINITELY no emails- they don't activate their navy emails until they start classes, which now will be in week 4 (and they can't access any email besides their navy one until they can get to computers away from OCS).
The way that they are altering OCS is so the first three weeks will be heavily focused on time with the DI's and physical training. Then they will shift more towards an academic focus and better preparing the OC's on the knowledge side of things, with less time with the DI's. Before, the DI's kinda watched over their every move until they become Candidate Officer's, and even then they still watch them closely. Now the idea is to separate them out a bit from the DI's and let them focus more on the academics."

Often the command are hardest on those that they know will become outstanding officers, so they push them harder than the others, because they know they can take it and will later put the experience to good use later. Often they want them to experience difficult situations in a controlled environment to see how they react. They don't want to wait until they are on the frontline to see how they react to "not eating for a day".
Just be aware if they are told not to do 'x y & z' even when they are allowed to go to the cars...they should not do it, i.e. use their cell phones. Otherwise, trouble is definitely ahead for them as individuals and/ or 'their team'. This is not the rest of their lives only a very small blip in their Navy years.

LETTERS: A great suggestion to send your sailor, as they don’t have time to write, “copied from another N4M posting”. If any of you can find her name, it would be wonderful to thank her!
"Circle the best answer" letter that I had mailed to him with a self-addressed, stamped envelope.
Dear Mom and Dave,
How are you?
I am (fine, so-so, fantastic!, sick, sore, tired).
Things here at OCS are (about like I expected, fantastic!, nothing like I expected, like a bad dream).
The weather is (hot, cold, dry, fantastic!, windy, snowy, rainy, changing all the time).
The clothes we wear are (appropriate, ridiculous, comfortable, fantastic!).
My DI is (huge, tiny, loud, scary, nice, fantastic!, seriously deranged, a great guy/gal).
We really look forward to mail call. Your letters have been (annoying, encouraging, fantastic!, too long, too short, too frequent, too infrequent).
I especially think the pictures are (stupid, fantastic!, too small, poor quality, taking up too much space on the paper). I (show them to my friends, hide them from my friends).
Speaking of friends, some of the other guys/gals in my class are (really great, utterly hopeless, fantastic!, annoying, friendly, crying all the time.)
Well, it's time to get yelled at some more. I'm beginning to think sand is (a great exfoliate, really comfortable, fantastic!)
and I'm going to teach you all the 8 steps of proper eating over the Summer break.

Graduation
Arrival:
Cozy Cab / Providence Airport. $25 or so. Very reasonable compared to the Yellow Taxi at $75. You need to make reservations the number is 401-846-2500, http://www.cozytrans.com/,
The Cozy Cab has a desk at the main entrance of the T.F. Green airport in Providence. I didn't need to make any reservations. I got off my flight around 5:15 in the evening and paid $25 at the desk for their shuttle to pick me up at 6 and take me to their office located outside of the base. I then switched to a cab that was allowed to go on base. They dropped me off at the Navy Lodge for $6. That was not bad being that other companies were higher and the average fare is $2.00/mile.

Newport: The Red Parrot is fabulous- The Black Pearl and the Newport Blues Cafe (both of those two were a little pricey, but absolutely delicious).
Downtown Newport rather sleepy at night and most restaurants are closed after 8 PM. We went to Benjamin’s as they were open. It’s a small bar/restaurant. Dinner was average quality and price. We also had breakfast there and it was excellent for the price. I'd go to Red Parrot for dinner instead.

The gym has metal chairs set up for graduation. We got there an hour early to find seats...and we were so happy to find a front row.
Pics of a graduation from a mom: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=40197&id=1033026330&l...

LINKS of interest:
http://www.Officerfamilies.com
http://www.navyformoms.com/group/ocsgraduatemoms/forum/topics/ocs-s...
http://www.navyformoms.com/group/momsofofficers/forum/topics/ocs-tr...
http://www.navyformoms.com/group/ocsgraduatemoms

School info: http://www1.netc.navy.mil/swos/
Naval Station Newport | Housing: http://mybaseguide.com/navy/newport/housing.aspx
A new class arrives: “Pushed to the limit!” Photo’s of training. http://www.projo.com/extra/2008/ocs/
This is a 07 Guide, but will give you a good idea what each week entails: https://api.ning.com/files/s52hFb9K684IiUWvwdIrTr84-71HfiNe6qbhtiLo*dTOZT0SGiXktrmy1P*35x0K0XntxEkseugASmh6Gm*tfHZzaDBHAuo9/SurvivorsGuidetoOCS_Dec07.pdf_This is the homepage for Naval Station Newport Officer Training Command.http://www1.netc.navy.mil/nstc/otc/index.asp
This is the "Survival Guide to OCS".https://docs.google.com/fileview?id=0BxXWGo-YV-UtOTUyYmI1ODAtMmI1MS...

The above info was from previous classes, so if you read, hear of updated info, please pass it on.

[ddsso]

Thanks discoe!!!! Now if you could answer this, what is "Throwdown Thursday"???

[discoe]

Wake-up Wednesday used to be the day they met their DI for the first time and experienced the joy of making his/her intimate acquaintance. Lots of PT and ballistic answers to questions. Reputed to be the roughest day of the first week. Class 13-10 was the first to have "Throwdown Thursday" instead of Wakeup Wednesday. Starts very early and lasts all day. Filling pockets with sand emptying it in halls, do PT, then clean up sand. I can't remember all the variations of this. Go back and read 13-10 and watch "Pushed to the Limit" referenced above from the Providence Journal. One more hoop to jump through. Pray for them to have the strength to get through this. Steve is SWO as well and in Charlie.

[ddsso]

My day was a lot better too! I finally started acting like I'm transferring in a few weeks, so I had a lot of business to take care of. It helped me keep my mind off of all this for a while!

What communities are your LO's going to after OCS? Damon is going to be a SWO.

[gatorjls]

Chris is also SWO

[ddsso]

Do you have any idea how soon after graduation the SWO class starts?

[gatorjls]

No clue...it all depends on how busy they are. I've heard sometimes its RIGHT after graduation, and I've also heard they could report to their ship and then go back for school.

[Sue]

I can give you a little information on this, as everything changes as you will see. My son graduated this past Friday and is SWO. They received their orders the Wednesday before graduation and some had to be in Norfolk by Sunday night. They are in Norfolk for two weeks and then head back to Newport for SWO school. I would say from what I have followed, depending when the next SWO School class after graduation is and how back logged it is will depend on when they will start. It also seemed depending on where you will be stationed had some bearing, some of the Ensigns (I just love saying that!) stayed in Newport waiting for class to start the first of March. Hope this helps a little bit. Of course like I said this can all change!

[gatorjls]

Well I hope my LO comes home...because I am in Norfolk :)

[ddsso]

I've heard a facebook page for class 14-10 mentioned a few times, but no luck finding it. Has anyone seen it???