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Permalink Reply by HokieMamma on October 8, 2013 at 8:48am

Hi, TXNavyWife - My son is currently at OCS and will be in the next class to be commissioned.  He was not prior Navy, so a lot of the Navy lingo and experiences are new to me.  I can tell you what I have experienced.

There are multiple activities for family on the Thursday before graduation, with graduation/commissioning being Friday AM. My son tells me they can stay off base Thursday night, but must be back on base at 4:30/5:00 AM the morning of graduation, as they have a victory run they do (or some sort of physical activity). They have liberty the weekend after graduation, as far as I can tell.  Those who have received their orders for their next station can then leave.  I am not sure how long they have before they have to report to their next duty station.  Those who have not received their orders have to stay until they receive those, although from what I can gather on the Facebook page for my son's class they usually have them by graduation.

They don't receive mail that first week, but do start to receive it during the second week.  They can also send letters out, but don't have much time to write letters.  It was very nerve wracking to not be able to communicate those first few weeks, but we lived by the mantra, "No news is good news!" They have to earn the privilege of weekend cell phone use and I think that was about week 4.  My son's class lost privileges one weekend because some knuckleheads brought their computers back from their cars and thought they could keep it from the DIs - wrong!!

Once they become Candidate Officers (week 9) they have their cell phones to use whenever they are not busy doing something else.

I must say, those first few weeks were very anxiety producing and having other moms/spouses to commiserate with on the facebook page (each class has a friends and family page) helped a lot.  We are all looking forward to meeting at graduation. Getting past the RLP inspection in week 3, then the academic classes were the hardest (once they were through INDOC week).

Hope this helps! Let me know if I can answer any more questions.

Permalink Reply by Anna on October 8, 2013 at 11:40am

TXNavyWife,

My daughter graduated from OCS a year ago.  We went for the Hi Moms reception Thursday night and my daughter had the option to spend the night with her sister and friend in a hotel but opted to stay in her barracks instead since they do have to be ready to start so early Friday morning.  They have their Victory Run and friends and family can run with them (in the back, not within the ranks).  Some of the classes put on a little show of how OCS was for them and they do a mini PT in the sand pit with the DIs screaming at them like they did during the 12 weeks.  They also show a bit of how chow hall procedures go and you can have breakfast with them.   If you go to YouTube and type in OCS chow hall procedures you can find a bunch of videos on this and PT.  As HokieMamma mentioned, depending on their orders they are pretty much done after the commissioning ceremony.  My daughter had to check out of her barracks and pick up her records and other paperwork after the ceremony and we all went out together.  She had requested leave prior to commissioning so she road back to her home state with her friend and sister before she headed to Pensacola. 

As far as the communication, they can call to let you know they got there but there is little time for them to write during those first three weeks.  Being the newbies they are hounded constantly!!!  My daughter found little pockets of time here and there to write short letters.  Of course, getting mail was the most important thing for her so I made sure I wrote something everyday!!!  After they get their computers she could send me emails which was a much quicker means of communication!!  She could use the pay phones on weekends during certain times, but the pay phones at that time were terrible and many times we couldn't hear each other.  We'd be crying on the phone because the phones were so bad.  I hope that in the new barracks they have better phones!!!  And yes, once they reach the candio phase they can have their cell phones with them but can only use them at appropriate times.  She was always very busy so I took whatever communication I could get!!!! 

Hope this answers some of those questions of yours!!!!  Look for the Officer Training Command Newport facebook page - there is a ton of information links there and you can read back through the class updates posted by the class officers, and they post pictures of the events the classes are going through now.  I will say, being a Navy vet myself, and having another daughter going enlisted, OCS is much more intense than bootcamp is.  My husband, also a vet, went through OCS years ago and his experience wasn't anything like what his daughter had!!!