Training
OCS classes are designated by the fiscal year of their graduation (e.g., 28-09 was the twenty-eighth class to graduate in fiscal year 2009; 01-10 was the first class to graduate in fiscal year 2010). Upon completion of the 12-week course the candidate is commissioned an Ensign (O-1) in the United States Navy (formerly in the Naval Reserve, or USNR). In previous years, Naval OCS was a 16-week curriculum.
Officer candidates are mustered in at the paygrade of E5 but hold a special title known as Officer Candidate. This title is held from the beginning of week 2 through the middle of week 9 when an Officer Candidate completes the "Victory Run" and earns the title Candidate Officer; Officer Candidates are regarded as basic recruits. As training progresses, Officer Candidates obtain more responsibility and are eventually given command authority over other Officer Candidates through use of a series of "positional ranks" denoted with small gold bars worn on the collar (typically referred to as "railroad tracks"). These positional ranks include "Regimental Commander", "Regimental Sub-Commander", "Regimental Adjutant" and other responsibilities. All positional rank assignments are competitively awarded from among the entire regiment. It is considered a significant honor to be selected to serve in any of the top leadership positions while enrolled at OCS. As training progresses over 12 weeks, individuals gradually move from Indoctrination Candidates, or "Indocs," to Officer Candidates, to Candidate Officers, or "Candios." The latter being a position of authority over less senior candidates.
Officer Candidates are assigned to battalions within a single regiment and are either quartered at Nimitz Hall or at King Hall at Naval Station Newport. Over the 12 weeks they are immersed in Leadership, Physical and Military training as well as Academics ranging from Navigation to Shipboard Engineering and Damage Control. Their every action is scrutinized and any shortcoming rigorously corrected. There is a strict Code of Honor that is expected; violators are removed.
Currently, OTCN operates out of 1940/50s-era facilities that present many shortcomings for the training and housing of students. Construction began in the spring of 2011 on an all-new Nimitz Hall to replace the aging building. Construction is scheduled to be complete in winter 2012-2013. Upon completion of the new Nimitz Hall, construction will then commence on a modern King Hall.
Read more about this topic: Officer Candidate School (U.S. Navy)
Famous quotes containing the word training:
“The triumphs of peace have been in some proximity to war. Whilst the hand was still familiar with the sword-hilt, whilst the habits of the camp were still visible in the port and complexion of the gentleman, his intellectual power culminated; the compression and tension of these stern conditions is a training for the finest and softest arts, and can rarely be compensated in tranquil times, except by some analogous vigor drawn from occupations as hardy as war.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“An educational method that shall have liberty as its basis must intervene to help the child to a conquest of liberty. That is to say, his training must be such as shall help him to diminish as much as possible the social bonds which limit his activity.”
—Maria Montessori (1870–1952)
“Unfortunately, life may sometimes seem unfair to middle children, some of whom feel like an afterthought to a brilliant older sibling and unable to captivate the family’s attention like the darling baby. Yet the middle position offers great training for the real world of lowered expectations, negotiation, and compromise. Middle children who often must break the mold set by an older sibling may thereby learn to challenge family values and seek their own identity.”
—Marianne E. Neifert (20th century)