National Guard Officer Branching Process (From the Limited Perspective of an Officer Candidate)

This month we got our branches- one of the most exciting parts of OCS thus far. The process seems more magic than method, and our class had a lot of questions about how it was going to work, so here's a basic timeline of how it happend.

Early this spring we had a branch briefing- essentially an overview of each of the 16 officer branches in the Army. The title of the presentation should have been "99 Ways the Army Will Take the Branch You Thought Was Going to be Cool and Suck All the Fun Out of it", subtitle: "And How Fast You'll End Up Behind a Desk." It was disillusioning at best. (See editorial comments at the bottom.)

As an Officer Candidate you're at the mercy of the National Guard. It's not like the enlisted side where if you don't like the MOS slot that's open to you at the MEPS station, you don't sign the papers. As an officer you take what you get and do your duty. The state fills 2LT slots with OCS and ROTC graduates, so each commissioning source is given a proportional amount of paragraph and line numbers (equivalent to job codes in the civilan world) to fill.

The exception to that rule is that you can be a go-getter and find a 2LT slot in a unit and branch you want and get that commander to put it in writing and send it to your state HQ. This can be done at any time up to the time you leave for BOLC. Just don't expect it to be an easy route and there are still no guarantees it will work. We had a female in our class who secured a paragraph and line number only to be re-assigned by the state. On the other side of the coin, we had someone who changed branches after being assigned (which you can do before BOLC begins).

Two months after the branch brief, we were given our branch preference sheet. There are 16 branches available to junior officers. The branch preference sheet asks basic questions like where you live (with the option of asking if you're willing to travel over 250 miles to your unit), what your degree is in, which unit(s) you've been a part of (they won't let you go back to any of the units you were serving in as an enlisted soldier, even if you were just there for one drill between BCT and OCS), and as the title suggests, what your preference is for branching.

Of the 16 branches, Aviation and Medical Service Corps require that you've already been working with a recruiter from that branch, so start that as soon as you get into OCS if those are routes you wish to pursue. From there you number your top 13 choices from 1-13. Males must have three combat arms branches in their top five slots.

We turned those in April, and in May we were given our branch and unit assignment. What happened in between, no one really knows. We think our cadre did most of the branch sorting and then the state HQ assigned us to our units. The top performers in the class got their top picks. The inverse was true for the bottom of the class.  (UPDATE: Cadre informed me that all the decision making was done on a state level without their input.) Most got what they put into their top three.

After OCS I'll be moving on to an Engineering unit- I'm excited about that. Initially, I didn't want to do what I did on the civilian side, but over time I realized its what I was good at and professionally it won't hurt to have parallel career paths. It took about two minutes for us to embrace our branches and the banter carried on like we've been doing those jobs forever.

We've spent a vast majority of our time in the field the last two drills. That will make for much more interesting reading and I intend on summarizing all that into one post. As a class, we know we're close to being done with this, but as a whole we haven't started acting like "short timers." We're still working hard to the end, it doesn't get any easier and there are sill a few key hurdles in between us and Phase III.  And though no one will admit it, we're getting nostalgic. We just have two drills left with this close knit group before we're all sent on our separate ways. We've developed close friendships and they're ones I'm exceedingly grateful to have.


Feel free to shoot me any questions that weren't clearly answered in the comment section and I'll to my best to answer them.

*IMPORTANT NOTES TO READ BEFORE YOU SIGN AN 09S CONTRACT*

Editor's Note: These opinions are strictly my own, calling them like I see 'em. The Army spends a lot of money on propaganda to keep the slots filled; take it with a lot of salt. 

The number one lie that's fed to the civilian populous is: "Join the National Guard and you'll get to do all the high-speed things you see in the commercials!"

Here's my response to that:
  A) Go active duty, the weekend warriors don't get the budget to do cool stuff. Best I can tell we're the B-team. 

  

  B) Don't be an officer- go enlisted and lead as an NCO. The higher you get in rank the farther you get from the action. Don't let people tell you that because you have a college degree that you need to be an officer. I've met plenty of NCO's that have graduate degrees. There is no correlation between a degree and leadership. If you're doing this for the money, you'll be disappointed regardless of which side of the house you're on. 

  

  C) Join the Army eight years ago. Read the news- combat ops are winding down in Afghanistan. The American people have no more appetite for sending our troops to another country. So if you're joining to satisfy your Call of Duty fantasies you're pretty much out of luck unless something crazy happens (in which case see subparagraph A). 

  

  D) Seriously, read subparagraph B.  

One Year In- A Turning Point

I guess I didn't realize how long it has been since I posted last- well fear not, I'm still in the program. Drill this month marked an important anniversary- Class 56 has now been at this for a whole year. Phase 0 candidates started this month, so we're now the senior class on the ground. We caught glimpses of the train wreck that is Phase 0- very glad to be distanced from that. If anyone from 57 is reading this, y'all got two votes out of 33 when the cadre asked if we felt sorry for you. We've all been there and 12 months down the road from now you'll be glad that the ones with tiny heart syndrome aren't in your class anymore.

I haven't given a typical breakdown of a Phase II weekend yet, so here's what we've been doing:
Friday
-1500-1800 Arrival, baracks setup, gather supplies and weapons
-1800 First formation
-1830-2200 Classroom: Friday night classes are generally suplemental information on topics ranging from basic grammer to UCMJ and radio operation.
-2200-2300 Hygiene, baracks maintenance
-2300 Lights out

Saturday
-0500 Wake up
-0530-0630 PT
-0630-0700 Morning meal
-0700-0745 Hygiene, baracks maintenance
-0800-1200 Classroom: This is the primary class of the weekend. The material is testable and part of the graduation requirements. Classes are taught by various cadre- generally not the black hats. We have a senior instructor that is a Captain that teaches most frequently, other NCO's and officers split up the remaining classes. Classes break every hour for either an admin break for water and latrines or TAC break where we get smoked- just depends on how well the cadre think we're doing that day. If anybody falls asleep (which happens all the time) we're almost guaranteed to get a TAC break.
-1200-1230 Noon meal
-1300-1500 Classroom: continuation of morning death by powerpoint class
-1500-1600 Test: These tests are challenging but not impossible. Honestly, the thing that makes them the hardest is being able to focus on six hours of powerpoint content while you're running on much less sleep than you normally get and physically worn out from getting smoked. The hardest test we took was the Land Nav test in Phase I, by a unanimous vote. Cadre told us it would be the Call for Fire test, but we had a Field Artillery officer teach the class and I found the material to be quite easy to grasp. You need a 70% to pass each test and they're all about 25-30 question multiple choice tests. Doing well requires being able to think like an Army test writer and regurgitating facts that you learned for the first time a few hours earlier.
-1600-1800 Warrior Tasks and Battle Drills: This is where OCS gets a little more fun. These drills are the basic building blocks of how the Army fights. Candidates teach these blocks of instruction that are supervised by our TACs that fill in the holes with their vast experience from the battlefield. We're really benefiting for a decade of war in the sense that our cadre have seen and done all these drills in real life. We are definitely in a unique position to learn from their firsthand accounts on how and why these battle drills are critical to master.
-1800-1840 Evening meal
-1900-2200 Depends on monthly mission
-2300 Lights out

Sunday

-0500 Wake up
-0530-0630 PT
-0630-0700 Morning meal
-0700-0745 Hygiene, baracks maintenance
-0800-1200 Classroom
-1200-1255 Noon meal, religious services

-1300-1500 Warrior Tasks and Battle Drills, inspections
-1500-1700 Wrap up, clean up
-1700 Final formation

Drill this month was different than it ever has been. Starting off, the Company Commander pulled me aside to tell me I had done a good job on some training I put together between drills- it might not seem like much but when it feels like 95% of what the cadre are telling you has something to do with how you suck at life it makes you feel 10 feet tall when they think you did a good job on something (but keep your military bearing and don't let on that you're too excited...).

Secondly, the cadre were amped up like crazy with all the fresh blood that was bumbling around [think Somalians hopped up on cot prior to the battle of Mogadishu], so we wanted as little of their attention as possible. I was a squad leader this drill so I was doing my best to make sure we were squared away to keep as much of a low profile as possible. In the end, I think everybody was happy- the cadre got to release 12 months of pent-up hate on Class 57 and were more hands off with us than they've ever been allowing us to lead more of the weekend. We didn't get smoked once from first formation to final formation- that's a first.

I also got a "go" on my leadership evaluation- a critical part of passing Phase II. I can't tell you how much of a relief that is. It's the first one I've gotten in OCS and my evaluator didn't have a single negative comment to give me in my out-brief. It was a real confidence boost for me to see that the cadre think I'm finally tracking with this course at the level I need to be.

In addition to the leadership evaluation, I was promoted to "intermediate stage."  As I mentioned before, they are promoting individuals as they feel is necessary, not the class as a whole. Honestly, I'm not sure that plan is working out quite like they want it to. As a class, we feel like several of the candidates that have been promoted didn't deserve it so it's created a bit of a stigma for those that have it. Frankly, I don't really feel like I deserve it any more than a good majority of the class that doesn't have it yet. All part of the game, I guess.

Despite (or maybe in spite) of all this, we really have come together as a class- and to a larger extent it feels like a family. This is the biggest hurdle that we've made it over in the last year. It is a surprisingly difficult task that Class 55 didn't accomplish and took us a long time to accomplish. We all say we don't like OCS but what's more accurate is that OCS is a challenging, hostile environment but none of us would want to do it with anyone but the 32 other soldiers that keep coming back for more. Without a doubt, Class 56 will graduate a fine group of officers.

Ending on another high note, ever since Phase 0 a group of us driving back to the same part of Texas stop at Texas Roadhouse for dinner and to laugh about all that happened over the weekend. This time a table offered to buy a round for us- a genuinely kind offer that we would have gladly accepted had we not been in uniform. Then, as we were about to pay, the waitress handed us a folded up napkin that said "Thank you from all of us. USA" and let us know that our dinner was paid for by another table. Unfortunately, they had already left but it was humbling and a blessing to have that support from our fellow Americans.

So for the first time in my two years in the military, I'm starting to be treated more like a human being and in a few short months I'm more confident than ever that I'll have a gold bar on my chest.

Intermediate Stage

Two things happened at the end of September drill- We got moved up to "Intermediate Stage" and I got promoted to Platoon Leader for my first leadership evaluation.

October drill: We were in our first formation waiting on the cadre when they came up and immediately started yelling at us for being in the wrong uniform (despite what was published in the schedule). The weekend went downhill from there... It was frustrating to have spent as many hours as I did between drills to prepare myself and the rest of the platoon just to watch it all fall apart right in front of me. Needless to say we didn't really get to experience the carrot on the stick known as Intermediate Stage for very long. It was supposesd to include such benefits as not having to sit on the front 6" of our chairs in the dining facility, not having to eat "square meals" (the OCS tradition of making each motion with your fork at 90 degree angles- yeah, its about as dumb as it sounds) and we could have worn just our Camelbacks and soft caps rather than our kevlar helmets and load carrying vests. Supposedly they treat you with a little more dignity. Like I said- carrot on a stick stuff. The repeal of Intermediate Stage meant we'd get it back in a different way- it would now be awarded to individuals rather than the group as a whole. The individuals who demonstrate leadership (with a passing leadership evaluation) and visibly pull their own weight will be moved to a different platoon and get to enjoy the benefits of while the rest are made to look like incompotent fools. This is apparently the same way Oklahoma OCS uses the stage system. (Note: Intermedate Stage and Phase II are different. They are independent of one another. Stages dictate how miserable you are (beginner, intermediate and senior) and phases indicate what part of the training you're in (0, I, II, and III).)

The good news is we're halfway done with OCS.

The classroom material has gotten more interesting, this month we were focusing on military tactics- the art and science of how battles are won. Love that stuff.

As far as what I learned from my leadership evaluation- I got an over all "no-go" on my assesment, which means I'll have another chance later on to try again. I'm on track for the course and display good leadership traits- I just have the additional hurdle of being an 09S without the military experience. My peers thought I did well- it's just a matter of convincing the cadre of the same.

The Side Plank!

Staring Into the Heart of Darkness

We lost four more so our numbers are down to 34. They all quit on their own accord and they were all  good people- this just isn't for everyone. The rest of us seem to have embraced the mentailty that we've invested too much already to just give up. One of our cadre calls it the momemnt that you stare into the heart of darkness and keep pushing.

The first drill after Phase I left us with some hope that things would get easier in Phase II since we have such a tight knit group of strong leaders- but the cadre are just requiring more and more from us to make sure we still struggle through this course. All part of the game- and for good reason. This shouldn't be an easy course to get through.

A note for the leadership- learn from the people who had the position before you. You're going to make mistakes, but don't make the mistakes that have already been made.

We have a guidon now, so that's cool- our motto is Vires Et Honestas (Strength and Honor) and some of the artists in our class created our logo.

We keep pushing on, embracing the suck so we can get those gold bars. 

The Start of Phase II

I'll probably start to taper off here in the level of detail as we go through Phase II and I'll hit the highlights over the course of the next year. By now we're starting to know what to expect on a monthly basis and the class is really coming together. Class 55 is a year ahead of us and just finished Phase II. Going into the weekend they had a class of 15. Six were pulled and said they had two choices- recycle with 56 or drop the course as the instructors deemed them unready to progress to Phase III. That's a tough pill to swallow as they've now spent over 16 months in the program, only to have to start over in Phase II. We don't know the exact circumstances of why those six didn't make it but it was a sobering weekend that made us all a little nervous. Two look like they may rejoin our class but no final decisions have been made. As of now Class 56 has 38 candidates.

We expected Phase II to start with a bang- the instructors telling us how sorry we are, how we'll never make it, how we forgot everything from Phase I, and on and on. But that didn't happen. Our student leadership was on the ball all weekend and we actually impressed the cadre. That's not to say we were perfect- we spent plenty of time in the dirt but overall we did a solid job. If we can keep it up for a few more months we'll have a good shot at making it to intermediate phase where supposedly the cadre take some pressure off. I'm not holding my breath.

We spent a lot of time in the classroom this drill. Most of it was purely death by powerpoint- Army Ethics, Army Writing, Army Leadership, Effective Listening, etc. All part of learning to be an officer but everyone (including the instructors) would rather be in the field.

We had a short religous service on Sunday morning that was led by an OC- it was the first time we'd done that  in Texas and I was glad the Cadre gave us time for it.

We talked briefly about graduation- we need to sart collecting dues for the graduation ball, our company guidon, and class shirts in the magnitude of tens of thousands of dollars. Apparently the ball is quite the expensive ordeal. It seems like a long way off at this point but hopefully the next year goes by quickly.

OCS Phase I: Kansas

Most of the things I heard about Phase I turned out to be untrue. It was worse than what people made it out to be. I'm not sure if we just had a tough crop of cadre but the intensity on day one continued for the whole two weeks.

Travel Day


We were slated to leave Camp Swift in Texas early in the morning, so most of us went down the night before to do a gear layout and save ourselves from waking up in the middle of the night to drive to Austin. That turned out to be a good choice. The people that didn't were scrambling the next morning to unpack and repack all their gear to ensure they had all the items on the packing list. [Note: they didn't send anyone home for packing list deficiencies but it makes you look bad when you give the excuse that you weren't issued something. Plan on spending a good amount of your first few drill checks on buying things your supply sergeant won't issue you.] We left in two charter busses with 43 officer candidates on schedule. Per Texas tradition we made a "say goodbye to Texas" stop at the first rest stop in Oklahoma and got smoked there before continuing on. About 11 hours later we arrived at the Kansas  Regional Training Institue (KSRTI). It wasn't what I was expecting- just a few buildings in the middle of Salina, KS. Immediately after arriving, we got smoked for about three hours by the Texas cadre. Long day.

Welcome to Kansas


Day two started out with in-processing and the opening ceremony. From there, 130 candidates representing Kansas, Oklahoma, Nebraska, Texas, New Mexico, Arkansas, Missouri, and Illinois were marched onto the parade field. That's when everything broke loose. The hot afternoon sun already bumped temps into the 100's and the TAC's just had at us. It was an hour of low crawling, push ups, flutter kicks, front-back-go's, 3-5 second rushes, and any other forms of exercise the individual TAC's felt like throwing in. At breakfast we were told to take a piece of fruit for a snack later on- when I went through bananas were all that was left. Needless to say, it did not survive this event and it destroyed my brand new OC Guide and training schedule... outstanding. A few people were immediately dropped from the program as heat casualties- you have to show up hydrated and in excellent physical condition. We finally got into our assigned squads and platoons which had an even mix of people from all the represented states. The rest of the day was more smoke sessions and getting our lockers and beds inspection ready. Usually we'd come back to our bays looking like this:

Classroom Week

You'd think a week they call classroom week would be relatively easy, and in some aspects it was, but they found every opportunity to smoke us. Lights out was between 2230 and 0430. Usually you were lucky to be in bed by 2330 and then there was generally fireguard that would take up another hour in the middle of the night. Four hours of sleep was the average most people got each night. Add on top of that the physical exhaustion that came from the activities outside the classroom, and heavy meals right before and it made staying awake a constant battle. Each day was about eight hours of death by Powerpoint and tests were given at the end of the blocks of instruction. Each test had to be passed with a 70% or above to continue in the program and none of the tests were a cake walk. The hardest test was probably the LandNav test. I would consider myself to be confident in my skills but this test also required speed. If you couldn't finish the problem in two minutes you weren't going to complete the test (the sleep deprivation also added a fun twist to this dilemma). I ended up passing all the test but I probably won't be up for any academic honors at the end of OCS.

Early on in classroom week we also completed a 5 mile ruck march. The time standard is the same for males and females and it must be completed in under 1:45:00 with a 35-40 lb ruck, not including water, helmet, and load bearing vest. The fastest male finished in 59 minutes and the fastest female finished in 1:18. Average time was probably in the 1:25 range. The course was half pavement and half fine gravel roads and all of it was extremely flat. A lot of people had blisters after the event. I'd spent a lot of time preparing my feet beforehand so I was fine.

I also had my 48 hour leadership position during the first week. Be ready for failure and for everything to be your fault. No one on in our platoon got a "satisfactory" on their overall evaluation. Fortunately you don't need one until Phase II. I was a squad leader, so I was fairly low profile compared to the people that were 1st sergeant or company commander.

Field Week


My favorite part of OCS was the five minute helicopter ride to our bivouac site for our field training. I've never ridden in a helo before, so it was quite the experience. We got to ride in UH-60 Blackhawks with the doors open- I had a seat on the edge facing aft. I've never experienced anything like it. It was old hat for those who had been deployed but it sure beats a day at the office.

The rest of the week was largely dedicated to LandNav training. This is where a pair of well broken in boots was worth their weight in gold. Each day we were on the course twice- once during the day an once at night. Each course had us walking 4-6k of hilly, uneven terrain. (Somehow they actually found a hilly, vegetated plot of land in Kansas). We did the course with instructors, then small groups, then we did an individual diagnostic test, then the final day in the field we did our test. I got 7 out of 7 points in the day course but only 3 of 5 points at night. I got stuck on my 4th point. Pretty sure somebody moved it before I got there... Fortunately, the night course only required you to get 2 of 5 points to be a "go" for the test. We did all of our training exercises on the north course but the final test was on the south course. Everyone seemed to agree that the north course was harder overall but the south course was more difficult to use terrain association to navigate as the terrain wasn't as prominent. If you were fortunate enough to have trained at Camp Swift in Texas on the LandNav course the Kansas course shouldn't give you any trouble.

In between our time out in the field we had Warrior Tasks and Battle Drills to do. We each taught a skill and then everyone had to preform that task to standard. Passing all the drills was a graduation requirement. The drills are to the Army what a play book is to a basketball team. They are skills that are practiced over and over again until they become second nature skills that will save your life on the battlefield. We rehearsed everything from first aid, weapon assembly/disassembly, Nuclear disaster reaction, and planting explosives. I really enjoyed the hands on training and learned quite a bit more than what was taught in basic training.

The weather out in the field was typical of Kansas. Temps in the 100's and sustained winds of 30+ mph  all day long. We had one storm roll in that I got to watch while I was roving around the camp on fireguard. Watching the lightning dance across the open prairie was spectacular. They moved us into busses for a few hours until the lightning had all passed. We also got to enjoy the blanket of stars that stretched across the sky each night. I've never seen stars that clearly- even to the point that I could see the gaseous trails of the Milky Way. The field site was nothing short of a spectacular display of God's beautiful creation.

We had a church service out in the field on Sunday night, and it was quite heavily attended. Throughout the two weeks, I ran into a lot of people who were committed Christians. Three out of 40 people in our platoon were pastors on the civilian side and weren't there to be chaplains, but officers in combat arms. I was really encouraged to see so many believers stepping up to lead. The military truly is a mission field, and it looks like God is preparing a crop of officers to be salt and light to a community that needs to know him.

Recovery Ops

By the end of the two weeks I've never smelled so bad. The unhygienic ripeness was a badge of honor- earned by hard work and determination. We moved back to KSRTI for recovery ops by bus. We got back around 0200 after our night LandNav test and the TAC's were quick to remind us we weren't home yet. We were yelled and screamed at until we had all of our gear off the trucks and we were in bed. The next day we played "Combat Dodgeball" in place of our normal PT. That was actually really fun. From there we started getting everything ready for the battalion commander's inspection. Orders kept constantly changing as the deadline got closer and it was a struggle to get everything laid out like the TAC's wanted it. At the time the inspection was supposed to begin, they dragged us all outside and smoked the living daylights out of us. I was on the verge of puking my guts out when it was finally over. Apparently, there would be no inspection and we were ordered to secure all the gear we had laid out and go to sleep.

The last day was fairly chill. We cleaned everything, turned in our weapons, had a closing ceremony and were turned back over to our state's control. Immediately following the closing ceremony we boarded our busses back to the Lonestar State. We got smoked again after we crossed the Texas border at the first rest stop we came to. By that point it didn't phase any of it- we knew we were done. We came back with 39. We lost one soldier to paperwork issues, one female found out she was pregnant, one didn't pass LandNav, and one was a heat casualty on the first TAC attack on day one. And from here Texas Class 56 moves on to Phase II.

If you're going to Phase I, here are a few things not on the packing list that you'll want to have.

• Fox River Socks- Yeah, they're expensive, but when you spend days on your feet you can't put a price tag on blister free feet.
• Protractor- Because the standard issue one sucks.
• Ranger Beads- An essential for LandNav.
• Master Lock Speed Dial- Perfect for operating under pressure and in the dark. I HIGHLY recommend getting these. Follow the instructions precisely when setting it up. Also available at Lowes.
• Super Fine Map Pens- The smaller your points are on the map, the more accurate you can be. And when you're looking for a square 4 inches by 6 inches on a course that's a square mile in size, precision matters.
• Baby Wipes- Most days showers won't be an option. Especially out in the field.
• Name tapes/patches- To make your life easier, set up your uniforms (including patrol caps) with all the patches, name tapes, and rank insignia you need. You'll be glad you did.

My advice to anyone about to go through this is to look at one thing at a time. Don't worry about what's coming up next week, tomorrow or even an hour from where you currently are. One thing at a time. Don't count days. Just focus all your energy on what you're doing at the moment and do it well. Show up in shape. If you don't prep for the time in your boots you'll immediately regret it. Hydrate hydrate hydrate. They can inflict pain and take away sleep but they can't hurt or kill you. If you've gone through basic training then there's no reason you can't complete this.

*All photos taken from Kansas Officer Candidate School Alumni Association Facebook page

GX Magazine Phase I Article

Class 56 is just a few short days away from shipping off to Phase I in Salina, KS. I found the following article that glosses over what Phase I is like- its more Army Hooah than actual content, but I'll give a much better breakdown when I return.

In the meantime: GX Magazine 7.1 (article on pg. 38-39)

Here we go!