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| Commissioning Ceremony ...becoming a 2LT, a long time ago! |
Now, to be sure, OCS was not at all pleasant. In fact, even though it has been two and a half decades ago, I still wince thinking about it, have bad memories & post traumatic stress from this life experience! Really!
Why I ever subjected myself to such emotional and physical abuse, I do not know, except that I really wanted to be an officer.
And once I started OCS, I soon found that there was no turning back. For if I quit, I would have to carry that the rest of my life. And so, I endured it.
Over forty five "officer candidates" started out in our class, which included four women. Most of us were in our mid to late twenties. It was the Army National Guard, and OCS was fourteen months in length, and it was brutal. Only eight of us made it to graduation and commissioning as a 2LT (second lieutenant).
The first two weeks they took us all to Ft. Huachuca in southern Arizona. As part of the training, we were taught "Land Nav" (land navigation, also called orienteering).
Lots of walking & hiking out in the hills, being in nature, reading a map, using a compass, and finding your way from point A to point B. These were the days well before GPS. All map and compass and your own skills!
At first they taught us in small groups, then in pairs, and then we had to go it alone. Actually, I really enjoyed land nav!
That is until when I was all alone out there and saw the largest, fattest rattle snake slithering under a bush about ten feet in front of me!
Ugh!
It also became more and more challenging as the days went by, as we got only about 4 hours of sleep a night. And throughout the days, we had so much physical activity, including morning PT, which usually was a 3 to 6 miles run. And need I mention the "stress" they put us through with lots of mind games, in your face yelling, push ups, etc.
When you get very little sleep, it really affects your cognitive abilities. It also affects your emotions. But that's what they were trying to do, weed out the ones who could not stand up to all the "stress".
And then, test day came. There were actually two Land Nav tests, one for the day, and one for the night. And they had to be done alone.
They took us up to a desert area somewhere near Florence, AZ in helicopters. A dry desert area that was extremely hot, as it was July. Much hotter than down at Ft. Huachuca.
Most of us passed the day Land Nav test with no problem. With exception that it was extremely hot. And running through the desert with all that military gear on (helmet, web gear, etc.) was even more difficult.
But night time was another story. It was dark with no moon. And going out there where there were snakes, javalinas and other "scary things" made it even more intense! We really had to overcome our fears.
We were given our coordinates, and had a certain amount of time to plot our courses & on the maps & run to our five points. Once at the point, we had write down the code or letter on the post. Then run to the next post.
Amazingly, I was able to find my first four points without much problem.
But then, I came to may fifth and last post. Upon arriving, there were two posts. One was about 50 feet to the west of the other.
Which one was mine?
If I wrote the wrong one down, I would fail the lang nav test and be washed out of OCS.
No pressure here!
So, which one? I knelt down looking at both posts. Sweat was rolling down my face and onto the map. The left, or the one to the right?
I looked at the map. I noticed that "my post" had a small dirt road just to the east of it. Now to see which one had a small dirt road.
I walked to each one. It was black as the darkest night, so I literally could not see more than a few feet in front of me!
On the way, I suddenly was walking on something very "smooshy". I looked down, and I was walking on a bunch of tires lying there. I nearly fell on my face.
I walked to the east of each one. The first one, no dirt road. I walked to the other post. Then to the east. There was a very faint dirt road!
I wrote the code for that one down on my test sheet!
I looked at my watch. I had fifteen minutes to get back to camp, the finish line, or I would fail!
I ran all the way back through the dark desert!
I made to the finish line just in time, sweating like mad.
The test grader graded my test. I waited.
Did I have all five points correct? Would I pass? Did I get that last post correct?
I passed!
What a relief!
Unfortunately, many candidates did not pass, and we lost just about half of the class that day.
But passing Land Nav was only the beginning of getting through OCS. For there was another 12 months to go...
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