April 10th Letter

I was disappointed wiht our short phone call the other day. But I guess a short call is better than no phone call. Hopefully, we will maintain our phone priveleges. The last week has been pretty rough. We had classes but very little other training. I started to get stressed about the level of park points I had. I think my final count was about 27 points, (and half those points were given as punishment for people around me.) I understand the point of accountability they are trying to teach but I am upset that my point total already has me walking tours (Marching) on our first weekend off. Hopefully, I can avoid getting more tours. Well, the actual class and procedures aren't difficult but our TAC's really focus on minute details and punish you for failing to comply. you really have to be vigilant to stay ahead of the game.
My moral is better now, but last week was really sucking. I think the lack of training, combined with all the park points was making me stressed. We are back into training, so hopefully I will be better. Wemissed three days of training becauseof an OCS Hall of Fame Induction ceremony. The hall inducted 35 people that were high level officers who wereOCS graduates. I didn't like the details we hadto do in order to prepare for the ceremony but having all the officers around was inspiring. It was realneat to see generals that were OCS grads.
Yesterday, we did another roadmarch for fivemiles then we went to a leadership reaction course. There were obstacles andproblems that you had toleadagroupof ten to overcome. It was a lot of fun and I did well. The obstacles wereall over water. Apparently, we weren't getting wet enough on the course; the TAC's madeus all jump in the water and swim fromobstacleto obstacle. So by the end, we were completely soaked. It was a blast. Being in the field, training andconquering obstacles is very motivating for me. I really enjoyed it andit pumped me up for this week.
-Dale

Other than all that he says he is tight on timebutwill try to write at least once a week and that he misses his girls! :)

Posted by Shalene

April 3rd Letter

I am taking some time at church yo write you a letter because this is the first "free time" we have. Class is going well so far but I can already see that it will get annoying. The TAC officers and NCO's are great teachers but also strict enforcers of our policies.
So far on all of the physical events I have done a stellar job. We had our combat water survival test. It was difficult but a lot of fun. 15 meter swim in full gear keeping your weapon out of the water, 3 meter blindfolded drop in full gear and finally a jump into the deep end, fully submerge and drop your gear to resurface.
We also did a 5 Mile roadmarch with rucksacks, and an obstacle course. I did very well on both. I love the physical events and obstacles. I will have to show you the course we did. It was a difficult course.
It seems like the physical side of OCS will be easy. The difficult part will be time management and dealing with sleeping about 5 hrs a night and the rest of the day is extremely busy. OCS is the land of multitasking. Often we are having to sacrifice personal time to accomplish more important tasks. We are having to skip showers every now and then, and do our laundry in halves (wash, then dry it later). We stay so busy we are usually running to our formation just to be on time.
Although it is very busy, I am enjoying it. The worst part remains the DFAC (cafeteria). The procedures are annoying and we have 3-5 minutes to eat. It is just not a pleasant environment to eat in. We are overwhelmed with procedures and policy. We are told how to stand in line, how to enter the DFAC, how to hold your tray, how to take food, how to leave the table and how to put away your tray. It is just rediculous how precise you have to be.
The real negative side to these procedures is the penalty for failure to comply. The punishment is park points. The points are tallied on a weekly basis. If you exceed 20 points in a week, you are gien a tour. A tour is one hour of marching the company area. The real bad part is, the tours must be served before you can have free time. That means if I get a tour or more, I will have to serve them out after the company picnic before I can have a pass for the weekend. Right now I am mentally preparing to have to walk at least one tour. I try hard, but the rules are many and strict. So far I have earned a few points for small things. In the DFAC, and our platoon was all given points for the condition of our rooms.
It seems the point of OCS is to make everyday situations stressful and then monitor people's reactions and leadership. I still think I will do fine but this will not be a pleasant time. I guess it's not meant to be.
Well, I had a meeting with the infantry branch rep and learned more about my upcoming training and career. The good news I heard is that because I am branched infantry in OCS, my orders are PCS with permission to move at any point. I still think we should wait until senior phase, but we are PCS and can move whenever.
They really treat the infantry well here.

-Dale

Posted by Shalene