- 7 months ago
Candidates face intense physical, mental, and leadership challenges across three phases: indoctrination, academic, and applied leadership. The training includes drills and physical challenges led by Marine instructors, as well as intense academic study in weapons, engineering, navigation, and leadership. OCS is designed to push candidates to their limits before earning the right to lead enlisted sailors.
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00:00Let's go! What's going on? Get outside, let's go!
00:03S.T. Discipline!
00:05This is not boot camp.
00:08I need LASER! I need LASER!
00:11These are future Navy officers going through their initial training
00:15in officer candidate school
00:19Get off your knees!
00:22Where they will be accountable for the lives of the crew they command aboard their ship.
00:27In order!
00:28Business Insider followed Class 01 TAC 26
00:33at officer candidate school over 13 weeks
00:36following their progress through different phases of training
00:40We have a split seam on port side
00:43to find out how this demanding program
00:46transforms civilians and prior enlisted sailors into naval officers.
00:52You! The one that was just yelling at! Get on your feet!
00:55It's I now!
00:57I'm in!
00:58Every year, the Navy produces about 1900 new officers
01:03who graduate from OCS at Naval Station Newport, Rhode Island.
01:08A naval officer is ultimately a leader.
01:11Every naval officer is going to have sailors that they're responsible for,
01:14people that they need to take care of, and programs that they need to manage.
01:17You should not be comfortable. You're saying that?
01:18Yes, sir!
01:19It's imperative that once they get through this training,
01:22they get out to the fleet ready to hit the ground running and ready to go start leading and running programs.
01:28All officer candidates must be U.S. citizens at least 19 years old, meet the Navy's physical requirements, and hold a four year college degree.
01:38Left! Right! Left! Left! Left!
01:41Some candidates are prior enlisted.
01:44So I've been in the Navy just under five years now.
01:47Going from enlisted to officer, I felt that I have adequate experience to give to the Navy and give to the country.
01:54So I joined in 2014 as an intelligence specialist.
01:57Yes, sir!
01:58And I would like to be that type of leader that my enlisted members could look up to and say,
02:02hey, if my ensign or my lieutenant or my commander isn't afraid to do it, I'm going to do it as well.
02:08Good morning, sir!
02:09Good morning, sir!
02:16I'm indoctrination candidate Kornhoff. I'm from Atlanta, Georgia.
02:20I'm 24 years old and I'm here at OCS to become a warfighter.
02:25What caught my eye was you were wearing a Dale Jr. shirt on day one.
02:28What was the story behind that? Was that just the first thing you grabbed out of the dresser or were you trying to make a statement?
02:33I'm a massive star car racing fan. I've been a fan for a couple years now and my college internship,
02:39what I was originally going for before I went to the military was actually to be a motorsports journalist.
02:44But I realized money's not so great in racing.
02:47They say that, uh, if you want to become a millionaire, start with a billion dollars and start a racing team.
02:53Next hand up.
02:55It's your seat bag. You just can hold it open like this.
02:59Go ahead and go to the next station.
03:01It's your seat bag. You'll be given everything you need. Go ahead and go to the next station.
03:06This is your knowledge bag. This is everything that you need in it.
03:10The indoctrination phase of OCS is week one to week three, where we teach them discipline, attention to detail, and spirit of core.
03:18During the in-doc phase, their privileges are minimal, right? They always have their rights.
03:22But as far as, you know, those things that we see as amenities in life, they do not have those.
03:27One count, zero, six, plus one, not to be a candidate.
03:31Say you heard her.
03:32Not to be a candidate.
03:34Not to be a candidate.
03:38We're getting up, sir.
03:39We're getting up, sir.
03:40We're getting up, sir.
03:41We're getting up, sir.
03:42First Tuesday is their first event of Officer Candidate School, where the students are introduced to the class team,
03:50myself, the two class officers, and the Recruit Division Commander, and we give them expectations.
03:54Our mission is to train each and one of you to become a United States Naval Officer.
03:59And I will send them lies, cheats, or compromise.
04:03At Navy OCS, the first phase of training is led by a Marine.
04:09Tignity and compassion.
04:11A tradition dating back to the 1940s.
04:13Am I, sir?
04:14Am I, sir?
04:15For this class, it's Gunnery Sergeant Pedro Guerrero.
04:19Hey!
04:20Hey!
04:20Hey!
04:21A Marine Corps drill instructor who's trained 12 Navy OCS classes.
04:26Never, never, never!
04:28Their drill instructor, they play a big part in the creation of discipline and bearing in this place.
04:35Push out!
04:36Push out!
04:37Push out!
04:38Push out!
04:40This event right here is going to be the first one that we've identified candidates that we think are going to struggle here.
04:46It's a wake-up call.
04:48They know where they are after this state.
04:51Push out!
04:52No, sir!
04:53I say lead on the deck!
04:54No, sir!
04:55Staff members circle the room, calling out mistakes and zeroing in on anyone who falls out of line.
05:03If they find a candidate that's making and exercising correctly, they will flag the leadership, and the leadership will pull that candidate and get him further evaluated in the back of the building.
05:16And at that point, they make a decision where the person has failed the event or not.
05:21Keep pushing!
05:22Let's go!
05:23Get up!
05:24Let's get up!
05:25Let's get up!
05:26Let's get up!
05:27Let's get up!
05:29Let's get up!
05:30We have offered numerous videos online of the experience here and what we expect physically.
05:36Between the recruiters and the internet, we expect that you should so appear and have a little bit of physical fitness in you.
05:41However, this is a training command, so we will take people's sons and daughters and get them to the standard that they need to be at.
05:49You don't know what's coming next, and you can't anticipate it.
05:52Is it that day or difficult, scream I, sir?
05:54Aye, sir!
05:55Head for it!
05:56Head for it!
05:57Head for it!
05:58Head for it!
05:59So once we finished with K, we exited the building, and then we came to the pit here in Nimitz.
06:04Move!
06:0524, 23, 22, 21.
06:07Squat!
06:08Squat!
06:09Squat!
06:10It's about militarization.
06:11It's about just introducing them to the things that they're not used to.
06:14I think when we came into the sandpit, it became a bit more challenging.
06:43Aye, sir!
06:44Not that many breaks between exercises.
06:47There's a lot of instructions and directions coming to you from different directions.
06:51It's a little intimidating, but that's the part of the curriculum.
06:55They try to break us down.
06:56Not that high, sir!
06:58You've got 100 to go get in formation right now.
07:0099, 98, 98, 98, 98, 98!
07:02Push it, push it, push it!
07:03Go!
07:04Move, move, move!
07:05Move, move, move, move!
07:0710, 9, 8, 7, 6, 8!
07:115, 4, 3, 2, 1!
07:16Go, sir!
07:17What are you supposed to do every time you pass a staff member?
07:20Go, sir!
07:21What?
07:22Go, sir!
07:23Go, sir!
07:24Can we do that over there any time?
07:25No, sir!
07:26I'm going to hold you accountable.
07:27Scream, aye, sir!
07:28Aye, sir!
07:29Now you're going to find your daggone canteens without opening your daggone mouth.
07:32Scream, aye, sir!
07:33Aye, sir!
07:34Why did you drink water while everybody is still waiting for daggone to drink water?
07:44Because I didn't want to be rough, sir.
07:45My mind wasn't empty, sir!
07:46You just decided to be an individual, huh?
07:47I messed up, sir!
07:48I know you messed up.
07:49That's why you were there.
07:50Screw my shirt.
07:51Aye, sir!
07:52Unfortunately, I made a mistake and drink water when I was not supposed to and that caused
07:57me to get a little bit of extra training.
07:59Leg lifts, no!
08:00Leg lifts, aye, sir!
08:01Leg lifts!
08:02Leg lifts!
08:03All the way up, all the way down, aye, sir!
08:04The instruction was if your canteen was empty to fall out of the formation so you can fill
08:09it up.
08:10I had about two ounces left and I did not want to be wrong so I said to myself, let me drink
08:15this little bit of water so my canteen could be empty and I was not supposed to drink water
08:19during that time.
08:20Push up!
08:21Push up, turn!
08:22I call them an individual because everybody else is thirsty.
08:25We're all thirsty and we're all hungry and we're all going to do it together as a team.
08:29This is what we're here for, to be natural war fighters and to be the tip of the spear.
08:33So every workout that we do is leading us in that direction.
08:3610, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1!
08:39Aye, sir!
08:40And you, you're going to grab your day on canteen and you're going to go fall back in formation.
08:44Screw my shirt!
08:45Aye, sir!
08:46Go run, sprint now!
08:47Aye, sir!
08:48Thank you, sir!
08:49Oh, you look at me right now!
08:50Aye, sir!
08:51In the pit right now!
08:52Aye, sir!
08:53Sprint!
08:54Aye, sir!
08:55Aye, sir!
08:56Aye, sir!
08:57So we had to learn our lessons and I promise you we learned it, sir.
09:01High on these side, sir!
09:02Squats!
09:03Squats!
09:04Squats, sir!
09:05Be honest with you, the sand pit was kind of fun.
09:07Open!
09:08Open!
09:09It woke me up.
09:10It really showed me, all right, I'm here.
09:13This is what I signed up for.
09:15I'm in the sand pit to go and be a leader in the United States Navy.
09:20It hurts.
09:21It's tough in the moment.
09:23Yes, sir!
09:24Yes, sir!
09:25But afterwards, you think to your sister, wow, that was rewarding.
09:28When I say why, we Dagger will think about that in our Dagger Freakin' Brain Housing Group
09:33and remember to keep pushing just a little bit more.
09:35Scream, aye, sir!
09:36Aye, sir!
09:37If that why is as important as you say it is, then that why is going to take you a very,
09:41very long way here in the next 13 weeks.
09:43Scream, aye, sir!
09:44Aye, sir!
09:45Do you understand that?
09:46Yes, sir!
09:47Do you understand that?
09:48Yes, sir!
09:498-0-1-2-6!
09:50Aye, sir!
09:51Recalibrate!
09:52I speak about the why because we all join the military for different reasons.
09:57If you just remember the why when you start feeling tired, then at that point, you're
10:02going to be able to just push a little more.
10:04What you are going to do right now is you're going to go back upstairs.
10:06You are going to hygiene.
10:07That means you are going to use soap and water to wash your daggone body.
10:10Scream, aye, sir!
10:11Aye, sir!
10:121-2-6-2-7!
10:141-2-3!
10:152-8!
10:16Two days after First Tuesday.
10:18Are you turning around right now?
10:19Aye, sir!
10:20The candidates report for their initial strength test.
10:232-3!
10:241-2-3!
10:252-4!
10:26But even this early in training, some candidates didn't make it.
10:30Currently, we started at 1-26 and we are down to 1-22 right now.
10:36According to the schoolhouse, one candidate was excused to fly home for an emergency.
10:422-3!
10:43Ready?
10:44Action!
10:45While the other three were pulled from the course due to medical reasons.
10:49Medical will assess them and ensure that they are physically fit to come back into training.
10:54They will not fall back into my class, but they will fall back into the next class to start
10:57all over again.
10:58Are you ill today or no of any medical condition that may prevent you from participating in any
11:02physical activity today?
11:03The test assesses the candidates' physical readiness before they continue training.
11:08Through the head, shoulders, back, buttes and legs, just as such.
11:11Stand by!
11:12A position!
11:13Each candidate must meet the Navy's minimum requirements in planks, push-ups, and a one-and-a-half-mile
11:20run scored by age and gender.
11:22I was told I was coming to Officer Kenneth School in November, so since then I've been
11:27trying to run a lot, at least two to three miles every other day.
11:30I personally felt very confident because I had put in so much work.
11:34I've been preparing for this program for about a year.
11:37It's hard, but it's a fun type of hard.
11:43Pushing yourself to that next level, that's what a lot of the people here are about.
11:48They want to be pushed to that next level, they want to push each other to that next level,
11:52and they want that challenge.
11:54All right, dude!
11:55There are seven.
11:56Get up!
11:57Get up!
11:58Get up!
11:59Get up!
12:00Sir!
12:01We can tell me that Josh is going to contact.
12:02How about that?
12:03All right, sir!
12:04Wait!
12:05All right, sir!
12:06Bring your hips down.
12:07It should be one straight line from here to your freaking feet.
12:10All right, sir!
12:11All the way up.
12:12Let's go!
12:13All the way up.
12:14Your whole body can go down together and come up together.
12:16I did maybe 15 to 20 less push-ups than I could usually do because we've been beat pretty
12:23hard the past couple of days.
12:24You're going to go ahead and you're going to stage the road.
12:27Stage on the road, utilizing both lanes.
12:29Scream, aye, sir!
12:30Aye, sir!
12:31We had no failures for the run time, which is usually where most candidates struggle.
12:35It's the run.
12:37I think I came in physically prepared, but you can always be more physically prepared.
12:47My name is Maddie Martin, and I am from Lansing, Michigan, and I am 21 years old.
12:52I've wanted to join the Navy since I was little.
12:55You know, I grew up in the Navy.
12:57It's pretty much all that I've ever known, and I just, I always knew that I wanted to
13:02serve.
13:05Before coming to OCS, I did not have any real swim experience.
13:09I never took any formal lessons.
13:11It wasn't anything I was very interested in, but I knew that I would have to prepare.
13:15In week two, the candidates are introduced to the combat pool for the first time for third-class
13:22swim qualification.
13:24Third class is an entry-level course to get into the Navy.
13:27Everybody has to go through it.
13:28It's a basic war to survival.
13:30With either hand you want, you're going to grab your nose.
13:33Opposite on, crush about it, grab your tricep, bicep.
13:36Candidates have to swim 50 yards using one of the four Navy-approved strokes.
13:41Freestyle, breaststroke, sidestroke, elementary backstroke.
13:45I practiced for about a month, two months.
13:48I talked to family members and friends that were good swimmers, and I had them show me.
13:52I spent a lot of hours in the pool before coming to OCS.
13:56Initially getting into the water, you know, it was just a slide in.
14:00It was simple.
14:01I was feeling okay, but I kept looking over at the tower.
14:04I knew I was going to have to jump off that.
14:06I'm not very comfortable in water, and I've never jumped that high.
14:09The intensity increases, as candidates are expected to jump from a ten-foot platform.
14:16You're trying to emulate an abandoned ship, so you have to be ready to get off immediately.
14:22First, I want you all to close your eyes or pick a spot on the floor or wall.
14:27Something that is not moving so you can focus.
14:30Picture the water moving in the pool and the smell of chlorine in the air.
14:35They call it warrior toughness.
14:37A lot of it is rehearsing in your mind what you want to happen in order to get your mind and your body in the right frame to attack what you're about to do.
14:49When I got there, I thought, it's only about ten feet.
14:53It doesn't look that daunting.
14:55And it's a whole lot more daunting when you're actually up there and your toes are like on the edge.
15:00You know you're about to fall off.
15:02It had me a little bit dizzy, I'll say.
15:04And I was not expecting that.
15:06It was my turn and I was standing at the bottom of the ladder.
15:12As I was going up the ladder, I was feeling a little uneasy.
15:15My heart was racing, but I was able to mind over matter and just take that step and cross my ankles.
15:21It was a big victory for me.
15:24I was worried about how long it would take to come back up in the fall, but as soon as I surfaced and the instructor said,
15:30you're good, you can get out, I was ecstatic.
15:34I felt very good for the rest of the swim fall after that because I knew that that was going to be my biggest hurdle.
15:42We can teach everything but the tower.
15:44I can't teach you to have the strength and courage to step off the platform.
15:48Once the entire class has taken the jump, they immediately advance into two floating tests.
15:55The first, an unassisted float for five minutes.
15:58You don't think five minutes is a long time until you actually have to do it for five minutes.
16:05Floating on your back, it's a lot harder when you don't really float that well.
16:11For the final test, candidates must successfully fill their coveralls with enough air to keep them afloat.
16:19So what was so difficult about the coverall exercise was it's a pretty heavy suit once you jump in the water.
16:38I'm a small person and the jumpsuit that I was in was a little too big, so the legs, I wasn't able to kick my feet properly.
16:45So it took me three tries before I was finally able to do the motions that I needed to to get the bubbles in my coveralls.
16:53I was very happy that I passed that event.
17:03You know, I remembered all the work that I put into being able to do the swim qualification test.
17:08Get outside, let's go!
17:15Get outside, let's go!
17:16Get outside!
17:17Come on, sir!
17:18Hold on, you can't see it right now!
17:19Let's go, post up!
17:20Aye, sir!
17:21Aye, sir!
17:22Are you facing the left right now?
17:23Aye, sir!
17:24Facing the left right now?
17:25Aye, sir!
17:26Okay, let's go!
17:27Aye, sir!
17:28D-I-S-C!
17:29For me, school, it's what I've done my whole life.
17:37OCS is just a whole different caliber.
17:44You know, you're up at 0400.
17:49They're putting you into uncomfortable situations that no other organization in the world can do.
17:56S-O-N-D-I-S-C-I-P!
18:00My name's Ethan Larson.
18:01I'm from Chicago, Illinois.
18:03I'm 22 years old.
18:05I just graduated college, and yeah, now I'm right here at OCS doing more school.
18:10Aye, sir!
18:11How long have you known you wanted to join the Navy?
18:15I've known for a long time, probably around high school is when I knew, but my parents were never comfortable with the idea.
18:21You know, they've seen news stories about Houthi rebels shooting missiles at ships.
18:26That most certainly concerns them.
18:28To me, however, that seems rather intriguing to be the tip of the spear and be in the fight.
18:34Alignments to the right!
18:36And covers to the front!
18:38Joe prepares these candidates in the fleet because it teaches them teamwork.
18:42It teaches them attention to detail.
18:44It teaches them spirit of core.
18:46Yes!
18:47Open!
18:48What am I looking for?
18:49Sexy, sir!
18:50What am I looking for?
18:51Sexy, sir!
18:52I'm looking for sexy, screw my shirt!
18:53Aye, sir!
18:54When I tell my classes, you know, make it look sexy, is I want them to think about themselves
18:59when they're executing these movements.
19:00Make it have pride in what you are doing.
19:03I'm looking for you to march like you're daggone modeling down a ramp with your zen hat.
19:07Yes, sir!
19:08This is your one and only chance to be a daggone model, screw my shirt!
19:10Aye, sir!
19:11No one here wants to look ugly at no point.
19:14So, I wanted to think while the command is watching them, make it look sexy for the world
19:19to see them.
19:20Aye, sir!
19:21All the way!
19:23Aye!
19:24Aye!
19:25Aye!
19:26Your salute is going to be done at four to six paces away.
19:31In week four, candidates move into the academic phase.
19:35The academic workload has been pretty substantial.
19:39It comes at you real fast.
19:41To that zero, because I'm in single digits.
19:44We're adding an additional stressor of the academics.
19:47You're now working not just the body, but also the mind.
19:50I'm using the two to one, right?
19:52No, because this entire thing...
19:55A major part of OCS is learning your strengths and weaknesses and developing yourself through
20:00the academics, through the physical, through the military instruction, the militarization.
20:05They go through the cyber fundamentals, division officer fundamentals, naval history, engineering
20:11and weapons, and navigation, which is ultimately their final for OCS.
20:17It's not so much the difficulty of the material, but just that they're trying to get you to
20:22learn so much in such a short period of time.
20:24It's a device that measures angles between objects, more specifically things like celestial objects, things like that.
20:31Candidates spend about a week learning each subject.
20:35And failing the final exam will require the candidate to roll back into the previous class and retake the course.
20:42It is all the information that we believe a young officer coming in should enter the fleet with that baseline of knowledge.
20:52It's full go, you know.
20:54I was joking around with my roommates the other day that we spend more time in the classroom than we do sleeping.
21:02It's way different than college because in college you have all these distractions.
21:07Here, it's all work. You wake up at 4.30, you're PTing, then from the rest of the day, my mind is almost exclusively on work.
21:19I had family in the military. My grandfather was a Navy NFO, U.S. Navy NFO, on the P-3 Orion aircraft.
21:26And that's exactly the designator that I'm going for, NFO, so I'm sort of following in his footsteps.
21:31Good morning, Senior Chief.
21:34Good morning. Are you touching your uniform for your home inspections all at the other side?
21:37Yes, Senior Chief.
21:39Sir, what is your 6th general order?
21:41Senior Chief, first, just playing my last 6th general order of the century.
21:45He says, I see if a band pass on to the century, who leaves me?
21:48All orders, the commanding officer, command duty officer, officer of the deck, officers and petty officers.
21:53Now you see a sailor walking in, and they have two red stripes on the sleeve of the dress uniform.
21:59What would they do?
22:01It's your chief. They would be a fireman.
22:04Don't?
22:05In week 6, the candidates don their khaki uniforms for the first time, and undergo a rigorous inspection.
22:13So we're measuring everything. We're taking a look at their garrison covers.
22:17We're measuring their rank tabs. We're looking at their ribbons, if they're prior service and have those.
22:22We're looking at belt buckles. We're looking at how shined their shoes are, how well they ironed their clothes prior to the inspection.
22:28We want to see if they're able to set the example for the sailors out in the fleet, because ultimately their sailors are going to be looking at them to set the standard.
22:37Chief, my 11th general order is to be especially watchful at night.
22:42We're testing the confidence of the candidate. Those things are going to apply when they get out to the fleet.
22:47If captured, I will make every effort to escape and hate others to escape.
22:51I will accept neither parole nor special papers from the enemy chief.
22:55No chief.
22:57No chief.
22:58Aye chief.
22:59Indian company, fall off!
23:08The purpose of the fire trainer is mostly to teach them the basic on damage control, but mostly on the firefighting side.
23:16For me, there were certain points where I was like, this was kind of a little bit too much. Like, it's really tight in the mask. The mask is fogging up. I don't actually know what's sort of going on beyond my immediate vision.
23:28We want them to feel the pressure once they're fighting fire so that when they get into that scenario, at least they can recall back on what they went through here.
23:38This is pretty unique. Like, a couple months ago I was at school and now I'm learning to fight a fire. You know, none of my friends back home are doing this stuff.
23:48But before they step into the fire trainer, the day starts with classroom instruction.
23:53First one is just basic fire chemistry. The types of fires you usually see on a ship in the Navy. After that we go through damage control organization for the fire teams.
24:03Each assignment, what they're responsible for, and then we go through their PPE, their personal protective equipment, how they put them on, how to take them off, they do the inspection, make sure it's good to go.
24:14Once you get your FPG on, you're going to keep your pant legs unzipped.
24:18After that we get dressed up into their PPE. We cross them over to our trainer.
24:23Today I'm going to be teaching you about hose handling procedures.
24:27Instructors demonstrate techniques the candidates must use to effectively fight different fires they may find aboard a ship at sea.
24:34You've been probably relieved. Come on.
24:37Oh, really?
24:38Relief and all of it. Come on.
24:40First step?
24:42Headline stops.
24:43Second step?
24:44Connection stops.
24:45Third step?
24:46Right foot out.
24:47All right, slide in. This is?
24:49I got it!
24:50First thing we're going to check is your gauge.
24:52You want to make sure it is above 30. Extend your arm. Make sure it is not caught in your straps.
24:58Getting that mask on, getting used to breathing off of something that's only giving you air when you're asking for it, it's a bizarre phenomenon.
25:07And breathe. There you go. There you go.
25:10It was probably the biggest learning curve.
25:13We got two deck fires simulated for classic Bravo fires as the fuel type fires.
25:19And then we got two smaller fires for our portable extinguisher type fires.
25:25This is the coolest thing. Like, this is unreal. I can't believe I'm doing this right now.
25:30I can't believe I'm breathing and it's making this cool noise and there's smoke.
25:35I mean, I wouldn't know if it's realistic, but it gave me a really raw sense of, like, the feeling of what it's like to be there.
25:45The main thing I was thinking in that fire trainer with respect to if I had to lead sailors through this is, I better know what I'm talking about.
25:53Your choices, especially as an officer, and in general, have a lot of weight in a situation like that.
26:00The next day, the candidates board the USS Buttercup, a mock ship that recreates the experience of a damaged hull.
26:15The candidates must work together to patch.
26:18Everybody needs to have a baseline level of knowledge to save the ship.
26:21On ladder!
26:22This training, I think, is very similar to the fire trainer.
26:26You're sending people in to go under that water, to go towards that rushing water that's coming out of the pipe.
26:34These are people's lives. It's the entire ship that's at stake.
26:40And it teaches you a lot about just the entire thing coming together.
26:44I need my Jubilee patch team. We have two ruptured fire maids. Where are y'all?
26:50Alright, it's gonna be in three tack, five, nine, tack, zero, tack, FEMA.
26:56When you're having to go under water and your body is floating upward, you have to hold onto something to stay down.
27:02It's a lot harder than you think it would be once you get down.
27:04For naval officers to get this kind of experience is extremely important.
27:08It kind of gives you that somewhat realistic feeling of what it's actually like to combat damages on board a ship.
27:13Red Team will consist of one cruiser, one DDG, one BP.
27:16So, the event going on behind me right now is what we call a war game.
27:20It is a military simulation to simulate wartime events and to try out strategies, see what works, see what doesn't work,
27:28in a way that doesn't actually incur losses.
27:31Yeah, I mean, it's not gonna do much good. We can't disrupt. We can't act.
27:34We pit them against each other. They are put in charge of a realistic, notional naval force,
27:41and they have to match their resources and abilities against a set of objectives,
27:45and against an adversarial force's resources and abilities.
27:49Two major international maritime powers are in dispute over control of the Green Sea.
27:54Although blue and red are not in direct conflict, red is currently conducting military operations disrupting trade routes.
28:01Tensions have greatly escalated.
28:03The objective they're working towards mirrors real-life naval strategy.
28:07They're not just coming out guns blazing, trying to destroy everything in sight.
28:12Their goal is to control maritime choke points, to maintain freedom of the sea,
28:21to support the economic pattern of life in a contested area that can mimic certain real-life situations.
28:30What is IA?
28:31IA intercepts. So let's say I go out there, I successfully roll to shoot a missile at this guy.
28:40They have senior candidate officers who are helping keep the game moving.
28:44Five or six on both. Bad is neither.
28:46My gosh!
28:47The red fighter is dead.
28:48Let's go!
28:49Put a peg in it.
28:50And blue team gets another two points.
28:52Our strategy was more or less non-existent.
28:55That is another two points for blue for shooting down aircraft.
28:58The current score is negative eight red to eight blue.
29:02There are a lot of different facets to the game.
29:06It being our first time playing it, we did not have a great idea,
29:09at least I did not have a great idea of what was going on.
29:12We'll do this here because we can take out the air wing.
29:14Because we can attempt to hit the SSN and we can also hit the air wing.
29:17We've made a lot of mistakes so far, but I guess that's kind of the nature of war.
29:21It would probably be beneficial to have them clustered together.
29:26And I think it's also starting to make sense why he suggested that we cluster everything together.
29:34In my role as the air wing commander, I felt like more of an advocate for using our air resources.
29:38Let's assert, let's use the jets, let's send them out.
29:42They've got a long range and let's try and hit some of their assets.
29:45We are attacking the submarine.
29:48Get going!
29:49We hit some of their assets, but ultimately all of our F-18s have been shot down as of right now.
29:54How are you doing as an air commander there?
29:57I guess I'm not doing a great job.
29:59I am not doing a great job as an air wing commander.
30:02There we go, that's two hits on the destroyer.
30:07They don't have a lot of time to make these decisions.
30:09They also have to, as quickly as possible, synthesize a lot of information and stand by their result.
30:16Move! Move! Move!
30:19The next day, students muster around 4 a.m. to begin their culminating event, battle stations.
30:32Eight backwards! Eight backwards!
30:35It makes them apply their education from the academic platform and then also the physical aspect.
30:42And puts it into one evolution that allows them to not just push themselves and exercise those new muscles,
30:52but it also allows them to focus and really work on teamwork and that internal leadership aspect.
31:00Money carries!
31:02Money carries!
31:04Pain, in my opinion, is a privilege.
31:07When we're gone from this world, we're not going to be able to feel that pain and emotion.
31:11And it's my belief that we earned the right to be slayed and to go through what we went through today.
31:17We're ordering a 0-0-0 bearing until I say halt.
31:20Candidates spend about eight hours enduring various physical and mental challenges.
31:27The team that has the fastest time will get to have the Relay Championship go.
31:31Ooh!
31:33Shiny. Everybody say, ooh!
31:35Ooh!
31:36Ah!
31:37Ah!
31:38Let's go!
31:39Ah!
31:42Every time you make something competitive, you're going to bring out the best in your people,
31:46and you're going to make them push themselves a little bit further.
31:48Go Reds! Go Reds! Go Reds! Go Reds! Go Reds! Go Reds! Go Reds! Go Reds! Go Reds! Go Reds! Go Reds! Go Reds! Go Reds! Go Reds! Go Reds! Go Reds!
32:00Go Reds! Go Reds! Go Reds! Go Reds! Go Reds! Go Reds! Go Reds! Go Reds! Go Reds! Go Reds! Go Reds! Go Reds! Go Reds! Go Reds! Go Reds! Go Reds! Go Reds! Go Reds! Go Reds! Go Reds! Go Reds! Go Reds! Go Reds! Go Reds! Go Reds! Go Reds! Go Reds! Go Reds! Go Reds! Go Reds! Go Reds! Go Reds! Go Reds! Go Reds! Go Reds! Go Reds! Go Reds! Go Reds! Go Reds! Go Reds! Go Reds! Go Reds! Go Reds! Go Reds! Go Reds! Go Reds! Go Reds! Go Reds! Go Reds! Go Reds! Go Reds! Go Reds! Go Reds! Go Reds! Go Reds! Go
32:30bar. Best bar they have as well, and we got oranges for the vitamin C.
32:35Your April White's coming up? Yeah, looking forward to the car trainer,
32:39white trainer. Those have been a lot of fun in the past. Yeah, looking forward to going back.
32:43Ready for a shot!
32:45Food, food and purpose! We should already have food, so you are all going to die!
32:52So that scenario is December 7th, 1941. We're getting ready pretty much for Harbor
32:59for this scenario. It's a shaky one, but it's realistic, and unfortunately during this time
33:04and where we're at now, anything can happen at any point.
33:13When you have the fans going and the fire roaring, and then you have a helmet and all sorts of
33:19protective gear on, it becomes a lot harder to hear the people around you. Hard to communicate,
33:25hard to just know what's going on and what needs to happen.
33:38I've seen multiple fires. I've seen multiple floods. I've seen multiple toxic gases.
33:41It's never easy. It's never easy. There's always going to be stress implemented. You're always going
33:44to have someone talking to you. You're always going to have someone yelling at you. So we try to
33:47implement the stress to let them know that you're going to have to do this job regardless if you're
33:51stressed or not. So for the wild hose, we simulated that we had a shipmate that got hit inside the
34:03compartment. So we had to shut off that water.
34:30This evolution is for them to take what they've learned and execute and to
34:33show that not just to the staff and to the Navy, but to themselves, that they are capable of doing
34:38those things. We're going to kill the pool, right? We're going to do whatever they require and ask
34:43you to do, right? And we'll go eat chow, finish up the day successfully. And then if you do that,
34:50what do you get to be at the end of the day?
34:52Get it up, seriously.
34:54The most challenging aspect of today was definitely the combat pool and the abandoned ship demonstration.
35:10So all the evolutions, I'd have to say the funnest one was jumping off the platform in the pool in
35:14pitch black. That was pretty, pretty intense. In the combat pools, students jump off a 10 foot
35:20platform once again, but this time in complete darkness.
35:26I was, I'm not going to lie, I was pretty scared. Once they're in the water, they swim to a raft,
35:33carrying their shipmate, playing the role of an injured crewmate.
35:38Things never happen when it's opportune. So in the pitch black, they need to be able to abandon ship,
35:43get through the water, get into that life raft, and then have full accountability for themselves and
35:49their sailors.
36:09Tug of War is just a fun event for them to do. It, once again, is that class building aspect.
36:15They're about to go into a phase of training where they have to count on each other and they have
36:20to be there for each other. We lost both of our tugs, but it was fun to strategize and get one last
36:29push together as a team before we kind of disperse out into our individual billets.
36:33Once battle stations is complete, the candidates are pronounced candidate officers and receive their
36:50billets or jobs for the final phase of their training, applied leadership.
36:55It feels like a weight is off your shoulders to be behind all the classroom stuff, all the real hard
37:07physical things. And I'm really just looking forward to passing down the knowledge, expertise that I've
37:14gained here onto the classes below us.
37:22In this phase, the candidates step into leadership roles at the schoolhouse for two weeks.
37:27In a couple of minutes, the senior officer candidates are going to come out of this building in front of
37:32me and we're going to basically be supervising them. So as you can see, they're pretty self-sufficient.
37:41They they're forming up perfectly just as they are, as they normally do. I mean, you can see they're
37:48like perfectly formed up right now, not requiring a whole lot of instruction. They've been at this for
37:53eight weeks now, so they know what to do.
38:16They're singing cadence, which is great. They're marching. So yeah, this is, this is exactly what
38:21you're going to want when you're transiting from place to place on board train country.
38:39My role as a candidate officer is dealing with the personnel issues and the accountability for
38:45the indoctrination candidates, the most junior class currently at the CS. So basically the main
38:51thing that I'm going to be doing right now is updating the daily muster with the rolls from
38:57ROP this morning. There's a couple that have to come off the list. Admin as an officer in the United
39:05States Navy is a massive part of your job and it's very vital. It allows you to track maintenance to
39:13make sure that the ship, the aircraft, the submarine, any type of vessels that you're working on are able
39:20to perform at its peak and you can't achieve those things without having the paperwork behind it.
39:28And also I'm dealing with student control, which is with any kind of admin issue. I'm basically like
39:35the middleman. It's a wide array of issues that candidates will come up to me about and you chop off
39:41one issue and then five more tickets place. So it can get extremely, extremely busy. And then on top of
39:51that, you've only had the job for a week and a half, two weeks. So you're trying to figure out what is your
39:58responsibility? Who do you go to for certain issues? Working with in docs, it's really one of the hardest
40:05like areas to work in as a candidate officer. But when you accomplish things and get things right,
40:14which isn't always the case, unfortunately, because it's a learning process. But when you do, it's very
40:20rewarding, I would say. Another thing that has been pretty big for me is that I'm not really very well
40:31versed when it comes to using Excel. So it's been a big thing learning how to use Excel from scratch.
40:38Like I've used it before, but not very extensively. And then now I can make an Excel document, a basic one,
40:46no like formulas or anything like that. But just being able to work with it has been a good lesson.
40:52Do you expect Excel to be a tool in your Navy belt?
41:01Eventually. Eventually, that's what I was thinking. Not maybe this soon.
41:11In counseling phase, my official billet title is JOC OPS.
41:15What does that stand for?
41:16Junior Officer Candidate Operations.
41:20Yeah, that's me.
41:25So what I'm doing is I'm putting together, currently I'm trying to put together a schedule for next week.
41:32They have wet and fire trainer. So I'm putting together the groups and figuring out what days
41:37they're going to go so I can get my people working on their box chow, transportation.
41:41Is this kind of what you anticipated joining Officer Candidate School?
41:45There's actually not a whole lot of information about the later phases of Officer Candidate
41:50School. So this was, this was a bit of a, this was new information. I didn't know that this was going
41:58to happen. But from the start when they started talking about what I needed to be by the time I
42:07left OCS, I knew that they were going to have me do something like this.
42:13All right. Do you enjoy admin work?
42:20Do I enjoy admin work?
42:21It's, it's a lot of work, but it's very rewarding. So as much as it may
42:31be draining in the moment, once I see the finished product and I see the results of my work,
42:37I love it.
42:37Do you feel like this is harder than some of like the physical aspects of the training you did earlier?
42:43For me. Yes. Yes, it is. It's much harder.
42:47In what ways?
42:49It just, this is harder than the physical aspects because it takes a lot more
42:57focus and brain housing space. You know, for the physical stuff, they teach you just lock in,
43:06don't out, push through, just keep pushing. All you have to do is keep moving. But here,
43:10you have to not only keep moving, you have to know where all the other moving parts are and work
43:16around them. There's just a lot, a lot more to keep track of.
43:20My parents are coming around to the idea that I am here and I have made this decision to serve my
43:28country. Particularly, my dad is increasingly supportive of it. Before I came here, he gave me
43:34a book on character and I think that's his way of showing me that he respects me and my desire to
43:41come here and try and better myself as a leader and that means a lot to me.
43:47Welcome to Class 01 TAC 266 ship selection. This is an incredible opportunity for the individuals
43:56who are coming through at SWOs, right? There are one community while here that get a 100% say where
44:02they go next. Candidate officers designated as surface warfare officers or SWOs select the ship they
44:10will work on for the next two to three years. Those are the individuals that are always going to be on
44:15ships. They're the ones who are helping run all of those departments and making sure that the ship
44:19functions properly. And the highest ranking class member gets the first choice.
44:35Everyone thinks that the platform they've been on is the best platform and so of course you get a lot
44:40of different inputs. I had the opportunity to choose from a lot of great ships but I chose a destroyer
44:55out of San Diego USS Russell. I'm quite excited and proud to have finished first amongst the SWOs,
45:02but also I would like to add that we all finished really close. It was a really tight margin separating
45:08us all so it's not that I was exceptional, it's that everyone here was quite exceptional.
45:28Today is the day we've all been waiting for, OCS Class 01 TAC 26 graduation day and it's a great day.
45:38I'm excited to welcome our 101 newest graduates into one of the most challenging and fulfilling careers,
45:48that of a naval officer. It's just great seeing them, men and women, just become naval officers and
45:54seeing them from in-doc phase on week one and who they become today and what got these hatches.
45:59Against all enemies, foreign domestic!
46:03Once the student graduates from OCS they're given the title of ensign. An ensign is specific to
46:08officers. It is the 01 for the Navy and for the Coast Guard. A lot of stress has been lifted but then
46:15now the pressure of getting out to the fleet and having to perform for real.
46:20How do you designate as a student to be a leader?
46:22Well, it's been a long time since I've been getting shaved bald with a Dale Earnhardt Jr. shirt on.
46:28I feel like a completely new person and I have a foundation to be a leader. With an improved
46:34amount of confidence, I feel like I have tact to deal with people. At the same time,
46:39my problem-solving skills have increased as well.
46:41My father, first thing he said was the uniform looks sharp. They said I carried myself different,
46:46I spoke to them different. After today, I thank goodness I get to go home on some OHARP duty
46:53until January and then I start supply school.
46:55It was a little bit of sweet. I know for my mom and my dad, seeing me in a uniform for the first time
47:01was special. I could see like maybe a little tear in my mom's eye, you know, a little bit of pride,
47:07a little bit of nervousness for what's what's all about to happen.
47:11As someone who's given them all the tools I think they need to be successful, now I'm sending them
47:16off into the fleet and hoping that they take these skills and everything and perform to the best of
47:22their abilities.
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