So it's been 2 weeks since I last wrote you a letter, so there is a lot to fill you in on. I apologize for not writing to you last week, but we didn't get to come to church because we were working on RLP, and the rest of the time was also spent working on RLP. If you have yet to figure out from my letters, church is about the only relaxing time around here. We come from 7-12 and hang around in the waiting room with a tv, 2 phones, and occasionally they bring out donuts. I spend my time calling my parents, watching Sportscenter, going to mass, then spitting out a couple letters. But enough about church, on to RLP.
RLP stands for Room, Locker, and Personal Inspection and it is conducted by about 8 DIs who pick rooms at random and beat you while they tear apart all the stuff you spent the past 4 weeks (about 70 hours in total) getting into perfect shape. There can be no loose threads, no stains, no specs of dust, and no wrinkles on anything. This means you spend hours ironing, folding, and lint rolling. And trust me, it is an absolute bitch to fold your shorts into a perfect 6x6 square that won't move when the DI picks it up to measure it. Furthermore, DIs are not exactly known for their light touch. Basically, the whole thing is a bitch, you can only lose a max of 20 points, usuall 2/3 of the class fails the first time and 10% of the class fails a second. If you fail twice, you roll, and the next class is 5 weeks behind us. There is no more depressing thought than waiting, in the holding company, doing absolutely nothing for 5 weeks, not getting any closer to leaving this place.
To make this whole thing worse, I caught strep throat on Sunday before RLP, which was Thursday. I tried to avoid sick call to make sure I got to do RLP on Thursday, which I would be rolled if I missed. This was a huge mistake as I had to run 2.5 miles in the fast group on Monday. It was the worst run of my life and it took everything had to just finish. I came in about 5 seconds behind the group and I was perpetually worried the DI, who was leading the group, would put me on my face. I finally went to sick call Tuesday, got antibiotics and bed rest on Tuesday and was cleared to continue (I asked to tough it out) on Wednesday.
On Thursday, the first RLP, the DIs busted in the hallway screaming and yelling right after the last note of the national anthem played on the loud speakers. My room was one of hte oens picked first, and my DI beat me relentlessly with rifle exercises while I was forced to scream at the top of my lungs. Furthermore, the more you put out and scream, the easier they are, so I gave it everything I had. Unfortunately, I lost 22 points total, mostly on stupid things, and 2 points because I lost bearing and said what to my DI, which really hurt because without that one I would have passed. Afterwards, they gave all the failures a speech about how we all suck and are trash (it's all a stupid head game, they fail half the class just to stress us out, which works very well). The good news is everyone who passed helps everyone who failed (someone else folded everyone of my clothes) and I managed to get an 87 (minus 13) and the one DI who doesn't beat us on Saturday. I was sweating constanly about rolling, but thankfully that was all for not.
The good one is that everyone says it gets a lot different (not easier, different) now and the changes are for the better. The beatings have dropped from 2-3 times a day to 2-3 times a week, however, the hour of PT every morning is getting really really hard, especially when running in the fast group. The good news is I have dropped 5 more pounds and I am down to 170 now, which is especially impressive when you consider I probably ahve 5 more pounds of water with as much as I hydrate here.
Well, that's about all for my exciting life here. We had a 2 hour picnic here (we didn't do anything beside sit, eat, talk with our classmates and clean up) and I was so hungry and this was my only chance to eat as much as I wanted so I had 3 hamburgers, 3 hot dogs, 3 different types of potato salad, and macaroni salad. It was AWESOME. Plus, I loved the dog story, I think it inspired me to get a golden retriever puppy (I want to call him Mel) after I get out of this place.
I hope everything is going well at work. Take care and I hope to hear from you soon.
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
Sunday, July 26, 2009
Second Letter from Tom
Hey everyone!
Here is the second letter I recently received from Tom from OCS in Rhode Island.
Nicky,
So, where to begin with my ridiculously stressful week, ohhh, I know, how about the beatings. We seriously got beat very hard Monday - Friday this week (It's 3 PM on Saturday as I write this and I sm seriously hoping to avoid another beating today). Tuesday was especially tough, we got beat for 60 minutes straight at one point (keep in mind they are not supposed to do it for more than 10, and 5 minutes in you are exhausted). I heard many people say it was the worst beat down they have ever seen, and keep in mind all of this is on top of the normal PT from 5:30 to 6:30 each morning. This one started in the street when someone forgot to greet a DI, we were beat there in the street, forced to run to a sand pit with our rifles ( about 8 extra pounds and keep in mind we were also in steel toe boots), beat there, forced to fill our pockets with sand, we have 10 pockets, ran to another sand pit (rifles still in hand), where we were beat and hosed down, and then taken back to our hall where we dumped the sand out (it's called being sanded), poured our canteens on the sand, stripped our beds, and then took our mattresses into the hall, then took out our shoelaces annd put them in one large pile and keep in mind we are still being beat (keep in mind being beat is whatever physical exercise they can give you as torture, but you work so hard to keep going, because if you fail, i.e. touch your knees to the ground on push ups, everything just gets worse for your team). This whole beating took about 60 minutes, and was just one of many this week. We were sanded 4 times alone this week and only given 20 minutes to clean up after each, which also typically involves making your bed as he already stripped it.
The beatings are severe, but I know they are making me stronger. The harder part is the mental and emotional stress they put on you here. You always have so much to do and so little time in which to do it. The toughest thing we have coming up is a room, locker, and personal inspection on July 30th, which 2/3 of people fail teh first time, and 10% of people fail twice (and I am not exactly the cleanest person ever and I am starting to freak out).
Note, I just read through this thing and there are tons of spelling errors. That should just let you know how tired I am and how hard I am working to keep on pushing through. The problem is that it affects everything I do, not just letters, and the smallest mistake can lead to a beating. There are about 8 DIs, and a very regimented system for greeting them. If you say one word out of place, you get beat, and I really can't stress enough how horrible the beatings are. He did find a worse form of punishment though, copying chow hall procedures 3 times by hand. It was due the next day, so everyone stayed up all night to finish writing them and still failed to finish, so not only are we in line for a beating, we have no sleep as well.
The rest of our days are taken up with classes, which are a constant struggle to stay awake, and drill. Drill is actually pretty enjoyable except for the fact that our DI is there and usually beats us during it (it is especially hard doing these physical workout beatings with a rifle, as they have all sorts of creative painful exercises for you to do). Though most of these sessions and the postures they make you do are intended to help you learn Drill.
Our biggest problem as a class right now is staying "LOCKED ON" when we are outside our wing. A lot of people will relax when we are outside and trust me when I say that has no good end result. However, there are signs we are starting to come together, but we are no where close to where we need to be yet, and it is costing us dearly. I have no doubts this place is changing me, but rather than turning me into a typical cocky jerk I feel it is instilling in me a certain sense of pride and discipline to ensure the very best of me shines through (I promise I am still the same old "interesting" Tom underneath).
I unfortunately have to go and cut this letter short, but there is so much more I want to tell you. I will leave you with this though, the main thing that gets me through here is the thought of getting to see everyone again and just to be able to be around my friends once more. It really keeps me pushing through all of this shit they put me through here, and I plan to make my first stop after this place LA so I can see everyone once again, and man will I have stories.
Thanks once again for everything, and I greatly look forward to your next letter because it is one of the few things that can get me to smile around here. I hope you guys had a great Bay Area Road Trip and I can't wait to see everyone again.
Sincerely,
Thomas J Curtis
Here is the second letter I recently received from Tom from OCS in Rhode Island.
Nicky,
So, where to begin with my ridiculously stressful week, ohhh, I know, how about the beatings. We seriously got beat very hard Monday - Friday this week (It's 3 PM on Saturday as I write this and I sm seriously hoping to avoid another beating today). Tuesday was especially tough, we got beat for 60 minutes straight at one point (keep in mind they are not supposed to do it for more than 10, and 5 minutes in you are exhausted). I heard many people say it was the worst beat down they have ever seen, and keep in mind all of this is on top of the normal PT from 5:30 to 6:30 each morning. This one started in the street when someone forgot to greet a DI, we were beat there in the street, forced to run to a sand pit with our rifles ( about 8 extra pounds and keep in mind we were also in steel toe boots), beat there, forced to fill our pockets with sand, we have 10 pockets, ran to another sand pit (rifles still in hand), where we were beat and hosed down, and then taken back to our hall where we dumped the sand out (it's called being sanded), poured our canteens on the sand, stripped our beds, and then took our mattresses into the hall, then took out our shoelaces annd put them in one large pile and keep in mind we are still being beat (keep in mind being beat is whatever physical exercise they can give you as torture, but you work so hard to keep going, because if you fail, i.e. touch your knees to the ground on push ups, everything just gets worse for your team). This whole beating took about 60 minutes, and was just one of many this week. We were sanded 4 times alone this week and only given 20 minutes to clean up after each, which also typically involves making your bed as he already stripped it.
The beatings are severe, but I know they are making me stronger. The harder part is the mental and emotional stress they put on you here. You always have so much to do and so little time in which to do it. The toughest thing we have coming up is a room, locker, and personal inspection on July 30th, which 2/3 of people fail teh first time, and 10% of people fail twice (and I am not exactly the cleanest person ever and I am starting to freak out).
Note, I just read through this thing and there are tons of spelling errors. That should just let you know how tired I am and how hard I am working to keep on pushing through. The problem is that it affects everything I do, not just letters, and the smallest mistake can lead to a beating. There are about 8 DIs, and a very regimented system for greeting them. If you say one word out of place, you get beat, and I really can't stress enough how horrible the beatings are. He did find a worse form of punishment though, copying chow hall procedures 3 times by hand. It was due the next day, so everyone stayed up all night to finish writing them and still failed to finish, so not only are we in line for a beating, we have no sleep as well.
The rest of our days are taken up with classes, which are a constant struggle to stay awake, and drill. Drill is actually pretty enjoyable except for the fact that our DI is there and usually beats us during it (it is especially hard doing these physical workout beatings with a rifle, as they have all sorts of creative painful exercises for you to do). Though most of these sessions and the postures they make you do are intended to help you learn Drill.
Our biggest problem as a class right now is staying "LOCKED ON" when we are outside our wing. A lot of people will relax when we are outside and trust me when I say that has no good end result. However, there are signs we are starting to come together, but we are no where close to where we need to be yet, and it is costing us dearly. I have no doubts this place is changing me, but rather than turning me into a typical cocky jerk I feel it is instilling in me a certain sense of pride and discipline to ensure the very best of me shines through (I promise I am still the same old "interesting" Tom underneath).
I unfortunately have to go and cut this letter short, but there is so much more I want to tell you. I will leave you with this though, the main thing that gets me through here is the thought of getting to see everyone again and just to be able to be around my friends once more. It really keeps me pushing through all of this shit they put me through here, and I plan to make my first stop after this place LA so I can see everyone once again, and man will I have stories.
Thanks once again for everything, and I greatly look forward to your next letter because it is one of the few things that can get me to smile around here. I hope you guys had a great Bay Area Road Trip and I can't wait to see everyone again.
Sincerely,
Thomas J Curtis
Saturday, July 25, 2009
First Letter from Tom
Please note, the letter started on really small paper and later he found larger paper so there are some addition notes on the top of a few pages that will be noted by *...* Enjoy!
Nicky,
I apologize for writing to you on this ridiculously small paper, but I am currently at church and this is the first time I have found to write in the past week, and this is the only paper I have to write on. As far as Officer Candidate School is concerned, all I can say is this: everything you read online, everything people tell you about how bad it is can't even describe how down, worn out, and beat you feel as you go through your first week here.
The first week here is called Indoctrination week and its sole purpose is to suck so bad as to force you to quit. The first Sunday we got here we spent about 2 hours filling out paperwork before being taken to the housing dorms, where we were given a 2 minute speech on how to properly tie your shoes, which closed with "Welcome to OCS" followed by 20 Candidate Officers storming through a door and screaming at us at the top of their lungs. The rest of the day was spent being verbally berated, not being allowed to talk to anyone (which is often the hardest part), and being forced to stand at attention, and sit on the first 1/3 of your chair. Basically, the whole point of the first day is to get you to question the strength of your committment to this program, and absolutely everyone has the thought "What the fuck am I doing here?"
The next couple of days were far easier, except for staving off boredom because you still are not allowed to talk to anyone, or use personal pronouns like I or we. The worst part about Monday and Tuesday was the suspense building up over the three "Evolutions" we had coming up on Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday. What compounded this was the Candidate Officers kept giving us little tantilizing hints about the hell we were about to go through.
When wake up Wednesday came, we were woken up at 4:30 AM by our DI, Gunnary Sergeant Milender, United States Marine Core (which of course was our first time meeting *Note: Found bigger paper* our Drill Instructor. They pulled us out of our wing into the hall, where every Drill Instructor here (there are about 8), proceeded to beat us (By making us do push ups, sit ups, jumping jacks, all that fun stuff) for about five minutes, then we were taken outside, ran around, and then were promptly beat by about 8 DIs again. The hardest part about these beating sessions is being forced to sound off at the top of your lungs continually and not ever being allowed to wipe your face. This means you are screaming at the top of your lungs, doing push ups, and having sweat drip down your face into your eyes, burning them. If you touch your face or drop your knees to the ground, the beating session just gets worse. However, the worst part of wake-up Wednesday was our beating session just before lunch. he got pissed at us, so we heard "Get on your face" and got beat up in our wing, were forcedto strip our sheets and bring them into the hall, one in each hand and one in the mouth. Then we had to go inside, grab out mattresses and bring the out in the hall in 10 seconds. Following this we went to the sand pit (he calls it his rose garden), filled every pocket with sand (we have 8), did push ups, sit ups, and ran for 10 more minutes. Next, we went back to our wing, dumped the sand all over the floor, and then did more push ups in another beating session. We were then given 20 minutes to clean up all the sand and remake every rack (which is made far harder by the fact that they all need to have hospital corners). I don't think any of us have ever cleaned up faster in our lives, and we did it with 2 minutes to spare.
Outpost and Welcome Aboard Friday and Saturday were similar, with us getting beaten up every day by every DI once again. For Outpost, we were verbally berated by the officers first (I think they even got a couple guys to cry), then the DIs beat us, forced us to run around with our full seabags, and stopped periodically to beat us. Unfortunately we lost our first team member this day as she could not complete the run and got rolled. Welcome Aboard was similar, we woke up at 4:30 AM and got beat in every wing of a 3-story building, were taken to another sand pit and hosed down with a fire hose while being beaten. We actually lost another guy later that day after he passed out from heat exhaustion after another beating.
Then nice part though is that we are finally with the rest of the regiment and are actually being treated like actualy people by them finally. I know after making it through this first week I will be able to get through the rest of this, you just have to be dedicated to becoming a Naval Officer. However, this is made far easier by the pride I get everyday putting on my uniform (which they just started letting us wear yesterday). One note, the Navy switchec over to blue camoflauge uniforms as the working uniform (I still get summer whites and dress whites though) which doesn't seem to make much sense given that it means you blend into the water if you ever fall off the ship. Apparently they are great for boarding ships at night or generally sneaking around at night (great burglary uniforms).
A few other random notes, you get 3 minute bathroom calls, eat everything with a spoon in a very regimented process, get about 5 hours of sleep every night, stink hideously, and are generally just beat down everyday. They say here you live chow hall to chow hall, which I can easily attest to. I can say with confidence this is the hardest thing I have ever done, but I am determined to make it through. I will say this though, after this, if I ever see a Marine Core DI again, I am going to turn and run for the hills.
Anyways, that is just a small portion of what life is like for me here and I know it is a lot of rambling and full of misspellings, but keep in mind I am sleep deprived and stressed to no end. I would really love to hear about what is going on with you and everyone else in ASCE, it would be a welcome escape from this palce. I hope you guys have a great Bay Area Road Trip, drink lots of booze for me, and let everyone in ASCE know I miss them and can't wait to see them again. (I believe my graduation is September 27th, so I am going to try to be in LA if I can for a few days after that. I know that is a long way away, but just a heads up).
Sincerely,
TJ Curtis
Nicky,
I apologize for writing to you on this ridiculously small paper, but I am currently at church and this is the first time I have found to write in the past week, and this is the only paper I have to write on. As far as Officer Candidate School is concerned, all I can say is this: everything you read online, everything people tell you about how bad it is can't even describe how down, worn out, and beat you feel as you go through your first week here.
The first week here is called Indoctrination week and its sole purpose is to suck so bad as to force you to quit. The first Sunday we got here we spent about 2 hours filling out paperwork before being taken to the housing dorms, where we were given a 2 minute speech on how to properly tie your shoes, which closed with "Welcome to OCS" followed by 20 Candidate Officers storming through a door and screaming at us at the top of their lungs. The rest of the day was spent being verbally berated, not being allowed to talk to anyone (which is often the hardest part), and being forced to stand at attention, and sit on the first 1/3 of your chair. Basically, the whole point of the first day is to get you to question the strength of your committment to this program, and absolutely everyone has the thought "What the fuck am I doing here?"
The next couple of days were far easier, except for staving off boredom because you still are not allowed to talk to anyone, or use personal pronouns like I or we. The worst part about Monday and Tuesday was the suspense building up over the three "Evolutions" we had coming up on Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday. What compounded this was the Candidate Officers kept giving us little tantilizing hints about the hell we were about to go through.
When wake up Wednesday came, we were woken up at 4:30 AM by our DI, Gunnary Sergeant Milender, United States Marine Core (which of course was our first time meeting *Note: Found bigger paper* our Drill Instructor. They pulled us out of our wing into the hall, where every Drill Instructor here (there are about 8), proceeded to beat us (By making us do push ups, sit ups, jumping jacks, all that fun stuff) for about five minutes, then we were taken outside, ran around, and then were promptly beat by about 8 DIs again. The hardest part about these beating sessions is being forced to sound off at the top of your lungs continually and not ever being allowed to wipe your face. This means you are screaming at the top of your lungs, doing push ups, and having sweat drip down your face into your eyes, burning them. If you touch your face or drop your knees to the ground, the beating session just gets worse. However, the worst part of wake-up Wednesday was our beating session just before lunch. he got pissed at us, so we heard "Get on your face" and got beat up in our wing, were forcedto strip our sheets and bring them into the hall, one in each hand and one in the mouth. Then we had to go inside, grab out mattresses and bring the out in the hall in 10 seconds. Following this we went to the sand pit (he calls it his rose garden), filled every pocket with sand (we have 8), did push ups, sit ups, and ran for 10 more minutes. Next, we went back to our wing, dumped the sand all over the floor, and then did more push ups in another beating session. We were then given 20 minutes to clean up all the sand and remake every rack (which is made far harder by the fact that they all need to have hospital corners). I don't think any of us have ever cleaned up faster in our lives, and we did it with 2 minutes to spare.
Outpost and Welcome Aboard Friday and Saturday were similar, with us getting beaten up every day by every DI once again. For Outpost, we were verbally berated by the officers first (I think they even got a couple guys to cry), then the DIs beat us, forced us to run around with our full seabags, and stopped periodically to beat us. Unfortunately we lost our first team member this day as she could not complete the run and got rolled. Welcome Aboard was similar, we woke up at 4:30 AM and got beat in every wing of a 3-story building, were taken to another sand pit and hosed down with a fire hose while being beaten. We actually lost another guy later that day after he passed out from heat exhaustion after another beating.
Then nice part though is that we are finally with the rest of the regiment and are actually being treated like actualy people by them finally. I know after making it through this first week I will be able to get through the rest of this, you just have to be dedicated to becoming a Naval Officer. However, this is made far easier by the pride I get everyday putting on my uniform (which they just started letting us wear yesterday). One note, the Navy switchec over to blue camoflauge uniforms as the working uniform (I still get summer whites and dress whites though) which doesn't seem to make much sense given that it means you blend into the water if you ever fall off the ship. Apparently they are great for boarding ships at night or generally sneaking around at night (great burglary uniforms).
A few other random notes, you get 3 minute bathroom calls, eat everything with a spoon in a very regimented process, get about 5 hours of sleep every night, stink hideously, and are generally just beat down everyday. They say here you live chow hall to chow hall, which I can easily attest to. I can say with confidence this is the hardest thing I have ever done, but I am determined to make it through. I will say this though, after this, if I ever see a Marine Core DI again, I am going to turn and run for the hills.
Anyways, that is just a small portion of what life is like for me here and I know it is a lot of rambling and full of misspellings, but keep in mind I am sleep deprived and stressed to no end. I would really love to hear about what is going on with you and everyone else in ASCE, it would be a welcome escape from this palce. I hope you guys have a great Bay Area Road Trip, drink lots of booze for me, and let everyone in ASCE know I miss them and can't wait to see them again. (I believe my graduation is September 27th, so I am going to try to be in LA if I can for a few days after that. I know that is a long way away, but just a heads up).
Sincerely,
TJ Curtis
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
First Update from Tom!
Hey everyone!
Quick update, I received an e-mail from Tom this morning. He said he didn't have much computer access or much time and that his e-mail account was monitored very closely, but he sent a quick hello. He said that it is very tough, but he knows he will make it through. He also has a letter in the mail, so I will post another update as soon as I get news from Tom.
I think letters from all of us really mean a lot to him, so if you have time, I really encourage everyone to write even a quick note to Tom.
Have a great weekend and I am looking forward to seeing all of you soon!
~Nicky
Quick update, I received an e-mail from Tom this morning. He said he didn't have much computer access or much time and that his e-mail account was monitored very closely, but he sent a quick hello. He said that it is very tough, but he knows he will make it through. He also has a letter in the mail, so I will post another update as soon as I get news from Tom.
I think letters from all of us really mean a lot to him, so if you have time, I really encourage everyone to write even a quick note to Tom.
Have a great weekend and I am looking forward to seeing all of you soon!
~Nicky
Saturday, July 4, 2009
Tom's class number... 28-09
Hey everyone!
Tom has arrived safe and sound in Newport Rhode Island and is preparing for his training, which does in fact start tomorrow as he gets his hair cut and gets everything ready for OCS. More exciting news, I have his class number now, so instead of XX-XX, please use 28-09 on all mail if you are sending him anything.
Enjoy the remainder of your Fourth of July!
~Nicky
Tom has arrived safe and sound in Newport Rhode Island and is preparing for his training, which does in fact start tomorrow as he gets his hair cut and gets everything ready for OCS. More exciting news, I have his class number now, so instead of XX-XX, please use 28-09 on all mail if you are sending him anything.
Enjoy the remainder of your Fourth of July!
~Nicky
Tom left today for OCS in Rhode Island
Hello everyone!
Tom left this morning to fly out to Newport, Rhode Island to begin his training in Officer Candidate School (OCS). He will begin his three months of intense training on July 6th. He will be able to send and receive letters via snail mail. Tom has told me he will send me letters to share with everyone, so I will be posting them here.
Also, I highly encourage everyone to send him letters too as he will appreciate them and I am sure they will help brighten his long days out there. One disclaimer though, all of his mail is read by his superiors before he receives it, so please, please, please, keep all the jokes and inappropriate comments that are commonly thrown around, especially at ASCE functions, out of the letters since we don't want to get him into any hot water out there. His mailing addres is below:
OC Thomas Curtis
Officer Candidate School
Class XX-XX
Officer Training Command Newport
291 Kolimeyer Street
Newport, RI 02841-1641
We do not know his class number yet, that will replace the X's. I will let you know once I have the information.
Also, I can include comments and responses from you in response to Tom's letters as well.
Thanks for all your support and let's get ready to welcome Tom back in October!
~Nicky
Tom left this morning to fly out to Newport, Rhode Island to begin his training in Officer Candidate School (OCS). He will begin his three months of intense training on July 6th. He will be able to send and receive letters via snail mail. Tom has told me he will send me letters to share with everyone, so I will be posting them here.
Also, I highly encourage everyone to send him letters too as he will appreciate them and I am sure they will help brighten his long days out there. One disclaimer though, all of his mail is read by his superiors before he receives it, so please, please, please, keep all the jokes and inappropriate comments that are commonly thrown around, especially at ASCE functions, out of the letters since we don't want to get him into any hot water out there. His mailing addres is below:
OC Thomas Curtis
Officer Candidate School
Class XX-XX
Officer Training Command Newport
291 Kolimeyer Street
Newport, RI 02841-1641
We do not know his class number yet, that will replace the X's. I will let you know once I have the information.
Also, I can include comments and responses from you in response to Tom's letters as well.
Thanks for all your support and let's get ready to welcome Tom back in October!
~Nicky
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
