I got accepted! Ya!! Alright so I got to the recruiting station at 0500 Friday and we were on the road back to MEPS by 0530. When we arrived at MEPS we were greeted by the good 'ol hurry-up and wait game (again). We got there around 0900 and I was sent to a room with 4 other officer candidate (2 guys, 2 girls). About 2 hours later I was the first person called in to be reviewed by the board.
My recruiter was so nervous he paced the hall back and forth trying to give me some hints and tips before I went in. He pretty much said to be polite, never say "yeah," and be specific when asked about prior leadership experiences.
Finally one of the officers called me in. I felt pretty comfortable and confident all the way up until I sat down in front of them. They showed absolutely no reactions on their faces (positive or negative). They asked questions jotted notes then asked more questions. The questions were like... "Why do you want to be an officer?"..."How have you reacted in the past when a subordinate has been put at your level?"..."What was your most difficult college class and why?"..."What was a difficult choice you had to recently made and what was your thought process in making it?" They asked more questions but they were along the general gist of my leadership experience and my future goals. I tried making a joke but they did not laugh. When they asked me about my most difficult class I said, "Hebrew Prophetic Literature. Just hearing the name sounds scary!" Yeah they did not look pleased. I quickly changed my response and gave them a serious answer. As I was leaving one of the officers smiled and said "Hebrew Prophetic Lit does sound pretty scary."
There were 3 officers and they each had a scoring card. The cards had 9 different scoring areas totaling a possible 75 points. Later my recruiter found out that I maxed board! All 3 officers gave me 75 points. That's just the 2nd time for an OCS candidate to max the board from my recruiting station.
The rest of the day was pretty easy. I signed my contract, swore in, and came back home. I am now officially an OCS candidate and part of the US Army! :-D
Hey, I just stumbled across your blog while searching for board interview info. Congrats on your progress! I have my interview scheduled September 3rd and I can't wait! I'll be following your blog to see how you are doing, good luck :)
ReplyDeleteHi LC - As long as you have a passion to be an officer and show confidence then you should have no problem. The officers doing the interview will look mean and tough on the exterior but really they just want to see how you handle pressure. I'm sure you'll do great, good luck!
ReplyDeleteHi Meg, I am going for my interview this afternoon and just found your blog while I was frantically googling for advice! I'm a female Army OCS candidate also ... maybe we will meet at Basic or OCS. Best of luck to you. Jeannie
ReplyDeleteAwesome! How did your interview go? Do you know when your ship date is and where you'll be going for basic?
ReplyDeleteHey, I was looking for others who are going for OCS too and I came across this. It seems like your board had more difficult questions than my board did. Perhaps this is because I have less experiences in my life. Anyway, good luck in OCS!! When do you go to BCT? I leave for basic March 09, 2010 in Fort Jackson and OCS will be in Fort Benning.
ReplyDeleteBTW...my name is Diana. Maybe we'll meet up.
Hey, Meg I leaving for OCS February 18. If you are already at ocs can you please let me know about the Water Combat Survival test andthe land Navigation. How are they? Hard?
ReplyDeleteLT Wingard, I must say I am quite amused by your "Hebrew Prophetic Literature" response. I'm a Captain that serves on a number of OCS boards each year and I must say that I wish you were one of my selectees. OCS boards are so serious, I want to throw up. That's a good sense of humor you have there. I recommend you keep it in check when in certian situations (you'll develop the sense of when you should and shouldn't use it), but don't abandon it. We have enough officers in the Army that lack good humor.
ReplyDeleteIf I might take a minute to also answer Benileo's question about the Combat Water Swim Test and Land Nav. The CWST comprises of jumping backwards into a pool from the high diving board with full uniform, boots, some type of Load bearing vest, and a dummy rifle. The test here is to see if you will do it. The second part of the test requires you to tread water and then swim to the pool edge. There is no proper form. Just stay above water and not drowning is the key to this one. Sometimes you are allowed to strip off the gear and boots to make water movement easier. The other tests are swimming a lap or two with your uniform and boots on (speed and form are not of consequence). You really shouldn't be concerned unless you can't swim at all. Even if that is the case, you aren't going to get sent home. CWST's for Ranger school and Special Ops units are MUCH more difficult and are really where you hear some horror stories from. Failing a CWST in these school will get you sent home (well kicked out of the school at least).
As for Land Nav, you will get the basics in Basic Training and then a week or so is dedicated during OCS. You'll start out learning land nav during daylight hours in buddy pairs (and they try to pair up strong/experienced navigators with newbies). Every day you will get a map, compass and a list of grid points where you need to navigate to, stamp your nav point paper (there is a unique stamp at each station) and move on to the next point. At the end of navigation training there is a day and night test that you need to conduct solo. You'll get 8-10 points on a list at which point you need to determine how you are going to go from station to station. You'll have to be smart about what path you plot out because you'll be traversing many miles and the only real way to determine where you are is to maintain a good pace count from your last point. Having good measurements on your map is key. You won't be allowed to talk to anyone during the test and no one persons test is the same, so cheating is difficult.
I setup a Gmail email account if anyone wants to ping me with other questions about, well... anything. CAPTAINKMERICA@GMAIL.COM.