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I thought all NG OCS candidates went to the state OCS? Maybe you mean reservists, who go to federal OCS, which has somehow managed to produce many of the shittier reserve officers I have had the displeasure of working with. Which is not a condemnation of the program as a whole, but may be related to the fact that prior-service reservists don't go through OCS (they go through direct commission or ROTC), so the selection pool doesn't benefit from that the way AD and NG OCS does.
psydude fucked around with this message at 22:05 on May 18, 2015 |
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May 18, 2015 21:58
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Some do, some go to federal OCS. AD is only like 45% of my class. The rest is mostly NG with some reserve thrown in. Some states accept OCS applicants like active does and actually has OCS boards but some will send anyone with a pulse and a degree to OCS, they're usually the poo poo bags. Well not really poo poo bags but they don't do well here, a lot of them got recycled during the FTX for failing their squad lanes.
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May 18, 2015 22:05
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Can confirm NG at federal OCS, thats how I met a lot of my NG buddies. Also most Nobles are lovely regardless of commission source but I prefer OCS>DC>ROTC>USMA personally.
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May 18, 2015 23:42
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USMA is bottom of the loving barrel, and they only get worse as they get promoted.
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May 18, 2015 23:50
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hahaha yeah the fat old lazy national guard and reserve guys who joined by accident thinking they wouldnt get deployed and so they could supplement their unemployment with healthcare for their 7 kids are definitely the best of the best of the best, with honors.
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May 18, 2015 23:58
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I've already had a West Pointer here at Benning tell some of us officer candidates that we're going to need to work hard at BOLC because we'll be going in at a disadvantage due to our merely 3 month long OCS course. How do I know this particular 2LT went to West Point? Because he made sure to tell us he went to West Point.
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May 19, 2015 00:25
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the only thing worst than west point grads are west point grads with a family lineage of going to west point. I don't have any anecdotal evidence of it or anything but it's an assumption of mine.
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May 19, 2015 01:42
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the problem with west point grads is the superiority complex. most of the officers i met were generally super-motto idiots, and most of the good officers didn't want to put up with the bullshit and never made it past O-3 before getting out, but the west pointers always thought they were better than everyone else, when really they were just as lovely. like that south park episode smug alert where everyone sniffs their farts. that episode is a good metaphor for west pointers as well as prius drivers.
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May 19, 2015 01:51
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Benning puts on the Master Gunnery course right? Seems like the first course I'd aim for if I was an armor officer, at least it would be the most applicable next to ARC. I always heard rumors that master gunnery can land you a sweet gig with General Dynamics afterwards but I doubt they'd hire someone just because they know how to shoot big gun gud.
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May 19, 2015 03:06
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At least with Bradleys master gunnery was more than shut gud. Our one master gunner was supposed to be the subject matter expert for the entire batallion when it came to the 25mm bushmaster cannon. Things like level 2 maintenance or whatever the gently caress poo poo like that.
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May 19, 2015 03:22
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Never met a master gunner who wasn't an E7/E8. One of my old first sergeants said it's a very intense school- lots of studying, hard paper exams, and then practical examinations identifying and fixing faults in the fire control system of the tank. Like way deep in the wiring and prism components. Final exam was to come up with a year-long training plan to take the battalion from pre-gunnery all the way through Table VIII quals and present it to a board.
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May 19, 2015 03:34
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Justin Tyme posted:Benning puts on the Master Gunnery course right? Seems like the first course I'd aim for if I was an armor officer, at least it would be the most applicable next to ARC. Or focus on getting some real skills instead for when that contract gets cut and GD inevitably lays your rear end off because they're notorious for giving zero fucks about their employees. Cole posted:the problem with west point grads is the superiority complex. most of the officers i met were generally super-motto idiots, and most of the good officers didn't want to put up with the bullshit and never made it past O-3 before getting out, but the west pointers always thought they were better than everyone else, when really they were just as lovely. like that south park episode smug alert where everyone sniffs their farts. that episode is a good metaphor for west pointers as well as prius drivers. A lot of officers, whether they come from OCS, ROTC, or West Point, have never actually had a manager, let alone been one. The officer training programs love to stress this leadership bullshit, but let's be honest: nobody in the Army considers you as a "leader" in the colloquial sense until you're, at a minimum, a battalion commander. Until then you're analogous to maybe a division manager at a real company. So forget all about the leadership and army values and officer values bullshit, your only responsibilities are learning what the gently caress is going on, taking care of paperwork, and coordinating support so that your Joes and your NCOs can do their jobs. This applies to company commanders too, except people give you a little more respect because you can technically punish them legally. Most officers don't get this, because most junior officers have never worked a real job and had some douchebag with an MBA put in charge of them making retarded decisions. The Army has never bothered to train them how to manage, but rather it's taught them about this abstract notion of "leadership" by making them read about the most brilliant strategists in history despite the fact that their first assignment of any consequence after they finish their brief stint in the S3 shop messing up everyone's convoy requests will consist of being put in charge of a bunch of teenagers whose immediate goals in life are dipping, leasing rims for whatever category of lovely vehicle they drive, and getting married at 19. Nobody wants to loving hear you speak for 15 minutes at the end of the workday. Nobody cares about your reading list. Nobody gives a poo poo about your metrics. No, you don't know better than your NCOs (unless you do, because plenty of NCOs are retarded too, but good luck figuring out which ones are and which ones aren't when you have no frame of reference). A few officers do get all of this, and, as you said, they get fed up with all of the systemic poo poo so they leave and go some place that pays them more money and doesn't hold them personally responsible every time one of their employees does something dumb on the weekend. psydude fucked around with this message at 03:40 on May 19, 2015 |
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May 19, 2015 03:38
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3 SIRs in my platoon last weekend. 3. I give up. gently caress this.
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May 19, 2015 05:06
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TheAlphaChaser posted:3 SIRs in my platoon last weekend. 3. I give up. gently caress this. please tell us what they are please
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May 19, 2015 05:35
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Suicide attempt, DUI annnnnnnnnd a rape???
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May 19, 2015 05:36
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psydude posted:A lot of officers, whether they come from OCS, ROTC, or West Point, have never actually had a manager, let alone been one. The officer training programs love to stress this leadership bullshit, but let's be honest: nobody in the Army considers you as a "leader" in the colloquial sense until you're, at a minimum, a battalion commander. Until then you're analogous to maybe a division manager at a real company. So forget all about the leadership and army values and officer values bullshit, your only responsibilities are learning what the gently caress is going on, taking care of paperwork, and coordinating support so that your Joes and your NCOs can do their jobs. This applies to company commanders too, except people give you a little more respect because you can technically punish them legally.  This wasn't always true. Prior to the 1990s, company-grade officers had a lot more opportunity to make their own decisions and set their own training plans and just be judged on results. As computers, and then e-mail took hold it became much easier for higher-level staffs to track and monitor details they would have been overwhelmed by in the past. Today, instead of a commander just briefing "I have X number of soldiers in this situation and Y in that situation" and letting his 1SG worry about the details with his platoon sergeants, now the commander is expected to parrot back the details of each individual minor issue in his company, or even battalion, on command and to take a personal interest in each one. This is why you get endless programs and briefings you have to monitor at the individual level. The ability to monitor it feeds a need to monitor it, and the ability to see every time PFC Shitlord rides his unicylce at night without a helmet or reflective vest means that sure enough, we need a Commander's Unicycle Safety Program after he gets run the gently caress over doing it. The programs are designed to LOOK like they're caring for the Soldier but they are really there so generals can be seen to be Doing Something About The Rampant <insert problem here> In The Military. Even the Army Values are like that - they are not really about the values, they are about protecting the public image of clean-cut American heros.
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May 19, 2015 05:47
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"Everything is a commander's program" 
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May 19, 2015 13:55
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Already have my ABOLC date, Oct 4. So what do they have guys sitting around waiting for classes to start do? Especially for 3 and a half months.
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May 19, 2015 21:04
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Details. Have fun!
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May 19, 2015 21:50
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Mustang posted:Already have my ABOLC date, Oct 4. So what do they have guys sitting around waiting for classes to start do? Especially for 3 and a half months. You'll be spending lots of quality time with West Pointers that are in the same boat. I hope you like playing flip cup, drinking lovely beer, and listening to T-Swift!
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May 19, 2015 23:25
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Mustang posted:Already have my ABOLC date, Oct 4. So what do they have guys sitting around waiting for classes to start do? Especially for 3 and a half months. They used to have a thing called "snowbirding" where you worked for a major or something like that doing busywork, which was actually a sweet deal since you'd work till about 1430 each day and then gently caress off. Generally the major just wanted to keep you busy enough to keep you and him out of trouble and for you to leave him alone.
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May 19, 2015 23:27
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Mustang posted:I've already had a West Pointer here at Benning tell some of us officer candidates that we're going to need to work hard at BOLC because we'll be going in at a disadvantage due to our merely 3 month long OCS course. How do I know this particular 2LT went to West Point? Because he made sure to tell us he went to West Point. he's a dumbshit. bolc is so easy that it borders on physical pain. i'm talking ebolc where we had a guy fail because he didn't know you do the math in the parenthesis first. pemdas. god drat. I never studied for poo poo and had to strain to pay attention in class at all and passed everything with no issues. The physical stuff is whatever. The leadership stuff is whatever if you can breathe and walk at the same time and if you can manage to tell somebody to do something and maintain eye contact. OCS was more difficult than bolc. an OPORD is not difficult nor is doing a squad mission where you execute a drill and just do what you're trained.
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May 19, 2015 23:54
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Mustang posted:Already have my ABOLC date, Oct 4. So what do they have guys sitting around waiting for classes to start do? Especially for 3 and a half months. When I went through a year and an half ago, there was a tank "museum" on sand hill run by a retired marine dude that some ABOLC snowbirds worked at for a while. Seemed mostly like cleaning out rusting old M60s in an empty lot, but they said it was a fun gig if you can make it out there and see if they need any help.
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May 20, 2015 00:18
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benem posted:When I went through a year and an half ago, there was a tank "museum" on sand hill run by a retired marine dude that some ABOLC snowbirds worked at for a while. Seemed mostly like cleaning out rusting old M60s in an empty lot, but they said it was a fun gig if you can make it out there and see if they need any help. I know exacctly where that is, my BCT was right next to it. Looked pretty cool, lots of old foreign stuff, will definitely try to see if I can help out there. Snow birding for 3 months sounds pretty cool after months of BCT and OCS. psydude posted:You'll be spending lots of quality time with West Pointers that are in the same boat. I hope you like playing flip cup, drinking lovely beer, and listening to T-Swift! I drank more than enough lovely beer in college, I'll have to teach those West Pointers a thing or too about good beer if they're willing to listen.
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May 20, 2015 00:42
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Mustang posted:West Pointers ... willing to listen. lol
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May 20, 2015 00:53
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May 20, 2015 00:54
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benem posted:When I went through a year and an half ago, there was a tank "museum" on sand hill run by a retired marine dude that some ABOLC snowbirds worked at for a while. Seemed mostly like cleaning out rusting old M60s in an empty lot, but they said it was a fun gig if you can make it out there and see if they need any help. I can't remember if he managed it or not, but my old first sergeant may have ended up working there after he get QSP'd because he was, you know, fuckin' useful. And before that he was the one who was in charge of getting those old rear end tank(s?) up and ready for that screening of Fury when Brad Pitt and that other little cock sucker showed up for. If you can get a detail out there and have him to talk to you've got a fuckin' story telling machine that will keep you entertained for months.
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May 20, 2015 01:46
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psydude posted:Nobody cares about your reading list. Why, why in the gently caress are these allowed to exist? Jesus loving tapdancing christ on a pogo stick, NOBODY GIVE A SIDEWAYS FLYING gently caress ABOUT YOUR READING LIST. These things infuriated me merely by existing. I get steadily less and less coherent in my ranting about them because they piss me off much more than they should, even as I soak up GI Bill benefits, get fat and refuse to shave. I'm done, they shouldn't bother me anymore. They really shouldn't but I guess it's an echo of frustrations passed.
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May 20, 2015 02:05
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My CG has a link to his reading list on the front page of the program we use daily. Like seriously cool you read malcom gladwell, I'm glad excelsior university has books in its curriculum
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May 20, 2015 02:23
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psydude posted:Or focus on getting some real skills instead for when that contract gets cut and GD inevitably lays your rear end off because they're notorious for giving zero fucks about their employees. Maybe you can tell me how I should have tactfully approached my cherry PL when he told me "it's not like I've been to ranger school or anything" when we were doing a mock patrol during a field exercise? My response was "that's cool sir, Ranger school isn't the real world." E: I remember my response because it was bolded on my negative counseling statement. Cole fucked around with this message at 02:34 on May 20, 2015 |
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May 20, 2015 02:32
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uhhh ITS THE PREMIER LEADERshiP COURSE you loving peasant
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May 20, 2015 02:35
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Cole posted:"that's cool sir, Ranger school isn't the real world." You made a valid point about ranger school being useless and all you got was a negative counseling statement? I'm surprised every mototard officer and CSM within 1000 miles didn't descend on you all at once to pick your bones clean 
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May 20, 2015 02:42
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Icon Of Sin posted:You made a valid point about ranger school being useless and all you got was a negative counseling statement? I'm surprised every mototard officer and CSM within 1000 miles didn't descend on you all at once to pick your bones clean the reason i got it was for disrespecting my PL. my plan of action was stupid poo poo like teaching the privates the importance of following orders.
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May 20, 2015 02:45
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So I'm sitting here finishing my laundry and I have to say I'm really looking forward to having my own place again next month. It will be great not having to ranger roll my clothes since I can't use my drawers like a normal human being, those are only for static displays that must be inspection ready at all times. I live out of duffel bags like a hobo despite having a closet and drawers.
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May 20, 2015 02:57
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is ranger rolling just rolling your shirts and socks? Because thats the stupidest loving name for something thats like BCT day one poo poo.
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May 20, 2015 03:03
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Yes.
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May 20, 2015 03:04
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RANGERS DO THIS also every soldier since 1938
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May 20, 2015 03:04
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gently caress YOU you took our SPECIAL BLACK BERETS SO NOW WE USE TAN BERETS AND gently caress YOU EVERYTHING IS RANGER THIS RANGER THAT RANGERRRRRR RAAAAAAPPPPEEEEEE!
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May 20, 2015 03:05
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Everything was Ranger this and Ranger that before Shinseki's brilliant "gee, Rangers wear black berets and have a lot of esprit de corps.. maybe the berets are magic and giving EVERYONE a beret will make them feel the same way!" idea. General officers believe in magic. It used to be things like Ranger roll and Ranger pudding; these days it's "warrior", "Combat", "leader" or "battle". BATTLE assembly. Extended COMBAT training. WARRIOR LEADERs course. Basic Officer LEADER course. and so forth. Because every program is better if you just say the magic words.
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May 20, 2015 03:40
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IDK like a hundred years ago I went to basic we were just told to roll our socks and shirts. i've never heard it called that so its funny. I've been accused of RANGER ROLLING my hat but thats just because i'm not going to be a fag and have it starched and I smash it down, suck my dick I DO WHAT I WANT I"M A GROwn rear end MAN
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May 20, 2015 03:44
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