OCS Day 6 OUTPOST

Day Six (Friday) OUTPOST

The main evolution of today is Outpost. The format is much like that of the 3rd week RLP, which is as follows:

The Class Officer enters your space and “Attention on deck” is called. DO NOT use ballistics with officers. Other Class Officers enter and proceed to gouge you the “Big Three” Knowledge (General Orders of a Sentry, Code of Conduct, and Chain of Command, which will be discussed later) and inspect your uniform. This first week will be a ton less stressful if you have the big three memorized before arriving at the seawall. Class Officers will not make you push or do any RPT. Simply keep your bearing and do not become frustrated. If you do not know the answer to a question, reply “Sir/Ma’am this Indoctrination Candidate does not know but will find out.” If you make a mistake while answering knowledge questions keep your bearing and remain confident in your answer. This is an important quality to have throughout OCS with regards to required knowledge. Confidence will often give you a second chance to answer the question correctly.

This is the one part of Outpost where you really want to put your best foot forward. You shouldn’t be up all night preparing your locker for inspection. Drill Instructors hardly even look at it. However, you want to make sure you know your knowledge and have a squared away uniform for the Class Officer’s part of the inspection. If you have to stay up after taps the night before, the only things you should be worried about is making sure your uniform is IP free, and reviewing your knowledge. Do not waste sleep making sure your PT gear (or any other item in your locker) is folded to the exact dimensions – that is not what is important now.

You should already have your knowledge memorized verbatim before you get to OCS. This includes everything at the end of this Guide. The Candidate Officer’s will give you Gouge packets with all of the gouge in this Guide plus more. The easiest way to not fall behind is to learn everything you can before you arrive. Do not fall into the trap of trying to cram the night before Outpost. If any studying is done, it should be review only. It is very, very important that you get enough sleep the night before.

Once everyone has been inspected by the Class Officers, they will leave at which time you will call “Attention on deck” again followed by the greeting of the day. You will then wait for the room inspectors to enter (both Drill Instructors and your Chief Petty Officer). Be as loud as you can. Make sure all Officers are out of your space before being ballistic with the Class Drill Instructors. It will be noisy, stressful, and just plain ugly; however, it will last for a maximum of 15 minutes. The Drill Instructors will immediately have you on the deck pushing. While you and your class is pushing, doing flutter kicks, you name it, the rest of the Drill Instructors will ransack your locker finding IP’s (Irish Pennants, which they know full well you have not had time to remove), clothing not folded to the correct specifications, you name it, they will find it. 

Regardless, you are not expected to do well. It is meant to serve as a “welcome to the real world” experience.

After the inspection you will be instructed to pack your sea bag. You should have already filled it the night before with all your extra clothes that weren’t needed for the inspection. Things will still be hectic. Your Drill Instructor will be yelling out commands for you to return to your locker, grab certain items, return to your spot on line and pack it in your sea bag. By the end of this process, your locker will be completely empty. Be prepared to have your things thrown about Squad Bay, and even mixed with other candidate’s stuff. The Drill Instructors love taking your sea bag and dumping everything out and the yelling at candidates to clean everything up. There isn’t time to split everything up, so just be prepared to stuff whatever is on the floor in your bag and have your things mixed with others.

There is one important tip for getting through this evolution. You will have rack drawers on the side of your rack in addition to your wall locker that you can store things in. You will not be required to empty these drawers when you are packing your sea bag. You will come back to Squad Bay later this evening to gather the rest of your things and clean. Therefore, if there is anything that you want to make sure does not get lost or broken, put them in these drawers the night before. You will not have time during the packing of sea bags to ‘organize your things.’ Also, be creative on how you can minimize things being thrown about the room. You will be issued small laundry bags at ‘Poopie Christmas.’ You may consider packing some of your things in these smaller bags and tying them tight before they are placed in your sea bag. Therefore, if your sea bag is dumped, only smaller laundry bags fall on the floor and not all of your clothes. Of course, this should be done the night before.

You will then march over to Battalion and leave your things in your new space. The remainder of the day will be spent in briefs, unpacking, and receiving other issue. What is key at this point is that you recognize the nature of OCS. Each time you complete a difficult and stressful evolution, you will move to something you have to fight falling asleep in. This is how everything works at OCS!

The evening is basically yours. You will spend it unpacking, cleaning, and organizing the mess of clothes the Drill Instructors made. You will also make a trip back to Squad Bay to gather the rest of your things and clean. Try to enjoy this time. Get a good night sleep and drink plenty of water, as Saturday is a physically demanding day.