So I arrived in Newport in mid may to begin training. First is a five week "mini-boot camp" designed to teach officers who commission directly (doctors, lawyers, dentists, chaplains, etc.) how to be an officer in the navy. The second I walked in I felt like i was back in college in the dorms. I had a small room with a bed, closet, and desk. My roomate had the exact same thing on his side of the room. In our hall there were about 24 identical rooms, all filled with doctors, lawers, nurses, chaplains and other similar types who were there so they wouldn't enter the navy completely clueless.
Many of us had been warned that they would wake us up early the first morning to start yelling at us and making us run and do push-ups. So we decided to wake up early so we were already prepared. That night, I think they purposely turned up the heat in the building. It was extremely hot, the radiator made strange noises (I still think there is somethink living in there), and we were all apprehensive so none of us slept. But we were up at about 4 am and ready to go. Nobody showed up until about 5:30am. And even then, the day was spent dealing with administrative stuff. Waiting in lines all day on little sleep. . .that was fun. But, we made it through. Finally we went to bed, and fortunately I slept quite well. About 3:30am we heard the cheifs who would be instructing us come down the hall banging on doors and yelling all kinds of words I had never heard before but all consisted of four letters, telling us that if we weren't out of bed and ready to go in 30 seconds we would all pay. So there we were. Half asleep, confused, nervous. It was great. Then we started the push-ups. Anything we did wrong (which was everything since we knew nothing about how to behave in the Navy) was rewarded with push-ups. Anything we did right was somehow twisted by the chiefs into some reason to make us do push-ups. Though I was pretty tired, I had a good time with it. After about an hour of push-ups and flutter kicks we had learned through trial and error how to address a superior officer as well as enlisted, how to stand, and proper military bearing. After that we went down to the track for our first physical fitness test. The chiefs later bragged about how every group had improved so much from the first test to the last. All in all we really didn't exercise all that vigorously, but nobody did all that great on their first test because we were sleep deprived and exhausted from an hour of push-ups and sit-ups.
This was to be the structure of things for the first week. Wake up, exercise, come back to the barracks, shower (we had to get 140 people showered in 15 minutes, using only abou 7 showers, so we had to cram three or four people into a shower stall at once. . .just kidding). Our rooms had to be immaculate. We soon learned that you made your bed, then slept on top of it so that you wouldn't have to remake it. . .just tighten it up. The garbage can and desk were ornamental items and were never used either. Despite all our efforts our rooms would still be tossed just because the chiefs thought it was funny. Then they would yell at us and tell us to get it clean in 15 minutes.
Then there was the pit. The pit was the instrument of torture that we were threatened with constantly. We didn't actually go to the pit until after our first room inspection. But, oh was it worth the wait. The pit is like a really big sand volleyball court, but without the net. We would spread out in the sand and do our exercises. What made it even more fun was the fact that there are geese and seagulls everywhere, so the sand box looked a little more like a litter box. And here we were rolling around in it. The chiefs loved it. When else would they get a chance to make officers--especially doctors, lawyers, chaplains, etc--look like complete idiots. They worked us for a while, then right before we would leave they would make us roll in it so we would bring all the sand into our rooms, and have to clean them all over again. Our first trip to the pit was great. We ended up with one dislocated shoulder, one scratched cornea, and a strained knee. I hope it doesn't sound like it was really that bad. I am just trying to be dramatic because it makes for better reading. I actually liked it a lot. The only thing I hated was that the first time we went straight to dinner afterward, so we were dripping sweat, sand and goose turd into our food as we ate. Protein and minerals, just what we needed!
Our meals were the main thing that sustained us every day. We were not allowed to talk or watch any of the tv's that were around. We weren't allowed to eat dessert, or anything carbonated or caffeinated. It was amazing to me how difficult this was to people. Most people told me that the hardest part of ODS for them was going without coffee for the first two weeks (they let us have it after that). If any of us ever thought that things were tough for us, we simply had to look at those who were going through officer candidate school. These are the people who are competing to be chosen as officers. They are treated like garbage. They are exposed to every type of stress the Drill instructors can come up with to see how they deal with it. At meal time they looked like robots as they ate their food because everything they did had to be done in a certain way. My first time seeing them I thought they were POW's. Their heads are shaved, they are sleep deprived, so they don't look well emotionally, and most of them look like they haven't been fed much. They have to eat all their food with a spoon (just to make it more challenging) and they have a limited amount of time to eat. I gained a great respect for those guys and what they go through. It was funny at times to see what they had to do, but it was inspiring to see what these young men were willing to endure to serve their country.
It was all quite an adventure and I absolutely loved it. Things got a little easier in some ways after the first week. We got to sleep in until about 4:30am. But in other ways it was more difficult. We had to sit through hours of powerpoint lectures in a hot stuffy room and were forbidden from dozing off. We were allowed to stand in the back of the room. It was common to half half of the class standing up. After awhile standing didn't even help and I found myself praying that I wouldn't fall over and hurt or embarrass myself. I remember occasionally thinking that some of the stuff they were teaching sounded pretty interesting and that I wished I could pay attention. But those thoughts only lasted a minute or too until I lapsed back into my semi-conscious state.
Newport was beautiful. The weather was pretty nice if a little cool most of the time. I remeber one day as we were being beaten in the pit looking out over the bay and just enjoying the view. On our first weekend when we were given off-base liberty some of us rented bikes and rode all around the little island we were on. We went to a beautiful beach, rode past incredible mansions, and explored so biking trails and did some rock climbing. It made me really excited about the experiences I was having. One day I was walking by myself getting some administrative stuff done and I was just looking up at the beautiful sky enjoying the view when a flock of seagulls flew past and dive bombed me. I got plastered all over my shoulder. There is an important life lesson in that. Just when life is starting to look beautiful. . .
We did several things that were really fun for training. One day we went to a simulator that teaches you how to save a sinking ship. It is this ship that has holes and leaks all over in it. They start pumping water in and you have to get inside and fix the leaks to keep it from sinking. Sometimes I was completely underwater trying to get the holes plugged. It was a blast. Another day we went to fire fighting training. We put on all the gear including oxygen tanks and put out fires. It was interesting, but extrememly hot and uncomfortable. We also simulate abandoning a ship by jumping from a tower and swimming 200 meters, then boarding a life raft.
The first week was really the only difficult part, and even that wasn't too bad. For some people it was hard because they are pleasers. They would try so hard to do everything right so the chiefs would get after them. They would spend hours cleaning their room or shining their shoes. But the chiefs didn't really care about that. They would still tell them it wasn't good enough and make them do push-ups or yell at them. Fortunately I figured the game out pretty early on. I noticed that people who were extremely meticulous about their rooms were getting the same scores and having their rooms tossed just the same as the ones who didn't put as much time into it. On one of the first days when our chief was teaching us how to make a bed the "right way," he had to use the instruction book himself and it was clear he didn't know how to do it. When our rooms would get tossed or we would go to the pit most of us soon caught on that that was going to happen regardless of what we did. Still there were a few who would desperately try to get everybody to stress out about everything as much as they did. That was pretty annoying at first, but by the last couple of weeks, we had all gotten pretty close so things didn't seem so stressful anymore (and having a little more sleep helped too).
The best part of the experience by far was the people. I have painted the chiefs as jerks because, well, they were. That was their job. By the end, though, we all loved them. Looking back now I think it is kind of like Stockholm syndrome. After they yell at you long enough every joke they tell you seems soooo funny, and everything they say that is personal or serious seems so important. It think it is just because you are so happy that they are not yelling at you. It became like an abusive/dependent relationship. When we graduated, though we gave our chief a gift that took him by surprise a little. He liked us at the end and did a pretty good job of showing it. Well, sort of. Somehow I got conned into painting something for the chiefs in their lounge. It started by me drawing our company mascot on the whiteboard. It was a unicorn (our company name was "uniform" so our nickname was unicorn) with our chief riding on it with a drawn sword. When he saw it he said "Top, that is friggin sweet. You made me look like a homo because you put me on a unicorn, but it is friggin awesome. I want you to paint something for me." So from then on, everyday I heard, "Top, when are you going to paint our goat locker?" I did finish before I left. I will include pictures if I remember. They never said thank you, but one of them said "That is friggin amazing Top." The chiefs are always such sentimental guys.
Any time you take a bunch of grown adults who all have graduated from college, many from graduate school and have become accustomed to living on their own and put them in close quarters understressful conditions you can expect friction. Despite that, I think we got along remarkably well. Within a couple of weeks we were used to doing everything together. I made some great friends. And I actually kind of miss that closeness. It was a great experience.
Being an LDS chaplain was an interesting experience as well. One of the first things that chaplains ask each other when they first meet is "What is your denomination." I was asked that quite a bit at the beginning, often seeing sort of a funny look in their eyes when I responded that I was Mormon. I would later learn why this was. Before joining I had heard stories of prejudice faced by LDS chaplains from other Christian chaplains. I am happy to say that I never felt any of that from the people I trained with. They were all great people. I remember feeling immediately that my roomate, who was a self proclaimed presbycostal chaplain, seemed a little surprised by having a Mormon roomate. I liked him immediately and we seemed to get along great. A few days into our training he said to me, "I don't know how to say this so I'm just going to say it." That kind of statement always gets your attention. "You know that people think you're wierd, right?" I laughed pretty hard at that and said something like, "My wife tells me that all the time," even though I knew he was talking about my religion. "No, I mean Mormons." I laughed again and said that it is pretty hard to be a Mormon and not know that people think you are different. As I look back on that experience, I think that what he expected from Mormons and what he found to be the truth were a little different and he was trying to figure out why Mormons get such a bad reputation. I have a great love for my roomate, as well as many other great friends that I made during my time their. I hope I was able to be a good example for our church and change some hearts about us.
During the last week of our 5 week training we were pretty much on our own. Except for practicing for graduation we rarely saw our chiefs. I was pretty excited for Katie to come visit me and to get on to chaplain school. We had some get togethers and some skits. I got suckered into doing a chief impression, but really just made a fool of myself. But finally Katie arrived and made life wonderful. I graduated from ODS and moved to Naval Chaplain School.
Many of us had been warned that they would wake us up early the first morning to start yelling at us and making us run and do push-ups. So we decided to wake up early so we were already prepared. That night, I think they purposely turned up the heat in the building. It was extremely hot, the radiator made strange noises (I still think there is somethink living in there), and we were all apprehensive so none of us slept. But we were up at about 4 am and ready to go. Nobody showed up until about 5:30am. And even then, the day was spent dealing with administrative stuff. Waiting in lines all day on little sleep. . .that was fun. But, we made it through. Finally we went to bed, and fortunately I slept quite well. About 3:30am we heard the cheifs who would be instructing us come down the hall banging on doors and yelling all kinds of words I had never heard before but all consisted of four letters, telling us that if we weren't out of bed and ready to go in 30 seconds we would all pay. So there we were. Half asleep, confused, nervous. It was great. Then we started the push-ups. Anything we did wrong (which was everything since we knew nothing about how to behave in the Navy) was rewarded with push-ups. Anything we did right was somehow twisted by the chiefs into some reason to make us do push-ups. Though I was pretty tired, I had a good time with it. After about an hour of push-ups and flutter kicks we had learned through trial and error how to address a superior officer as well as enlisted, how to stand, and proper military bearing. After that we went down to the track for our first physical fitness test. The chiefs later bragged about how every group had improved so much from the first test to the last. All in all we really didn't exercise all that vigorously, but nobody did all that great on their first test because we were sleep deprived and exhausted from an hour of push-ups and sit-ups.
This was to be the structure of things for the first week. Wake up, exercise, come back to the barracks, shower (we had to get 140 people showered in 15 minutes, using only abou 7 showers, so we had to cram three or four people into a shower stall at once. . .just kidding). Our rooms had to be immaculate. We soon learned that you made your bed, then slept on top of it so that you wouldn't have to remake it. . .just tighten it up. The garbage can and desk were ornamental items and were never used either. Despite all our efforts our rooms would still be tossed just because the chiefs thought it was funny. Then they would yell at us and tell us to get it clean in 15 minutes.
Then there was the pit. The pit was the instrument of torture that we were threatened with constantly. We didn't actually go to the pit until after our first room inspection. But, oh was it worth the wait. The pit is like a really big sand volleyball court, but without the net. We would spread out in the sand and do our exercises. What made it even more fun was the fact that there are geese and seagulls everywhere, so the sand box looked a little more like a litter box. And here we were rolling around in it. The chiefs loved it. When else would they get a chance to make officers--especially doctors, lawyers, chaplains, etc--look like complete idiots. They worked us for a while, then right before we would leave they would make us roll in it so we would bring all the sand into our rooms, and have to clean them all over again. Our first trip to the pit was great. We ended up with one dislocated shoulder, one scratched cornea, and a strained knee. I hope it doesn't sound like it was really that bad. I am just trying to be dramatic because it makes for better reading. I actually liked it a lot. The only thing I hated was that the first time we went straight to dinner afterward, so we were dripping sweat, sand and goose turd into our food as we ate. Protein and minerals, just what we needed!
Our meals were the main thing that sustained us every day. We were not allowed to talk or watch any of the tv's that were around. We weren't allowed to eat dessert, or anything carbonated or caffeinated. It was amazing to me how difficult this was to people. Most people told me that the hardest part of ODS for them was going without coffee for the first two weeks (they let us have it after that). If any of us ever thought that things were tough for us, we simply had to look at those who were going through officer candidate school. These are the people who are competing to be chosen as officers. They are treated like garbage. They are exposed to every type of stress the Drill instructors can come up with to see how they deal with it. At meal time they looked like robots as they ate their food because everything they did had to be done in a certain way. My first time seeing them I thought they were POW's. Their heads are shaved, they are sleep deprived, so they don't look well emotionally, and most of them look like they haven't been fed much. They have to eat all their food with a spoon (just to make it more challenging) and they have a limited amount of time to eat. I gained a great respect for those guys and what they go through. It was funny at times to see what they had to do, but it was inspiring to see what these young men were willing to endure to serve their country.
It was all quite an adventure and I absolutely loved it. Things got a little easier in some ways after the first week. We got to sleep in until about 4:30am. But in other ways it was more difficult. We had to sit through hours of powerpoint lectures in a hot stuffy room and were forbidden from dozing off. We were allowed to stand in the back of the room. It was common to half half of the class standing up. After awhile standing didn't even help and I found myself praying that I wouldn't fall over and hurt or embarrass myself. I remember occasionally thinking that some of the stuff they were teaching sounded pretty interesting and that I wished I could pay attention. But those thoughts only lasted a minute or too until I lapsed back into my semi-conscious state.
Newport was beautiful. The weather was pretty nice if a little cool most of the time. I remeber one day as we were being beaten in the pit looking out over the bay and just enjoying the view. On our first weekend when we were given off-base liberty some of us rented bikes and rode all around the little island we were on. We went to a beautiful beach, rode past incredible mansions, and explored so biking trails and did some rock climbing. It made me really excited about the experiences I was having. One day I was walking by myself getting some administrative stuff done and I was just looking up at the beautiful sky enjoying the view when a flock of seagulls flew past and dive bombed me. I got plastered all over my shoulder. There is an important life lesson in that. Just when life is starting to look beautiful. . .
We did several things that were really fun for training. One day we went to a simulator that teaches you how to save a sinking ship. It is this ship that has holes and leaks all over in it. They start pumping water in and you have to get inside and fix the leaks to keep it from sinking. Sometimes I was completely underwater trying to get the holes plugged. It was a blast. Another day we went to fire fighting training. We put on all the gear including oxygen tanks and put out fires. It was interesting, but extrememly hot and uncomfortable. We also simulate abandoning a ship by jumping from a tower and swimming 200 meters, then boarding a life raft.
The first week was really the only difficult part, and even that wasn't too bad. For some people it was hard because they are pleasers. They would try so hard to do everything right so the chiefs would get after them. They would spend hours cleaning their room or shining their shoes. But the chiefs didn't really care about that. They would still tell them it wasn't good enough and make them do push-ups or yell at them. Fortunately I figured the game out pretty early on. I noticed that people who were extremely meticulous about their rooms were getting the same scores and having their rooms tossed just the same as the ones who didn't put as much time into it. On one of the first days when our chief was teaching us how to make a bed the "right way," he had to use the instruction book himself and it was clear he didn't know how to do it. When our rooms would get tossed or we would go to the pit most of us soon caught on that that was going to happen regardless of what we did. Still there were a few who would desperately try to get everybody to stress out about everything as much as they did. That was pretty annoying at first, but by the last couple of weeks, we had all gotten pretty close so things didn't seem so stressful anymore (and having a little more sleep helped too).
The best part of the experience by far was the people. I have painted the chiefs as jerks because, well, they were. That was their job. By the end, though, we all loved them. Looking back now I think it is kind of like Stockholm syndrome. After they yell at you long enough every joke they tell you seems soooo funny, and everything they say that is personal or serious seems so important. It think it is just because you are so happy that they are not yelling at you. It became like an abusive/dependent relationship. When we graduated, though we gave our chief a gift that took him by surprise a little. He liked us at the end and did a pretty good job of showing it. Well, sort of. Somehow I got conned into painting something for the chiefs in their lounge. It started by me drawing our company mascot on the whiteboard. It was a unicorn (our company name was "uniform" so our nickname was unicorn) with our chief riding on it with a drawn sword. When he saw it he said "Top, that is friggin sweet. You made me look like a homo because you put me on a unicorn, but it is friggin awesome. I want you to paint something for me." So from then on, everyday I heard, "Top, when are you going to paint our goat locker?" I did finish before I left. I will include pictures if I remember. They never said thank you, but one of them said "That is friggin amazing Top." The chiefs are always such sentimental guys.
Any time you take a bunch of grown adults who all have graduated from college, many from graduate school and have become accustomed to living on their own and put them in close quarters understressful conditions you can expect friction. Despite that, I think we got along remarkably well. Within a couple of weeks we were used to doing everything together. I made some great friends. And I actually kind of miss that closeness. It was a great experience.
Being an LDS chaplain was an interesting experience as well. One of the first things that chaplains ask each other when they first meet is "What is your denomination." I was asked that quite a bit at the beginning, often seeing sort of a funny look in their eyes when I responded that I was Mormon. I would later learn why this was. Before joining I had heard stories of prejudice faced by LDS chaplains from other Christian chaplains. I am happy to say that I never felt any of that from the people I trained with. They were all great people. I remember feeling immediately that my roomate, who was a self proclaimed presbycostal chaplain, seemed a little surprised by having a Mormon roomate. I liked him immediately and we seemed to get along great. A few days into our training he said to me, "I don't know how to say this so I'm just going to say it." That kind of statement always gets your attention. "You know that people think you're wierd, right?" I laughed pretty hard at that and said something like, "My wife tells me that all the time," even though I knew he was talking about my religion. "No, I mean Mormons." I laughed again and said that it is pretty hard to be a Mormon and not know that people think you are different. As I look back on that experience, I think that what he expected from Mormons and what he found to be the truth were a little different and he was trying to figure out why Mormons get such a bad reputation. I have a great love for my roomate, as well as many other great friends that I made during my time their. I hope I was able to be a good example for our church and change some hearts about us.
During the last week of our 5 week training we were pretty much on our own. Except for practicing for graduation we rarely saw our chiefs. I was pretty excited for Katie to come visit me and to get on to chaplain school. We had some get togethers and some skits. I got suckered into doing a chief impression, but really just made a fool of myself. But finally Katie arrived and made life wonderful. I graduated from ODS and moved to Naval Chaplain School.
6 comments:
I know I'm about three years late to the party, but thanks for the great post on ODS! I thoroughly enjoyed reading it! I'll be at ODS in about two weeks and came across your blog when trying to learn what I'm in for. Thanks for all the great info. Mormons certainly have weird beliefs, but I can honestly say that the best people I've ever met have been LDS. So there's something there.
please tell me about the swimming in ODS? Are the instructor very helpful?
Manni,
Everyone has to pass a basic swim test to complete ODS. I can't remember now all the exact requirements. You have to swim a short distance (1 or two lengths of he pool) using whatever stroke you want, you have to show that you can use your clothes to make a lifejacket, and you have to be able to deadman float for 5 minutes. It is the last one that gets the most people because of panic. If you fail any part of the test they basically give you swim lessons for the whole time until you can pass it. They won't treat you badly or embarrass you. It is actually a pretty good deal because you get to miss boring stuff and go swimming. Even if you pass the swim test you can volunteer to help others in your group that don't pass, then you too can miss the boring/pointless stuff and go swimming.
do girls have to get their hair cut at ODS?
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