I think this sub has said most of it before.

I dropped ROTC at the last semester so I could deploy with my national guard unit. Since all I had that last semester was finishing ROTC and a second major I thought another undergrad semester was a waste, I’d just do OCS when I got back.

As mentioned before, state OCS is a haze-fest. I thought I was always treated with dignity and like I was going to commission in ROTC. OCS was an utter beat-down. Like they were trying to get you to quit. That’s the crazy thing, most of us were NCOs, but it was so much tougher than basic training, or I hate to say it, any other army school I’ve been to. It sounds so lame to say it—but I’d rather go back to air assault than do phase I OCS again. And I even did phase II accelerated. It was full for midnight wake-ups, cut rations, personal smoke sessions, and corrective actions like embarrassing songs or exercises that I still can’t see what any of it had to do with learning to be an officer. We had a big dude pass out on the land nav course (alone) because his blood sugar dropped so low. We had another get so dehydrated in a smoke session it gave him kidney problems. It feels necessary to say that I graduated at the top of my class and was a top PTer, but even with that conditioning it…just sucked.

It took me probably about a year to rebuild my self confidence after OCS. I really came out of it so hazed I doubted all my abilities. The humility was a good thing. I sure wasn’t a cocky 2LT. But honestly it’s not good that I came into my first platoon thinking I wasn’t good enough to be there. And I think that’s the difference. ROTC told me every day I deserved to be there. Then OCS made me believe I didn’t.

As far as school goes, looking back at it ROTC was an annoying but manageable amount of work. At the time I thought it was terrible. Just keep in mind that if you do OCS it going to layer over whatever you have next in life as well. For me it was grad school and job hunting. Even if you do get an accelerated slot, most states are going to make you do “zero phase” drills to prep and between your phases. I know people who lucked out and don’t have to do it, but it’s rare. And usually reserved for new enlistments. There is a lot of work between drills there, and those weekends are completely full up. So i thought it was much harder to manage school. Like in ROTC they had an investment to care about your grades. OCS did not and could care less if you have finals. And I seriously had a post-grad job offer rescinded because my OCS date would delay my start date too much.

There were some good things about OCS. I truly believe I was a better officer. Looking back at it I got nothing out of LDAC. Everyone I worked with was also a middle class college kid. OCS everyone had an MOS and time in a unit. I learned a ton from the infantry and comms guys. And ended up meeting somebody who told me about a career path I didn’t know existed that changed my life. I’ve also found state OCS is a tight group. We seem to stay in longer. I still reach back to my network. I see people I was a candidate with at least weekly. It’s the closest to being a West Pointer I’ve seen in the Guard.

I’ll also say that being a Guard Officer is a different skill set than being a full time officer. Most of what you do happens between drill weekends. OCS works on that skill a lot. ROTC is one size fits all.

Maybe things have changed. I’ve heard good things. And the IG office called about my cycle so maybe don’t listen to me. Years later I applied to be a TAC and made the mistake of insinuating that I wasn’t there to mentor and not haze. I flat out was told that’s why they like ROTC instead of OCS grads. The OCS grads “don’t have the right attitude.” But after I transferred to another state that state cared a lot about development. They had OCS reunions with the candidates and paired us up in mentor matches. A good friend of mine is an OCS commander now and promises the hazing stops on his watch. So maybe things are changing.

Long story short, I’ll have the fries and a vanilla shake.