Tyler Update

Tyler is now in his final stage of training at OCS and is what is called a Candidate Officer or Candi-O. There are several titles the members are given throughout OCS, first they are an indoctrination candidate, second junior officer candidate, third senior officer candidate, and lastly a candidate officer. He has passed all his inspections and academic tests and will for sure be graduating OCS on January 6th and coming home January 7th. We are beyond excited and can now see a very bright light at the end of the tunnel. I am going over to Rhode Island for graduation as are Tyler's parents, it's going to be such a fun event.

Here is a snippet of details from Tyler's latest email:

This phase of training is not really classes and such so much as it is running the daily operations of OCS. We do not have any other written tests to speak of. For me, instead, I will have the assignment of Battalion II Staff, which in our regimental structure the low tier candidate officer rank. In Battalion II we have a commander and sub-commander. We primarily help out the Junior-Officer candidate class with their evolutions which include General Quarters (transitioning from Indoctrination phase to their Junior Officer Candidate phase), Naval Engineering and Weapons classes, and later the 6th week inspection (which transitions them to Senior Officer Candidate phase). The class team for this group is a pretty intense leadership, so I anticipate being pretty involved in assisting the class through these evolutions. That said, Batt II staff is certainly considered one of the less rigorous/challenging positions among the candidate officer billet options.

The other aspect of this phase is likely to consist of several watch-standing assignments. I will be standing a watch every third day I believe. My final watch under the Senior Officer Candidate style watch will actually not be until Thursday from 1800 to 2200 as the King Hall officer of the deck (OOD). This watch is fairly low key typically, generally involving calling in temperatures on the hour and overseeing whatever goes on in King Hall. This building is not where we live, but is a building where other schools and student pool remain. Student pool is a holding location for students that OCS will not immediately commission as an officer after OCS for a number of reasons, mostly meaning you cannot be "qualified" for the original position they chose you for (several various medical reasons are one example), or they do not have orders for you for some reason. Also, overseas assignments (orders) will not be given without completion of the medical screening for the member.

The Naval Officer Training Command has a Facebook page where they post pictures of each of the different OCS classes. I've been following this page and looking for pictures of Tyler and have finally found a couple of him.

Tyler is the one with glasses that are thicker, fourth in from the right side. 

Tyler in this one is immediately behind the two guys in the front, in those very bright green track flats ;) The funny thing is that he said he isn't trying very hard and that he is still in the front of the pack despite that, he just has long legs and runs like a gazelle. He wonders how fast he could run if he actually tried! :)

After Tyler completes OCS he has what is called CECOS (Civil Engineer Corps Officer School) in Port Hueneme, California for four months. After he completes that training we will go with him on his first tour. For now, we are just looking forward to having him come home for Christmas in two and a half weeks :)

That's all for now!