- BCT: Basic Combat Training, basic, or "boot camp" (nobody in the military calls it that)
- OCS: Officer Candidate School... this is where you go to train to be an officer. The only OCS location is Fort Benning, Georgia.
- HCC: The OCS "company" that houses people who are sick, injured, need paperwork, or who have been removed for "administrative" reasons (sometimes these are bad things). It's also the "reception battalion" more or less for new people before they class up (change their rank colors from gold to black and join an OCS training company).
Comparison
The biggest difference between BCT and OCS is... everything. See yesterday's entry for a description of basic. Additionally, I'd say that 70% of the people in basic were high school jocks that thought they'd go pro one day, didn't get accepted to college, realized they didn't have plans, and decided to join the Army. Oh, and most of them smoked pot before joining. In OCS, everyone is very talented, many led other successful careers (read on for more info on the types of backgrounds they come from), and I love talking to them.
Treatment is very different. You're not only treated like a human at OCS, but you're treated like a professional human! We can ask officers or training cadre for advice (which we need). We can relax a little and breathe. We aren't insulted. It's nice.
HHC: My Adventures
When I first arrived, I spent the weekend with Doug. It was great to spend time with a familiar friend who happens to have just graduated from the same program. He took me shopping for my hundreds of dollars in patches, pins, and required equipment. I would have been lost without him!
I was only in HHC for two days before classing up. It was quite exciting to be part of Echo Company. The cadre were exceptional and my classmates were very sharp. We had several engineers, some nurses, former embassy staff, a few lawyers, a couple pilots, and lots of other professionals in every field (military and private) from accounting through field artillery. However, I was pulled from the class before the end of the first week because I don't have a heart murmur on file. That meant I went back to HHC. At HHC I slept, did duties till dinner, worked out, and got the evenings off (that was written in past tense; I'm too lazy to go back, but note that I'm still in HHC doing just that) to shop, hang out with friends (like Doug for burgers on the weekend), etc.
The first sergeant called me in to tell me that I'd probably be barred from OCS and need to enlist with a job that fills "the needs of the Army" (scary phrase, but you'd need to be in the Armed Forces to understand what I mean). That would mean going 11B (Eleven Bravo is Infantry) which is not Signal Corps (IT and communications) at all... Signal being what I want.
Then the company commander called me into his office the next day. He told me he would have me discharged from the Army if I couldn't go to OCS because it wouldn't make sense to be able to do one but not the other. A couple hours later he called me back in and said he saw no reason I can't class up and serve since the cardiologist's memo from MEPS says I have no considerations, no risks, and am fit to serve. The next class, Delta Company, classes up on October 13th. I hear that Delta Company is pretty good. I told some Echos today and they were all extremely excited for me. It was cool to get such a warm reaction. They're really great guys, and I'll miss the ones with me during basic at Fort Knox.
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