Navy OCS is 12 weeks long.
I guess you don't need to know a lot of shit anymore in order to be an ensign. In the mid `70s, OCS was 19 weeks long. Then they cut it to 16 weeks. Back then, every ensign coming out of OCS had to be able to compute and plot celestial navigation and visual navigation fixes. In-shore navigation was practiced on WW2-surplus YPs in the waters off the Newport Naval Station.
They probably don't teach any of that crap anymore, since they have gone from 133-day-wonders to 84-day-wonders.
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Looks like they're still in use as of this summer.
So. I gather you were in the program then?
Yes, but that's at the Chesapeake University of Nautical Technology (the sister school to the South Hudson Institute of Technology), not at OCS.
And I did have the dubious privilege of living in King Hall for some weeks.
I'm surprised that the navy brought OCS back to Newport; it had been moved to Pensacola.
Well, this is interesting as they now will have the next major shipbuilding spurt to make ships when all hands will have to have a wider knowledge base, not tless...
Boneheads.
CSA, they probably think that the surface ensigns will learn what they need to at Baby SWOS.
I wonder if the chops will have to stand underway watches on the LCSs.
By contrast, the Coast Guard OCS is 17 weeks.
In order to get a civilian Third Mate's rating you need to either graduate from an accredited Merchant Marine academy or have 1080 days of deck service with at least 180 days with AB ticket. Or three years in an apprentice mate program approved by the Commandant of the Coast Guard. Or 360 days service as a 200-ton Master while holding a 1600-ton endorsement. That's to get a THIRD MATE rating.
Meanwhile the skipper of the Port Royal was reportedly up for two days because he couldn't trust his junior officers to pilot the ship without piling it up on the rocks. A warship is a SHIP, first and foremost, and there's simply no excuse for neglecting seamanship training for officers.
From what I can google, Marine OCS is 10 weeks, while the Army and Zoomie OCSs are 12 weeks.
But Maroon green second looeys then get 6 months additional training at Quantico before they get command of their first platoon. It's a different system, the 10 week Marine OCS is intended to get rid of people who don't have the right stuff to be an officer, it isn't intended to be the main training course for Marine officers.
BadTux, the comparison to the Marines is not a good one. Marines don't have ROTC, for one thing. Navy OCS is supposed to get those kids up to speed in 12 weeks to what Navy ROTC and the Boat Skool did in four years?
I'm not buying it. I don't see how they could cut a training course from 19 weeks to 16 and then 12 weeks without cutting out a lot of substance.
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