ODS Week 1

Wow, week 1 is over...thank God!!!!!! Only 4 more left, for ODS anyway. I apologize that this is so late, but we have had little to no time to do anything around here. Where to start? I arrived on Sunday at about 1330 to Newport and to the base around 1530. I met my room mate, and it has been great. I will try to post pictures when I can. Anyway, I hit the rack (bed) around 2230 or so and thought I was ready for the day to begin. Day one was pretty easy; administration day. We did a lot of hurrying up to wait. We spent about 3 hours in coveralls and then purchased our PT (physical training) gear. We spent the remainder of the first week wearing PT gear. We did a light PT and it wasn't bad at all. Piece of cake, right?

Welcome to Tuesday morning... At 0400, we were woken by our Sr. Chief and several other Chiefs that were yelling and pounding on our doors. We had 30 seconds to get in PT gear and hit the deck in the main P-Way (hall way). No one was awake, but we did an intensive PT for about an hour or more, then had to line up and head to chow (food). We came back and had a little more PT. Anyone that might read this for information about Navy ODS, let me highly recommend that you get the words "ok," "sorry," "uh huh," and when addressing Sr. Chief - "sir" out of your vocabulary. Every one of those led to a 10 pushup drop on the deck (floor). If anyone would sigh, add 5 more. After all that, we headed down to the uniform shop and were sized for our uniforms. Back for more payments for "sirs."

Wednesday was another hard day of PT and payments and a couple of classes. We also did our first class swim test. I passed. Whew! We learned that regardless of anything else, the only thing that would keep you at ODS is the failure of the swim test. It wasn't hard. You have to jump off a 3 meter concrete high dive, a 5 minute face down swim, and a 25 yard swim. After that, we had to get dressed in clothes and inflate them, float, then we were done. We ended the night with a large payment for people not locking their lockers and leaving sensitive information in their desk drawers. Subsequently, we lost the privilage of the chair and the use of the desk drawers.

Thursday continued this pattern, and man it was tough. We started with our PFA (physical fitness assessment). Many people failed, myself in cluded. :( After the beating only 8 hours before the PFA, most people could hardly move let alone do a bunch more push-ups and sit-ups. The only thing I failed was the push-ups. Oh well, we'll be retested in two weeks.

Friday was a lighter day, although we started with PT and drill. The walk down there is quite a distance with that cold wind blowing off the bay. We came back and were in classes the rest of the day.

Saturday and Sunday have been liberty (weekend off...sort of). We had 3 homework assignments and two videos to watch as well as 100 sit-ups and push-ups each night. The day started with a uniform inspection and knowledge test. It was an hour + at attention in brand new shoes...ouch! The rest of the day was restricted liberty (time off); restricted in that we can't go very far. We still had a lot to do this weekend, but that's ok.

Food stuff - the food is a buffet style thing that we all enter in formation. We set our trays, edged to the edge of the tables (with our water bottles to the left - the water bottles go everywhere with us). We stand with our left arm straight out reading our "knowledge" (what we are supposed to memorize) until everyone sits down. We then sit at the tables on command and have 15 minutes to eat. Back to the house (our dorm area) for line up, payments to the Sr. Chief, and then instruction from the Sr. Chief on different subjects like uniform setup and so on.

Ok, the day, we are told that the day does not start until 0500, but reality is that we have to be up at 0345 at the absolute latest. When the day ends at 2000 with Sr. Chief, we have tons to do before the next day, so we are usually up until 0000 or 0100. Needless to say, sleep deprivation is something we are becoming accustomed to. I think in the past 7 days, I have had a total of 17 or so hours of sleep (in perspective, most people get 7 hours a night, or 49 hours a week). Oh yeah, add to that, we stand watch on our deck (floor) or the quarterdeck (where everyone comes in) or one other hall. This entails rounds outside at night...brrrrr!!! The watches range between 2-4 hours and are through the night, standing the whole time.

Tomorrow starts another day where I believe we will start with PT, chow (breakfast), then 11 shots. The ladies will have to take a pregnancy test, which is strange since we all had a urinalysis on Monday. Anyway, this week should be a lot of PowerPoint from what I understand. We will also do a lot of drilling this week.

Sorry if there are a lot of spelling mistakes and whatnot, but I'm pretty tired. Ok, gotta run. We are doing a team building thing as I type (shame on me) and are then off to 100/100 (push-ups/sit-ups) after. Shine the shoes, iron, and head to bed.

Oh, one last thing, we did get phone privilages this weekend for a total of 30 mins each day. Sally has not had water for a couple of days (I am thankful that Mark from church came out to help thaw the pipes today). It has been really cold back home and she slid through and intersection...no one was coming, so everything's ok, but needless to say, she isn't driving a whole lot. Please keep her in your prayers as well as the kids as it has been really hard on all of us. Also, please pray for a couple of things here at ODS. First, one of our shipmates (another Chaplain) had to fly home for an emergency (his wife had to have emergency surgery). The healing will take longer than the surgery recovery. Also, please pray for all of us here at ODS. It isn't easy, but we'll make it. :)

God bless everyone! I'll try to update the next time I get time.