COT 2008 - Ropes Course Everyone spends a day at the ropes course. It is a highlight of COT.	COT 2008 Drill Instructors	COT 2008 - Officer's Club Everyone is assigned a flight, or a group of about 12 Airmen. Almost all of your time at COT will be spent with your flight.
COT 2008 - Dining In At the end of COT, you will enjoy a break from the routine with dining-in.	COT 2008 - Ropes Course You're not afraid of heights; you're afraid of impact.	COT 2008 You will learn the back of someone's head very well by the end of COT
COT 2008 After about 2 weeks, your will be allowed off base to enjoy some well earned freedom.	COT 2008 - Awards Banquet If you are in the top 10% of your class, you will be given the Distinguished Graduate award. The top flight and top individual officer are also recognized.	COT 2006 You will spend lots of time in the Flight Room listening to lectures.
COT 2006	COT 2008 During the day you'll be in here if you're not in your flight room. Known as the Big Red Bed to those who aren't good at functioning on 4 hours of sleep.	COT 2008 Training exercises are a welcome break from class.
COT 2008 PT starts at 0430. It seems too early, but it's better than running in the Alabama sun.	COT 2008 The drill instructors spend a lot of time the first week showing you how to look like you belong in the military.	COT 2008 Don't eat the sand.
COT 2008 More fun at the ropes course.	COT 2008	COT 2008 Golf Flight

What is Commissioned Officer Training (COT)?

Here's the official link for COT.  If you are in the Air Force, COT is your official introduction to the military.  The other branches have very similar programs.  Between your first and second year, you will travel to Maxwell Air Force Base in Montgomery, Alabama.  This will take place for either 30 days in June or July.  During COT you will be paid the current active duty rate, plus a food allowance, plus a cost of living allowance.  The living allowance is based on your permanent residence and varies by location, but can expect roughly $1500 for the 45 day program.  (Don't forget that you are away from home for only 30 days).  All in all, you will be paid roughly $6000 for your time.  However, you will buy all of your military uniforms, which will cost you around $750.

What is a typical day like?

Most of what you do will be with a group of about 15 people, called a Flight.  Your Flight needs to be at the running track by 4:30 almost every day.  PT will last for about an hour, but a lot of it is stretching and warm-up exercises.  You'll then march back to the dorms and have about an hour to shower and dress for the day.  Then you all march over to the mess hall (dining hall) as a flight and eat breakfast.  I recommend the grits, which you can buy for 5 cents.  For the big spenders the oatmeal is 10 cents.  Don't worry, there's lots of good food like bacon, eggs, sausage, pancakes, etc.   Then you'll march to the auditorium for lectures from about 8-12.  You'll eat lunch, and finish the day in your flight room.  Your flight leader may have a presentation or two to give you, but a good portion of that time is yours to study or take care of business.  There always paperwork and other odds and ends that are taken care of at that time.  Finally, you'll go to dinner around 5 and then go back to the dorms.  There's usually a meeting to go to, but you'll have a couple of hours to yourself.  There's no set bedtime, but don't forget that you're living with a roommate.

There are a few things which were hard to get used to.  First of all, you can't go anywhere by yourself for the first 3 weeks or so.  You'll always have to 'detail', or march with someone else.  Most of the time, you're marching with you're flight, so it's not a big deal.  Second, you always have to be in uniform, including your canteen, unless you're sleeping.  Luckily, you can wear your PT uniform (shorts and a t-shirt).  Third, meals are a pain, at least in the beginning.  At first you're not allowed to talk or even look around.  You're expected to drink 3 12oz glasses of water or Powerade at every meal.  Yes, they do keep track of that.  You're expected to eat quickly.  There's also a very specific protocol for every aspect of the meal: from how to line up, to how you sit down, to where your plate and glasses are set on your tray.  It takes a week or two to get down, but by then they start letting up on you.  By the end you're allowed to take more time and talk to those around you.  Finally, get used to greeting everyone you pass.  You need to say 'good morning/afternoon/evening, sir (or ma'am)' every time you pass an officer.  This is officer training school, so almost everyone is an officer.

What do I need to do to get ready?

Most importantly, do the following three things:

1. Bring cash, $400 minimum, and a credit card to buy your uniform. 

Freedom is limited the first week or two, and you will need to pay for a lot of things in cash.  It may be hard to get to an ATM for a while.  Food is not free at the Mess Hall!  Don't get mad that you're paying for your food in cash...you are paid for your meals in your Basic Subsistence Allowance in your paycheck.  Lots of people were confused by this last summer.  Either way, the food is extremely cheap.  I ate on about on dollar a day (but that was a bit of a challenge).  Most people paid between 3-6 dollars per day.  As for the credit card, you may get one through USAA when you're down there to get a discount on your purchases.  Don't count on it, though.

2. Bring movies and headphones. 

You will have a lot of downtime on the weekends.  You will be provided a laptop.  But, remember, it is for official use only, so I didn't tell you to watch movies on it!  After a few weeks you can watch movies in the common area in your dorms.

3. Bring food, a coffee maker, filters, and pre-ground coffee. 

Most mornings you will be up and dressed by about 4am.  You will go workout and will have up to an hour before having to sit in class all morning.  Caffeine is important.  You will also be glad to have some extra food around.  Try bringing instant oatmeal, ramen, and other stuff you can cook with hot water from your coffee maker.  Other preserved food like beef jerky is also good to have.

Less importantly, do these three things:

1. Work out before you come to COT. 

Make sure you can do pushups, situps, and run for 20 minutes.  For the fitness test, if you can do ~60 pushups in one minute, and ~55 situps in a minute you will get perfect scores on your fitness test.  You will also do a 1.5 mile run.  If you can run it in about 9 minutes you will get a perfect score.  If you're nowhere near that, then don't panic.  If you try you'll do fine.  The rest of your score is based upon your waist size.  Fair? nope.  Fast? definitely.  Here's the details on the fitness test as a PDF if you're interested.

2. Learn your Operating Instructions (OIs). 

This is a small booklet of what to do in every circumstance.  From how to talk to how to march.  You should receive them before you get down to COT.  If not, just study them when you get down there.  Knowing how to say "Yes, Sir" and not "Sir, yes, sir" will get you a long way!  Most people don't read them beforehand, so don't worry if you don't get around to it.

3. Be prepared to be yelled at. 

Don't cry.  Don't feel sorry for yourself.  Just do it right the next time.  You'll get yelled at a lot less if you learn your OIs.  Don't panic, though.  It's not like people are yelling at you around the clock.  Just expect it to happen a few times soon after you arrive.  They need to make sure that everyone takes their training seriously.  Put your game face on the second you step onto base.

Army Officer Training

Here's an account of Army Officer Training in San Antonio from the summer of 2009:

1. What were the best and worst things about officer training?

Best - met a lot of really great people - instructors are great (you learn a lot) - spending several days at Brook Army Medical Center talking with doctors from different specialties/hospitals - field training exercises (for the most part) are a lot of fun and very informational

Worst - since the class is so large, there is a lot of standing around waiting for something to happen (not good for a group of med students who hate idle time), the heat! (record breaking temps this year in TX - made for some unpleasant field days) - the dreaded CS gas

2. What do you wish you would have brought but didn't?

My car!  I was told that I could not bring it but a lot of people did.  I even heard that they are going to get reimbursed for their expenses.  It would have been nice to be able to leave post whenever without waiting/paying for a taxi.  Not to mention carrying your rucksack and duffle bag all around the base gets pretty old!

3. About how much money did you spend while at training?

Be prepared to spend some money.  I purchased 3 sets of ACU's (appr. $70 each) and 2 sets of PT uniforms (appr. $20 each).  Boots run about $100, caps and barets about $10 each, patches for your uniform, socks, dog tags....it all adds up pretty quickly.  There is lots of equipment that you will need for the field (flashlight, camelback, etc) - this list of recommended items should be sent out to you before you go but you can wait to get there to purchase it. Also, all of your meals are covered - however, they make you pay for your weekend meals and then you get reimbursed after the course.  Just make sure you have enough to cover weekend meals.  Make sure you take extra money for exploring - San Antonio has some really cool attractions (riverwalk and sea world just to name a couple)  - Austin is also a lot of fun (many people would rent cars for the weekend and head down there).

4. Any advice for someone going to training next year?

Go into it with a great attitude.  If you are like me and have no prior military experience, you are going to feel like a fish out of water for a couple of days.  Just remember most of the people there are in your same situation.  But once you get the feel for things you will have a great time.

The military medical field is very small so take the time to get to know people - more than likely you are going to be running into them again. 

If you have the chance to go shopping with your recruiter before you leave for training, do it!  You will need to be in uniform the first day so have them teach you how to wear it, what patches go where, etc.  I purchased my uniforms ahead of time which was definitely a smart thing to do - the store ran out of them quickly.  You are not allowed to wear partial uniforms - so if you dont want to walk around in civilian clothing while all of your classmates are in uniform, get your uniforms early!

When traveling to/from your training location, you are on active duty.  Just tell the airline this upon check in and your bags will be checked for free.  You can save yourself a lot of money!  (one guy from my platoon spent over $100 checking bags!)

Keep all receipts!  Taxi to/from the airport (both in your hometown and in San Antonio) is covered IF YOU HAVE RECEIPTS!  Save your receipts for everything and turn them in at the end - even if you dont get reimbursed for everything its better to have them then not.

And when you go to the field....take plenty of baby wipes!

Officer Training - Navy

We need accounts of Navy Officer Training.  If you have trained recently, email dlynch@creighton.edu