Acceptance

It was not easy, but the day has finally come. At about 12:15 pm on December 9th 2009, I recieved news that I was accepted into Marine Corps Officer Candidate School, starting January 15th, 2010 at Marine Base Quantico, VA.


The whole process started in May of 2009 when Bryan Adkison and I met with an Officer Selection Officer, 2nd Lt. Common (now 1st Lt. Common). In between then and now was a lot of paperwork, medical examinations, physical fitness examinations, entrance tests, countless miles running and an intense seven months of weight room work. Each week it became a little more certain that I was both a worthwhile candidate and that this is what I want to do with my life going forward. For the two to finally come together with an acceptance phone call is beyond words. When I learned later that only 54.5% of people who applied were actually accepted as Marine Officer Candidates, I have to admit I felt a little cocky for about five minutes.





The phone call itself has me on the edge of my seat. After about two or three minutes or small talk, 1st Lt. Common said to me "David, if you were not accepted into this class, would you reapply or just say 'screw this I'm done with it'?" I replied "Well sir, I'd reapply". Lt. Common "Well you don't have to worry about that because you got accepted" (insert mental fist pump and warrior scream). "Remember when I called you four in my office and said two of you were going and two of you aren't? That was all true, not everyone gets to go, that's not how it works. Congrats David" The phone call was a thing of beauty.





Now it has not really hit me that I'm going to do this and that I actually got accepted, and it probably won't until January 15th or sometime shortly after that. The whole thing is still a little surreal. However, the mere thought of someday,if all goes well, being in a position to lead men and women in the greatest fighting force in the world is absolutely intoxicating to me. I will be constantly reminded that I am in fact going to eventually be a Marine Officer via my father's new title of endearment for me, "gruntloid".



To everyone reading, thanks so much for your support. I say this a lot but it truly means a ton to me. Without your support, I'm not sure I'd be feeling as good as I do right now to have made this decision about my future.

Any questions about OCS, you can look at the video on the right hand side of the page. It is a great summary of the experience of a candidate at OCS. Another great resource is http://www.marineofficer.com/.

My personal favorite sections of this site are 1) Rye Barcott's interview, 2) Nathaniel Fick's interview and 3) The explanation of OCS

1) http://officer.marines.com/marine/quality_citizens/officer_interviews/rye_barcott
2) http://officer.marines.com/marine/quality_citizens/officer_interviews/nathaniel_fick

3) http://officer.marines.com/marine/making_marine_officers/officer_candidates_school/leadership

God bless and Semper Fidelis

Marine Officer Candidate David Cook

Happy Birthday USMC

No new updates today. However, today is the 234th birthday of the United States Marine Corps, so I'm using that as a reason to post. I read an article today detailing the top 10 movies involving the Marines, and I couldn't help but feel an overwhelming sense of pride for those men and women currently serving and who have served in the Marines. The author served in the Army for 20+ years.



"The men and women who earn the right to wear eagle, globe and anchor of the United States Marine Corps are a special breed. To those outside the Corps, they talk funny. They look funny. They are extremely impressed with themselves – and they have every right to be.



My beloved United States Army is a blunt instrument, a magnificent club that has pummels our nation’s enemies into submission. But the Marines are America’s rapier, a razor sharp weapon of war that has never been bested and never will be. For over two centuries, the United States Marine Corps has been fighting our country’s battles in the air, on land and sea. They don’t give up. They don’t quit. There’s no word for retreat in a Marine’s vocabulary. And they are making history even today in the mountains of Afghanistan and elsewhere."

-Kurt Schlichter

The remainder of the article can be found at http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2009/11/10/big-hollywood-semper-films-marine-corps-movies/

Reader Initiation

And so begins the journey that will certainly change my life.

Welcome All to what may be my main connection to many of you in the years to come, as I plan on keeping this journal going throughout my time in the Marine Corps. As many of you know, I have decided to try and become a United States Marine Officer. I say try because the road is not easy. I begun the application process back in about June of 2009, and as of right now I am still not officially accepted. Once accepting, only about 65% of Candidates even make it through the school. I'm nowhere close to being a Marine Officer, yet. Acceptance does not come until the beginning of December, with the actual Officer Candidate School (if you want to know more about OCS, check out the top OCS video on the right of the screen) in Quantico, VA beginning January 23rd, 2009, or judgement day as I have begun to affectionately call it. Today was an important step in the process, though.

One word before I begin though; thank you to whoever is reading this. If you are you have probably played a significant role in my life and you all have been very supportive in my decision.

Today, November 7th, was what is called a "poolee" function. This is an event where all Marine Officer Candidates currently at any stage in application process get together with their Officer Selection Officers for some important reason. Today's important reason was the birthday of the Marine Corps, which is November 10th, 1775, (yes the Marines are older than the United States).

Now getting there today I knew I was going to run a Physical Fitness Test, or a PFT for short. Now I had already run a PFT a few weeks back when submitting my final application, with my final splits being 100 crunches, 20 pull-ups and a 19:33 3-mile run time, coming to a score of 291 (Perfect 100 points for 100 crunches in 2 minutes, perfect 100 points for 20 dead-arm hang pull-ups, and a score of 91 for my 19:33 3-mile run, with a perfect score being an 18:00 3-mile clip). 2nd best score out of the office, at least for candidates going to the January OCS. With my solid academics and recommendations, I'm golden right? Not so fast. I'm called into the office with 4 other candidates who want to go the January class shortly after my arrival this morning. "Conley, Cooper, Cook, Smith, I need to see you in my office ASAP" says 1st Lt Common. We go ASAP, of course. "Fellas, I have 2 spots for the January class. There are four of you. The PFT you run today will make a huge impact on who is selected from my group." To say I was caught off-guard is an understatement. "Cook 291, Conley 294, Cooper 276, Smith 275. That is where you stood last time. Doesn't mean much now. You all are not friends for the next 45 minutes. "

After I knocked out 20 pull-us and then 100 crunches in about 1:25 instead of the recommended 2:00, I was feeling pretty good about my chances. I knew I was ahead of at least 2 of the other candidates. Then came the run. Since I did not think the PFT was a big deal until I got there this morning and got the wake-up call in the office, I killed my legs this week. 5 Miles Saturday, 6 Miles Sunday, 4 Miles Monday, Leg lifting session and mile run Wednesday, 3 Miles Thurday, I was not expecting much on the run portion of my fitness test. Put that on top of only 6 good hours of sleep and below standard nutrition during the week and the cards were not stacked in my favor.

I ran a 20:20, 47 seconds slower than my original time. I was pissed after the race. However, all came to fruition and my score of 286 was still second in my group I was competing with. Officer Candidate School in January still looks promising.

Even though everything seemlingly turned out okay today, I learned a good lesson today that teaches a larger life lesson. The good lesson is always be 100% prepared for a Marine PFT. The same committment and preparation that goes into that will be the same committment and preparation I will need when preparing my men to go into battle. Big picture: Do not take any situation lightly, because sometimes you don't know what you are getting into. And another common theme which came out today obviously was that Marines give you an extremely limited amount of information. I was completely in the dark as to what was going on today, accept that I knew where to be and when to be there. I have a feeling that is going to be a relatively common thread in my time (pending acceptance) in the Marines Corps. I'll like the freedom though, it should give me some leeway to command as I see fit.


Semper Fidelis.